Converting prehistoric animals

[RavinRay]

What do our resident paleontologists think?

I just got back from a 2-1/2 week marine geological expedition. I'll give it a look-over soon.

 

[Shade]

Eurpyterids in the news:

http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/science/11/20/biggest.bug.ap/index.html

 

[Shade]

Dinosaur, Anchisaurus
Climate/Terrain: Any land
Freq: Common
Org: Herd
Activity cycle: Day
Diet: Herbivore
Int: Non- (0)
Treasure: nil
Align: nil
# App: 2-20
AC: 7
Movement: 12
HD: 2
THAC0: 16
# Att: 1
Dmg/Att: 1-4
SA: nil
SD: climbing
MR: nil
Size: M (7' long)
Morale: Steady (11)
XP Value: 2,000

This bipedal herbivore feeds upright from time to time, but spends most of its time on all fours. If there is vegetation large enough nearby, it will climb to escape small predators. Its teeth are sharp enough to deliver retaliatory bites upon opponents, but the anchisaurus will not start a fight.

Originally appeared in Monstrous Compendium Volume Three: Forgotten Realms Appendix (1989).

 

[Shade]

This should be really simple.

Basically, we just need ability scores, and to translate "climbing" into either a climb speed or a racial bonus on Climb checks.

 

[Shade]

Downsizing a parasaurolophus to Medium yields:

Str 10, Dex 14, Con 12, Int 2, Wis 14, Cha 10

Slam 1d4

Look OK?

 

[freyar]

Looks good. Let's give it a climb speed, maybe 1/2 land speed, with the associated bonuses.

 

[Shade]

Added to Homebrews.

 

[RavinRay]

Can I just interrupt this for some breaking news? Because a real prehistoric dire toad has been discovered. Since it's named Beelzebufo, I'm half-temped to call it a fiendish dire toad. Google "frog from hell" and it'll pop-up on Google News. Here's a teaser article though.

"Frog from Hell"
BADASS FROG: Behold the mightiest attack frog known to man. Thank goodness it lived 65 or 70 million years ago. A U.S.-led team spent 15 years assembling a nearly complete skeleton of Beelzebufo ampinga—literally, "armored frog from hell"—a 10-pound, 16-inch beast that heaved across what is now Madagascar. Equipped with a bony head shield, big mouth and powerful jaws, researchers propose that Beelzebufo (shown here in an artist's rendering) was capable of slaying small vertebrates such as lizards and perhaps hatchling dinosaurs. In girth, the animal surpasses the 13-inch goliath frog of West Africa, the reigning heavyweight frog champ at 7 pounds, and may have been the largest frog ever. Its existence also bolsters the notion that Madagascar and South America were linked during the Cretaceous period, perhaps by Antarctica: The armored amphibian is closely related to a group of aggressive South American hoppers known as "pac-man frogs" for their large mouths, the group reports in this week's Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA.

 

[Shade]

Wow! That's one big toad. Love the scientific name.

 

[freyar]

With a name like that, it has to be an infernal dire toad. Just swap out some languages from the abyssal dire frog in the ToH, and you're all set.

Back to the other thing: should we put all the skill ranks into climb? I could also see hide, spot, and listen. For the feat, maybe alertness? That's always good for animals.

CR 1? If you all agree, I guess it's done.