Converting "Real World" Animals and Vermin
Cleon
Legend
I'm wondering whether we shouldn't have gone for speed 40 ft. (400 ft. with a sprint), since the original had a 150' speed which is only 25% higher than a standard unencumbered human in that edition of D&D (unless my memory deceives me).
Still it's fine as it is, so I'll leave it to you whether to keep the speed or lower it.
Cleon
Legend
I'm happy to keep them at Cheetah-speed, since most tiger beetles are very fast, but I'd rather drop the burrow speed in that case. If I recall correctly, those beetles that live underground or in leaf-litter are nowhere near as fast as the speedy surface species. The high-speed species also have long legs, which would make burrowing difficult.
How about my suggestion of dropping Burrow from the regular version and adding a Burrowing Tiger Beetle subentry with speeds that are a closer match to the original's?
Giant Tiger Beetle (standard version)
Speed: 50 ft. (10 squares)
Special Qualities: Agile runner, darkvision 60 ft., vermin traits
Environment: Temperate and warm deserts and forests
Burrowing Giant Tiger Beetle - Some tiger beetles live underground or in thick humus, they are also found in fungus caves and similar places. Their attributes have the following changes from standard giant tiger beetles:
Speed: 40 ft. (8 squares), burrow 20 ft.
Special Qualities: Agile runner, darkvision 60 ft., vermin traits
Environment: Temperate and warm forests or underground
Burrowing giant tigers beetles lack the sprint special quality of their surface relatives.
Speed: 40 ft. (8 squares), burrow 20 ft.
Special Qualities: Agile runner, darkvision 60 ft., vermin traits
Environment: Temperate and warm forests or underground
Burrowing giant tigers beetles lack the sprint special quality of their surface relatives.
Shade
Monster Junkie
Sounds good. Updated.
Here's the next one (or two):
Diving Beetle, Giant
Larva
CLIMATE/TERRAIN: Freshwater ponds and lakes
FREQUENCY: Rare
ORGANIZATION: solitary
ACTIVITY CYCLE: Any
DIET: Carnivore
INTELLIGENCE: Non- (0)
TREASURE: Nil
ALIGNMENT: Neutral
NO. APPEARING: 1-12
ARMOR CLASS: 5
MOVE: 6, Swim6
HIT DICE: 2
THAC0: 19
NO. OF ATTACKS: 1
DAMAGE/ATTACK: 1-8
SPECIAL ATTACKS Acid
SPECIAL DEFENSES: Nil
MAGIC RESISTANCE: Nil
SIZE: M (4’ long)
MORALE: Champion (15-16)
XP. VALUE: 120
Adult
CLIMATE/TERRAIN: Freshwater ponds and lakes
FREQUENCY: Common
ORGANIZATION: solitary
ACTIVITY CYCLE: Any
DIET: Carnivore
INTELLIGENCE: Non- (0)
TREASURE: Nil
ALIGNMENT: Neutral
NO. APPEARING: 1-6
ARMOR CLASS: 2
MOVE: 6, Swim 15, Fly 9 (C)
HIT DICE: 4
THAC0: 17
NO. OF ATTACKS: 1
DAMAGE/ATTACK: 1-4
SPECIAL ATTACKS Nil
SPECIAL DEFENSES: Nil
MAGIC RESISTANCE: Nil
SIZE: M (5-6’ long)
MORALE: Average (8-10)
XP. VALUE: 175
Giant diving beetles have three stages of development: larva, pupa, and adult. Giant diving beetle larvae look little like beetles. The body is long and thin with enormous mandibles. Coloration is always light: they are translucent when they hatch and gradually become light yellow or orange. Pupae are white and fat but rarely seen; hence, no statistics are provided. The adult form looks much like a standard beetle, with a hard greenish-black outer shell that looks green underwater. Their hind legs are very long and thick, with paddle-like extremities.
Combat: Giant diving beetle larvae are often called “water tigers” both for their coloration and their ferocity. They remain motionless against a clump of reeds or other plant stalks, then pounce upon any prey that comes near. Their mandibles inflict 1-8 hp damage and inject an acidic substance that liquifies the prey’s body. Victims of a giant diving beetle larva’s bite must save vs. poison or suffer an additional 1-6 hp damage. Once a larva has a victim in its mandibles, it hangs on until the prey dies or makes a successful bend bars roll. Each round in the mandibles, the victim suffers both bite and poison damage.
Adult giant diving beetles, on the other hand, are scavengers. If attacked, they bite with their mandibles, but these are much smaller than those of the larval form and cause only 1-4 hp damage. Adults have no acidic poison attack.
Habitat/Society: Giant diving beetles are solitary creatures, coming together only to mate. Mating occurs in water during the springtime. The male beetle has suction disks on his front legs to keep him attached to the female’s slippery shell. The female lays the eggs near water plants. (Some bite small holes in plant stems and deposit the eggs there.) After three weeks, the eggs hatch into larvae.
In its larval stage, the giant diving beetle is ferocious. Larvae devour up to 30 victims a day-usually snails, small fish, and worms. Over the next several months, they molt three or four times. This is always done in shallow water, where access to air is easy. (Both larvae and adults breath by trapping air in their bodies, and in each case they need only stick the hindmost tip of their abdomens above the surface of the water to replenish their air supply.)
In late summer or early fall, the larva digs a burrow for itself underwater, fills it with air bubbles it brings from the surface, and seals itself in. Safe in its earth-cocoon, it pupates-growing into a fat, white, grub-like creature with legs. The pupa is an intermediate form, for soon after it metamorphosizes again, this time into its adult form. At that point it leaves its burrow and rejoins the aquatic environment.
The adult form is sleek and smooth, allowing the creature to glide effortlessly through the water. Its oversized rear legs have paddle-like ends, and it darts through the water quickly by “rowing” its rear legs simultaneously.
Giant diving beetles, as adults, have fully-functioning wings, protected by the hard wing-cases that form its shell. With these, the creature can fly from pond to pond or lake to lake, searching for new food sources or spawning grounds.
Ecology: Adult giant diving beetles are scavengers, attracted to dead and decaying flesh. Although they are solitary, several beetles might join to share in a large food source. The shells of giant diving beetles, when ground into a fine powder, are often used in the magical inks used to transcribe the spells water breathing and airy water. Venom glands from the larval form can be used as an alternate material component for Melf’s acid arrow spells, although the acid produced by the spell never lasts for more than two rounds in such instances.
Originally appeared in Dragon Magazine #250 (1998).
Here's the next one (or two):
Diving Beetle, Giant
Larva
CLIMATE/TERRAIN: Freshwater ponds and lakes
FREQUENCY: Rare
ORGANIZATION: solitary
ACTIVITY CYCLE: Any
DIET: Carnivore
INTELLIGENCE: Non- (0)
TREASURE: Nil
ALIGNMENT: Neutral
NO. APPEARING: 1-12
ARMOR CLASS: 5
MOVE: 6, Swim6
HIT DICE: 2
THAC0: 19
NO. OF ATTACKS: 1
DAMAGE/ATTACK: 1-8
SPECIAL ATTACKS Acid
SPECIAL DEFENSES: Nil
MAGIC RESISTANCE: Nil
SIZE: M (4’ long)
MORALE: Champion (15-16)
XP. VALUE: 120
Adult
CLIMATE/TERRAIN: Freshwater ponds and lakes
FREQUENCY: Common
ORGANIZATION: solitary
ACTIVITY CYCLE: Any
DIET: Carnivore
INTELLIGENCE: Non- (0)
TREASURE: Nil
ALIGNMENT: Neutral
NO. APPEARING: 1-6
ARMOR CLASS: 2
MOVE: 6, Swim 15, Fly 9 (C)
HIT DICE: 4
THAC0: 17
NO. OF ATTACKS: 1
DAMAGE/ATTACK: 1-4
SPECIAL ATTACKS Nil
SPECIAL DEFENSES: Nil
MAGIC RESISTANCE: Nil
SIZE: M (5-6’ long)
MORALE: Average (8-10)
XP. VALUE: 175
Giant diving beetles have three stages of development: larva, pupa, and adult. Giant diving beetle larvae look little like beetles. The body is long and thin with enormous mandibles. Coloration is always light: they are translucent when they hatch and gradually become light yellow or orange. Pupae are white and fat but rarely seen; hence, no statistics are provided. The adult form looks much like a standard beetle, with a hard greenish-black outer shell that looks green underwater. Their hind legs are very long and thick, with paddle-like extremities.
Combat: Giant diving beetle larvae are often called “water tigers” both for their coloration and their ferocity. They remain motionless against a clump of reeds or other plant stalks, then pounce upon any prey that comes near. Their mandibles inflict 1-8 hp damage and inject an acidic substance that liquifies the prey’s body. Victims of a giant diving beetle larva’s bite must save vs. poison or suffer an additional 1-6 hp damage. Once a larva has a victim in its mandibles, it hangs on until the prey dies or makes a successful bend bars roll. Each round in the mandibles, the victim suffers both bite and poison damage.
Adult giant diving beetles, on the other hand, are scavengers. If attacked, they bite with their mandibles, but these are much smaller than those of the larval form and cause only 1-4 hp damage. Adults have no acidic poison attack.
Habitat/Society: Giant diving beetles are solitary creatures, coming together only to mate. Mating occurs in water during the springtime. The male beetle has suction disks on his front legs to keep him attached to the female’s slippery shell. The female lays the eggs near water plants. (Some bite small holes in plant stems and deposit the eggs there.) After three weeks, the eggs hatch into larvae.
In its larval stage, the giant diving beetle is ferocious. Larvae devour up to 30 victims a day-usually snails, small fish, and worms. Over the next several months, they molt three or four times. This is always done in shallow water, where access to air is easy. (Both larvae and adults breath by trapping air in their bodies, and in each case they need only stick the hindmost tip of their abdomens above the surface of the water to replenish their air supply.)
In late summer or early fall, the larva digs a burrow for itself underwater, fills it with air bubbles it brings from the surface, and seals itself in. Safe in its earth-cocoon, it pupates-growing into a fat, white, grub-like creature with legs. The pupa is an intermediate form, for soon after it metamorphosizes again, this time into its adult form. At that point it leaves its burrow and rejoins the aquatic environment.
The adult form is sleek and smooth, allowing the creature to glide effortlessly through the water. Its oversized rear legs have paddle-like ends, and it darts through the water quickly by “rowing” its rear legs simultaneously.
Giant diving beetles, as adults, have fully-functioning wings, protected by the hard wing-cases that form its shell. With these, the creature can fly from pond to pond or lake to lake, searching for new food sources or spawning grounds.
Ecology: Adult giant diving beetles are scavengers, attracted to dead and decaying flesh. Although they are solitary, several beetles might join to share in a large food source. The shells of giant diving beetles, when ground into a fine powder, are often used in the magical inks used to transcribe the spells water breathing and airy water. Venom glands from the larval form can be used as an alternate material component for Melf’s acid arrow spells, although the acid produced by the spell never lasts for more than two rounds in such instances.
Originally appeared in Dragon Magazine #250 (1998).
Cleon
Legend
Shall we do the larva first?
The giant bombardier beetle (GBB) looks to be a good place to start statwise.
Larvae - HD2 Medium Vermin (Aquatic) with NA +5; Attacks with 1d8 + 1d6 acid bite; Speed 20 ft., Swim 20 ft.; SA: acid, improved grab; SQ: jet [like a Squid, but slower, say 120 ft.? Not mentioned in Dragon #250, but real "water tigers" can escape by water jet.]; Environment: Temperate or warm freshwater;
The other stats can match a GBB, except maybe Organization.
The giant bombardier beetle (GBB) looks to be a good place to start statwise.
Larvae - HD2 Medium Vermin (Aquatic) with NA +5; Attacks with 1d8 + 1d6 acid bite; Speed 20 ft., Swim 20 ft.; SA: acid, improved grab; SQ: jet [like a Squid, but slower, say 120 ft.? Not mentioned in Dragon #250, but real "water tigers" can escape by water jet.]; Environment: Temperate or warm freshwater;
The other stats can match a GBB, except maybe Organization.
