Underwater creatures, HELP!

[Urklore]

For an update for Swordfish and Sawfish

The swordfish first appeared in 1st edition Monster Manual II, p. 117.
The sawfish first appeared in Dragon Magazine #116, p. 42.

 

[Urklore]

flavor text

Combat
Sawfishes are very lethargic animals, spending much of their day nestled in the muddy sea/river floor. At night, they scull slowly through the shallows, using their sensitive saw to find buried prey, which are then raked from the sediment to be consumed. It is useful to view the sawfishes' unique snout like a fish detector combined with a clam rake.

If small fishes swim past a hungry sawfish, this great shark-like ray will launch from the bottom, slashing its toothy weapon rapidly side to side. Gouged by the snout's awl-shaped teeth, injured fishes tumble to the sea floor, now immobilized and easy to catch.

Apart from its use in finding and disabling prey, the toothy snout is also a weapon of defense. When threatened, sawfishes will smack this jagged sword against attackers, whether they be sharks or fishermen. Generally, though, sawfishes are very gentle animals, prefering to lie quietly, undisturbed.


Variant
Sawfish are found in both salt or freshwater environments, where as the sawshark is only found in saltwater.

 

[Urklore]

Since Improved Critical as a bonus feat, how about a feat to account that it moves and slides its saw blade from side to side rapidly. Isn't there some kind of move-based feat or something? Or we could make our own:

Swimby Attack [GENERAL]
Prerequisite: Swim speed of 40 feet or more.

Benefit: When swimming, the creature can take a move action (including a charge) and another standard action at any point during the move. The creature cannot take a second move action during a round when it makes a swimby attack.

Normal: Without this feat, the creature takes a standard action either before or after its move.


For your consideration
Skills: Sawfish have a +4 racial bonus to Search checks when probing sea or river floors with there snout for prey and a +4 racial bonus to Hide checks while hiding in the same environment as well.

 

[Shade]

Nice work! I incorporated most of your suggestions. The Swimby Attack feat exists in Creature Collection III, but I don't see any reason we couldn't use yours as well. It seems like a natural extension of the Flyby Attack feat, and should have been in the game since the beginning. I've actually been using almost the exact same feat in my campaign for awhile now.

 

[Urklore]

Yup. I just used the flyby attack and changed a few words and prereq. Made sense that there should have been a swimby attack feat for sea creatures such as this.

 

[Shade]

I think they'll have to be CR 1. They are slighly better than a Medium shark (CR 1), but much weaker than a Large shark (CR 2).

For the remaining feat, how about Alertness?

For the skills, how about: Hide 2, Search 2, Spot 2?

Any idea of how much one of these critters weighs?

 

[Urklore]

Some Excellent reading:

http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/gallery/descript/STsawfish/STSawfish.html

http://www.hometown.aol.com/nokogiri/page2.html

2 ranks in Hide, Spot, and Search sound on target to me.

As for weight, up to 660lbs weight!?? ouch!
Name: Smalltooth Sawfish (Pristis pectinata)
Primary Classification: Elasmobranchi (Skates and Rays)
Diet: Mostly fish, but also some crustaceans.
Size: Up to 20 ft in length and 660 lbs in weight.
Description: Flattened head; small eyes; long snout with 24-32 pairs of pointed teeth on either side; long body; stout pectoral fins; triangular dorsal fins
Cool Facts: It slashes into schools of fish with its sawlike snout, feeding on dead or maimed fish that fall to the bottom.
Conservation Status: Endangered
Major Threat(s): Overfishing

 

[Shade]

Wow! Since they get that big, I added an advancement to Huge size.

I raised their bonuses to Hide and Search to +8, since they had such poor modifiers. These are the skills they rely on for their livelihood after all.

What do you think about Alertness as the remaining feat?

 

[Urklore]

Alertness works. I do not see any other feat that could apply to it (not up to par on my sawfish lore). Unless instead of alertness (are they that alert to their environment?) and give them weapon focus with the snout for the extra +1 to attack.

 

[Shade]

It looks like all the sea creatures in the MM have Alertness (except the porpoise), so let's go for consistency. I could only find one site that gave a weight, and they said 120 lbs., so I guess we can go with that.