Gestation rates

[MerakSpielman]

From the BoEF:

Bugbears: 7 months
Celestial: 1 month per HD
Centaur: 10 months
Dragon: Varies
Dryad: 3 months
Dwarf: 12 months
Elf: 24 months
Fiend: 1 month per HD
Giant: From 11-24 months (depending on species)
Gnoll: 6 months
Gnome: 13 months
Goblin: 4 months
Halfling: 9 months
Hobgoblins: 7 months
Human: 9 months
Kobold: 4 months (huh. I've always had them lay eggs.)
Lizard Folk: 6 months (ditto)
Merfolk/Triton: 9 months
Minotaur: 12 months
Nymph: 1d12 months (huh?)
Ogre: 12 months
Orc: 6 months
Satyr: 9 months
Sprite: 6 months

A lot of these numbers seem fairly arbitrary.

 

[jgbrowning]

You left out the human (280 days).

Once while fooling around with an idea I created this chart (don't ask why):

Species Size	Duration	Example
Diminutive	3-4 weeks	rat: 22 days
Tiny		8-10 weeks	cat: 63 days
Small		22-24 weeks	halfling: 160 days
Medium		36-42 weeks	human: 280 days
Large		50-60 weeks	horse: 340 days
Huge		80-100 weeks	elephant: 20+ months

That's cool joe. I'd fix it up a bit so there wasn't any unrepresented weeks in the duration section and have a modifier based on life expectancy, say like 150+ years treat as one size larger or some such.

cool...

joe b.

 

[Alzrius]

From the BoEF:
A lot of these numbers seem fairly arbitrary.

And yet they all seem to make such sense.

 

[Dirigible]

Dryad: 3 months

Huh. That explains a lot.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Dwarves aren't actually smaller than humans. They're heavy things.

Don't forget that with an Elf's lower-than average Con, a 2 year gestation cycle would be... very hard on the mother. Then again, this could also provide a reason for why Elves don't reproduce all the time.

I think that low Con hurts in more than one way. Think of the male's endurance. Okay, enough bad jokes from me.

PS somewhere I saw that scientists determined Neanderthals were pregnant for one year (and we outbred them). I don't know how you can figure this out, seeing how Neanderthals were nearly our size and they're all dead, but if you ever wanted an arbitrary number, here you go.

 

[Gothmog]

One thing nobody has mentioned is that humans are born FAR before a similar developmental stage that a dog, cat, mouse, or especially elephant is. Within hours of birth, puppies, kittens, mice, and elephants can get up and move around on their own, because evolutionarily they had to be mobile to survive. Humans are born at a much less developed stage and finish developing outside the womb because, as a biped, an adult female could not pass an infant at a similar developmental stage as a puppy through her pelvis without risk of serious injury or death. So its not based SOLEY on size, but it is to a large degree.

 

[Dark Jezter]

I think that low Con hurts in more than one way. Think of the male's endurance. Okay, enough bad jokes from me.

No wonder you always hear about elf females marrying human men, but rarely hear about human females marrying elven men.

 

[mythago]

Gothmog is partly right--human babies are pretty helpless for a lot longer than other mammal species. Humans have that conflict between big heads and Mom's pelvis needing to be narrow enough for her to walk upright.

I don't really see any biological difference that this would make orcs have babies sooner or elves take two years to gestate (ugh). The humanoid races all walk upright and have human-ish brains and head sizes. "They live longer" doesn't really explain how long pregnancy lasts.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Gothmog is partly right--human babies are pretty helpless for a lot longer than other mammal species. Humans have that conflict between big heads and Mom's pelvis needing to be narrow enough for her to walk upright.

I don't really see any biological difference that this would make orcs have babies sooner or elves take two years to gestate (ugh). The humanoid races all walk upright and have human-ish brains and head sizes. "They live longer" doesn't really explain how long pregnancy lasts.

Well, maybe baby half-orcs have tiny heads while baby elves have big heads due to all that "pre-birth TP stuff" but really it's because elves are innately magical and take 2-5 times as long to do anything as it takes a human to do.

They even mention this in the Arms and Equipment guide.