Dire Template?

[Dreaddisease]

Is there a dire template anywhere? I want to make a dire cheetah for my campaign that druids can use as animal companions.

 

[mikebr99]

Nope...
But you could compare what they did to the tiger to go from:

Tiger
Large Animal
Hit Dice: 6d8+18 (45 hp)
Initiative: +2 (Dex)
Speed: 40 ft.
AC: 14 (-1 size, +2 Dex, +3 natural)
Attacks: 2 claws +9 melee, bite +4 melee
Damage: Claw 1d8+6, bite 2d6+3
Face/Reach: 5 ft. by 10 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks: Pounce, improved grab, rake 1d8+3
Special Qualities: -
Saves: Fort +8, Ref +7, Will +3
Abilities: Str 23, Dex 15, Con 17,
Int 2, Wis 12, Cha 6
Skills: Balance +6, Hide +5*, Listen +3,
Move Silently +9, Spot +3, Swim +11
Feats: -
Climate/Terrain: Any forest, hill, mountains, and
plains
Organization: Solitary
Challenge Rating: 4
Treasure: None
Alignment: Always neutral
Advancement: 7-12 HD (Large); 13-18 HD (Huge)

to...

Dire Tiger
Huge Animal
Hit Dice: 16d8+48 (120 hp)
Initiative: +2 (Dex)
Speed: 40 ft.
AC: 16 (-2 size, +2 Dex, +6 natural)
Attacks: 2 claws +18 melee, bite +13 melee
Damage: Claw 2d4+8, bite 2d6+4
Face/Reach: 10 ft. by 30 ft./10 ft.
Special Attacks: improved grab, rake 2d4+4
Special Qualities: Scent
Saves: Fort +13, Ref +12, Will +11
Abilities: Str 27, Dex 15, Con 17,
Int 2, Wis 12, Cha 10
Skills: Hide +0*, Jump +11, Listen +3,
Move Silently +9, Spot +3, Swim +11
Climate/Terrain: Any forest, hill, mountains, plains,
plains, and underground and underground
Organization: Solitary or pair
Challenge Rating: 8
Treasure: None
Alignment: Always neutral
Advancement: 17-36 HD (Huge) 33-48 (Gargantuan)

And then apply it to...

Cheetah
Medium-Size Animal
3d8+6 (19 hp)
+4 (Dex)
50 ft.
15 (+4 Dex, +1 natural)
Bite +6 melee, 2 claws +1 melee
Bite 1d6+3, claw 1d2+1
5 ft. by 5 ft./5 ft.
Trip
Sprint
Fort +5, Ref +7, Will +2
Str 16, Dex 19, Con 15,
Int 2, Wis 12, Cha 6
Hide +7, Listen +5,
Move Silently +8, Spot +5
Weapon Finesse (bite, claw)
Warm plains
Solitary, pair, or family (3-5)
2
None
Always neutral
4-5 HD (Medium-size)

Just a thought though...

 

[Dr. Zoom]

AFAIK there is no dire template, at least not in any core books. The cheetah is a 3 HD animal and so is a wolverine. Perhaps just use the dire wolverine as a model for a dire cheetah.

 

[Paragon]

didn't the creature catalog do an unoffical dire template?

Paragon

 

[Dr. Zoom]

didn't the creature catalog do an unoffical dire template?

Paragon

Yes. Here is the link.

Dire Creature (Template)

 

[Crothian]

didn't the creature catalog do an unoffical dire template?

Paragon

Yes, they did a very good one there.

 

[Dreaddisease]

Just checked it out and found these variances

+2 to int, but the int doesn't change between dire and normal, no plusses to Charisma yet all the Dire creatures seem to have a 10 there while their normal counterparts have 4. Also the larger a creature is the more HD it gets more HD. I think it should be closer to 1.75x Current HD or +2, whichever is greater.

Needs a natural armor increase also its CR should be more like double.

Edit: Dumb me.

 

[Grazzt]

Erica posted that template in the HomeBrews forum (it is now on the site and will be in the upcoming Tome of Horrors, BTW).

She and I both spent several months reverse engineering the animals and their dire counterparts. There is no formula/method to the way they work (unlike dragons which have a definite formula).

That template is about as close as you can get (though it doesnt let you reproduce the dire animals as they are in the MM).

Monte Cook (I think it was him, if not, sorry) said there was no dire template included because WotC didn't want people making a "dire" monster from everything which seems foolish because we now have Legendary creatures (in MotW) and there is a pattern to those which means a template is being used and will most likely be seen in an upcoming WotC book.

 

[Dreaddisease]

Holy cow on the Dire Bat. Those stats are just impossibly high.