Real life beasts that need more attention

[Andor]

I now have an overwhelming desire to stat-up a Dire Partridge

Or a whole flock of them. "Run! It's the partridge family!"

 

[DarkKestral]

Right now, I almost want to see if statting up the Japanese Bakeneko would be doable. I'm not sure what the abilities of the beast are, mythically.. and the stats for cats in D&D are already a bit screwed up.

Beyond that, I would love to see animals that have paragons that have the mythic powers associated with the beasts.

 

[Alzrius]

Binturongs for the win!

 

[jeffh]

Australia... They have snails that can kill you. That's just stupid.

Very sigable.

And to whoever posted the pictures of those larvae - next time just link!!! I have a mild phobia of such things and would have expected this to be a safe environment. I'd complain to a mod except that I can't deal with finding your post because I'd have to see those pictures again. I'm serious here.

 

[Peni Griffin]

Well, I just saw on Project Gutenberg a treatise on ratcatching written by a Victorian ratcatcher which mentioned using ferrets, weasels, and dachshunds to catch rats

Yay for research! And for Project Gutenberg. What function did weasels serve that ferrets didn't?

I used to think (when I first ran across them in The Borrowers) that ferrets were the domestic versions of weasels in the same way that dogs are domestic versions of wolves. But I was very young at the time.

 

[Slife]

Binturongs for the win!

They need to have this ability

Delicious Scent (ex)
Binturongs smell like corn chips. Doritos in particular. No, really, they do. Players must make a fortitude save (DC 25) to avoid eating the olfactory aids that the GM has brought.

 

[Plane Sailing]

I've also found that having monsters use some of these threat displays make them seem more real as well. I mean, its not a great leap to give a displacer beast the lion's threat display or to describe a gorgon acting like an angry buffalo, but stuff like that goes a long way towards making an encounter feel more genuine.

Good stuff, thanks.

I wish more DM's took threat displays and similar into account (thus giving rangers something to do with their wild empathy!)

 

[Plane Sailing]

Cordyceps Fungus

All the above links are Youtube in case you don't want to click.

DS

I thought the Cordyceps was particularly interesting - thanks!

 

[Slife]

I thought the Cordyceps was particularly interesting - thanks!

The infec(s?)ted moth, I think, was the creepiest...

 

[DarkKestral]

Yay for research! And for Project Gutenberg. What function did weasels serve that ferrets didn't?

I used to think (when I first ran across them in The Borrowers) that ferrets were the domestic versions of weasels in the same way that dogs are domestic versions of wolves. But I was very young at the time.

Basically, the weasels were far more vicious, and would do the entire 'bleed the rat to death' thing. He said he didn't use them much, because they were vicious, though others did. And it wasn't reasearch.. it was me looking it up after I saw a link to it on BoingBoing, since I like Victorian era stuff.