Cleon
Legend
I'll get started...
Converting monsters from Dragon magazine
I'll get started...
Cleon
Legend
Yellow Belly Working Draft
Yellow Belly
Gargantuan Animal (Aquatic)
Hit Dice: 18d8+126 (207 hp)
Initiative: +1
Speed: Swim 40 ft.
Armor Class: 16 (-4 size, +1 Dex, +9 natural), touch 7, flat-footed 16
Base Attack/Grapple: +13/+37
Attack: Bite +21 melee (6d6+18/19-20)
Full Attack: Bite +21 melee (6d6+18/19-20)
Space/Reach: 20 ft./15 ft.
Special Attacks: Improved grab, swallow whole, vortex maw
Special Qualities: Blindsense 60 ft., low-light vision
Saves: Fort +18, Ref +12, Will +10
Abilities: Str 35, Dex 13, Con 24, Int 2, Wis 14, Cha 6
Skills: Hide –4* (+8 on sea floor, +18 if buried), Listen +13, Spot +12, Swim +20
Feats: Alertness, Blind-Fight, Diehard, Endurance, Improved Critical, Iron Will, Skill Focus (Hide)
Environment: Warm aquatic
Organization: Solitary
Challenge Rating: 12
Treasure: None
Alignment: Always neutral
Advancement: 19–36 HD (Colossal)
Level Adjustment: —
A whale-sized creature resembling a titanic tadpole with an extravagantly long tail. The beast is shiny black overall, with tranverse brown stripes upon its flanks and a bright yellow underside. Two pallid slit-pupilled eyes are set atop its massively broad head, which has an equally enormous mouth that reveals a white interior when it yawns.
The yellow belly is a sea monster so rare and mysterious that many scholars don't believe it exists. It only dwells in warm seas and spends most of its time lying camouflaged on the seabed waiting for a meal to come within reach, then swallow its victims whole. A few scholars theorize that the yellow belly are descendants of a giant prehistoric amphibian (such as mastodonsaurus) that adopted a purely aquatic lifestyle. The more excitable of those scholars theorize that, like an axolotl, a yellow belly might be able to metamorphose into a terrestrial form under the right conditions.
A yellow belly is usually about 80 feet long, but more than half of that is its tapering tail. It weighs 40 to 60 tons.
Combat
A yellow belly lies on the sea floor and waits to ambush creatures that wander past. They prefer to suck in prey with their vortex maw, but are not adverse to biting creatures able to resist that attack. In either case, it seizes every opportunity to use its swallow whole attack.
Improved Grab (Ex): To use this ability, a yellow belly must hit with its bite attack. It can then attempt to start a grapple as a free action without provoking an attack of opportunity. If it wins the grapple check, it establishes a hold and can immediately attempt to swallow the foe.
Swallow Whole (Ex): A yellow belly can try to swallow a grabbed opponent of a smaller size than itself by making a successful grapple check. The swallowed creature takes 6d6+12 points of crushing damage plus 8 points of acid damage per round from the yellow belly’s gizzard. A swallowed creature can cut its way out by using a light slashing or piercing weapon to deal 25 points of damage to the gizzard (AC 14). Once the creature exits, muscular action closes the hole; another swallowed opponent must cut its own way out.
A Gargantuan yellow belly’s interior can hold 2 Huge, 8 Large, 32 Medium, 128 Small, or 512 Tiny or smaller opponents.
Vortex Maw (Ex): A yellow belly can open its mouth so quickly that it creates a powerful suction. All creatures within a 40-foot cone must make Strength checks opposed by the yellow belly's Strength check (+24 for a standard yellow belly), with the same modifiers as a bull rush. If the yellow belly beats a creature's Strength check result, it pulls the victim 5 feet closer to its jaws. For each 5 points by which its check result is greater than a victim's check result, the yellow belly pulls the victim an additional 5 feet closer. The victim provokes attacks of opportunity if it is moved.
Skills: A yellow belly has a +8 racial bonus on any Swim check to perform a special action or avoid a hazard. It can always choose to take 10 on a Swim check, even if distracted or endangered. It can use the run action while swimming, provided it swims in a straight line.
*When it is lying still along the seafloor, a yellow belly has a +12 racial bonus on Hide checks. Further, yellow belly can bury itself in silt or mud with only its eyes showing, gaining a +10 cover bonus on Hide checks.
Originally appeared in Dragon Magazine #190 (1993).
Yellow Belly
Gargantuan Animal (Aquatic)
Hit Dice: 18d8+126 (207 hp)
Initiative: +1
Speed: Swim 40 ft.
Armor Class: 16 (-4 size, +1 Dex, +9 natural), touch 7, flat-footed 16
Base Attack/Grapple: +13/+37
Attack: Bite +21 melee (6d6+18/19-20)
Full Attack: Bite +21 melee (6d6+18/19-20)
Space/Reach: 20 ft./15 ft.
Special Attacks: Improved grab, swallow whole, vortex maw
Special Qualities: Blindsense 60 ft., low-light vision
Saves: Fort +18, Ref +12, Will +10
Abilities: Str 35, Dex 13, Con 24, Int 2, Wis 14, Cha 6
Skills: Hide –4* (+8 on sea floor, +18 if buried), Listen +13, Spot +12, Swim +20
Feats: Alertness, Blind-Fight, Diehard, Endurance, Improved Critical, Iron Will, Skill Focus (Hide)
Environment: Warm aquatic
Organization: Solitary
Challenge Rating: 12
Treasure: None
Alignment: Always neutral
Advancement: 19–36 HD (Colossal)
Level Adjustment: —
A whale-sized creature resembling a titanic tadpole with an extravagantly long tail. The beast is shiny black overall, with tranverse brown stripes upon its flanks and a bright yellow underside. Two pallid slit-pupilled eyes are set atop its massively broad head, which has an equally enormous mouth that reveals a white interior when it yawns.
The yellow belly is a sea monster so rare and mysterious that many scholars don't believe it exists. It only dwells in warm seas and spends most of its time lying camouflaged on the seabed waiting for a meal to come within reach, then swallow its victims whole. A few scholars theorize that the yellow belly are descendants of a giant prehistoric amphibian (such as mastodonsaurus) that adopted a purely aquatic lifestyle. The more excitable of those scholars theorize that, like an axolotl, a yellow belly might be able to metamorphose into a terrestrial form under the right conditions.
A yellow belly is usually about 80 feet long, but more than half of that is its tapering tail. It weighs 40 to 60 tons.
Combat
A yellow belly lies on the sea floor and waits to ambush creatures that wander past. They prefer to suck in prey with their vortex maw, but are not adverse to biting creatures able to resist that attack. In either case, it seizes every opportunity to use its swallow whole attack.
Improved Grab (Ex): To use this ability, a yellow belly must hit with its bite attack. It can then attempt to start a grapple as a free action without provoking an attack of opportunity. If it wins the grapple check, it establishes a hold and can immediately attempt to swallow the foe.
Swallow Whole (Ex): A yellow belly can try to swallow a grabbed opponent of a smaller size than itself by making a successful grapple check. The swallowed creature takes 6d6+12 points of crushing damage plus 8 points of acid damage per round from the yellow belly’s gizzard. A swallowed creature can cut its way out by using a light slashing or piercing weapon to deal 25 points of damage to the gizzard (AC 14). Once the creature exits, muscular action closes the hole; another swallowed opponent must cut its own way out.
A Gargantuan yellow belly’s interior can hold 2 Huge, 8 Large, 32 Medium, 128 Small, or 512 Tiny or smaller opponents.
Vortex Maw (Ex): A yellow belly can open its mouth so quickly that it creates a powerful suction. All creatures within a 40-foot cone must make Strength checks opposed by the yellow belly's Strength check (+24 for a standard yellow belly), with the same modifiers as a bull rush. If the yellow belly beats a creature's Strength check result, it pulls the victim 5 feet closer to its jaws. For each 5 points by which its check result is greater than a victim's check result, the yellow belly pulls the victim an additional 5 feet closer. The victim provokes attacks of opportunity if it is moved.
Skills: A yellow belly has a +8 racial bonus on any Swim check to perform a special action or avoid a hazard. It can always choose to take 10 on a Swim check, even if distracted or endangered. It can use the run action while swimming, provided it swims in a straight line.
*When it is lying still along the seafloor, a yellow belly has a +12 racial bonus on Hide checks. Further, yellow belly can bury itself in silt or mud with only its eyes showing, gaining a +10 cover bonus on Hide checks.
Originally appeared in Dragon Magazine #190 (1993).
Last edited:
Cleon
Legend
Okay, it needs a few tweaks.
The Dragon article gives it a bite of 3d4x5 damage, while a 2E AD&D Common Whale has a bite of 5d4 at 12 Hit Dice. It's the 24-36 HD versions that have a 3d4x5 bite.
Oh dang it. I just realized it says "common whales with maximum hit dice", so it's a 36 HD whale not a 12 HD one. And the bite attack means it's a "carnivorous whale" (a "Cachalot Whale" in 3E) not a "plankton-feeding whale" (the 3E Baleen Whale).
I'd better rework the whole stat block to that of a maximized Cachalot Whale, i.e. Colossal and 36 Hit Dice.
It'll have to wait a bit. It's time to start cooking dinner...
Cleon
Legend
Cleon
Legend
Note that I gave the Working Draft a 4d6 damage bite, not the 6d6 you'd get from advancing a Cachalot's 4d6 to Colossal. That was to make the average damage approximately match (4d6+24 vs a Colossal Cachalot's 6d6+16 = 38 vs 37 on average), since the original's bite damage is the same as a common carnivorous whale of the same size.
We still need a "gizzard" damage.
I'm favouring 4d6+16 plus 8 acid for the same average damage as the bite.
Should we increase the hit points to cut out of the gizzard? I guess I'm OK with 25 hit points, but I'd entertain increasing it.
Cleon
Legend
Hmm, I don't much care for a Colossal 36 HD version. The Yellow Belly isn't that big compared to a whale. It may be 100 feet long but its "extremely long and tapering" tail presumably takes up a lot of that so it oughtn't to be as massive as the largest sperm whales which have comparatively much bulkier bodies.
I prefer Gargantuan, like my original Working Draft.
Modifying that to use the Cachalot as the "base whale" produces:
Yellow Belly
Gargantuan Animal (Aquatic)
Hit Dice: 12d8+84 (138 hp)
Initiative: +1
Speed: Swim 40 ft.
Armor Class: 16 (-4 size, +1 Dex, +9 natural), touch 7, flat-footed 16
Base Attack/Grapple: +9/+33
Attack: Bite +17 melee (4d6+18 [?])
Full Attack: Bite +17 melee (4d6+18 [?])
Space/Reach: 20 ft./15 ft.
Special Attacks: Improved grab, swallow whole, vortex maw
Special Qualities: Amphibious?, blindsight 120 ft. [?], low-light vision
Saves: Fort +15, Ref +9, Will +6
Abilities: Str 35, Dex 13, Con 24, Int 2, Wis 14, Cha 6
Skills: Listen +15*, Spot +14*, Swim +20
Feats: 5 [Alertness, Diehard, Endurance, Improved Natural Attack (bite), Toughness]
Environment: Warm aquatic
Organization: Solitary
Challenge Rating: ??
Treasure: None
Alignment: Always neutral
Advancement: 13–18 HD (Gargantuan); 19–36 HD (Colossal)
Level Adjustment: —
Description.
Background.
A yellow belly is is about ?? feet long.
Combat
Tactics.
Improved Grab (Ex): To use this ability, a yellow belly must hit with its bite attack. It can then attempt to start a grapple as a free action without provoking an attack of opportunity. If it wins the grapple check, it establishes a hold and can immediately attempt to swallow the foe.
Swallow Whole (Ex): A yellow belly can try to swallow a grabbed opponent of a smaller size than itself by making a successful grapple check. The swallowed creature takes [XdY+12 or XdY+18?] points of crushing damage plus Z points of acid damage per round from the yellow belly’s gizzard. A swallowed creature can cut its way out by using a light slashing or piercing weapon to deal 25 [?] points of damage to the gizzard (AC 14). Once the creature exits, muscular action closes the hole; another swallowed opponent must cut its own way out.
A Gargantuan yellow belly’s interior can hold 2 Huge, 8 Large, 32 Medium, 128 Small, or 512 Tiny or smaller opponents.
Vortex Maw (Ex): A yellow belly can open its mouth so quickly that it creates a powerful suction. All creatures within a ??-foot cone must make Strength checks opposed by the yellow belly's Strength check (+24 for a standard yellow belly), with the same modifiers as a bull rush. If the yellow belly beats a creature's Strength check result, it pulls the victim 5 feet closer to its jaws. For each 5 points by which its check result is greater than a victim's check result, the yellow belly pulls the victim an additional 5 feet closer. The victim provokes attacks of opportunity if it is moved.
Skills: A yellow belly has a +8 racial bonus on any Swim check to perform a special action or avoid a hazard. It can always choose to take 10 on a Swim check, even if distracted or endangered. It can use the run action while swimming, provided it swims in a straight line.
*A yellow belly has a +4 racial bonus on Spot and Listen checks. These bonuses are lost if its blindsight is negated.
I like that a lot better. I'm thinking we ought to increase the bite damage to, say, 6d6+18 so the average damage is close to a Colossal Cachalot 6d6+16 [that doesn't include any ability increases for the Cachalot's advanced HD, which could easily increase the Strength bonus by another 2].
The only problem that leaves is the reference to "maximum hit dice", so how about we give the Yellow Belly the maximum HD for a Cachalot Whale's Gargantuan advancement range of 13-18, i.e. 18 HD. I think that works better than using the Colossal HD maximum:
Yellow Belly
Gargantuan Animal (Aquatic)
Hit Dice: 18d8+126 (207 hp)
Initiative: +1
Speed: Swim 40 ft.
Armor Class: 16 (-4 size, +1 Dex, +9 natural), touch 7, flat-footed 16
Base Attack/Grapple: +13/+37
Attack: Bite +21 melee (6d6+18 [?])
Full Attack: Bite +21 melee (6d6+18 [?])
Space/Reach: 20 ft./15 ft.
Special Attacks: Improved grab, swallow whole, vortex maw
Special Qualities: Amphibious?, blindsight 120 ft. [?], low-light vision
Saves: Fort +18, Ref +12, Will +7
Abilities: Str 35, Dex 13, Con 24, Int 2, Wis 14, Cha 6
Skills: Listen +18*, Spot +17*, Swim +20
Feats: 7 [Alertness, Diehard, Endurance, Improved Natural Attack (bite), Toughness]
Environment: Warm aquatic
Organization: Solitary
Challenge Rating: ??
Treasure: None
Alignment: Always neutral
Advancement: 19–36 HD (Colossal)
Level Adjustment: —
I prefer Gargantuan, like my original Working Draft.
Modifying that to use the Cachalot as the "base whale" produces:
Yellow Belly
Gargantuan Animal (Aquatic)
Hit Dice: 12d8+84 (138 hp)
Initiative: +1
Speed: Swim 40 ft.
Armor Class: 16 (-4 size, +1 Dex, +9 natural), touch 7, flat-footed 16
Base Attack/Grapple: +9/+33
Attack: Bite +17 melee (4d6+18 [?])
Full Attack: Bite +17 melee (4d6+18 [?])
Space/Reach: 20 ft./15 ft.
Special Attacks: Improved grab, swallow whole, vortex maw
Special Qualities: Amphibious?, blindsight 120 ft. [?], low-light vision
Saves: Fort +15, Ref +9, Will +6
Abilities: Str 35, Dex 13, Con 24, Int 2, Wis 14, Cha 6
Skills: Listen +15*, Spot +14*, Swim +20
Feats: 5 [Alertness, Diehard, Endurance, Improved Natural Attack (bite), Toughness]
Environment: Warm aquatic
Organization: Solitary
Challenge Rating: ??
Treasure: None
Alignment: Always neutral
Advancement: 13–18 HD (Gargantuan); 19–36 HD (Colossal)
Level Adjustment: —
Description.
Background.
A yellow belly is is about ?? feet long.
Combat
Tactics.
Improved Grab (Ex): To use this ability, a yellow belly must hit with its bite attack. It can then attempt to start a grapple as a free action without provoking an attack of opportunity. If it wins the grapple check, it establishes a hold and can immediately attempt to swallow the foe.
Swallow Whole (Ex): A yellow belly can try to swallow a grabbed opponent of a smaller size than itself by making a successful grapple check. The swallowed creature takes [XdY+12 or XdY+18?] points of crushing damage plus Z points of acid damage per round from the yellow belly’s gizzard. A swallowed creature can cut its way out by using a light slashing or piercing weapon to deal 25 [?] points of damage to the gizzard (AC 14). Once the creature exits, muscular action closes the hole; another swallowed opponent must cut its own way out.
A Gargantuan yellow belly’s interior can hold 2 Huge, 8 Large, 32 Medium, 128 Small, or 512 Tiny or smaller opponents.
Vortex Maw (Ex): A yellow belly can open its mouth so quickly that it creates a powerful suction. All creatures within a ??-foot cone must make Strength checks opposed by the yellow belly's Strength check (+24 for a standard yellow belly), with the same modifiers as a bull rush. If the yellow belly beats a creature's Strength check result, it pulls the victim 5 feet closer to its jaws. For each 5 points by which its check result is greater than a victim's check result, the yellow belly pulls the victim an additional 5 feet closer. The victim provokes attacks of opportunity if it is moved.
Skills: A yellow belly has a +8 racial bonus on any Swim check to perform a special action or avoid a hazard. It can always choose to take 10 on a Swim check, even if distracted or endangered. It can use the run action while swimming, provided it swims in a straight line.
*A yellow belly has a +4 racial bonus on Spot and Listen checks. These bonuses are lost if its blindsight is negated.
I like that a lot better. I'm thinking we ought to increase the bite damage to, say, 6d6+18 so the average damage is close to a Colossal Cachalot 6d6+16 [that doesn't include any ability increases for the Cachalot's advanced HD, which could easily increase the Strength bonus by another 2].
The only problem that leaves is the reference to "maximum hit dice", so how about we give the Yellow Belly the maximum HD for a Cachalot Whale's Gargantuan advancement range of 13-18, i.e. 18 HD. I think that works better than using the Colossal HD maximum:
Yellow Belly
Gargantuan Animal (Aquatic)
Hit Dice: 18d8+126 (207 hp)
Initiative: +1
Speed: Swim 40 ft.
Armor Class: 16 (-4 size, +1 Dex, +9 natural), touch 7, flat-footed 16
Base Attack/Grapple: +13/+37
Attack: Bite +21 melee (6d6+18 [?])
Full Attack: Bite +21 melee (6d6+18 [?])
Space/Reach: 20 ft./15 ft.
Special Attacks: Improved grab, swallow whole, vortex maw
Special Qualities: Amphibious?, blindsight 120 ft. [?], low-light vision
Saves: Fort +18, Ref +12, Will +7
Abilities: Str 35, Dex 13, Con 24, Int 2, Wis 14, Cha 6
Skills: Listen +18*, Spot +17*, Swim +20
Feats: 7 [Alertness, Diehard, Endurance, Improved Natural Attack (bite), Toughness]
Environment: Warm aquatic
Organization: Solitary
Challenge Rating: ??
Treasure: None
Alignment: Always neutral
Advancement: 19–36 HD (Colossal)
Level Adjustment: —
Cleon
Legend
Cleon
Legend
Okay, I'd like to sort out a couple of fundamentals.
Firstly, although we've agreed on a "gargantuan labyrinthodon" interpretation I'd like to remove the red-pencilled Amphibious trait.
This is supposed to be a "realistic" animal, and it seems highly unlikely to me a whale-sized aquatic amphibian would retain lungs. It'll die if it gets beached anyway, so lungs would just prolong its expiration. My preference would be gills-only, as if it literally were a "giant tadpole".
Although we could include a rumour that if it lived in a water that very slowly dried away it'll metamorphose into a legged form that could also breathe air, like an axolotl can...
Secondly, do we want to keep the Blindsight? I only left that in because whales have it, both in real life and the SRD, but as far as I know no real-world amphibian has sonar.
Come to think of it, the Monstrous Compendium entry for Whales it's based on makes no mention of sonar, so maybe 2E AD&D whales can't echo locate either!
I'm inclined to cut out the Blindsight, but I'm inclined to give it decent darkvision as compensation and possibly Blindsense as compensation.
Firstly, although we've agreed on a "gargantuan labyrinthodon" interpretation I'd like to remove the red-pencilled Amphibious trait.
This is supposed to be a "realistic" animal, and it seems highly unlikely to me a whale-sized aquatic amphibian would retain lungs. It'll die if it gets beached anyway, so lungs would just prolong its expiration. My preference would be gills-only, as if it literally were a "giant tadpole".
Although we could include a rumour that if it lived in a water that very slowly dried away it'll metamorphose into a legged form that could also breathe air, like an axolotl can...
Secondly, do we want to keep the Blindsight? I only left that in because whales have it, both in real life and the SRD, but as far as I know no real-world amphibian has sonar.
Come to think of it, the Monstrous Compendium entry for Whales it's based on makes no mention of sonar, so maybe 2E AD&D whales can't echo locate either!
I'm inclined to cut out the Blindsight, but I'm inclined to give it decent darkvision as compensation and possibly Blindsense as compensation.
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