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What to do about dolphins and whales?
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<blockquote data-quote="trav_laney" data-source="post: 3398732" data-attributes="member: 46508"><p>Personally, I leave them alone. Intelligence 1 or 2 is more than enough for an animal of any kind, and I've had arguments with my own players before about what makes a creature "intelligent."</p><p></p><p>If you dig deep enough, any animal can build a case to support a promotion to "Magical Beast" based on their ability to communicate with each other, find a mate, track and hunt prey, avoid hazards, and so forth. Not that there is anything wrong with that; it could be very interesting to make a game setting where all animals think and talk as well as humans do. Mythology and folklore are full of stuff like this...and it sounds like your campaign is employing something very similar.</p><p></p><p>But I digress.</p><p></p><p>If only the dolphins and whales are intelligent, it might be easier to make them Magical Beasts, like the Giant Eagle. And since druids cannot wild shape into magical beasts, that rule should apply. Perhaps there is a feat out there that will allow a PC druid to accomplish this.</p><p></p><p>Or perhaps you could create only one particular strain of "intelligent" dolphins, who intermingle with other standard dolphins...sort of the way a treant looks after the trees.</p><p></p><p>But for most campaigns, I'd leave it alone. Unless your dolphins are building cities and farming plankton, have a caste system to govern their people, and have made alliances with seahorses and whales to help them wage war against the sharks who are invading their lands, I wouldn't worry too much about cetacean intelligence. <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="trav_laney, post: 3398732, member: 46508"] Personally, I leave them alone. Intelligence 1 or 2 is more than enough for an animal of any kind, and I've had arguments with my own players before about what makes a creature "intelligent." If you dig deep enough, any animal can build a case to support a promotion to "Magical Beast" based on their ability to communicate with each other, find a mate, track and hunt prey, avoid hazards, and so forth. Not that there is anything wrong with that; it could be very interesting to make a game setting where all animals think and talk as well as humans do. Mythology and folklore are full of stuff like this...and it sounds like your campaign is employing something very similar. But I digress. If only the dolphins and whales are intelligent, it might be easier to make them Magical Beasts, like the Giant Eagle. And since druids cannot wild shape into magical beasts, that rule should apply. Perhaps there is a feat out there that will allow a PC druid to accomplish this. Or perhaps you could create only one particular strain of "intelligent" dolphins, who intermingle with other standard dolphins...sort of the way a treant looks after the trees. But for most campaigns, I'd leave it alone. Unless your dolphins are building cities and farming plankton, have a caste system to govern their people, and have made alliances with seahorses and whales to help them wage war against the sharks who are invading their lands, I wouldn't worry too much about cetacean intelligence. :) [/QUOTE]
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What to do about dolphins and whales?
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