Re: Because you asked so nicely ...
Michelle_Nephew said:
Skills: Dracoticks receive a +3 racial bonus to Climb, Hide, Jump, and Move Silently checks. These bonuses are figured into the dracotick’s skill totals. In addition, they also receive a +5 racial bonus to Hide checks if they are hiding on the body of a dragon-host.
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The name, stats, and special abilities of the dracotick, as well as the dracotick familiars section, are open game content released under the open game license. See www.opengamingfoundation.org/ogl.html for the full text of the license. The Penumbra Fantasy Bestiary is copyright 2002 Trident, Inc. d/b/a Atlas Games; author Darren Miguez.
Hello Scott!
By the way, I'm Darren Miguez, the author of the dracotick. Thank you for the scrutiny! It really helps get the nuances of the monster rules down.
The above is located in a strange place under the dracotick's write-up, right after Poison. I'm not sure if this is a goof from my manuscript (I'm at work right now, or I'd check), or something that occured during cut & paste, or editing, or what. It is in the post, but should be after the Special Qualities but before the misc./familiar info, where I place racial skill info in other monsters.
Remove the racial skill bonuses, and you've got 11 ranks in skills.
The climb speed thing is indeed an oversight on my part. I was familiar with the Swim bonus associated with having a swim speed, but I overlooked climb. Thanks for the tip.
The feat was indeed a judgment call. I wanted to add a little something to give the dracotick some oomph due to its dragon-connection. Toughness, rarely used as it is, seemed a good fit, so I decided to 'break the rule' (or not depending on your basis for monster design, as I did indeed examine MM vermin and, like you, noted the spider/centipede feats)
As for the Charisma issue, well, a it's a call based on my experience with spiders and ticks and so forth. *Shrug*.The Charisma scale gets a bit grainy that low, especially when you look at other vermin. I decided to place the tick as low as possible on the CHA scale. Good idea? Bad idea? I went with my personal feeling. But then, I hate ticks.
Anyway, thanks for casting your fine eye over the dracotick. Perhaps we can start a discussion over in the Creature Catalog boards.
When's the Tome of Horrors come out again, btw? I am all for more monster books!
Vrylakos/Darren