Dinosaur stats?

[king_ghidorah]

I want dinosaurs in a setting I am working on. Is there a good supplement that has plenty o' dinos to supplement the measley handful in the MM?

Thanks!

Doug

 

[PrinceZane]

Hmm... all I have is the MM... but you could always give a T-Rex some levels in Barb to make up for the measley part. A T-Rex raging would be rather interesting

 

[Garnfellow]

I want dinosaurs in a setting I am working on. Is there a good supplement that has plenty o' dinos to supplement the measley handful in the MM?

Thanks!

Doug

MMII adds several more, and there's a Dragon issue with a bunch of dinos.

Unfortunately, I think D&D really took a wrong turn with design on dinos by statting out individual species rather than statting larger dino groups. So we might have large numbers of dinosaurs but relatively little diversity. In game terms, what's the big difference between an allosaurus and a t-rex? Why not have a generic "carnosaur" entry and let the advancement line take care of individual species. We don't have separate entries for monstrous tarantulas, black widows, or brown recluses -- just monstrous spiders (hunting or web-spinning).

 

[Shariell]

If you want a campaing that feels like "jurassic park", maybe the only way yo go is adding class levels to certain dinosaurs. "as is" they're largely underpowered as primary enemies.

To spiece-up the dynos, you can add template on them, something like "two headed creature" or the celestial/fiendish, axiomatic/anarchic, pseudonatural (the non-epic one in CA and TaB).

 

[king_ghidorah]

MMII adds several more, and there's a Dragon issue with a bunch of dinos.

Unfortunately, I think D&D really took a wrong turn with design on dinos by statting out individual species rather than statting larger dino groups. So we might have large numbers of dinosaurs but relatively little diversity. In game terms, what's the big difference between an allosaurus and a t-rex? Why not have a generic "carnosaur" entry and let the advancement line take care of individual species. We don't have separate entries for monstrous tarantulas, black widows, or brown recluses -- just monstrous spiders (hunting or web-spinning).

MMII, eh? Because the MM doesn't really stat out much, which is the proble. I would love generic ceratopsians, pterosaurs, carnosaurs, etc. But I get nothin', especially compared to the old days of the MM 1st edition.

 

[king_ghidorah]

If you want a campaing that feels like "jurassic park", maybe the only way yo go is adding class levels to certain dinosaurs. "as is" they're largely underpowered as primary enemies.

To spiece-up the dynos, you can add template on them, something like "two headed creature" or the celestial/fiendish, axiomatic/anarchic, pseudonatural (the non-epic one in CA and TaB).

Looking for more, not stronger.

 

[Shariell]

Looking for more, not stronger.

In that case, common sense is the way to go.
Search the internet for a website related to this argument, check out the 3 dinosaurs era and search for a descriptions of the various dinosaurs races.
Take the races of the MM as basis, then, with common sense you can apply "ad hoc" variations to the stats according to the dinosaurs descriptions (I mean for example: allosaurus, from jurassic era, is very similar to a T-Rex, but he can be maybe more dexterous, 1 size smaller, and can rely on superior arts not only for stending up from prone position. Of course, his attacks can cause less damage then the T-Rex).

The same common sense you can apply to Diplodocus-Brachiosaurus and the velociraptor-deynonicus and so on.
The key is to have a detailed descriptions of each race you wont to introduce in your game...the stats are secondary and very very easy to make.

Hope this help!
ByE!

 

[king_ghidorah]

In that case, common sense is the way to go.
Search the internet for a website related to this argument, check out the 3 dinosaurs era and search for a descriptions of the various dinosaurs races.
Take the races of the MM as basis, then, with common sense you can apply "ad hoc" variations to the stats according to the dinosaurs descriptions (I mean for example: allosaurus, from jurassic era, is very similar to a T-Rex, but he can be maybe more dexterous, 1 size smaller, and can rely on superior arts not only for stending up from prone position. Of course, his attacks can cause less damage then the T-Rex).

The same common sense you can apply to Diplodocus-Brachiosaurus and the velociraptor-deynonicus and so on.
The key is to have a detailed descriptions of each race you wont to introduce in your game...the stats are secondary and very very easy to make.

Hope this help!
ByE!

Between the referral to MMII and this it helps some. With MMII to give me some more basics than velociraptors (large and small), a large carnosaur, and a ceratopsian as examples, I think I can build what I want.

Thanks, everyone!

 

[sukael]

There are some (entirely made up, IIRC) dinosaurs in MMIII.

 

[Tonguez]

go to the Creature Catalogue/Homebrew Monsters board right here at Enworld there are a whole heap of dinosaur threads there

or just adjust the dinosaur stats in the MM (eg the Deinonychus stats probably fit a Utahraptor better (the MM says they weigh 600lbs) a true Deinonychus only weighed 175 pounds (and a velociraptor would be a small (rather than medium) version))