Building a Better Crocodile
Crocodile Redux
Medium Animal
Hit Dice: 3d8+9 (22 hp)
Initiative: +1
Speed: 20 ft. (4 squares), swim 30 ft.
Armor Class: 15 (+1 Dex, +4 natural), touch 11, flat-footed 14
Base Attack/Grapple: +2/+6
Attack: Bite +6 melee (1d6+4) or tail slap +6 melee (1d10+2)
Full Attack: Bite +6 melee (1d6+4) and tail slap +1 melee (1d10+2)
Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks: Death roll (1d6+6), improved grab
Special Qualities: Hold breath, low-light vision, 60 ft. ripplesense
Saves: Fort +6, Ref +4, Will +2
Abilities: Str 19, Dex 12, Con 17, Int 1, Wis 12, Cha 2
Skills: Hide +7* [+11 in water, +21 when mostly submerged], Listen +4, Spot +4, Survival +2, Swim +12
Feats: Alertness, Skill Focus (Hide)
Environment: Warm marshes
Organization: Solitary or colony (6–11)
Challenge Rating: 2
Advancement: 4–6 HD (Medium), 7-12 HD (Large)
Level Adjustment: —
Crocodiles are aggressive predators 11 to 12 feet long. They lie mostly submerged in rivers or marshes, with only their eyes and nostrils showing, waiting for prey to come within reach.
Combat
Crocodiles seek to establish a hold upon an opponent with its mouth and drag it into deep water, attempting to pin it to the bottom until it drowns. Opponents that resist will be hit by death roll attacks.
A threatened crocodile defends itself with its jaws and tail. They can not attack the same opponent with both attacks, since these natural weapons threaten opposite ends of the crocodile.
Death Roll (Ex): A swimming crocodile can violently thrash its body to tear up any creature it holds in its jaws, dealing 1d6+6 damage if it succeeds on a grapple check.
Improved Grab (Ex): To use this ability, a crocodile 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 can follow up with normal grapple actions or its Death Roll special attack.
Hold Breath (Ex): A crocodile can hold its breath for a number of rounds equal to 4 × its Constitution score before it risks drowning.
Ripplesense (Ex): A crocodile can detect disturbances in the water using vibration-sensitive pits in its scales. This functions like blindsense (q.v.), except the crocodile can only sense the location of creatures through water. It must itself be in contact with the water, and the creatures must be moving.
Skills
A crocodile has a +8 racial bonus on any Swim check to perform some 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 crocodile gains a +4 racial bonus on Hide checks when in the water. Further, a crocodile can lie in the water with only its eyes and nostrils showing, gaining a +10 cover bonus on Hide checks.
Notes: The SRD version's skill modifiers did not add up - it worked out to Hide 3(+1Dex, +3 Skill Focus), Listen 1(+1 Wis +2 Alertness), Spot 1(+1 Wis +2 Alertness), Swim 0(+4 Str, +8 racial), so one skill rank is missing. I decided a point in Survival was appropriate.
Crocodile, Large
Large Animal
Hit Dice: 7d8+35 (66 hp)
Initiative: +1
Speed: 20 ft. (4 squares), swim 30 ft.
Armor Class: 17 (–1 size, +1 Dex, +7 natural), touch 10, flat-footed 16
Base Attack/Grapple: +5/+17
Attack: Bite +12 melee (1d8+8) or tail slap +12 melee (1d12+4)
Full Attack: Bite +12 melee (1d8+8) or tail slap +7 melee (1d12+4)
Space/Reach: 10 ft./5 ft. (10 ft. with tail)
Special Attacks: Death roll (1d8+12), improved grab
Special Qualities: Hold breath, low-light vision, 60 ft. ripplesense
Saves: Fort +10, Ref +6, Will +3
Abilities: Str 27, Dex 12, Con 21, Int 1, Wis 12, Cha 2
Skills: Hide +5* [+9 in water, +19 when mostly submerged], Listen +5, Spot +5, Survival +2, Swim +16
Feats: Alertness, Endurance, Skill Focus (Hide)
Environment: Warm marshes
Organization: Solitary or colony (6–11)
Challenge Rating: 4
Advancement: 8–12 HD (Large)
Level Adjustment: —
These creatures usually live in salt water and can be more than 20 feet long.
Large crocodiles fight and behave like their smaller cousins.
Crocodile, Giant
Huge Animal
Hit Dice: 13d8+91 (149 hp)
Initiative: +0
Speed: 20 ft. (4 squares), swim 30 ft.
Armor Class: 18 (–2 size, +10 natural), touch 8, flat-footed 18
Base Attack/Grapple: +9/+29
Attack: Bite +20 melee (2d6+12) or tail slap +19 melee (2d8+6)
Full Attack: Bite +20 melee (2d6+12) or tail slap +14 melee (2d8+6)
Space/Reach: 15 ft./10 ft. (20 ft. with tail)
Special Attacks: Death roll (2d6+18), improved grab
Special Qualities: Hold breath, low-light vision, 60 ft. ripplesense
Saves: Fort +15, Ref +8, Will +5
Abilities: Str 35, Dex 10, Con 25, Int 1, Wis 12, Cha 2
Skills: Hide +5* [+9 in water, +19 when mostly submerged], Listen +6, Spot +6, Survival +2, Swim +20
Feats: Alertness, Endurance, Power Attack, Skill Focus (Hide), Weapon Focus (bite)
Environment: Warm marshes
Organization: Solitary or colony (6–11)
Challenge Rating: 6
Advancement: 14–24 HD (Huge)
Level Adjustment: —
These huge creatures can be more than 40 feet long, they often prey upon dire animals and dinosaurs.
Dire Crocodiles
I applied a homebrewed "Dire Animal" template to my revised crocodile and giant crocodile and came up with the following (I tweaked the tail-reach to match the Large crocodile redux).
Since I applied the template to different base creatures the Advancements don't match up (there's a 15-20 HD gap between the regular dire crocodile and the giant dire crocodile), I was tempted to tweak them to close the Advancement gap but decided there is no need to do so because they are dire forms of different genera (one being a dire form of a regular crocodile á la the Nile crocodile, the other being a dire version of a prehistoric dinosaur-eater.
Dire Crocodile
Large Animal (Dire)
Hit Dice: 7d8+42 (73 hp)
Initiative: +1
Speed: 20 ft. (4 squares), swim 30 ft.
Armor Class: 18 (-1 size, +1 Dex, +8 natural), touch 10, flat-footed 17
Base Attack/Grapple: +5/+19
Attack: Bite +14 melee (2d6+10) or tail slap +14 melee (1d12+5)
Full Attack: Bite +14 melee (2d6+10) and tail slap +9 melee (1d12+5)
Space/Reach: 10 ft./5 ft. (10 ft. with tail)
Special Attacks: Death roll (2d6+15), improved grab
Special Qualities: Hold breath, low-light vision, 60 ft. ripplesense
Saves: Fort +11, Ref +6, Will +6
Abilities: Str 31, Dex 12, Con 23, Int 1, Wis 12, Cha 6
Skills: Hide +5* [+9 in water, +19 when mostly submerged], Listen +5, Spot +5, Survival +2, Swim +18
Feats: Alertness, Power Attack, Skill Focus (Hide)
Environment: Warm marshes
Organization: Solitary or colony (6–11)
Challenge Rating: 5
Advancement: 8-14 HD (Large); 15-21 HD (Huge)
Level Adjustment: —
Dire Crocodile, Giant
Huge Animal (Dire)
Hit Dice: 21d8+168 (262 hp)
Initiative: +1
Speed: 20 ft. (4 squares), swim 30 ft.
Armor Class: 21 (–2 size,+1 Dex, +12 natural), touch 9, flat-footed 20
Base Attack/Grapple: +15/+37
Attack: Bite +28 melee (3d6+14/19-20) or tail slap +27 melee (2d8+7)
Full Attack: Bite +28 melee (3d6+14/19-20) or tail slap +22 melee (2d8+7)
Space/Reach: 15 ft./10 ft. (20 ft. with tail)
Special Attacks: Death roll (3d6+21), improved grab
Special Qualities: Damage reduction 3/–, hold breath, low-light vision, 60 ft. ripplesense
Saves: Fort +20, Ref +13, Will +13
Abilities: Str 39, Dex 12, Con 27, Int 1, Wis 12, Cha 6
Skills: Hide +9* [+13 in water, +23 when mostly submerged], Listen +8, Spot +8, Survival +2, Swim +22
Feats: Alertness, Cleave, Endurance, Improved Critical (bite), Power Attack, Skill Focus (Hide), Weapon Focus (bite)
Epic Feat: Damage Reduction
Environment: Warm marshes
Organization: Solitary or colony (6–11)
Challenge Rating: 9
Advancement: 22–42 HD (Huge); 43-63 HD (Gargantuan)
Level Adjustment: —