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You get 5 extra feet of reach and can use bigger weapons, so you've already got the potential to deal far more damage. Not to mention you're twice as good as a human at all those size-based tricks (grappling, tripping, knockin' doors down, etc.) In short, it's not all stats. Often stats are the...

I wholeheartedly agree; I think I remember reading a Monte Cook article about this once. Case-by-case ruling is the best it's going to be with the current system. There's still going to be a theoretical animal that is on the cusp of animal and vermin and will defy D&D "taxonomy." I guess it...

This is actually a very interesting thought. Personally, I wouldn't grant more than 3-4 Intelligence, and then only for dolphins and higher primates, if I was motivated by realism alone. (The animals capable of learning human language.) I do agree - what's best for campaign-specific...

True, the rules-as-written are, and always will be, just that. But that's why I'm in the house rules section. I want to find a explaination for an explicit rule that is otherwise poorly explained and ultimately arbitrary. In other words, any compelling reason to keep the rule as it is. What does...

All true. The D&D universe is certainly not goverend by science as we know it, and it would be silly to suggest otherwise. However, there is still an underlying and unwritten rule that unless a phenomenon is explained outright as a magical, divine, planar, elemental, supernatural, psionic, or...

Very clever. But as I said before, campaign-specific details should be the exception, not the rule.

This is why I mentioned game balance. Humans are distinct from animals on matters of game balance, and that's it. They came from a common ancestor - and unless a distinct set of critera can be listed that would classify that ancestor as either animal or vermin, the two types must be one and the...

I like some of your changes. A couple questions & comments: The ranger still seems to get the short end of the stick. The biggest benefit seems to be the increased level of animal companion, which is now druid level. I would suggest letting Danger Sense increase all 3 at every 3 levels; it's...

None of the monstrous vermin I've seen in artwork or media look exactly like smaller vermin either. They always have exaggerated claws, giant mandibles, rougher-textured exoskeletons. Though none of this is relevent to vermin's deserved status as animals. You mean a 1/8th level party? There is...

What are you talking about? Wasps? No, regular wasps won't be dealing actual damage to humanoids. But giant wasps will. Monstrous/giant vermin are essentially as realistic as dire animals. Animals can indeed make up swarms. Check out the swarms of bats and rats. How animals and vermin grow to...

Extra HD makes them significantly stronger, increasing their BAB and base saves. Multiple Toughness gives them a few extra hit points. The point itsn't to give them a combat advantage, it's to use up all those extra feats.

"Dire Raptor." I like that. It's exactly what people want to hear when raptors come tearing through the trees.

Communication is a cognitive feature that many full-blown D&D animals lack. Hoho, now that you mention it... Naw, I won't go there. Separation of the two is more necessary from a balance perspective. But the two (animals and humanoids) are about as different from each other, stat-wise, as...

This caught my attention. In order to complete its full attack action against a grappled (or any other) opponent, even with Improved Grab and Pounce, the Deinonychus would have to make its grapple check at -20 to hold the opponent while not being considered grappled itself. Otherwise, as soon as...

Thanks. : ) I'll admit one of the bigger motivations for my change was to reduce them to 4th level animal companions. By the time I get to 7th level I'd be wanting a tiger or grizzly. (Or their prehistoric equivalents as they case may be.) If people wanted something more like JP raptors, I'd...

Bookkeeping refers a) to the amount you have to change from what's in the core books, abd b) how "spread out" that material is. It's not just changing specific mechanics, like jumping for example, it's changing something at the very core of the game, making you go through and tweak/re-check...

I just looked this over. Some okay ideas, but then they're stretched out into completely new and complex mechanics that require unworkable amounts of bookkeeping. For example, I always thought there should be an option for a character with good hand-eye and aim, but poor agility; and vice...

It isn't a balance issue, so there's no reason to disallow it. As it stands it's just a meaningless limitation of having a "vermin" type. Vermin aren't mindless, the way zombies and golems are mindless. They're just incredibly stupid, basal animals. So are sharks and snakes.

Vermin also includes worms and some mollusks. As I stated above, cephalopods (octopuses) are animals yet gastropods (snails) are vermin - where is the dividing factor? Ants use pheromones for more than just reproduction. Different scents trigger compulsory instincts - "follow", "alert", etc...

I'd been giving a lot of thought to changing the dromaeosaurs in the MM for a while. I'm glad I found this thread. Personally I think 4 HD is kind of steep. It's almost lion HD, and left over from when they were Large (pre-errata). Maybe 3 HD - comparable in size (and threat posed) to a...