Lizard Man druid petitoning dires trade out for dinos

[Voneth]

It's all about the theme!

For mammalian Druids a Dire Bear/wolf/Tiger fits and is fine. But you chose scales for a reason and Lizards have a problem with travel, it's called winter.

So I petition for Lizardment Druids to stand up and be counted for getting dinos instead of dire animals!

 

[DWARF]

Ahhh, but the evidence for dinosaur's being homeothermic is not quite as airtight as one might believe. Despite the fact that birds developed from them and are themselves homeothermic, crocidilians and lizards are also derived from sauriscian lines. So dino's being warm-blooded is not solid. The only fact we know is that between Archiopteryx and modern day birds, warm-bloodedness was developed.

Also, fun dino fact:
Sauriscian means lizard-hipped and Ornithiscian means bird-hipped for the general hip designs for the 2 types of dinosaurs. Birds are actually derived from the sauriscian, or lizard-hipped, dinosaurs. So the dinosaur line went from a lizard to bird pelvis twice in the evolutionary derivation! Ain't that whackey?!!!

 

[Plane Sailing]

IIRC the issue of homeothermic dinosaurs has nothing to do with theories about birds, and everything to do with the discovery of Deinochyus (can't spell it) in Mongolia a few decades ago. The skeletal structure, stiffening rods in the tail and sharp toe claws pointed to an extremely active and agile dinosaur, which couldn't be supported in the old poikilothermic days. Thus was the start of people considering homeothermic dinosaurs and reassessing everything from fossilised gait indications to how the bones fit together.

In a more on-topic response, I'd say - check the relative CR's of dire animals and dinosaurs. I would have thought they were comparable, and if so it would make excellent sense for a lizardman druid to be able to wildshape into dino form. I'll certainly be stealing that idea for my campaign.

Cheers

 

[MancerBear]

How about some dire lizards, or reptiles. Dire komodo dragon, dire bearded dragon, dire anaconda (for pete's sake).

I think this works better than using dinosaurs in a standard fantasy setting. Creating dire reptiles isn't all that hard, and you could even go for dire amphibians while you're at it.

Anyway, that's my 2 cents worth.

 

[Wolfspider]

Hey, I'm all in letting Lizardfolk druids substitute dinos for dires. Of course, a few months back I made a similar case over in the Rules forum concerning my lizardfolk druid Sedek and pretty much got shot down.

Everyone argued that dinosaurs weren't animals (uhh, yeah), that they were too powerful, got increased hit dice, etc.

Go ahead and make your case. I've got your back.