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

sabrinathecat · May 6, 2013

Giant Space Hamsters!
And the the DMs that insist on using them. (hmmm--maybe I should look out for large shadows more often)

Failing that, sheep. Goats. Gnomes. Remorhaz. Disney Corp Executives.

Mike Myler · May 6, 2013

Rocs are awfully big and can fly.
You can be as tough as you want, falling 100 feet without wings or a spell will probably do you in.
So I think Rocs eat whatever Rocs want to eat.

Cleon · May 6, 2013

Mike Myler said:
Rocs are awfully big and can fly.
You can be as tough as you want, falling 100 feet without wings or a spell will probably do you in.
So I think Rocs eat whatever Rocs want to eat.

That's only 10d6 falling damage. Any creature worthy of being called tough would just dust themselves off and walk away after a 100 foot fall.

Mike Myler · May 6, 2013

Cleon said:
That's only 10d6 falling damage. Any creature worthy of being called tough would just dust themselves off and walk away after a 100 foot fall.

Maybe the first few times, but I've known a couple very tenacious Rocs!

Dannyalcatraz · May 6, 2013

Giant Space Hamsters!

Like, totally!

Nigh Invulnerable · May 6, 2013

Gfreak2x9 said:
"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.

A lot of the responses have been somewhat less than serious, however. Seriously though, most raptor types tend to eat smaller mammal critters, such as rodents, or fish (in the case of larger raptors). I'd extrapolate that with the Roc based on whatever creatures live in their home region. If there are a lot of cattle due to humanoid settlements, they're probably prime targets, until the humanoids fight back. Otherwise, deer, wild oxen/aurochs, antelope, and other similar creatures kind of fit (in my mind). If the roc has access to water, fresh or salt, throw some large fish into the diet. There are some frighteningly huge catfish in the real world.

Cleon · May 6, 2013

Gfreak2x9 said:
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

Come to think of it, we could reverse-calculate from the territory size to guesstimate how much meat the Rocs need.

An adult lion needs roughly 10-15 pounds of meat per day. If a Roc nest is surrounded by a 10-mile radius territory large enough to support approximately a hundred lions, that means 1000-1500 pounds of meat, which is roughly a large horse or a bison a day, with an elephant being enough to last a week.

An AD&D Roc nest contains 1d4+1 hatchlings, so that's an average of 5.5 birds per "occupied" nest, which averages out to 200-300 pounds of meat per bird per day. That matches pretty well to the "An adult roc needs at least 200 pounds of meat every day, just to survive. It will eat twice that much if it can" of the Athasian Roc in MC12.

Dannyalcatraz · May 6, 2013

There are some frighteningly huge catfish in the real world.

I can think of at least 5 species- one in India, one in other parts of southeast Asia, one in Europe, and two in the Amazon- that hit 10-13 feet in length, 400-700lbs. The ones in the Amazon have been confirmed to have killed at least one human, and all are suspected in the disappearances of many fishermen from boats, as well as people and animals who were wading. There are also well-documented non-fatal and nearly fatal attacks on humans.

Partof this is because aggressive, predatory catfish can take and eat prey nearly their own size. I got to see an example of that in a pet store: someone made a mistake and put some beautiful but inexpensive silver catfish in a tank with very expensive arowanas that were about the same size.

A few hours later, they had a tank full of well-fed catfish.

Dioltach · May 6, 2013

I'd give 1000 gp to see a Roc go after a herd of Thri-kreen!

Electric Wizard · May 6, 2013

The only time I used a roc, it was carrying a small whale in its talons. The players crapped themselves and ran away.

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

sabrinathecat

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Mike Myler

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Cleon

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Mike Myler

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Dannyalcatraz

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Nigh Invulnerable

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Cleon

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Dannyalcatraz

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Dioltach

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Electric Wizard

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