Converting "Real World" Animals and Vermin

[freyar]

It's a predator, so I guess the skills should probably look like Listen 6, Spot 6.

You know, before we get to this (and feats), we should probably fill in some of the blanks. Like speed, AC, etc. 30 ft speed with 60 ft fly (poor)?

 

[Cleon]

It's a predator, so I guess the skills should probably look like Listen 6, Spot 6.

You know, before we get to this (and feats), we should probably fill in some of the blanks. Like speed, AC, etc. 30 ft speed with 60 ft fly (poor)?

The original has 15, Fl 15 which reads more like 40 ft., fly 50 ft. (poor). I'd also like to give it a Swim speed like the Black Boobrie, as it's a swamp dweller.

The HR3 Boobrie has 2, Fl 20, Sw 6. A literal interpretation would be 10 ft., fly 60 ft. (average?), swim 20 ft., but that seems too slow on land and in water. How about increaseingthem both by 10 ft.?

We need an AC too. The HR3 Boobrie has AC 7, which is the same as the AD&D Giant Eagle, while the 'Great Boobrie' is two better at AC 5. That suggest we should give our 'Black Boobrie' AC 15 like the SRD Giant Eagle and the man-eating version an AC 2 or 3 higher.

Boobrie
Armour Class: 17 (-1 size, +2 Dex, +8 natural), touch 11, flat-footed 15
Speed: 40 ft., fly 50 ft. (poor), swim 30 ft.

Black Boobrie
Armour Class: 15 (+3 Dex, +2 natural), touch 13, flat-footed 12
Speed: 10 ft., fly 60 ft. (average), swim 30 ft.

 

[freyar]

The duckbunny has a 30 ft swim speed, so I could go with that for the black boobrie. I'd probably bump the land speed to 20 ft also. The great boobrie seems quite fast on land, but I guess it's still slower than the ToH axe beak, so that's ok.

I approve of the AC division, also.

I still think the black boobrie's wing buffet should be lethal.

Only the MC11 version mentions looking imposing, so I'd suggest giving a +4? Intimidate bonus to the great boobrie only. The MC11 text also talks about ambushing, so a Hide bonus might be appropriate for the great boobrie, too. As for a Spot bonus, I'm not terribly sure, but I wouldn't necessarily be against one.

 

[Cleon]

The duckbunny has a 30 ft swim speed, so I could go with that for the black boobrie. I'd probably bump the land speed to 20 ft also. The great boobrie seems quite fast on land, but I guess it's still slower than the ToH axe beak, so that's ok.

I approve of the AC division, also.

I'll update the Boobrie Working Draft with the ACs.

I'm not convinced by 20 ft. speed for the Black Boobrie.

The original BB has speed 3 on land, like an AD&D Giant Eagle, which has a land speed of 10 ft. in 3E.

I'll put the 10 ft. version in with a question mark.

I still think the black boobrie's wing buffet should be lethal.

I'm still undecidedly, nay, questionably red on the issue.

Only the MC11 version mentions looking imposing, so I'd suggest giving a +4? Intimidate bonus to the great boobrie only. The MC11 text also talks about ambushing, so a Hide bonus might be appropriate for the great boobrie, too. As for a Spot bonus, I'm not terribly sure, but I wouldn't necessarily be against one.

Aw, the celtic boobrie is a big black beastie, so of course folks will be scared of it. Besides, it must be good at hiding. I've been to Scotland quite a few times and I've never seen one.

 

[freyar]

How about I give you 10 ft on the black boobrie land speed if you give me the lethal wing buffet?

I wouldn't mind having the Intimidate bonus only on the great version just to distinguish the two, but I'll give if it's important to you. As for the Hide bonus, I'm ok with giving it to both.

 

[Cleon]

How about I give you 10 ft on the black boobrie land speed if you give me the lethal wing buffet?

I wouldn't mind having the Intimidate bonus only on the great version just to distinguish the two, but I'll give if it's important to you. As for the Hide bonus, I'm ok with giving it to both.

I'm fine not giving Intimidate to the Black Boobrie but am not so sure about the lethal wings.

What kind of precedents for wing buffets do we have in 3E. Do swans have official stats anywhere? They had wing-buffets in AD&D if I remember rightly, and would by pretty close to the smaller Boobrie.

Better go and look 'em up...

 

[Cleon]

Well, no luck finding official 3E stats for a Swan, all that turned up after a brief investigation was the Enworld conversion of the Monster Manual II AD&D Swan.

That does lethal damage with its wings, but gets 2 wings that each do 1 point of damage.

Hmm, that suggests we could give it two wing-buffets that do 1d2+2 or 1d2+1 damage rather than a single wing-buffet, if we're being inspired by the swam.

We could also consider giving it a "bite/wing/wing" routine instead of the original "bite or wings". If a swan can multi-attack, you'd think a Black Boobrie could as well.

We could have it so it can only Trip on a standard attack wing-buffet (+5 melee 1d2+2) but not on a bite/wing/wing routine's wing buffet (+0 melee 1d2+1, with the bite +5 melee 2d4+2)

I'm also becoming tempted to give both the boobries an augmented critical with their beak bite, maybe ×3 like a spear? Or even 19-20×3.

Heck, my brainstorming's getting too complicated. Let's just go for:

Boobrie
Full Attack: Bite +10 melee (2d8+5/19-20×3) and 2 claws +5 (1d6+2)
Skills: racial bonuses to Hide, Intimidate and Spot checks.

Black Boobrie
Speed: 10 ft. (2 squares), fly 60 ft. (average), swim 30 ft.
Full Attack: Bite +5 melee (2d4+2) or wing-buffet +5 melee (1d6+2) [lethal]
Skills: racial bonuses to Hide and Spot checks.

 

[Cleon]

The original "Celtic" Boobrie could only use its wing-buffet attack once every 3 rounds. Do we want to do anything with that for our conversion?

 

[freyar]

I like what you've got for those speed, full attack, and skill lines. Let's do that. I don't think I would limit the wing-buffet to every 3 rounds, just because I don't quite get the logic for it. Maybe it can't do it while flying, though.

 

[Cleon]

I like what you've got for those speed, full attack, and skill lines. Let's do that. I don't think I would limit the wing-buffet to every 3 rounds, just because I don't quite get the logic for it. Maybe it can't do it while flying, though.

Updating the Boobrie Working Draft.

Yeah, making the wing-buffets 1/3rds does seem rather odd, maybe they just thought it was "more game balanced".

What in-world rationalisation for it could they have?

Does wing-buffeting throw the Boobrie off balance so it needs two rounds to get its bearings? If that was the case, why isn't it otherwise impaired?

I would rather leave it a standard action.