Has Anyone Statted the Tatzelwurm?

Samloyal23

Samloyal23

Adventurer
A creature from Swiss folklore, part cat, part snake. I found this on Wikipedia:

In Alpine folklore, the Tatzelwurm is a stubby, lizard-like creature. It takes the appearance of a cat with the hind-end of a serpent with no hind legs. It is rumored to live in several areas of Europe, including the Austrian, Bavarian, Italian and Swiss Alps. It has several regional names including Stollenwurm, Springwurm, Arassas and Praatzelwurm. In 1934 a Swiss photographer named Balkin allegedly saw a strange creature near a log and photographed it. The resulting interest in the creature inspired the Berliner Illustrierte to sponsor an expedition in search of the Tatzelwurm, but the expedition was a failure and interest quickly faded. Some scientists and cryptozoologists agree that the 1934 Tatzelwurm photograph was a hoax, but reports of Tatzelwurm sightings have continued to the present day, and German cryptozoological researcher Ulrich Magin has published several articles in Fortean Times and his own magazine Bilk documenting them.
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Is there anything like this in the game? I do not recall seeing it in any 3.X games...
 

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N

N'raac

First Post
Looks like replacing the dragon's head with a cat's and making the creature quite a bit smaller would work. Or starting with the stats for a cat and a snake and assessing which traits to retain - cat attacks with can't be tripped probably does the trick. Is it supposed to be venomous? I suspect not - are there a lot of venomous snakes in Alpine regions? It seems like an oddball small animal which would not be much of a threat - no more than, say, a wildcat or a small snake (even including poison), which may be why no one had been really motivated to write it up.
 

Samloyal23

Samloyal23

Adventurer
This is a creature from actual European folklore, which to me is always more satisfying to use than just modern fantasy fiction as the basis of a campaign. Mechanically, the stats look fine, the description just makes it sound more draconic, instead of going with the original mythical appearance...
 

N

N'raac

First Post
I think the referenced stats are intended to a draconic creature rather than the folklore creature. If you like the stats, change the head and claws to a cat, maybe sub in some cat-like abilities (claw and bite damage; a Pounce?) and get rid of the poisonous breath weapon. It could be venomous, but I saw nothing on poison in the Wiki writeup - is there something in the broader legends?
 



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