Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!: A Dresdenverse Bestiary

[Ala Alba]

I'm not sure that diminutive size should apply to a fox. They're rather larger than most of the things you'd normally give it to.

[Deadmanwalking]

They're less than 15 lbs, which is my cutoff. According to wikipedia they average around 12, or abou 1 lb. more than a House Cat. You'll note that I gave them high Might, to be used in comparison to other Diminutive things.

[KOFFEYKID]

When you figure out how to stat a swarm, I vote for Piraņa, because they are vicious.

[Ravangames]

You are....


AWESOME!!!!! (Rhino the Gerbil voice from Bolt).
 


can I get a bearded dragon please.

Also, do you mind me shooting you an email to help stat some NPCs for Detroit?


BTW, I'll PDF the thing with pics if you shoot me the whole list.  Not sure where I would post it though.

[Ravangames]

When you figure out how to stat a swarm, I vote for Piraņa, because they are vicious.

I would imagine it would be the same as normal, but you would just give it an swam like aspect.  Also when defeated it will just disperse with X survivors, where X = some die roll.  Unless the total damage done to swarm = x

[Deadmanwalking]

You are....


AWESOME!!!!! (Rhino the Gerbil voice from Bolt).
 

Always good to hear. 

can I get a bearded dragon please.

Sure. As soon as I finish up with the swarms or get some other animals to stat.

Also, do you mind me shooting you an email to help stat some NPCs for Detroit?

Not at all, though I'd prefer (and be more likely to answer promptly) Private Massaging on this board to e-mail.

BTW, I'll PDF the thing with pics if you shoot me the whole list.  Not sure where I would post it though.

I'll think about it. I believe Jeckel may be doing something like that, site and all, but he might be willing to accept some help...

I would imagine it would be the same as normal, but you would just give it an swam like aspect.  Also when defeated it will just disperse with X survivors, where X = some die roll.  Unless the total damage done to swarm = x

Not exactly. A magically summoned swarm might fight to the last...

I do have an idea though, which should be fun, actually.

[Deadmanwalking]

Okay, first off, I think swarms of anything smaller than rats should be handled as environmental effects rather than creatures. It just seems simpler that way. If you want to stat them as creatures, use the following rules, but give them Physical Immunity instead of Inhuman or Supernatural Toughness (with the same Catch), Diminutive Size, Claws if they're something dangerous like wasps, and Wings if they've got 'em. Give them Zone wide attacks or not as usual based on size. That should give you something appropriate-ish.

Second, Swarms come in two sizes: Person, and Zone. A Person sized Swarm is only big enough to attack a single person at a time, a Zone sized one can attack everyone in a zone. These stats are for Zone sized swarms, to lower them to Person sized, just drop Supernatural Toughness to Inhuman (keeping the same Catch and thus the same cost), and drop Zone Wide Attack entirely.



High Concept: School of Pirranha
Other:
Always Hungry
Can Skeletonize A Cow In Two Minutes

Skills:

Superb: Fists,
Great: Athletics, Intimidate,
Good: Endurance, Stealth,
Fair: Alertness, Discipline, Survival,
Average: Conviction, Might, Presence,

Powers:

Aquatic [-1]
Claws [-1]
Echoes of the Beast [-1]
Inhuman Speed [-2]
Supernatural Toughness [-4]
The Catch is area effects, or anything else that would effect a significant portion of the swarm [+3]
Zone Wide Attack (The creature can attack every individual in a zone with it's normal attack)[-2]

Total Refresh: -8

Stress:

Mental: OOO
Physical: OOOO(OOOO)
Social: OOO
Armor: 2



High Concept: Rat Swarm
Other:
Dangerous Vermin
More Rats Than You Can Shake A Stick At

Skills:

Great: Survival, Fists, Intimidate,
Good: Alertness, Athletics, Endurance,
Fair: Discipline, Presence, Stealth,
Average: Burglary, Conviction, Rapport,

Powers:

Claws [-1]
Echoes of the Beast [-1]
Inhuman Speed [-2]
Supernatural Toughness [-4]
The Catch is area effects, or anything else that would effect a significant portion of the swarm [+3]
Zone Wide Attack (The creature can attack every individual in a zone with it's normal attack)[-2]

Total Refresh: -7

Stress:

Mental: OOO
Physical: OOOO(OOOO)
Social: OOO
Armor: 2

Note: Rats are braver in groups, hence the enhanced mental skills.

[Jeckel]

BTW, I'll PDF the thing with pics if you shoot me the whole list.  Not sure where I would post it though.

I'll think about it. I believe Jeckel may be doing something like that, site and all, but he might be willing to accept some help...

Yea, I've been working on displaying the animals in HTML, but with an eye toward other ways to display the info I'm storing each animal in its own xml file. Shouldn't be to hard to write a small script to turn the xml files into any desired output format.

I've been thinking that pictures for each animal would be very cool, and I love pdfs. Send me a private message Ravangames, I'm curious as to how you were planning to do the pdf version and I have a current list of posted animals that might help ya. Heck, at the very least your pictures could make my pages better and I can offer a place to host your pdf.

[Ravangames]

Yea, I've been working on displaying the animals in HTML, but with an eye toward other ways to display the info I'm storing each animal in its own xml file. Shouldn't be to hard to write a small script to turn the xml files into any desired output format.

I've been thinking that pictures for each animal would be very cool, and I love pdfs. Send me a private message Ravangames, I'm curious as to how you were planning to do the pdf version and I have a current list of posted animals that might help ya. Heck, at the very least your pictures could make my pages better and I can offer a place to host your pdf.

Sounds good to me... I'll send ya a pm.

[Ravangames]

I got em all and aphatized it.  A little formatting...  anyone want to proof read the 32 page doc?

Will add more formatting and pics later.

[Deadmanwalking]

Any other requests? Right now I've got a bearded lizard, but I usually wait till I've got at least three, before I stat 'em up.

[Ala Alba]

Oh well, how about a Penguin? And a polar bear, if you think it'd be sufficiently different from a normal bear.

Also: Rhinoceros, Elephant, and Panda? You might have done some of these, but I didn't bother to check. (Sorry!)

[Deadmanwalking]

For a polar bear, add the Arctic power from Wolverine to a Grizzly, and shuffle a few Aspects and you're good to go. They're primarily different in temperament, not capabilities.

And I have done both E;ephant and Rhino.

Still, that leaves penguin, bearded lizard, and panda. And that's enough for a new post, which'll be up sometime soon-ish.

[Jeckel]

I was watching Biblical Disasters on History International channel, and Swarm of Locusts could be pretty interesting, though I'm not sure if small swarms are worth stating and if big swarms might fall into Plot Device territory.

[Deadmanwalking]

Okay, first off, I think swarms of anything smaller than rats should be handled as environmental effects rather than creatures. It just seems simpler that way. If you want to stat them as creatures, use the following rules, but give them Physical Immunity instead of Inhuman or Supernatural Toughness (with the same Catch), Diminutive Size, Claws if they're something dangerous like wasps, and Wings if they've got 'em. Give them Zone wide attacks or not as usual based on size. That should give you something appropriate-ish.

Thus Locusts would have the following for powers:

Diminutive Size [-1]
Wings [-1]
Physical Immunity [-8]
The Catch is area effects, or anything else that would effect a significant portion of the swarm [+3]
Zone Wide Attack (The creature can attack every individual in a zone with it's normal attack)[-2]


But really, I think they're better handled as an environmental hazard.