Creature Catalogue Overhaul Project Revisited

[Cleon]

Updated. Finished?

"A kupuk is 6 feet long and stands 3 feet tall at the shoulder, and weighs 400 pounds" looks a bit clumsy to me, I'd prefer "A kupuk is 6 feet long, stands 3 feet tall at the shoulder, and weighs 400 pounds" although the former does the job just as well.

Freyar and I'd agreed the carrying capacity should be "A light load for a kupuk is up to 114 pounds; a medium load, 115–230 pounds; and a heavy load, 231–345 pounds."

Oh, and you might as well get rid of the Hgaun you pasted in, although that might just be me.

 

[Shade]

Oh, and you might as well get rid of the Hgaun you pasted in, although that might just be me.

Wow...how'd I do that?

I also noticed we're missing the usual swim speed bit in Skills.

Fixed.

 

[freyar]

Nothing obvious missing, so let's tackle the next one.

 

[Shade]

Creature Catalog - Preview Creature

Tirichik
Climate: Arctic (Great Glacier)
Freq: Very Rare
Org: Solitary
Active Time: Any
Diet: Carnivore
Int: Semi (2-4)
Treas: Nil
AL: CE
No Appearing: 1
AC: 1
MV: 12, Br 3
HD 13
THAC0: 7
No Attacks: 1 or 2
Dmg: 3-24 or 1-8/1-8
SA: see below
SD: see below
MR: see below
SZ: G (30’ long)
ML: 16
XP: 5000

Vicious, stealthy, and with an insatiable appetite for human flesh, the tirichik is one of the most feared predators in the Great Glacier.

The tirichik resembles a cross between a dragon and an immense centipede. Both its dragon-like head and long, tubular body are covered with white scales.

Combat: The tirichik prefers to ambush its prey by lurking inside a crevasse, hiding among hills of snow, or otherwise concealing itself. Its tentacles enable it to sense prey up to 100 yards away. When the prey approaches, the tirichik reveals itself, scuttling from its crevasse or charging from the snow. Because of the tirichik’s color and stealth, opponents suffer a –5 penalty to their surprise roll if encountering a concealed tirichik.

When prey is scarce, the tirichik goes hunting. It uses its tentacles to probe into caves, beneath rocks, and even under the doors of houses to look for food. When it locates something to eat, it strikes,lunging into the cave or battering down the door to commence its attacks.

The tirichik has special elastic tendons in its neck that allow it to temporarily detach its skull from its spinal column. The creature can strike like snake by suddenly elongating its neck, stretching itself an additional 5 feet. When making a stretch attack, the tirichik gains a +2 bonus to attack. It is unable to make any attacks in the following round as it must spend that round withdrawing its neck and re-attaching its skull to its spinal column. Therefore, the tirichik can make a stretching attack only once every other round.

Instead of a bite, the tirichik can also use its tentacles, tipped with needle-sharp points, to attack, thrusting them like daggers up to 20 feet. The tentacles have an AC of 1, but because the tentacles constantly wave and writhe, attacks directed against the tentacles are made at a –2 penalty. If a tentacle suffers 5 points of damage (this damage is in addition to the tirichik’s normal number of hit points), it is severed. The tirichik grows a new tentacle in about a month.

The tirichik suffers no ill effects from cold temperatures, and is also immune to all cold-based spells and magically-generated cold, including white dragon’s breath.

 

[freyar]

Another beast. I could see magical beast or aberration for this one, since it's a bit strange. I guess I favor magical beast somewhat.

 

[Cleon]

Wow...how'd I do that?

Copy and paste is not always our friend.

I also noticed we're missing the usual swim speed bit in Skills.

Fixed.

Looks fine to me.

 

[Cleon]

Another beast. I could see magical beast or aberration for this one, since it's a bit strange. I guess I favor magical beast somewhat.

They're certain weird enough to be Aberrations. The centipede-dragon bit is odd enough, but what about detaching their skulls from their spinal column! Surely that would kill a creature with a normal anatomy?

I'm leaning toward Aberration but I'm not that strongly attached to it.

Guess it's up to Shade to cast the deciding lot.

 

[Cleon]

They're certain weird enough to be Aberrations. The centipede-dragon bit is odd enough, but what about detaching their skulls from their spinal column! Surely that would kill a creature with a normal anatomy?

I'm leaning toward Aberration but I'm not that strongly attached to it.

Guess it's up to Shade to cast the deciding lot.

After some more consideration, I think I'll change my lot to Magical Beast.

My initial impression was of some kind of octopus-dragon-centipede chimera who can separate its head from its spinal cord, but upon closer reading it's basically a long dragon-headed lizard with lots of legs, a pair of tentacles and a stretchy neck.

That sounds like it looks a lot like a Behir - indeed they might be related to Behirs - so it could easily fall within the Magical Beast type.

After all, Displacer Cats are vertebrates with tentacles and they're not Aberrations!

So, shall we say Huge Magical Beast with immunity to cold? I don't think they have the Cold subtype, as they are not vulnerable to fire.

A Behir is a Huge Magical Beast and is 40 foot long, with 12 HD.

Tiricheks are 30 feet long but have 13 HD. Maybe they're shorter and wider but weigh the same, as an adaptation to the cold?

Shall we use a Behir's ability scores as a foundation?

AD&D Tiricheks have an AC 3 better than an AD&D Behir, but only 1 better than the equivalent AC of the SRD Behir. I'd give its natural armour bonus a +3 boost.

Tiricheks are also dumber than Behirs, being Semi-Intelligent.

So something like this:

Tirichek
Size/Type: Huge Magical Beast
Hit Dice: 13d10+65 (136 hp)
Initiative: +1
Speed: 30 ft. (6 squares), burrow 10 ft.
Armor Class: 23 (-2 size, +1 Dex, +14 natural), touch 9, flat-footed 22
Base Attack/Grapple: +13/+29
Attack: Bite +19 melee (3d8+8) or tentacle +19 melee (1d8+8)
Full Attack: Bite +19 melee (3d8+8) and 2 tentacles +14 melee (1d8+4)
Space/Reach: 15 ft./10 ft. (20 ft. with tentacle or neck-stretch)
Special Attacks: Neck-stretch
Special Qualities: Can't be tripped, darkvision 60 ft., immunity to cold, low-light vision, scent, [blindsense or tremorsense with tentacles?]
Saves: Fort +13, Ref +9, Will +6
Abilities: Str 26, Dex 13, Con 21, Int 3, Wis 14, Cha 12
Skills: ?
Feats: Alertness, Cleave, Power Attack, Track +1? [if we use Behir's feats]
Environment: Any cold?
Organization: Solitary
Challenge Rating: 8? [more HD than a Behir but lacks its special attacks]
Treasure: None
Alignment: Usually chaotic evil?
Advancement: 14-? HD (Huge); ?-? HD (Gargantuan)
Level Adjustment: —

 

[freyar]

Magical beast based on the behir is nicely flavored!

I don't think the tentacles have blindsense or tremorsense, just feeling around in the dark. Let's revisit the feats when we've got the neck-stretch worked out.

 

[Shade]

Added to Homebrews.

Because of the tirichik’s color and stealth, opponents suffer a –5 penalty to their surprise roll if encountering a concealed tirichik.

Borrow this?

Skills: *A frost worm, due to its coloration and its affinity for burying itself in the snow, has a +10 racial bonus on Hide checks in its native environment.

When prey is scarce, the tirichik goes hunting. It uses its tentacles to probe into caves, beneath rocks, and even under the doors of houses to look for food. When it locates something to eat, it strikes,lunging into the cave or battering down the door to commence its attacks.

Instead of a bite, the tirichik can also use its tentacles, tipped with needle-sharp points, to attack, thrusting them like daggers up to 20 feet. The tentacles have an AC of 1, but because the tentacles constantly wave and writhe, attacks directed against the tentacles are made at a –2 penalty. If a tentacle suffers 5 points of damage (this damage is in addition to the tirichik’s normal number of hit points), it is severed. The tirichik grows a new tentacle in about a month.

Should we make the tentacles attack function as if the targets had concealment, since it is blindly fumbling?

The tirichik has special elastic tendons in its neck that allow it to temporarily detach its skull from its spinal column. The creature can strike like snake by suddenly elongating its neck, stretching itself an additional 5 feet. When making a stretch attack, the tirichik gains a +2 bonus to attack. It is unable to make any attacks in the following round as it must spend that round withdrawing its neck and re-attaching its skull to its spinal column. Therefore, the tirichik can make a stretching attack only once every other round.

I like the original writeup's name for the ability: "Elongate".

The additional reach is easy. Rather than give it a flat +2 bonus, why don't we treat it as a charge? Perhaps it catches its opponent flat-footed? Since it can stretch, maybe it can bypass some degree of cover?