Converting prehistoric animals

[Shade]

Here's the Wikipedia entry:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurypterid

 

[freyar]

My immediate thoughts:

Tremorsense or blindsight or blindsense?

Improved Grab and a racial bonus on grapple checks seem like no-brainers for this one.

 

[GrayLinnorm]

Monstrous scorpions have tremorsense.

The stats for a medium monstrous scorpion: Str 13, Dex 10, Con 14, Int -, Wis 10, Cha 2

Dexterity could probably be higher.

 

[Shade]

Monstrous scorpions have tremorsense.

The stats for a medium monstrous scorpion: Str 13, Dex 10, Con 14, Int -, Wis 10, Cha 2

Dexterity could probably be higher.

For further comparison...

Medium Monstrous Crab: Str 15, Dex 11, Con 12, Int —, Wis 11, Cha 2
Giant Whip Scorpion (Large): Str 15, Dex 12, Con 14, Int --, Wis 10, Cha 2

So, Str 13-15, Dex 10-12, Con 12-14, Int -, Wis 10, Cha 2

 

[RavinRay]

There is a version of Tremorsense that works in the water, it's just named differently. So we've got a Medium Vermin (Aquatic) which can advance to Large size. Dex isn't actually that much higher, since their maneuverability was less that what we might expect. If the eurypterid can in fact survive longer in air than is normal for aquatic creatures before suffocating, we can indicate this in terms of number of rounds per Con score appropriately.

 

[freyar]

I'd go on the high end of STR since this is a grappler, maybe lower on DEX.

So, the aquatic version of tremorsense, then?

 

[Shade]

We can borrow this from teh sahuagin...

Water Dependent (Ex): Sahuagin can survive out of the water for 1 hour per 2 points of Constitution (after that, refer to the drowning rules on page 304 of the Dungeon Master’s Guide).

Can anyone give me a sample creature with "water tremorsense"? The diving spider variant from Stormwrack simply says that they can use their tremorsense underwater.

 

[Mortis]

Can anyone give me a sample creature with "water tremorsense"? The diving spider variant from Stormwrack simply says that they can use their tremorsense underwater.

Well the jellyfish swarm (Stormwrack p.161-2) has this entry

Tremorsense (Ex): A jellyfish swarm can detect and pinpoint any creature in the water within 30 feet.

Regards
Mortis

 

[Shade]

Great! Thanks.

I started it up in Homebrews.

For speed, do we want to give it just a land speed, or also a swim speed?

Its AC converts to 17 per the conversion guidelines. That would result in a +7 natural armor bonus. A Medium monstrous scorpion has a +4 natural armor bonus. Is +7 too high?

 

[freyar]

I'd give it a swim speed, but probably a slow one. And this thing is probably a bit tougher than a scorpion, even a monstrous one, so why not a high AC? Good for RBDMs everywhere.