Pathfinder 1E What the heck do Roc eat???

[Wiseblood]

They would be an apex predator eating everything. Dragons, Giants, kraken small-ish whales, sharks, crocodiles, large herbivores and so on. Do the game's mechanics support this....no, but heck the game also thinks a greatsword weighs 20lbs and a two bladed sword weighs 30lbs. So really, who cares what the rules think? An 8,000 pound raptor crashes into it's prey at high speed with talons like swords it's probably curtains. Also, they don't have to carry their food off. Sometims they dine right there where the prey was terminated. It would be a short list of creatures that could even get it to leave and most of them would just as likely leave it be. If you think of the fantasy world in real world terms a roc would be nigh upon fearless.

 

[Nigh Invulnerable]

Whatever they damn well please.

And it will vary a bit by region. Rocs near major waterways or bodies of water may be able to pluck things like sharks or juvenile whales- or even baby dragon turtles- from the surface.

...dragon turtles they would have to drop from on high to crack the shells...

(look out below!)

That was exactly my thought, "The Roc is an ENORMOUS bird of prey....they eat whatever they want, duh!"

OT: Birds of prey basically eat anything smaller and weaker than them, so just have them eat whatever you want. Seems like an odd question to pose to the forum to me.

 

[Gfreak2x9]

Thank you all for the feedback! It helped me out allot!

 

[Weather Report]

The early bird, as they say...

Ha, you're on fire in this thread.

 

[Gfreak2x9]

Hey everyone, I have more questions for all of you. How long would you say the mated pair would remain in the region? Are Roc known for staying in one area? Just how long does it take the female to lay and hatch the egg? And after the egg is hatched how long will it be until the hatchling is ready to go off on its own?

 

[Gfreak2x9]

"They eat whatever the want DUH!...Seems an odd question to post to a forum"


Well you see its not a matter of what they CAN eat, they CAN eat just about anything! But the point I was getting at was given the environment what would they WANT to eat? What would they prefer to eat? What would they desire most? However you wish to word it. I don't have purple worms around, and I'm not going to say "They eat <insert animal here>" without some factual basis to back it up. I myself prefer to have some rhyme and reason to it all, rather than just saying "I'm the DM they eat whatever I say!" I find that having a factual basis to back it all up also adds to the immersion factor of role playing. Not to mention whatever they would choose to eat would have a massive impact on the environment. Lets say they attack a town. Well I feel sorry for the poor SOB who lives in that place! Quite a way to wake up in the morning, a nice cup of coffee and a pair Roc killing half your population. There are four pages of responses on this thread no offense but it doesn't seem like an odd question to me given the in depth responses it has received.

 

[MichaelSomething]

The early Roc gets the purple worm?

 

[Empirate]

The early Roc gets the purple worm?

See also:

The early bird, as they say...

 

[Cleon]

Hey everyone, I have more questions for all of you. How long would you say the mated pair would remain in the region? Are Roc known for staying in one area? Just how long does it take the female to lay and hatch the egg? And after the egg is hatched how long will it be until the hatchling is ready to go off on its own?

According to the Monstrous Manual, Rocs are territorial and have large hunting ground, which requires their nests to be at least 20 miles apart.

The Zakharan Common Roc in Land of Fate, which has the same stats as a standard Monstrous Manual Roc, has a "A typical roc territory is a circle with a 10- mile radius, placing at least 20 miles between two nests" and also says "After six months in the nest, a roc has grown enough to leave it, and the roc gains the combat statistics of an adult."

Six months? That's frighteningly fast!

A 10-mile radius circle is roughly 315 square miles (815 square kilometers). That's enough territory to support a hundred lions or more*, so it ought to be enough for a couple of adult Rocs and their young.

*Lions tend to have population densities from 1.5 to 55 lions per 100 square kms, so I reckon a fairly fertile area that size should be able to feed 100+ lions.

The Athasian Roc in Monstrous Compendium 12 - Dark Sun Appendix: Terrors of the Desert is 5/6th the size of a standard Roc but seems pretty similar. According to that creature's Becoming a Roc-Rider section, "The incubation period for a roc egg is three months" and the Roc fledges and is ready to fly after a year, although it can fight at only six months of age.

I'd be inclined to use something like:

1. three months incubation
2. Another three months to fledge and leave the nest (six month in total - explaining why there's a 50/50 chance of eggs or young in the nest).
3. Another three months after fledging before they're independent from their parents (e.g. 9 months in total, 6 month after egg hatches).
4. Another six months to reach full size (15 months in total, or 1 year after hatching).

That's only slightly slower than a large raptor like a golden eagle takes to grow. Clearly, Rocs grow terrifyingly fast for a creature their size.

 

[Gfreak2x9]

That's only slightly slower than a large raptor like a golden eagle takes to grow. Clearly, Rocs grow terrifyingly fast for a creature their size.

Thank you very much for replying with such an extensive answer, and yes that is an astonishing rate of growth! I am amazing something so large nests for such a short time! Talk about growing pains