Creature combiner

[Night_mane]

Some time ago a wizard class specailizing in creature combining was published in Dragon. It was back in 2dn ed so it was probably a kit. Does anyone know the issue number or if there's been a conversion? I found nothing similar in the Complete Arcane. These guys were supposedly the source of owlbears, venom dogs, and the like.
If I can fine the rules I'd love to use someone like this as a villan in a game.
Thanks.

 

[ElectricDragon]

I do not know which Dragon this was in, but I believe that the same writer also wrote a book on the subject for 3.0e. The book is called "Encyclopaedia Arcane Crossbreeding: Flesh and Blood" by Johnathan Richards. There are no Prestige classes in the book; but the book contains complete rules for creating most any kind of crossbreed.

Ciao
Dave

 

[Firebird]

The Amalgam Template from Green Ronin's Advanced Bestiary also allows you to "mash" any two creatures as well. It's worth a look.

 

[frankthedm]

Some time ago a wizard class specailizing in creature combining was published in Dragon. It was back in 2dn ed so it was probably a kit. Does anyone know the issue number or if there's been a conversion? I found nothing similar in the Complete Arcane. These guys were supposedly the source of owlbears, venom dogs, and the like.
If I can fine the rules I'd love to use someone like this as a villan in a game.
Thanks.

The Merlane was the name IIRC

The monsters in a similar article;

Duckbunny [ first experiments of those not yet insane tend to be on non lethal critters]
Armadillophant; Armor plated Elephant.
Dragon fly turtle; Snapping turtle with bug wings.
Spider horse:Horse with spider legs and abdomen
Scorpion tailed Dogs {eventually became 3e chaimail abyssal ravagers]
Poisonous Snake headed dogs

Honestly, creative descriptions matter more for monster making than stats. Pick a beast or animal and start changing its description. A small bell and whistle here and there and bing;

Take a dire lion, slap a vulture head on it, give it a short ranged acid spit, maybe nausiating the creature for one round afterwards to balance the effect out, upgrade it's stats to magical beast [adds a few HP and BAB becomes HD]. Add 1 or 2 to the CR depending on what it does for the critter.

http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=151900

 

[Sejs]

Huh, I had no idea there was something official for this sorta thing out there. Just a couple of weeks ago I had a wizard character who worked off just that type of schtick for a one shot game for the group's yearly camping/gaming excursion.

It was a hoot just coming up with all sorts of strange crossbreeds for the hell of it. Octosnails, rabbituna, sheep spheres, pygmy otyugh, plactopodes, lampflower, quillbears, etc.

Fun stuff.

 

[Kaodi]

Hey!

Someone has been playing too much Impossible Creatures!

 

[Night_mane]

Thanks, I think the name for the class can help me find the rest of the info. Maybe it's goofy, butI was thinking one of these would be interesting foa recurring villain,if I can get a game to work. Thinking theoriginal might help me set spell levels for conversion. I dunno, I'm a longtimeplayer, but almost never GM, so it might not work.

 

[Night_mane]

definitely worth a peek, from the review I found, if only a local store carries it. tough to justify buying a game book till I've had achance to flip the pages

Thankzs

 

[thundershot]

Definitely the Amalgam template in Advanced Bestiary. I've used it without problems...



Chris

 

[Sam Gross]

The Merlane is indeed a kit and can be found in issue 237 I believe