Real world animal, meet D+D monster

[Angel Tarragon]

Thats a lotta

 

[Tonguez]

Extreme sexual dimophism (where the male and female look different) isn't used very often in rpg monsters (the only I can think of at the moment is from Blue Planet). 2 monsters for the price of one...

Has anyone used developmental metamorphosis (what I mentioned before with the insects)?

IMC Trolls and Hags are the males and females of the same species

and I know one Enworlder said s/he had a homebrew where dwarf and elf were the male-female of a single species too

and as I said earlier my goblins are amphibians and go through a tadpole stage.

Another behaviour I was considering today was the practice of certain mammals (cats and dogs for instance) of marking their terriroty with urine. Imagine what a Dragons spray must be like!

 

[mythusmage]

Echidnoderms: Well actually ... echidnoderms are bilaterally symmetrical. As a matter of fact, along with hemi-chordates and primitive chordates they are the closest relatives we have among the invertebrates. The apparent radial symmetry develops as the animal develops into its adult form. The larvae are all bilaterally symmetrical.

Tasmanian Devils: An upset tazzie smells real bad. They've also been known to bond with their keepers and enjoy a cuddle.

White rhinos also bond with their keepers, as do bison.

Whereto Phylums: I think the great majority of phyla (chordates, which includes vertebrates, are one phylum) are some form of worm or crustacean.

Almost forgot this ...

The slime mold is a huge single cell with multiple nuclei. Under the right conditions it can split up into numerous ameoba, or grow stalks with fruiting bodies on the tips that produce spores.

BTW, the sponge is the only animal phylum that is not bilaterally symmetrical. It has no symmetry at all.

 

[DMH]

Echidnoderms: Well actually ... echidnoderms are bilaterally symmetrical. As a matter of fact, along with hemi-chordates and primitive chordates they are the closest relatives we have among the invertebrates. The apparent radial symmetry develops as the animal develops into its adult form. The larvae are all bilaterally symmetrical.

And? I doubt any party is going to encounter larval echinoderms and thus I only mentioned the adult form.

Whereto Phylums: I think the great majority of phyla (chordates, which includes vertebrates, are one phylum) are some form of worm or crustacean.

Out of the 36 phyla of inverts, 18 are not worms- sponges, arthropods, molluscs, comb jellies, echinoderms, cnidarians (jellyfish and coral), rotifers and the very cool kinorhynchs* among them.

Where did you come up with crustacean? That isn't even a phylum.

BTW, the sponge is the only animal phylum that is not bilaterally symmetrical. It has no symmetry at all.

All adult echnioderms have radial symmetry.

*These guys would make great monsters- armored, aquatic ambush predators that are very tough to damage because of their armor. And the loricferians look like pineapples with all kinds of spikes on its head. The glomerus from the plane of Mineral (from a Dragon issue) reminds me of them.

 

[LeapingShark]

I went to the Long Beach Aquarium a couple weeks ago and they had a tank full of normal-looking little fish (I forget the species). The caretakers would take a tiny glob of food and randomly smear it somewhere outside the tank, a foot or more above the surface of the water, on a lightsocket or some other convenient location nearby. Within a few seconds, one of the fish would somehow spot the dot of food and come up to the surface of the water and sit there for a moment..... taking aim. Then suddenly it would spray a high-velocity "jet" of water up at the food, with pinpoint accuracy. The "Ray of Water" would dislodge the food and cause it to fall down into the tank, where the fish could pounce on it.

In a D&D world, some malicious fish (or other aquatic creature) could spray jets of water at adventurers walking on a narrow path above a river, or perhaps knock them off a bridge...

 

[megamania]

Right. One of the scariest moments for the party in a game I was running was when, as very low level characters (2nd level I believe), they encountered two wyrmling black dragons who were absolutely fascinated by them (they had never seen people, only heard stories from Mama) and wanted to play "Dragons and Knights" with them. They spent a WHILE playing, coming up with different games and getting the "little" dragons good and tired out, and getting a litte hurt up in the process, because the dragons were blackmailing them, saying they would go tell Mama if the PCs wouldn't play.

Smart PCs that they were, they ended up using the situation before it was over to get the little dragons to tell Mama about the tasty treasure to be found at the shantytown of a pirate company that had wronged them - which they later found had been laid waste to.

LOL Sounds like something my group would do. Thanks for sharing.

 

[megamania]

I went to the Long Beach Aquarium a couple weeks ago and they had a tank full of normal-looking little fish (I forget the species). The caretakers would take a tiny glob of food and randomly smear it somewhere outside the tank, a foot or more above the surface of the water, on a lightsocket or some other convenient location nearby. Within a few seconds, one of the fish would somehow spot the dot of food and come up to the surface of the water and sit there for a moment..... taking aim. Then suddenly it would spray a high-velocity "jet" of water up at the food, with pinpoint accuracy. The "Ray of Water" would dislodge the food and cause it to fall down into the tank, where the fish could pounce on it.

In a D&D world, some malicious fish (or other aquatic creature) could spray jets of water at adventurers walking on a narrow path above a river, or perhaps knock them off a bridge...

Archer fish. They do this to knock insects from low lying plants into the water. 2ed had them in Giant size to shot down PCs as they crossed over bridges or logs.

 

[Hand of Evil]

See this thread I posted over in OT: http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=129560

 

[megamania]

*These guys would make great monsters- armored, aquatic ambush predators that are very tough to damage because of their armor. And the loricferians look like pineapples with all kinds of spikes on its head. The glomerus from the plane of Mineral (from a Dragon issue) reminds me of them.

Has anyone ever studied fresh water larvae? A halgamite of small or medium size would be very deadly to a PC leaning over water to get a drink.

Stone flys also.

 

[Nebulous]

I saw an Animal Planet documentary about dangerous creatures. There was a tiny colorful poisonous frog that was eatern by a MUCH larger hungry frog. The tiny frog was coated with contact poison, and the large frog died within minutes from internal damage or a powerful neruotoxin.

The tiny frog crawled out of it's mouth and hopped away.