Converting prehistoric creatures

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Alertness and Endurance for feats?
2 ranks in Survival and 3 ranks each in Listen and Spot?
Temperate or warm land for environment?

Resources I've been looking up say that Lystrosaurus was fully terrestrial.
This page says "It was once thought that Lystrosaurus lived much like a modern hippopotamus, pursuing a semi-aquatic existence, but it now appears to have thrived in hot, dry environments."

Here's a nice PDF description of Lystrosaurus based on material found in Antarctica: http://www.uoregon.edu/~gregr/Papers/lystrosaurus.pdf

Based on these I have come up with flavor text:

This creature resembles a melding of pig and lizard, with a thick, barrel-like body and splayed legs. Its forelimbs look particularly strong. Its head is large but short, with high-set eyes and a hooked beak with two fangs situated directly behind it.

Lystrosaurus is a dicynodont, an herbivorous therapsid (“mammal-like reptile”). Dicynodonts are characterized by their parrot-like beaks, two tusks in the upper jaw, and barrel-shaped bodies with splayed legs. Lystrosaurus is a common, widespread representative of the dicynodont lineage.

Lystrosaurus is one of the few dicynodonts with near-worldwide distribution. They sleep in simple burrows during the day. Around sundown, lystrosauruses emerge from their burrows, congregating in large groups to protect their young from predators. At dawn, the herds disperse and individuals return to their burrows. When food becomes scarce, lystrosauruses dig for roots and ground water using their powerful forelimbs.

Lystrosaurus is heavy for its size, being about 3 feet long and weighing around 200 pounds.

Combat
Adult lystrosauruses have few natural predators due to their size (they are large for dicynodonts), though Small predators such as the cynognathus may take young lystrosauruses. Adults ignore Small or smaller creatures unless attacked by one, retaliating by biting. If a lone lystrosaurus is threatened by a Medium or larger creature, however, it will flee back to its burrow, but will bite as a last resort.
 
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Not sure how I feel about "worldwide distribution". That'd be fine if all campaigns took place in the end Permian/early Triassic, but the general assumption is that dinosaurs et al are only found in "lost world" regions. Let's say instead that Lystrosaurus is exceedingly common in primeval worlds, or something like that.

Other than that, I think we're done. Now, Placerias.

Advancing Lystrosaurus gets us:

Str 22, Dex 8, Con 21, Int 2, Wis 12, Cha 4 and +6 natural armor.

Compare to a bison: Str 22, Dex 10, Con 16, Int 2, Wis 11, Cha 4, +4 natural armor
or a rhino: Str 26, Dex 10, Con 21, Int 2, Wis 13, Cha 2, +7 natural armor

I think we should boost the Str up to 24, and the Dex back to 10.
 

About the 'worldwide distribution' vs 'lost world' thing, I wouldn't mind letting it go. It's really not a big deal, it's all just a matter of preference on the part of the person making the campaign setting.

Now as for Placerias I agree with the strength boost, and I also believe we should give it a special attack like trample and/or powerful charge.
Also the way its tusks stick out I would even consider giving it a gore attack, unless we want to make it generic and usable to represent other Large dicynodonts like Kannemeyeria, Dinodontosaurus and that unnamed rhinoceros-sized dicynodont from Poland.
 

Replacing the bite with a gore suits me just fine. Ditto giving it both trample and deadly charge (unfortunately, "Powerful Charge" has been co-opted into a feat). Perhaps, to heighten the boar analogy, ferocity? Just a thought--I'm not as attached to it as I am to trample and deadly charge.
 

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