Converting "Real World" Animals and Vermin

[freyar]

Wounding (1 Con damage) makes more sense than bleeding to me. Having had horsefly bites before, I can say that it's more that they rip a chunk off of you rather than you bleed afterwards. Not fun.

 

[Shade]

Added Giant Bluebottle Fly to Homebrews.
Added Giant Horsefly to Homebrews.

We'll need to figure out the racial skill bonuses for our giant flies. WotC's giant fly's skills make no sense. It has greater than the usual +8 to Climb for having a climb speed (+12 assuming it substitutes Dex for Str, +19 otherwise). It also appears to have a +2 racial bonus on Listen and Spot checks, and a +4 bonus on Hide checks. And finally, it has an odd +3 modifier to Move Silently checks.

I'd suggest replacing those modifiers with +8 Climb (as normal for a climb speed) and +4 (or even +8) Move Silently. I'd note that the horsefly loses the Move Silently bonus when flying (those things are noisy!) I'm fine with retaining the +2 to Listen and Spot.

I'd recommend we add scent to the SQs.

Perhaps immunity to disease, or at least a high racial bonus on Fort saves vs. disease?

 

[Cleon]

Wounding (1 Con damage) makes more sense than bleeding to me. Having had horsefly bites before, I can say that it's more that they rip a chunk off of you rather than you bleed afterwards. Not fun.

So are we back to Con or hit point damage?

I've moving toward simulating the original's "tear off a chunk of its victim the next round" ability. Something like:

Attach: If a giant horsefly hits with its bite attack it can latch onto its opponent's body with its powerful jaws. An attached giant horsefly loses its Dexterity bonus to AC so has an AC of X. To remove an attached giant horsefly through grappling, the opponent must achieve a pin against the creature.

Bloody Bite: As a full round action, a giant horsefly that is attached to an opponent can rip its jaws out of its opponent's flesh, automatically doing X damage. The fly can then make a standard bite attack against any opponent within its reach in the same round. If it hits with this bite attack it can use its attach special attack again.

Then we just need a value for X. If we follow the original it would do the fly's standard bite damage (2d8+4?), but we could make it Con damage (1d6?) instead.

 

[Cleon]

Added Giant Bluebottle Fly to Homebrews.
Added Giant Horsefly to Homebrews.

We'll need to figure out the racial skill bonuses for our giant flies. WotC's giant fly's skills make no sense. It has greater than the usual +8 to Climb for having a climb speed (+12 assuming it substitutes Dex for Str, +19 otherwise). It also appears to have a +2 racial bonus on Listen and Spot checks, and a +4 bonus on Hide checks. And finally, it has an odd +3 modifier to Move Silently checks.

I'd suggest replacing those modifiers with +8 Climb (as normal for a climb speed) and +4 (or even +8) Move Silently. I'd note that the horsefly loses the Move Silently bonus when flying (those things are noisy!) I'm fine with retaining the +2 to Listen and Spot.

I wouldn't give them a Hide or Move Silently bonus. Real-world flies are hardly stealthy. The Climb, Listen and Spot bonuses are good, though.

I'd recommend we add scent to the SQs.

Good idea, they should be able to sniff out food.

Perhaps immunity to disease, or at least a high racial bonus on Fort saves vs. disease?

A high racial bonus (+4?) would be OK. Or we could give them a blanket immunity to all diseases with a DC less than X, so only particularly nasty germs affect them.

I'd also fancy giving them Dodge and/or Lightning Reflexes as bonus feats and Evasion as a SQ - flies are very good at leaping aside from attacks!

 

[demiurge1138]

+4 to saves versus disease and evasion both work for me. I don't like cleon's proposed attach/bloody bite mechanics. Considering that flies can land upside down and walk on ceilings, I think we should give them better than a +8 to Climb--maybe even an Ex spider climb ability.

 

[freyar]

No idea what we're doing with the bite.

Also agreed to +4 saves vs disease. Dodge/Lightning Reflexes and/or evasion are good, too, as is Ex spider climb.

 

[Shade]

Here's the spider-climbish Ex ability we've used in the past, which should work well here...

Wallcrawling (Ex): The gacholoth need not make Climb checks to traverse a vertical or horizontal surface (even upside down). It retains its Dexterity bonus to Armor Class while climbing and opponents get no special bonus to their attacks against it.

 

[freyar]

That would work, and it seems like we can free up some skill ranks, too.

 

[demiurge1138]

Wallcrawling looks perfect.

 

[Shade]

Updated bluebottle fly and horsefly.

Disease for the horsefly or both? Which sample disease(s)?