Converting prehistoric creatures

[freyar]

Fair enough, but let's round up on the +50%. Just for the heck of it.

 

[Shade]

I'd go for +50% Hit Dice rather than a straight +3 HD.

e.g.

3 HD Leopard => 4 HD.
5 HD Lion => 7 HD.

That suggests a "Sabre Toothed Jaguar" would have 6 HD, since they have 4 HD in AD&D.

So the stats I whipped up above would actually be the "sabre toothed jaguar", and then we downsize it to 4 HD for the "saber toothed leopard"?

 

[freyar]

That sounds like a good labor-saving device.

 

[Cleon]

Fair enough, but let's round up on the +50%. Just for the heck of it.

Don't you always round down in 3rd edition.

 

[Cleon]

So the stats I whipped up above would actually be the "sabre toothed jaguar", and then we downsize it to 4 HD for the "saber toothed leopard"?

That'd be OK by me.

Although the Jaguar version might be a bit stronger than the 4 HD one, since it's midway in size between the two cats. The Sabre-Lion's going to be Str 22 and the Sabre-Leopard Str 17, suggesting a Sabre-Jaguar should be about Str 19.

 

[Shade]

Added to Homebrews...

Saber-Toothed Jaguar
Saber-Toothed Leopard
Saber-Toothed Lion

 

[Cleon]

Added to Homebrews...

Saber-Toothed Jaguar
Saber-Toothed Leopard
Saber-Toothed Lion

I'd increase the Sabre-Jaguar's bite damage to 1d8 and the Sabre-Lion's to 1d10.

Any preferences for the feats? Multiattack or Improved Grapple tempt me.

 

[freyar]

Yes, let's increase the bite, though one step for the lion is 2d6.

Definitely Multi-Attack. Could do Imp Grapple (esp for the jag), though I'm not sure why we wouldn't just give them Imp Grab.

 

[Cleon]

Yes, let's increase the bite, though one step for the lion is 2d6.

I wanted the damage to be midway between a Lion (1d8) and a Tiger/Smilodon (2d6), thus 1d10 or "half a step above 1d8".

Definitely Multi-Attack. Could do Imp Grapple (esp for the jag), though I'm not sure why we wouldn't just give them Imp Grab.

They've already got Improved Grab. I suggested just for the grapple boost, since most sabre-toothed cats probably wrestled big prey. Could make it a racial bonus instead, I guess, but I prefer the feat.

 

[Shade]

They've already got Improved Grab. I suggested just for the grapple boost, since most sabre-toothed cats probably wrestled big prey. Could make it a racial bonus instead, I guess, but I prefer the feat.

I prefer the racial bonus, as the feat appears designed for unarmed humanoids (hence the Improved Unarmed Strike prereq).

I'm OK with Multiattack and 1d8/1d10 for the bites.