Animals?

[Hawkeye]

Attacks by normal animals has always been a staple of D&D, but it seems in 4th edition, that ordinary animals don't ever attack anything, unless you are a gray wolf or a horse. Have I missed anything that might have some stats for just general, run of the mill animals?

Hawkeye

 

[Klaus]

Attacks by normal animals has always been a staple of D&D, but it seems in 4th edition, that ordinary animals don't ever attack anything, unless you are a gray wolf or a horse. Have I missed anything that might have some stats for just general, run of the mill animals?

Hawkeye

These are being spread out over the MMs. MM1 had Bear, Boar, Horse, Wolf, Rat and Panther. IIRC, MM2 will have Tiger. Adventurer's Vault has Camel.

 

[Jack99]

Else I can recommend Critter Cache - Animals and beasts by Blackdirge (PDF), it sorta fills in the blanks.

 

[Hawkeye]

These are being spread out over the MMs. MM1 had Bear, Boar, Horse, Wolf, Rat and Panther. IIRC, MM2 will have Tiger. Adventurer's Vault has Camel.

You need to look at those entries closer. There is no black bear or grizzly bear, but cave bear or dire bear. There isn't a regualr boar, as there was previously, but dire boars and thunderfury boars. The panther entry has fey panther and shadow panter, but nothing for a regular, normal panther. The rat section talks about giant rats and dire rats and a rat swarm, but othing about a regular rat. The snake section doesn't even have anything that would be close to a normal constrictor or pit viper. The only two animals that are detailed in normal are the wolf and horse and I already mentioned that. Those are the things that are missing and have always been a part of previous editions. I think it's a bit silly to space it out among multiple editions of the MM.

Hawkeye

 

[Dalzig]

Personally, ever since I've slaughtered a Dragon, a little pansy snake or badger never seemed too dangerous...

 

[Hawkeye]

Else I can recommend Critter Cache - Animals and beasts by Blackdirge (PDF), it sorta fills in the blanks.

I can find one of that title by Goodman games, but not Blackdirge. Is teh Goodman games the correct one?

Hawkeye

 

[Hawkeye]

Personally, ever since I've slaughtered a Dragon, a little pansy snake or badger never seemed too dangerous...

Yes, but if you want to convert over some old classic modules that had an ordinary, but dangerous pit viper that attacks that party unexpectedly, using 5th level Deathrattle Viper on a group of 1st level characters is a bit much to me and the level 9 Crushgrip constrictor is really way overboard. I would like to have seen some rules on converting things over or how to scale the power of "monsters" a bit more. That's something that has never been my forte'. I want to challenge players, but not make fighting a normal animal so hard that it feels like they have been battling a dragon.

Hawkeye

 

[Siberys]

I can find one of that title by Goodman games, but not Blackdirge. Is teh Goodman games the correct one?

Hawkeye

Yeah. Blackdirge published it under Goodman. Take a look at the author.

I highly recommend the whole series. Much coolness resides there.

 

[Hawkeye]

Yeah. Blackdirge published it under Goodman. Take a look at the author.

I highly recommend the whole series. Much coolness resides there.

Thanks for that information. I'll check into that.

Hawkeye

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

It would have been nice if they had provided some MM stats for a couple more mundane animals, especially things like snakes. There are some places you can garner stats for some things though. Bag of Tricks has some basically mundane animals, as do the Figurines of Wondrous Power, and AV also has a pretty decent selection of mounts. I guess you could pretty much utilize some of the beast companion stat blocks from MP too.

The riding horse stat block will do for other similar animals, deer, stuff like that. Maybe just reskin the attack as a butt or bite. Warhorse will work for somewhat bigger herbivores.

Not as nice as just having them in MM, but given the HUGE array of monsters that have been published over the years, and some desire to create a few new ones I think they were just hard pressed to find the space for everything.