Statting the World's Largest Bird

[Silver Moon]

We got into a comical discussion in the game regarding the South Dakota Pheasant. That's their state bird and they put it on the state's quarter but they also put on Mount Rushmore so taken together it looks like a giant bird flying over the mountain with a wingspan almost the length of the presidents.

So our gaming group was wondering what are the stats on this giant bird? Would you use the ROC as the template?

 

[TheGogmagog]

There are legends of a huge bird in North America. The bird is rumored to be so large that it could only take flight in strong winds. Thus was mostly seen preceeding thunderstoms. There are a few reports from Mexico, up the Eastern side of the Rockies, and the mid-west (along a jet stream). Some of the reports were as late as the early 70's of the 'large' bird with one report of it snatching a small child. The reports are more rare and less consitant than bigfoot sightings though, so the truth would be suspect without any physical evidence like corpse or skeleton.

Sorry, I don't have anything truly usefull for statting it out though, short of comparing the large birds (giant owl, eagle and dire bat) to the Roc and coming up with something mid-way.

 

[Ender_rpm]

IIRC, the reports you are talking about refer to condors, which is a freakin big bird on its own. But to the OP, a ROc would work fine, except that I doubt a huge Pheasant would be quite so effective in combat

 

[TYPO5478]

Just advance a roc to colossal size. That's your best bet in my opinion.

 

[szilard]

I doubt a huge Pheasant would be quite so effective in combat

I don't know - pheasants tend to be opportunistic hunters and won't hesitate to eat small animals.

For a colossal pheasant, that would almost certainly include humanoids.

-Stuart

 

[pawsplay]

Colossal... pheasant... can't.... stop... laughing...

 

[Ender_rpm]

pheer teh squab of dhoom!!!!

 

[DungeonmasterCal]

Attach the Dire and Legendary templates to it, then crank it to colossal size!

 

[lukelightning]

King: What harm can it do? It's just a big peasant.
Advisor: No, I said it was a colossal pheasant.

 

[mvincent]

Just advance a roc to colossal size.

Agreed (33+ HD).

Dire Roc

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

IIRC, the reports you are talking about refer to condors, which is a freakin big bird on its own.

Actually they don't- at least not any species of condor currently known to science.

I remember seeing a show about those critters on Discover- it was part of their series on Megafauna (including, BTW, a 20'+ long Goanna in the Aussie outback) that may or may not have existed.

The kid that was attacked was about 8 years old- much too large for a condor to lift, yet according to the report, the kid's mom had to grab him by the legs to prevent him being carried off. The people on the show estimated the critter's wingspan (based on that attack, Native American legends, and a piece of grainy film) was 25+ feet or so.

 

[blaze_fontane]

what about moth man what would his stats be lol

 

[blaze_fontane]

not meaning to change the subject but what about moth man what whould his stats be?

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

The D20 Menace Manual has some mothman type aliens in it- I don't know the stats off the top of my head, though.