So I was going through the various kinds of Great Cats in D&D and noticed Echohawk's Index included Minimal versions of them.
Checking the Creature Catalog's Minimal Template I found it had a couple of problems.
Firstly, the Hit Dice entry cuts off half way through the second sentence "The number of hit dice is 1/4 of the base creature, rounded down. If the base creature had 2-3 HD".
Presumably that ought to continue something along the lines "If the base creature had 2-3 HD the minimal has 1/2 HD, if the base creature has a single Hit Dice the minimal has 1/4 HD."
Secondly, the 3E rules tend to have Hit Dice be proportional to length, with an increase of one size category doubling the dimensions (e.g. Medium creatures are 4 to 8 feet, Large creatures are 8 to 16 feet) and doubling the Hit Dice. So why does the minimal (which is half-size) have one-quarter the Hit Dice? Shouldn't it either be one-half Hit Dice or (my preference) still be one-quarter Hit Dice but be two size categories smaller and therefore be 25% the dimensions instead of 50%.
Thirdly, there are a couple of extraneous terms that need removing, the "Special Attacks: Attacks:" should be "Attacks:" and the "Special Qualities: Face/Reach:" should be "Face/Reach:".
A lesser point is that the 1E version of the Minimal has increased resistance to Poison and Death effects.
Quoting Monster Manual II (1983): "Since they are the products of magic they gain +2 on all saving throws and gain the saving throw of the full-sized mammal vs. death and poison. They gain +4 to saving throws vs. any spell that will charm them, including the druid spell animal friendship."
However, this ability is missing from the 2E Monstrous Compendium version, while the Creature Catalog template has "Additionally, they receive a +2 to save against poison to help them against poisonous predators" which, if nothing else is a bit confusingly worded. Wouldn't it be better to say the bonus increases to +4 for saves against poison? However, I'd also prefer if some greater reduction was substituted - maybe one-quarter damage from poison and death effects (with death spells treating them as if they had quadruple their actual Hit Dice)?
When we get around to doing a revised 3.5 Template for the CC I'd like to clear up those issues.
Oh, I just remembered another issue. The CC Minimal template's Creating a Minimal section starts: "Minimal" is a template that can be added to any normal mammalian animal which is medium-sized or larger.
However, the AD&D Minimal entry includes stats for Baboon, Badger, Wild Dog, Hyena and Warthog which are all Small sized in AD&D.
There's also the Lynx, which oddly enough does not appear to have official AD&D stats for - the only entries are for the Giant Lynx, with is a sapient oversized version. They are listed as "HD 1/4, 1 attack, 1 damage" which suggests the base animal is 1 Hit Dice and has a single attack that does maybe 1d4 or 1d6 damage.
Note that Baboons and Hyenas are Medium sized in the 3E SRD, not Small as they are in AD&D.
