Is Dire Animals out of whack ?

[Doc_Souark]

Hey

I’ve noticed that the Dire Animal hit points are out of perportion to the normal version of the animals. For instance the Bat has 1 hp while a Dire Bat 30 hp that’s +3000 % ! While the King of Beasts the Lions 32 avg. hp vs the Dire Lions 60 is the lowest at a increast of 87 %. I think the mean is around 400 % increase with 3 on or near that increase the rest anywhere between +133% and 650%.

So what’s the rule on making a Dire’s hit points ? Anything you want or what ?

BTW if you gave the Dire Lion it’s HPs like they gave the Bat it’s it would have 128,000 hp now that’s a epic level monster. But if the Lion had the same increase as the Tiger (266 %) it would have 84 hps

I used the average hit points for this but it's still lop sidded

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

Is dey?

I would say what's really at work is how much bigger the animal has to be to be considered "dire."

For example, maybe critters have to be bigger than 10' wingspan/length/whatever before folks stand up and say, "Whee doggie Jethro, that there is one big-ass dire bat!"

So relatively speaking, the bat has to be a lot bigger than normal to be considered dire-- it takes a 3000% increase for the critter to be outside the realm of "normal" at all.

If you think bats are bad, consider the giant vermin. Spiders and wasps and such must be many thousands of times bigger in scale than their normal size before they hit "giant vermin" status.


Wulf

 

[Ashrem Bayle]

IMHO, there should have been a Dire template instead of individual creatures.

As far as I know, there is no official "rule" as to how they are created. Just whatever works for you.

 

[Ashrem Bayle]

"Whee doggie Jethro, that there is one big-ass dire bat!"

Wulf

ROFLMAO!!!

I think I just found my next quote!

 

[Eryx]

IMHO, there should have been a Dire template instead of individual creatures.

I agree there. I'd like to see a Dire Animal template, even if it was done differently than the Dire Beasts we already known from MM and similar books.

 

[Ace32]

Look no farther than the Creature Catalog for a Dire animal template! Thanks to the good folks down there, DnDChick, Boz, and ofcourse Grazzt. A link for those that desire one: Creature Catalog

 

[Left-handed Hummingbird]

I disagree. Diredom could be different things for different animals. A Dire Tiger would have different abilities from a Dire Fish for example. That said, it's only a game so realism obviously won't be the deciding factor, but instead playability.

 

[Green Knight]

Is your topic title out of whack?

Yes.

As for the topic at hand, who cares what the percentage is? 3,000%? Would you prefer only a 500% increase? Oh yeah, that'd be threatening. A Dire Bat with 5 hit points.

 

[MerricB]

Dire Animals aren't Dire if they aren't dangerous.

Remember, the progression continues to Legendary Animals (See MotW).

Cheers!

 

[Crothian]

Dire Animals aren't Dire if they aren't dangerous.

Remember, the progression continues to Legendary Animals (See MotW).

Cheers!

I see we are qued for the complaint that Legendary Animals should have been a Template. That they serve little purpose but as an excuse to give high level characters powerful animal companions.