D&D 5E Better Beasts?

[dave2008]

That's one of the things I did on all of mine.

Me too!

 

[dave2008]

There's an issue with beasts

Real beasts are boring on purpose

Real animals have what I call "palette swap" issues. Real animals are not interesting in combat. They are mostlyeither tough brutes, fast brutes, strong brutes, flying brutes, swimming brutes, or brutes with extra attacks. They are much like the same 4e-style stat block leveled up or down and given a level and given an movement quirk or extra senses. 3 versions of the same bears, canines, raptors, and felines.

That being said, there are somethings you can still do. There are lesser used animal families like weasels, hippos, skunks, mongoose, and large lizards that are not heavily used.

I disagree. I think we can find ways to mimic some of the unique ways creatures fight (or flight). The crocodilian death roll for example, or the feline neck bite, or a gorilla's bluffing charge, or better represent their quickness. Jungle ambushers attack differently than open plains stalkers. There are lots of ways to had some variety. Plus, some should have skills and save bonus at least.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Made a couple of further tweaks to the furious ape.

1) Rage should give advantage on grapples, but, because of the way creature grapples work, this wasn't automatic. Added text to correct this.

2) With it's strength reduced it didn't qualify for CR3. Rather than reduce it to CR2 I gave it an extra hit dice.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Is there room to give ravens, dolphins, elephants, etc, slightly higher Int than most beasts? I don’t recall what the point is where spells like Beast Bond won’t work on a beast? Int 6?

So is int 4 or 5 too high for a beastie?

Made a couple of further tweaks to the furious ape.

1) Rage should give advantage on grapples, but, because of the way creature grapples work, this wasn't automatic. Added text to correct this.

2) With it's strength reduced it didn't qualify for CR3. Rather than reduce it to CR2 I gave it an extra hit dice.

hell yes. Exactly as scary as I’d want an ape to be.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Should apes be faster? Or have some sort of sprint ability?

In general, maybe a lot of ambush and chase predators should have sprinting abilities? Even if it’s just “dash as a bonus action, and ignore difficult terrain while dashing”?

 

[Paul Farquhar]

WotC give the standard ape int 6, so I guess that's the max. I made my furious ape not quite the sharpest knife in the drawer.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Should apes be faster? Or have some sort of sprint ability?

If I was doing a gorilla rather than a chimpanzee I would give it a charge attack. I would probably make it large too. But gorillas aren't psychos like chimps and humans.

According to sources a chimpanzee can run faster than a human, although I suspect it couldn't keep it up for long. Could make it's speed 35 ft, just so the players can't outrun it, or give it a bonus action dash.

Edit. I've both increased it's speed to 35' and given it a "bonus action dash whilst raging". But I won't post Mk 4 just yet.

 

[dave2008]

If I was doing a gorilla rather than a chimpanzee I would give it a charge attack. I would probably make it large too.

I would definitely give it a charge attack (and a charge intimidate maybe). But why make it Larget? A silverback gorilla is not. on average, larger than the largest humans. Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson, AKA "The Mountain" is 6'-9" tall and 415+/- lbs. An adult male gorilla is typically 300-500lbs and around 6' tall (Gorilla). They seem squarely Medium to me.

 

[dave2008]

Should apes be faster? Or have some sort of sprint ability?

In general, maybe a lot of ambush and chase predators should have sprinting abilities? Even if it’s just “dash as a bonus action, and ignore difficult terrain while dashing”?

I think a lot of animals should have a sprint ability. Dash on a bonus action works well for that IMO

 

[doctorbadwolf]

If I was doing a gorilla rather than a chimpanzee I would give it a charge attack. I would probably make it large too. But gorillas aren't psychos like chimps and humans.

According to sources a chimpanzee can run faster than a human, although I suspect it couldn't keep it up for long. Could make it's speed 35 ft, just so the players can't outrun it, or give it a bonus action dash.

Edit. I've both increased it's speed to 35' and given it a "bonus action dash whilst raging". But I won't post Mk 4 just yet.

Yeah the gorilla definitely deserves powerful build, greater speed, and perhaps an intimidating roar?

I do wish humans had some sort of endurance trait in D&D related to exerting effort over extended periods, which we are much better at than most critters.