Converting Al-Qadim creatures
- Thread starter Shade
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Shade
Monster Junkie
Dog, Saluqi
Climate/Terrain: Any arid land
Frequency: Uncommon
Organization: Pack
Activity Cycle: Night
Diet: Carnivore
Intelligence: Semi (2-4)
Treasure: Nil
Alignment: Neutral
No. Appearing: 3d4
Armor Class: 7
Movement: 18
Hit Dice: 2
THAC0: 19
No. of Attacks: 1
Damage/Attack: 1d8
Special Attacks: Overbearing
Special Defenses: Nil
Magic Resistance: Nil
Size: S (3’ tall)
Morale: Elite (13-14)
XP Value: 120
Saluqi are the greyhounds of the desert, known for their hunting skills, favored by the jann. They are sleek black animals with gray markings, thin whiplike bodies, and long narrow heads. Their pedigrees are rigorously maintained, allowing owners to breed only from the finest stock.
Combat: These natural desert hounds hunt by sight rather than by smell, and they prefer to stay in packs rather than hunt alone or in scattered lines. Their blurring-fast speed allows saluqi a -2 modifier to their initiative rolls. The hounds have infravision to a 120-foot range, and they can faultlessly track quarry by its heat trail if it has passed over ground within the past three turns.
Saluqi hounds are also known for their ability to bring down opponents by attacking en masse. This overbearing attack is resolved by a single attack roll against AC 10, allowing only modifiers for Dexterity and magical pluses of armor or other protective devices. There must be a minimum of four hounds for the overbearing attack, and each hound over four gives the pack an additional +1 attack modifier. If successful, the hounds knock their opponent to the ground, and unless a saving throw vs. petrification is successful, the opponent is stunned and cannot take any action that round. To rise, a victim must spend a full round doing nothing but regaining his footing in the midst of the pack. All attempts at spellcasting are ruined by the pack, regardless of whether the overbearing attack succeeds.
After the initial overbearing attack, such a victim is attacked by individual members of the pack with +4 modified to the hounds’ attack rolls and no Dexterity adjustment for the victim’s AC. Some packs have also been trained to hold down their foes; this requires that two dogs score successful hits on their downed opponent. If the dogs succeed, the victim still must spend a full round to stand up, but he must also make a successful Strength check with a -1 penalty for each dog that hits. Failure indicates the victim was dragged back down.
Habitat/Society: Saluqi are a carefully bred strain of hounds, and they are almost always found in the care of a huntsman who has trained them from birth. They respond to a number of standardized calls: “Attack, guard, return, pursue and return, fetch, stay”, and “hold” are among the most common.
Saluqi do not flourish if they spend too much time in the sun; nomads keep them in tents during the hottest part of the day. Wild packs usually live near some cave or overhanging shelter, where they can retreat from the burning sun.
Ecology: Saluqi greyhounds hunt small game and are good at flushing antelope or other grazing animals from cover. Wild packs of saluqi do exist, but they are extremely rare, as the jann hunt these mutts and neuter them, then give them as gifts to other desert tribesmen.
Jungle Hound
It is said that a related breed of hound has been created by jungle dwellers. These hounds use similar tactics, but are much better at tracking by smell than by sight – so much so that they can follow a trail up to a week old. They are smaller than the saluqi hounds, with orange and yellow patches of fur dappling their dark coats instead of gray.
Originally appeared in ALQ2 - Assassin Mountain (1993).
Climate/Terrain: Any arid land
Frequency: Uncommon
Organization: Pack
Activity Cycle: Night
Diet: Carnivore
Intelligence: Semi (2-4)
Treasure: Nil
Alignment: Neutral
No. Appearing: 3d4
Armor Class: 7
Movement: 18
Hit Dice: 2
THAC0: 19
No. of Attacks: 1
Damage/Attack: 1d8
Special Attacks: Overbearing
Special Defenses: Nil
Magic Resistance: Nil
Size: S (3’ tall)
Morale: Elite (13-14)
XP Value: 120
Saluqi are the greyhounds of the desert, known for their hunting skills, favored by the jann. They are sleek black animals with gray markings, thin whiplike bodies, and long narrow heads. Their pedigrees are rigorously maintained, allowing owners to breed only from the finest stock.
Combat: These natural desert hounds hunt by sight rather than by smell, and they prefer to stay in packs rather than hunt alone or in scattered lines. Their blurring-fast speed allows saluqi a -2 modifier to their initiative rolls. The hounds have infravision to a 120-foot range, and they can faultlessly track quarry by its heat trail if it has passed over ground within the past three turns.
Saluqi hounds are also known for their ability to bring down opponents by attacking en masse. This overbearing attack is resolved by a single attack roll against AC 10, allowing only modifiers for Dexterity and magical pluses of armor or other protective devices. There must be a minimum of four hounds for the overbearing attack, and each hound over four gives the pack an additional +1 attack modifier. If successful, the hounds knock their opponent to the ground, and unless a saving throw vs. petrification is successful, the opponent is stunned and cannot take any action that round. To rise, a victim must spend a full round doing nothing but regaining his footing in the midst of the pack. All attempts at spellcasting are ruined by the pack, regardless of whether the overbearing attack succeeds.
After the initial overbearing attack, such a victim is attacked by individual members of the pack with +4 modified to the hounds’ attack rolls and no Dexterity adjustment for the victim’s AC. Some packs have also been trained to hold down their foes; this requires that two dogs score successful hits on their downed opponent. If the dogs succeed, the victim still must spend a full round to stand up, but he must also make a successful Strength check with a -1 penalty for each dog that hits. Failure indicates the victim was dragged back down.
Habitat/Society: Saluqi are a carefully bred strain of hounds, and they are almost always found in the care of a huntsman who has trained them from birth. They respond to a number of standardized calls: “Attack, guard, return, pursue and return, fetch, stay”, and “hold” are among the most common.
Saluqi do not flourish if they spend too much time in the sun; nomads keep them in tents during the hottest part of the day. Wild packs usually live near some cave or overhanging shelter, where they can retreat from the burning sun.
Ecology: Saluqi greyhounds hunt small game and are good at flushing antelope or other grazing animals from cover. Wild packs of saluqi do exist, but they are extremely rare, as the jann hunt these mutts and neuter them, then give them as gifts to other desert tribesmen.
Jungle Hound
It is said that a related breed of hound has been created by jungle dwellers. These hounds use similar tactics, but are much better at tracking by smell than by sight – so much so that they can follow a trail up to a week old. They are smaller than the saluqi hounds, with orange and yellow patches of fur dappling their dark coats instead of gray.
Originally appeared in ALQ2 - Assassin Mountain (1993).
Shade
Monster Junkie
Now you tell me.
That soudns about right. Keep 'em animals, or does something suggest magical beast?
Cleon
Hero
We should consider keeping them Small. A Saluqi is on the cusp of Small-Medium, typically weighing about 20-25 kg (44-55 pounds). If we make them Small it'll help explain the AD&D stats requiring 4 of them to overbear an adventurer (a Medium sized humanoid).
Quite. They're a real world breed and should be Animals.
Cleon
Hero
After reading the description more closely, I notice several significant differences between these Saluqis and the real world dog breed.
Firstly, they have 120' infravision, which allows them to infallibly track by heat-tracks up to 30 minutes old.
Secondly, they're nocturnal ("Activity Cycle: Night"). Real world saluqi hunt in daylight.
How about splitting it into two creatures? A real world Saluqi, modified from the SRD Dog (1 HD Small Animal, bites for 1d4+1) and a "Jann Saluqi" (2 HD Small Magical Beast, bites for 1d6+1, Int 3-4, Darkvision 120 ft., "Infallibly Tracking" SQ).
Firstly, they have 120' infravision, which allows them to infallibly track by heat-tracks up to 30 minutes old.
Secondly, they're nocturnal ("Activity Cycle: Night"). Real world saluqi hunt in daylight.
How about splitting it into two creatures? A real world Saluqi, modified from the SRD Dog (1 HD Small Animal, bites for 1d4+1) and a "Jann Saluqi" (2 HD Small Magical Beast, bites for 1d6+1, Int 3-4, Darkvision 120 ft., "Infallibly Tracking" SQ).
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Cleon
Hero
By the way, these stats are from the Monstrous Compendium Annual Volume One (1994). The Assassin Mountain version, the "Greyhound, Saluqi", is basically the same. The biggest mechanical difference is its infravision is 120 yards, not 120 feet.
Funnily enough, the Assassin Mountain Saluqi has "Activity Cycle: Diurnal" instead of "Night" and then starts combat with "these nocturnal desert hounds".
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Shade
Monster Junkie
OK, we can make both an animal and magical beast version. I think the jungle hounds should be an underbar, rather than a separate creature. The question is whether jungle hound are the animal version, the magical beast version, or both?
Added the animal version to Homebrews.
I took the standard dog stats, but since it straddles the line between Small and Medium, placed Str and Dex between the dog and riding dog.
Since these are "sight" hounds, should we reduce the tracking by scent bonus?
EDIT: Added the jann saluqi as well.
Added the animal version to Homebrews.
I took the standard dog stats, but since it straddles the line between Small and Medium, placed Str and Dex between the dog and riding dog.
Since these are "sight" hounds, should we reduce the tracking by scent bonus?
EDIT: Added the jann saluqi as well.
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Cleon
Hero
We might as well make the Jungle Hound a Magical Beast since it's a variant on the 2HD Saluqi.
That looks a good start on the Animal version.
Since these are Greyhounds, I'd consider making them faster - they need to catch hares and antelopes, remember. Maybe give them Speed 50 ft. and Run?
I would cut the tracking by scent bonus out entirely.
How's this for Infallible Tracker?
Infallible Tracking (Su): A jann saluqi has supernatural eyesight that sees recent trails as a glowing set of tracks. This allows the saluqi to infallibly follow any trail up to 30 minutes old, provided the surface the trail crosses is not fluid (i.e. the saluqi can not use infallible tracking if the creature flies away or enters water). Anti-divination spells such as nondetection are effective against infallible tracking.
Cleon
Hero
I'd say no. Sight hounds are generally poor trackers. They mainly chase prey they can see. Just scent plus Track should be enough.
I would have no objection to giving the Jann version a bonus on Survival checks to track by visual cues, maybe make it an enhancement bonus due to their magical "tracking gaze".
Cleon
Hero
Do these horses have any unusual powers? If it's only a question of them having above average ability scores I don't think we need bother.
They probably don't since they were not written up... but I recall something almost unnatural about them. It might simply be from the mythical description of their origins. I'll snoop some more, but I bet we don't need to do anything.
UPDATE:
Yeah... the text refers to a myth. It doesn't look like anything we need to get involved in.ALQ1 said:
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Could we use something similar to the Hyena's trip?
Trip (Ex): A hyena that hits with its bite attack can attempt to trip the opponent (+2 check modifier) as a free action without making a touch attack or provoking an attack of opportunity. If the attempt fails, the opponent cannot react to trip the hyena.
Trip (Ex): A hyena that hits with its bite attack can attempt to trip the opponent (+2 check modifier) as a free action without making a touch attack or provoking an attack of opportunity. If the attempt fails, the opponent cannot react to trip the hyena.
Alternatively, we can give the saluqi another bonus feat... either Improved Grapple or Improved Overrun.
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