Converting the Cath Shee

I promised to convert this for someone awhile back, and just missed its opportunity yet again when I began a three-creature run of linnorms in the Monstrous Compendium thread.

So in order to right this wrong, and not derail that thread (like when I jumped to the rainbow dragon before the swamp dragon in the true dragons thread), this is a special conversion thread.

Cat, Great - Cath Shee

Climate/Terrain: Forests
Freq: Rare
Org: Solitary
Activity Cycle: Any
Diet: Carnivore
Intelligence: Low (6)
Tresure: Nil
Alignment: Chaotic neutral (good)
# Appearing: 1
AC: 4
Movement: 18
Hit Dice: 4 + 3
THAC0: 15
# Attacks: 3
Damage: 1d6/1d6/1d8
SA: Surpise, rear claw rake, frenzy
SD: Teleport
Magic Resistance: 10%
Size: M (4' at shoulder)
Morale: Champion (15)
XP: 975

The cath shee, or faerie cat, is a large, greenish-gray feline about the size of a mountain lion, with large tufted ears and wide golden eyes. They can weigh as much as 400 pounds. Cath shee are clever and independent, but sometimes can be persuaded to become a companion to a wood elf or high elf.

Combat: Normally, cath shee are solitary creatures and highly efficient predators. An inborn natural ability enables cath shee to teleport without error instantly, up 10 100 yards. This ability is used to escape from enemies and to attack prey. They are naturally somewhat magic-resistant (10%).

Cath shee are ferocious fighters, and often lie in wait for prey, then use their teleport ability to attack with complete surprise. If both a cath shee's claws strike, it will then rake with its back legs, hitting automatically and inflciting 2d6 points of damage.

While normally solitary and relatively unsocial, mated cath shee pairs will fight furiously for each other, and for their offspring if they are threatened. If a cath shee's mate or litter is threatened, it will go into a frenzy, attacking at +4 to hit and damage and never checking morale.

Habitat/Society: Once, cath shee were found in relative abundance, but today are found only in sylvan lands.

They are solitary creatures, associating with each other only in spring during mating. They remain together in mated pairs through the summer if kits are born. For the rest of the year, cath shee tend to keep to themselves, staking out territories as large as several square miles in area, and defending them, even against others of their own kind.

Cath shee sometimes consent to serve as companions (never pets) to wood or high elves. An elf who wishes to approach a cath shee must get a reaction of "friendly" (use the "Threatening" column of the Encounter Reaction Table in Chapter 11 of the DMG, applying any Charisma modifications). Every six months, another check (this time on the "Friendly" column) is required, or the cath shee will leave.

Ecology: Cath shee are highly efficient carnivores, preying on other mammals, primarily rabbits and small rodents. Their natural teleportation abilities help make sure that a cath shee's prey rarely escapes.

There are many legends about cath shee in elven society. Some claim that cath shee were created by Corellon Larethian to serve as companions to the elves.

In the Forgotten Realms setting, the elves of Evermeet believe that cath shee are reincarnated elves who have been sent back to Toril by the Seldarine to defend the elven nations, or to atone for misdeeds in their previous lives.

Source: Monstrous Manual.

Cath Shee
Medium Magical Beast
Hit Dice: 4d10+x (x hp)
Initiative: +x
Speed: 50 ft. (10 squares)
Armor Class: x (+2 size, +3 Dex, +1 natural), touch x, flat-footed x
Base Attack/Grapple: +4/+x
Attack: Bite +x melee (x+x)
Full Attack: Bite +x melee (x+x) and 2 claws +x melee (x+x)
Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks: Frenzy, rake xdx+x, spell-like abilities (greater teleport)
Special Qualities: Darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision, scent, spell resistance x
Saves: Fort +x, Ref +x, Will +x
Abilities: Str x, Dex x, Con x, Int x, Wis x, Cha x
Skills: x
Feats: 2
Environment: Any forest
Organization: Solitary, pair, or family (mated pair plus x kittens)
Challenge Rating: x
Treasure: None
Alignment: Usually chaotic neutral or chaotic good
Advancement: x
Level Adjustment: -

Lots of fun little tid-bits on this one.

Frenzy: give it a penalty after it ends like a barbarian's rage, or not?

Hmmm...the wolverine doesn't suffer penalties after its rage...

Rage (Ex): A wolverine that takes damage in combat flies into a berserk rage on its next turn, clawing and biting madly until either it or its opponent is dead. It gains +4 to Strength, +4 to Constitution, and –2 to Armor Class. The creature cannot end its rage voluntarily.

For ability scores, we could probably use the leopard's physical scores as a starting point, since they are "about the size of a mountain lion" and leopard statistics "can describe any feline of similar size, such as jaguars, panthers, and mountain lions".

This all sounds good to me. Rather than greater teleport for the SLA, I'd make it dimension door, enhanced as per the blink dog:

SRD said:

Dimension Door (Su): A blink dog can teleport, as dimension door (caster level 8th), once per round as a free action. The ability affects only the blink dog, which never appears within a solid object and can act immediately after teleporting.

Click to expand...

Greater Teleport seems to have too long of a range.

I guess it should also have Pounce?

Good suggestion on D Door. We'll go with that.

Pounce makes sense, too. In fact, I think most of the leopard's abilities are relevant...

Improved Grab (Ex): To use this ability, a leopard 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 rake.

Pounce (Ex): If a leopard charges a foe, it can make a full attack, including two rake attacks.

Rake (Ex): Attack bonus +6 melee, damage 1d3+1.

Pounce, Imp Grab, Rake all look good.

The AC shouldn't have +2 for size, but maybe better natural armor would be ok.

I'd give it Track as a bonus feat and Alertness as one of the two regular feats.

Do we want to get into the Handle Animal checks for the cath shee companion flavor text bit?

Oops. That AC bit was a cut n' paste error. Thanks.

Not a bad idea on feats.

As for Handle Animal, perhaps we should follow standard rules for magical beasts, but give elves a bonus or raise the DC for non-elves?

Added to Homebrews.

Shade said:

As for Handle Animal, perhaps we should follow standard rules for magical beasts, but give elves a bonus or raise the DC for non-elves?

Click to expand...

Let's penalize non-elves, since the flavor makes it seem mostly impossible for non-elves to get one of these as a companion/cohort. (Just out of curiosity, would you need leadership or something like that to get one of these as a friend? I'm just never sure how that should work.)