"realistic" giant insects in d20 System

[DMH]

giant insects, genies, and nothing else.

So they have nothing to eat at all and no water?

Beast Builder looks at magivorous organisms and this is the way you are going to have to go. Maybe butterflies that consume and use magic via their wings, ants that farm magic fungi, flies that are solar powered (in addition to consuming magic) and ambushing beetles that wait under the sand or in rock crevasses for other giant insect to eat.

 

[DMH]

I fogot to add one thing- speed. Many hard arthropods are tremendously fast for their size. The record for a dragonfly is just over 60 mph IIRC and some ants can run twice as fast as a human (if sizes were equal).

I suggest that every vermin in the MM has its speed doubled at the very least.

 

[Jdvn1]

Off topic, but this occured to me the other day:
Skeleton insects would look exactly the same, becaues they have exoskeletons. I wanna see a GM do something with that.

 

[DMH]

Been done, check out the Book of Templates (Deluxe Edition) from Silverthorne. It has 4 such templates- one for undead insect exoskeletons, one for animated insect skeletons (as a construct) and 2 that do the same thing with verebrate skins/hides.

 

[Psion]

Been done, check out the Book of Templates (Deluxe Edition) from Silverthorne.

Wasn't that drawn from Necromancer's Legacy OGC?

 

[TheAuldGrump]

There are large spiders that rely on hydraulic pressure to remain upright and mobile. After a dash they collapse completly for a while. (Not insects, but close enough for this purpose...) Others use a burst of hydraulic pressure to leap an amazing distance.

Bombardier beetles, I shudder to think what a giant one could do... just looking at the burns makes me wince. The idea of a couple of gallons of the stuff - Ow!

The Auld Grump

 

[Wycen]

Seems like you already have a good handle on how things should work. I was going to say everything you and the entymologist's spouse said.

You might want to look at the rules for d20 modern vermin.

 

[DMH]

Wasn't that drawn from Necromancer's Legacy OGC?

The exoskeleton, yes. All 4 templates have some very interesting applications...

 

[woodelf]

There are large spiders that rely on hydraulic pressure to remain upright and mobile. After a dash they collapse completly for a while. (Not insects, but close enough for this purpose...) Others use a burst of hydraulic pressure to leap an amazing distance.

Bombardier beetles, I shudder to think what a giant one could do... just looking at the burns makes me wince. The idea of a couple of gallons of the stuff - Ow!

The Auld Grump

Actually, IIRC, all (or at least most) spiders use hydraulic pressure to expand joints, and only have muscles for contracting. That's why they curl up into a ball when they die--muscles contract, and nothing to counter them. And that's unlike insects, which have muscles acting in opposition, just like we do.

As for the bombardier beetle--i agree. But that starts to get into issues of realissm vs. abstractions. Lots of attacks in real life are much more vicious/graphic/painful than their D20 System representation. But, usually, they're just abstracted to hps of damage. Not sure if i'd want to do anything fancier than classify it as fire damage for the bombardier's attack.

I fogot to add one thing- speed. Many hard arthropods are tremendously fast for their size. The record for a dragonfly is just over 60 mph IIRC and some ants can run twice as fast as a human (if sizes were equal).

I suggest that every vermin in the MM has its speed doubled at the very least.

Any idea how their speeds compare to other animals (rather than humans)? When i mwas compiling my setting/houserules handout, i did some research on animals, and discovered that you need to, in broad strokes, double-to-triple the speeds of all the mammals from the D20SRD (and have them all run at x5, rather than x4) to match reality. [And it's not just a general scaling issue--human game speeds are a good match for reality.] And never mind scaling--i'm not sure i'd want to race some centipedes even at their current size.

Anyway, the relative speed issue might just be further evidence of our neoteny (baby muscle structure, rather than adult muscle structure). Though i have no idea how that would play out, or even apply, to arthropods, vice mammals.

 

[woodelf]

So they have nothing to eat at all and no water?

Beast Builder looks at magivorous organisms and this is the way you are going to have to go. Maybe butterflies that consume and use magic via their wings, ants that farm magic fungi, flies that are solar powered (in addition to consuming magic) and ambushing beetles that wait under the sand or in rock crevasses for other giant insect to eat.

Magivores: realistic, in this context. Might go with that--certainly explains (1) how they survive and (2) why it's the only place giant insects are found in the world. Of course, no water is no big deal in and of itself--plenty of critters in the real world never consume water directly, instead getting it from their food.

OTOH, like i said, i'm ok with the John-Carter-of-Mars model, and just handwaving what they eat. Not at all realistic, or even, really, plausible, 'tis true. Not sure i care. And there's always eating each other (rival ant colonies, that is).