The World of Kong Version 2.0 - FINISHED 12/17/06

Knightfall · Aug 8, 2006

Awesome thread! Just awesome!

demiurge1138 · Aug 15, 2006

Knightfall1972 said:
Awesome thread! Just awesome!

Thank you. And, for my next trick!

HEBESAURUS
Large Animal
Hit Dice: 4d8+20 plus 3 (41 hp)
Initiative: -1
Speed: 20ft (4 squares)
Armor Class: 23 (-1 size, -1 Dex, +15 natural), touch 8, flat-footed 23
Base Attack/Grapple: +3/+10
Attack: Slam +5 melee (1d6+4)
Full Attack: Slam +5 melee (1d6+4)
Space/Reach: 10ft/5ft
Special Qualities: Fortification, low-light vision, scent
Saves: Fort +9, Ref +3, Will +2
Abilities: Str 16, Dex 9, Con 20, Int 2, Wis 13, Cha 5
Skills: Listen +11
Feats: Skill Focus (listen), Toughness
Environment: Warm forest
Organization: Solitary or pair
Challenge Rating: 2
Treasure: None
Alignment: Always neutral
Advancement: 5-8 HD (Large)
Level Adjustment: -

This trudging quadruped has think plates protecting its back, sides and rectangular head.

Hebesauruses are heavily armored herbivores of Skull Island’s thick forests, relying on their natural protections over speed or stealth to keep them safe from predators. Opportunistic creatures, they have similar habits to wild pigs in more normal habitats, digging for roots and tubers using their triangular jaw-flanges and supplementing this diet with insects, worms, rotting fruit, seeds and carrion. Severely nearsighted, they rely on scent and keen hearing to detect possible predators.

A hebesaurus reaches seven feet tall at the shoulder and can grow upwards of eighteen feet long.

Combat
Hebesauruses prefer to crouch when attacked, putting their vitals out of reach and lashing with a thick tail at predators. Due to their reinforced wind-pipe, hebesauruses are less vulnerable to standard killing techniques of carvers, their main predator – hebesauruses tend to die prolonged, bloody deaths.

Fortification (Ex): A hebesaurus has a 25% chance to ignore extra damage done by a critical hit or sneak attack.

Copyright 2006 Nicholas Herold. The World of Kong is copyright 2005 Weta Workshop.

Demiurge out.

demiurge1138 · Aug 15, 2006

DINOCANISAURUS
Small Animal
Hit Dice: 2d8+6 (15 hp)
Initiative: +3
Speed: 40ft (8 squares), climb 10ft
Armor Class: 18 (+1 size, +3 Dex, +4 natural), touch 14, flat-footed 15
Base Attack/Grapple: +1/-2
Attack: Bite +5 melee (1d4+1)
Full Attack: Bite +5 melee (1d4+1)
Space/Reach: 5ft/5ft
Special Attacks: Swarmfighting
Special Qualities: Low-light vision, scent
Saves: Fort +6, Ref +6, Will +1
Abilities: Str 13, Dex 16, Con 16, Int 2, Wis 13, Cha 6
Skills: Climb +9, Listen +5, Move Silently +7, Spot +5, Survival +2
Feats: Alertness, Track (B), Weapon Finesse (B)
Environment: Warm forests
Organization: Solitary, pair or pack (4-12)
Challenge Rating: 1
Treasure: None
Alignment: Always neutral
Advancement: 3-5 HD (Small), 6 HD (Medium)
Level Adjustment: -

This animal resembles a reptilian bulldog with a crocodile’s hide. Jagged teeth poke out from its mouth, and its short tail wags listlessly behind it.

Consummate pack hunters, dinocanisauruses are relatives of the larger lycaesaurus of the plains – they are both species of cynodonts, mammal-like reptiles that have evolved into canine-like forms. Dinocanisauruses live in the deep forests of Skull Island, having adapted to thick undergrowth and climbing trees, although they are fairly clumsy at the latter. Highly social, dinocanisauruses have a matriarchical pack structure and are fiercely territorial. They are intelligent enough not to bother larger predators, and are in fact preyed upon by venatosauruses.

The largest dinocanisauruses can be as large as wolves, but these specimens are rare. The average dinocanisaurus is a mere three to four feet in length.

Combat
Dinocanisauruses hunt by endurance, chasing prey through the thick forest floor and tiring it, eventually tearing into it with needle-sharp teeth. They are shy around humanoids and generally will not fight them unless threatened or starving.

Swarmfighting (Ex): Dinocanisauruses work well crowded into tight spaces with their packmates. Up to three dinocanisauruses can fight from the same square without penalty, and they gain a +2 morale bonus on all attack rolls when doing so.

Skills: A dinocanisaurus gains a +4 racial bonus on all Move Silently checks.

Copyright 2006 Nicholas Herold. The World of Kong is copyright 2005 Weta Workshop.

Demiurge out.

demiurge1138 · Aug 15, 2006

PINNATONO
Large Animal
Hit Dice: 4d8+16 (34 hp)
Initiative: +1
Speed: 30ft (6 squares)
Armor Class: 16 (-1 size, +1 Dex, +6 natural), touch 10, flat-footed 15
Base Attack/Grapple: +3/+10
Attack: Kick +5 melee (1d6+4) or spit +3 ranged touch (2d6 acid plus blindness)
Full Attack: Kick +5 melee (1d6+4) or spit +3 ranged touch (2d6 acid plus blindness)
Special Attacks: Spit, stench
Special Qualities: Low-light vision, resistant to poison
Saves: Fort +8, Ref +5, Will +3
Abilities: Str 16, Dex 13, Con 18, Int 2, Wis 15, Cha 5
Skills: Spot +9
Feats: Ability Focus (spit), Endurance (B), Point Blank Shot
Environment: Warm forests and plains
Organization: Solitary
Challenge Rating: 3
Treasure: None
Alignment: Always neutral
Advancement: 5-8 HD (Large)
Level Adjustment: -

A fat flightless bird waddles out, its head and long neck bald. Its beady yellow eyes glare at you as your eyes water at its incredible stink.

Pinnatono is an ill-tempered, foul-smelling herbivorous bird that uses the chemicals from the foods it eat for its own defense. Possessing a sturdy crop and a remarkable tolerance to ingested poisons, the pinnatono eats noxious berries and peppers in order to secrete their oils, giving them their characteristic odor. They have the ability to regurgitate their stomach contents with incredible accuracy, spewing a sticky acidic concoction at the eyes of potential predators or creatures that disturb its nest.

A pinnatono grows to six feet at the shoulder.

These same stats, with some modification, can be used to represent hylaeornis, a fightless bird that forages for fruits in the deepest parts of Skull Island’s jungles. Reduce the pinnatono’s size to Medium (with the statistic changes this entails), remove the spit and stench special attacks and give it a speed of 40 feet. Swap its feats for Alertness and Run.

Combat
The pinnatono does not seek combat, but is touchy and quick to respond to intrusion by a blast of caustic spittle. If their potential predator is not dissuaded by the first shot, they generally flee.

Spit (Ex): Three times per day, but no more than once every 1d4+1 rounds, a pinnatono can vomit a sticky blast of stomach acid as a ranged touch attack up to 30 feet with no range penalty. If it hits, it deals 2d6 acid damage and the creature struck must make a DC 18 Fortitude save or be blinded for 1d6 minutes. The save DC is Constitution based.

Stench (Ex): All creatures within 30 feet of a pinnatono must make a DC 16 Fortitude save or be sickened for 10 rounds due to their eye-burning stink. The save DC is Constitution-based. Creatures that successfully save cannot be affected by the same pinnatono’s stench for 24 hours. A delay poison or neutralize poison spell removes the effect from the sickened creature. Creatures with immunity to poison are unaffected, and creatures resistant to poison receive their normal bonus on their saving throws.

Resistant to Poison (Ex):A pinnatono gains a +4 racial bonus on all Fortitude saves made against poison.

Copyright 2006 Nicholas Herold. The World of Kong is copyright 2005 Weta Workshop.

Demiurge out.

Olly · Aug 17, 2006

Sorry to skip back a bit, Demiurge, but I refamiliarised myself a bit more with the World Of Kong book, last night and couldn't help noticing that there are a lot of cool little (and not so little!

) critters that you've missed.

Will we see a scissor beetle (page 70) any time soon? Possibly in swarm and giant varieties, as well? I mean, the book doesn't say that they swarm or grow to monstrous sizes, but this is D&D... We can make our own rules.

Also, any chance of stats for dragonskin monitor lizards? Or scutacaris (page 24), the flattened, almost two-dimensional lobsters of skull island's coasts? Mortifillex (page 95), the neopede that uses a fish-like lure to attract its prey? Maybe some corpse-crabs (page 99) or a stinkfish (page 114), too?

Sorry to ask that you go back over old ground, but for me, some of the cooler creatures in the book were the ones that weren't towering, sharp-toothed behemoths. Even if a few of these creatures are just created using modified stats from existing ones, it'd still mean a lot to me to have them in the game.

demiurge1138 · Aug 18, 2006

Olly said:
Sorry to skip back a bit, Demiurge, but I refamiliarised myself a bit more with the World Of Kong book, last night and couldn't help noticing that there are a lot of cool little (and not so little! ) critters that you've missed.

Will we see a scissor beetle (page 70) any time soon? Possibly in swarm and giant varieties, as well? I mean, the book doesn't say that they swarm or grow to monstrous sizes, but this is D&D... We can make our own rules.

Also, any chance of stats for dragonskin monitor lizards? Or scutacaris (page 24), the flattened, almost two-dimensional lobsters of skull island's coasts? Mortifillex (page 95), the neopede that uses a fish-like lure to attract its prey? Maybe some corpse-crabs (page 99) or a stinkfish (page 114), too?

Sorry to ask that you go back over old ground, but for me, some of the cooler creatures in the book were the ones that weren't towering, sharp-toothed behemoths. Even if a few of these creatures are just created using modified stats from existing ones, it'd still mean a lot to me to have them in the game.

See, this is where you and I differ in respect towards design philosophy. I see creatures like pavement crabs and stinkfish and scissor beetles and what not as flavorful additions, not as full-fledged monsters. Why bother statting something that the PCs will never directly interact with, is my view of these sorts of things.

Which is not to say that they're not important. Mentioning the mundane fish and insects in between rollicking battle with dinosaurs certainly helps to make the world feel more real, as opposed to merely a setting for various random encounters. So the little guys aren't going to be totally neglected. After I get through all of the big, interesting mechanically creatures, I'm going to go back and do some compilation work, appendixes for the imaginary sourcebook all these articles represent. In there with the adjustments for druid companions, rules for familiars and paladin mounts, and so forth will be an appendix detailing the little guys of Skull Island, most of them being references to editing existing animals and vermin to match.

But this is all in good time. Patience. There's a huge amount of material I'm working through.

Demiurge out.

demiurge1138 · Aug 31, 2006

OK. I've been slacking on this long enough. I'm going over the top.

DIABLOSAURUS
Huge Animal
Hit Dice: 14d8+140 plus 6 (209 hp)
Initiative: -1
Speed: 30ft (6 squares)
Armor Class: 25 (-2 size, -1 Dex, +18 natural), touch 7, flat-footed 25
Base Attack/Grapple: +10/+28
Attack: Gore +18 melee (2d8+15/19-20)
Full Attack: Gore +18 melee (2d8+15/19-20)
Space/Reach: 15ft/10ft
Special Qualities: Fortification, jungle movement, low-light vision, scent
Saves: Fort +19, Ref +8, Will +5
Abilities: Str 30, Dex 8, Con 31, Int 1, Wis 13, Cha 7
Skills: Listen +18
Feats: Diehard, Endurance, Improved Critical (gore), Toughness (x2)
Environment: Warm forests
Organization: Solitary, pair or family (3-5)
Challenge Rating: 10
Treasure: None
Alignment: Always neutral
Advancement: 15-28 HD (Huge)
Level Adjustment: -

This huge gray reptile is built mostly like a rhinoceros, with a stubby tail and powerful legs, although the bony studs in its hide suggest it is better protected. Two thick horns grow from its head.

A peculiar offshoot of the sauropod dinosaurs (such as the brontosauruses common to the plains of Skull Island), diablosaurus has traded in sheer mass for thick armor and large horns. Despite their resemblance to ceratopsians like ferrucutus, they are not related. They generally have poor eyesight and rely mostly on hearing and smell to avoid predators and find food, mostly ferns and thick vines. Due to their incredible armor, they are practically unmolested by predators, although baby diablosauruses are still tempting targets to carvers and other large jungle predators.

A diablosaurus can grow to ten feet high at the shoulder and up to 25 feet long.

Combat
Diablosauruses rarely engage in combat – their mass and armor tends to intimidate most natural predators, and they are shy and retiring animals. If threatened, however, they circle around their young, goring any who approach with their huge nose horns.

Fortification (Ex): Due to its protective osteoderms, a diablosaurus has a 25% chance to ignore extra damage done by a critical hit or sneak attack.

Jungle Movement (Ex): A diablosaurus can move through light undergrowth without penalty, and treats heavy undergrowth as light undergrowth for the purposes of movement (two squares to pass through, +2 to Tumble and Move Silently DCs).

Copyright 2006 Nicholas Herold. The World of Kong is copyright 2005 Weta Workshop.

Demiurge out.

demiurge1138 · Aug 31, 2006

ASPERDORSUS
Gargantuan Animal
Hit Dice: 16d8+112 plus 3 (187 hp)
Initiative: +0
Speed: 30ft (6 squares)
Armor Class: 21 (-4 size, +15 natural), touch 6, flat-footed 21
Base Attack/Grapple: +12/+34
Attack: Tail slam +18 melee (3d6+15)
Full Attack: Tail slam +18 melee (3d6+15)
Space/Reach: 20ft/20ft
Special Attacks: Reflexive attack
Special Qualities: Low-light vision, narrow berth, scent
Saves: Fort +17, Ref +10, Will +9
Abilities: Str 30, Dex 10, Con 24, Int 1, Wis 14, Cha 7
Skills: Listen +16, Spot +14
Feats: Alertness, Endurance, Iron Will, Skill Focus (Listen), Toughness
Environment: Warm forest
Organization: Solitary or pair
Challenge Rating: 10
Treasure: None
Alignment: Always neutral
Advancement: 17-32 HD (Gargantuan)
Level Adjustment: -

This massive reptilian quadruped has a long neck and tail. It carries itself high off the ground. Its hide is studded with bony plates, which form long spines along its back and pointing downward from its neck.

Asperdorsus lives in the thick forests of Skull Island, browsing on plant matter out of the reach of smaller herbivores. They are relatives of brontosaurs, but eschew their large herds for a solitary lifestyle. Their high carriage and narrow frames help them navigate the thick foliage of their homes, and their immense size and strength can break what plants they can’t avoid. Males of the species attract females by crashing noisily through clearings, shattering trees in their path. Of course, these displays also attract carvers and venatosauruses looking for a meal, but the huge herbivores are more than able to ward off such attackers.

An apserdorsus can grow up to 45 feet long.

Combat
Asperdorsuses fight with their tails, capable of breaking bone with a single swing. Attackers who get close may also find themselves gored by the spines growing from the asperdorsus’ neck.

Reflexive Attack (Ex): Once per round when hit by a natural attack or melee weapon used by a creature within its reach, an asperdorsus can make a special attack of opportunity with its neck spines (+13 melee, 1d10+5).

Narrow Berth (Ex): Due to its narrow body, an asperdorsus is treated as being two sizes smaller than it actually is for the purposes of squeezing (see page 149 of the Player’s Handbook for the rules for squeezing).

Copyright 2006 Nicholas Herold. The World of Kong is copyright 2005 Weta Workshop.

Demiurge out.

demiurge1138 · Aug 31, 2006

SYLVACERATOPS
Large Animal
Hit Dice: 6d8+18 (45 hp)
Initiative: +3
Speed: 50ft (10 squares)
Armor Class: 17 (-1 size, +3 Dex, +5 natural), touch 11, flat-footed 13
Base Attack/Grapple: +4/+12
Attack: Gore +7 melee (1d6+6)
Full Attack: Gore +7 melee (1d6+6)
Space/Reach: 10ft/5ft
Special Qualities: Jungle movement, low-light vision
Saves: Fort +8, Ref +8, Will +3
Abilities: Str 18, Dex 17, Con 16, Int 2, Wis 13, Cha 7
Skills: Listen +8, Spot +7
Feats: Alertness, Dodge, Run
Environment: Warm forests
Organization: Solitary, pair or herd (4-12)
Challenge Rating: 3
Treasure: None
Alignment: Always neutral
Advancement: 7-12 HD (Large), 13-18 HD (Huge)
Level Adjustment: -

This reptilian quadruped is surprisingly graceful for its great size. A short horn crowns its nose, and a narrow frill grows from the back of its head.

Lithe herbivores of the depths of the forest, sylvaceratopses are relatives of the mighty ferrucutus. They live in small familial herds sharing territory, but males become territorial during mating season. Their frills grow brightly colorful and grow hooks on the back to allow for grappling. These hooks are shed like antlers after mating, to avoid entangling on vines and undergrowth. Sylvaceratopses browse on shrubs and other low-growing plants, but supplement their diets with fruits and nuts when they can get them.

Most sylvaceratopses are about twelve feet long, but they have been known to grow larger.

The same statistics, with some modification, can be used to model chalyceratops, a similarly small ceratopsian that lives on the borders of the jungles and mountains of Skull Island. Replace the Dodge and Run feats with Improved Natural Armor and Endurance, reduce the Dex by 2 and increase Con by 4, increase gore damage to 2d6, and add the powerful charge ability, letting it deal 4d6+6 damage on a charge attack. These changes warrant a +1 CR increase.

Combat
Sylvaceratopses do not fight, as a rule. They prefer to use their agility and speed to flee from predators. If cornered, they will lash out with their goring horns, but this is generally a last resort.

Jungle Movement (Ex): A sylvaceratops can move through light undergrowth without penalty, and treats heavy undergrowth as light undergrowth for the purposes of movement (two squares to pass through, +2 to Tumble and Move Silently DCs).

Copyright 2006 Nicholas Herold. The World of Kong is copyright 2005 Weta Workshop.

Demiurge out.

demiurge1138 · Aug 31, 2006

MONSTRUTALPUS
Large Animal
Hit Dice: 4d8+12 (30 hp)
Initiative: +1
Speed: 30ft (6 squares), burrow 5ft
Armor Class: 14 (-1 size, +1 Dex, +4 natural), touch 10, flat-footed 13
Base Attack/Grapple: +3/+10
Attack: Bite +5 melee (1d6+3)
Full Attack: Bite +5 melee (1d6+3) and 2 claws +0 melee (1d4+1)
Space/Reach: 10ft/5ft
Special Qualities: Low-light vision, scent
Saves: Fort +7, Ref +5, Will +5
Abilities: Str 16, Dex 13, Con 17, Int 1, Wis 15, Cha 5
Skills: Listen +5, Spot +6
Feats: Endurance, Iron Will
Environment: Warm forests
Organization: Solitary
Challenge Rating: 2
Treasure: None
Alignment: Always neutral
Advancement: 5-8 HD (Large)
Level Adjustment: -

A massive lizard roams past, snuffling with large nostrils as it goes before stopping and digging with shovel-like claws. It mouth is tipped with a horny beak.

Foragers, monstrutalpus are large lizards adapted to hunt for roots and fungus in the deep jungles. They resort to a poor taste for defense more than speed, armor or size, but are still often taken by carvers and other predators. They are solitary, only gathering to mate – the female emits a musk that the males’ keen nostrils can detect from miles away. Their combination of beak and molars can grind down almost any plant matter.

A monstrutalpus can grow to a maximum of 15 feet in length.

Combat
Monstrutalpus rarely fight. They will lash out with their jaws and claws if provoked, but any fight a monstrutalpus finds itself in is likely a losing one.

Copyright 2006 Nicholas Herold. The World of Kong is copyright 2005 Weta Workshop.

Demiurge out.