Dicefreaks d20 Community

Do the werepyre and dracopyre have any origin beyond your imagination (and whoever drew those silly pictures)?

The werepyre is the obvious fanboy dream of a werewolf vampire. The dracopyre is the obvious next step from that.

WarDragon wrote:Do the werepyre and dracopyre have any origin beyond your imagination (and whoever drew those silly pictures)?

The AdventureQuest game (free here) is where both creatures are from. And the 'silly drawings'

The dracopyre is a werepyre who drank the blood of a thousand dragons. In the Adventure Quest game, he is unique, but I decided AW could have them as a species.

Oh.

I... I, uh, would have made it higher level, then.

WarDragon wrote:Oh.

I... I, uh, would have made it higher level, then.

Nightbane would be a higher level. As would Wolfwing, his werepyre 'father'. Round CR 30ish for Nightbane and 24ish for Wolfwing.

Great to see two of my favourite NPC's for AQ making it into the Alternate World Monsternomicon. Any chance of seeing Zards making it into the AW as minor elemental's? Or seeing the likes of the Blade of Awe or Guardian Blade as very minor artefacts? (Seeing as all Guardians own them, perhaps they should be standard magic weapons :)).

Twice_Deceased wrote:Great to see two of my favourite NPC's for AQ making it into the Alternate World Monsternomicon. Any chance of seeing Zards making it into the AW as minor elemental's? Or seeing the likes of the Blade of Awe or Guardian Blade as very minor artefacts? (Seeing as all Guardians own them, perhaps they should be standard magic weapons ).

Well, keep in mind I'm just putting their base creature in the monster thread for the moment...I may or may not get around to statting the actual entities that inspired them.

Guardian Blade would definitely be a magic item....I don't see why the Blade of Awe would be an artifact either. Some of the stuff would be epic (Reign, Nightmare, Golden Set) but I don't think anything other than perhaps the true Dragonblades would be artifacts.

Is there an upper limit on how smart an animal can be in Alternate World? Are the very brightest of blue whales on part with an above-average human, or is 6 as good as they can get?

WarDragon wrote:Is there an upper limit on how smart an animal can be in Alternate World? Are the very brightest of blue whales on part with an above-average human, or is 6 as good as they can get?

I don't consider animals to deviate as much from their base statistics as humans do. Certainly not at a rate of 3d6. Animals would be more like 7+1d6 or 8+1d3

On the other hand, there is nothing innately preventing an animal from being on par with or smarter than a human. Dolphins and rats are smarter than humans in Alternate World.

What about corvids?

KingCrazyGenius wrote:What about corvids?

They would be on par with (non-human) apes.

I dunno. There are plenty of studies that are showing that they are smarter than even chimps.

KingCrazyGenius wrote:I dunno. There are plenty of studies that are showing that they are smarter than even chimps.

I know. And while I firmly believe animals have intelligence, even if measured solely by human standards, I'm also of the opinion that our ability to test such and truly make solid comparisons is lacking. Thus I put them on par with apes, which is slightly below human.

Well if you are going to insist on equal Int for crows and ravens with apes, at least give them better wisdom and/or charisma. You don't see apes driving people insane, after all.

KingCrazyGenius wrote:Well if you are going to insist on equal Int for crows and ravens with apes, at least give them better wisdom and/or charisma. You don't see apes driving people insane, after all.

If you look at my owl stats, you will see that birds do in fact, tend to have higher Wis scores than mammals.

Yes, but owls aren't crows, or ravens, and thus I couldn't care less about them.

KingCrazyGenius wrote:Yes, but owls aren't crows, or ravens, and thus I couldn't care less about them.

And clearly your pattern recognition skills are failing you as well. Note that many of the theropod dinosaurs likewise have high Wisdom scores.

Which would be grand if I cared about therapod dinosaurs.

So if rats and dolphins are both smarter on average than humans, why aren't they making a grab for dominance in their environments, developing technology, learning magic, or whatever? Every race worth a damn picks up on magic.

KingCrazyGenius wrote:Which would be grand if I cared about therapod dinosaurs.

Your inability to grasp concepts and implications beyond your immediate area of concern is your problem, not mine. Mourn the injustice to the corvid until your tears cut scars into your cheeks.

So if rats and dolphins are both smarter on average than humans, why aren't they making a grab for dominance in their environments, developing technology, learning magic, or whatever? Every race worth a damn picks up on magic.

Dolphins do dominate their environment, because they are big and strong. They exist on a pretty equal level with aquatic elves and other intelligent aquatic races. They have their own patron goddess. The concern for wealth and power is not the same as within humanoid cultures, however.

Rats do not because they are small and weak. Instead they work from behind the scenes towards their goals, which are not the same as human goals, nor is their success measured in human terms of success. Some rats do develop magic (or psionics), although human wizardry isn't very useful to a race that hasn't created written language.

I get your stupid implications, I just don't care. Where are the damn crows?

success measured in human terms of success.

So what is a rat's standard for success? Living past 10? Hundreds of offspring? Hording useless crap? Convincing suckers like you and your girlfriend to cater to their every need? What is so alien about their goals that they wouldn't see the value of mimicking larger intelligent races?

KingCrazyGenius wrote:I get your stupid implications, I just don't care. Where are the damn crows?

Not coming by my hand any time soon, no one ever asked for them.

success measured in human terms of success.

So what is a rat's standard for success? Living past 10? Hundreds of offspring? Hording useless crap? Convincing suckers like you and your girlfriend to cater to their every need? What is so alien about their goals that they wouldn't see the value of mimicking larger intelligent races?

I've never cared for the concept that all races (animal or other humanoid) are all basically the same other than size and shape and ear points. Rats, at least in AW, are not concerned with any of that you mention. (I don't see most human cultures in AW at the point where a creature like a rat is a worthwhile pet) Long lives are fine for those who are concerned with their own goals. Rats work for the greater power of all rat kind. They treasure knowledge above all else. Knowledge that is passed down to their children's children's children. Knowledge that is passed through their massive network that spans the globe. Knowledge gained by familiars. Knowledge and applying it to properly shape the world as they prefer. Rats would rather manipulate a human or elven king towards their ends than create a rat empire that enslaves humans. The best slave is one who thinks he's doing what he wants the most.

Certain factions of rats have enacted several breeding programs designed to create a race of truly superior and dominating beings, not just in mind but in body as well. Some of the results have been rather successful. Cranium rats, moon rats, etc. Rat-lycanthropy may be the result of rat/demonic pacts. Demons wishing another plague on humanity possibly contacted several powerful rats and bargained with them to mix their superior blood into that of humanoid stock, resulting in wererats.

Killing every rat I come across now.

Do I smell a crossover coming on, or just coincidence that those groups of creatures were interspersed?

WarDragon wrote:Do I smell a crossover coming on, or just coincidence that those groups of creatures were interspersed?

Not really. I'm just watching Starship Troopers courtesy of Hulu, and decided to make some bugs. Then, instead of making their troopers (which would belong more accurately in a Starship Troopers d20 thread, I decided to do up some Dragon Empire foot soldiers. Then I watched more of ST, and made the tanker. No real connection at all, other than the futuristic/space one.

So what are the Space and Radiation subtypes?