Converting "Real World" Animals and Vermin

[freyar]

cluster (2-12)?

 

[Shade]

Sounds good.

I noticed upthread you expressed concern over the AC. It is a tad high. Shave a few points off natural armor (say, to +2 or +3)? It would make sense, since it is grublike, rather than possessing a beetle's exoskeleton.

 

[freyar]

That seems reasonable. As long as Cleon doesn't object, let's drop the natural armor to +3. On the other hand, I just noticed that a lot of vermin have sort of inflated AC for their CR, so I guess +5 isn't so bad either.

 

[Cleon]

Sounds good.

I noticed upthread you expressed concern over the AC. It is a tad high. Shave a few points off natural armor (say, to +2 or +3)? It would make sense, since it is grublike, rather than possessing a beetle's exoskeleton.

The larvae do have an fairly tough exoskeleton, although it's nothing like as hard as a beetle's wing-cases they're not soft bodied like a maggot or caterpillar. I wouldn't object to dropping their NA to +4 like a Medium Scorpion and would go along with +3 if needed.

It mostly depends on what NA we want the adult to have - if we go for +8 like the original's AC2 suggests then I'd keep the larva NA +5. (Incidentally, the Giant Stag Beetle is Large and NA +10, so if we downsized one to Medium it would be NA +8).

The rest of it looks fine, except I'd add the following to Combat:

Acid (Ex): The acid of a diving beetle larva's bite only harms organic materials. It has no effect on metal or stone, but dissolves flesh, leather and wood.

 

[freyar]

+4 natural is ok, and the acid write-up is good. Ready for the adult?

 

[Cleon]

+4 natural is ok, and the acid write-up is good. Ready for the adult?

I'd prefer +5 but I'm OK with +4. I'll leave it up to Shade.

Let's get started on the adult then!

I mentioned earlier it has the same NA as a downsized Giant Stag Beetle (hereafter a GSB), so how about using that as a basis - it's about the right size (5-6 feet is half a GSB's 10 foot length and 4HD vs the GSB's 7HD).

Downsizing a GSB to Medium would give it Str 15, Dex 12, Con 13. I don't think it should have a higher Dex and lower Con than the larva (if anything, it should be the other way around), so I'll swap 2 points from one to t'other to make it Str 15, Dex 10, Con 15.

The adult doesn't have gills so should lose the Aquatic subtype, but I would think it should have the Hold Breath SQ since they can stay submerged for a long time. Somewhere between 4 and 8 times Constitution?

We'll also need to plug in in a 1d4 bite and a fly and swim speeds to match the AD&D adult diving beetle (also the same as a Giant Bombardier Beetle).

Altogether that would give something like:

Adult Diving Beetle, Giant
Medium Vermin
Hit Dice: 4d8+8 (26)
Initiative: +0
Speed: 20 ft. (4 squares), swim 40 ft., fly 20 ft. (average)
Armor Class: 18 (natural +8), touch 10, flat-footed 18
BAB/Grapple: +3/+5
Attack: Bite +5 melee (1d4+2)
Special Attack: None ?
Special Qualities: Darkvision 60 ft., hold breath [Con*6?], vermin traits
Saves: Fort +6, Ref +1, Will +1
Abilities: Str 15, Dex 10, Con 15, Int 0, Wis 10, Cha 9

Hmm, matching the fly speed to the original's 9" looks too low to me - diving beetles are fairly good flyers, so I'd up it to 40 ft., or at least 30 ft.

 

[freyar]

Looking pretty good to me. 30 ft or 40 ft fly speed is ok too.

 

[Shade]

40 feet works for me, and x6 for the hold breath modifier.

The rest looks good.

 

[Cleon]

40 feet works for me, and x6 for the hold breath modifier.

The rest looks good.

Great! That's about it then, apart from some flavour text.

 

[Shade]

Added to Homebrews.

Challenge Rating: x

Advancement: x