Creating an amphibious reptile mount [Archive] - Wizards Community

Creating an amphibious reptile mount [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Uratoh
02-17-05, 02:07 PM I was looking at the Warhammer Fantasy lizardman cold one riders and it struck me that some kind of reptile that was less 'flat' than a crocodile might make a good amphibious mount for lizardmen in my campaign world that I'm working on...I'm not trying to stat a warhammer creature, more make something derived from it...the 'cold ones' arent amphibious. here's what I'm aiming for:

Large creature, reptilian
native to swampy environments
has a natural swim speed and natural land speed (swim would need to be fairly fast, perhaps 40 feet, to make them obviously mountworthy)
Natural attack being a bite or possible gore (depends, carniverous or herbiverous), feet/talones are webbed for fast swimming
long tail, balance bonus?
some natural armor, obviously

I know what I want...the problem is just 'making' the thing...I'm pretty sure this is an Animal type, not much else itd fit in.
The Vorpal Tribble
02-17-05, 02:53 PM I have just the perfect mount for you. The Gglupagug that I made for my home MUD. I'll convert it to D&D for you. :cool:
kliate
02-17-05, 02:59 PM The Dragon Turtle seems to be a fair starting point for what you're after:

DRAGON TURTLE
Huge Dragon (Aquatic)
Hit Dice: 12d12+60 (138 hp)
Initiative: +0
Speed: 20 ft. (4 squares), swim 30 ft.
Armor Class: 25 (–2 size, +17 natural), touch 8, flat-footed 25
Base Attack/Grapple: +12/+28
Attack: Bite +18 melee (4d6+8)
Full Attack: Bite +18 melee (4d6+8) and 2 claws +13 melee (2d8+4)
Space/Reach: 15 ft./10 ft.
Special Attacks: Breath weapon, snatch, capsize
Special Qualities: Darkvision 60 ft., immunity to fire, sleep, and paralysis, low-light vision, scent
Saves: Fort +13, Ref +8, Will +9
Abilities: Str 27, Dex 10, Con 21, Int 12, Wis 13, Cha 12
Skills: Diplomacy +3, Hide +7*, Intimidate +16, Listen +16, Search +16, Sense Motive +16, Spot +16, Survival +16 (+18 following tracks), Swim +21
Feats: Blind-Fight, Cleave, Improved Bull Rush, Power Attack, Snatch
Environment: Temperate aquatic
Organization: Solitary
Challenge Rating: 9
Treasure: Triple standard
Alignment: Usually neutral
Advancement: 13–24 HD (Huge); 25–36 HD (Gargantuan)
Level Adjustment: —
Its rough, deep green shell is much the same color as the deep water the monster favors, and the silver highlights that line the shell resemble light dancing on open water. The turtle’s legs, tail, and head are a lighter green, flecked with golden highlights. An adult dragon turtle can measure from 20 to 30 feet from snout to tail, with a shell from 15 to 25 feet in diameter, and can weigh 8,000 to 32,000 pounds.
Dragon turtles speak Aquan, Draconic, and Common.
COMBAT
Dragon turtles are fierce fighters and generally attack any creature that threatens their territory or looks like a potential meal.
Breath Weapon (Su): Cloud of superheated steam 20 feet high, 25 feet wide, and 50 feet long, once every 1d4 rounds, damage 12d6 fire, Reflex DC 21 half; effective both on the surface and underwater. The save DC is Constitution-based.
Capsize (Ex): A submerged dragon turtle that surfaces under a boat or ship less than 20 feet long capsizes the vessel 95% of the time. It has a 50% chance to capsize a vessel from 20 to 60 feet long and a 20% chance to capsize one over 60 feet long.
Skills: A dragon turtle has a +8 racial bonus on any Swim check to perform some special action or avoid a hazard. It can always choose to take 10 on a Swim check, even if distracted or endangered.
It can use the run action while swimming, provided it swims in a straight line.
*Dragon turtles have a +8 racial bonus on Hide checks when submerged.

Now what we're going to want to do is adapt this creature into something that fits your specifications. First, we'll drop it down to large size - reducing it's Str score, Con score, hit dice and natural armor bonus in the process. We'll also up it's speed and make it less draconic/more animal (let's say Magical Beast for now).

Adjustments: Str -8 (now 19), Con -4 (now 17), Natural Armor: Since the creature uses scales rather than a shell, we'll drop the natural armor even further down to a +5. Hit dice: Drop to 8d10
Speed: Increase Swim to 40ft, increase land speed to 30ft

To make it more beast-like and less dragon like, lets remove the breath weapon. Similarly, since the creature is now significantly smaller we'll drop the Capsize ability.

In order to make the creature more suited to being a mount, we'll make the Int score 2 and cut it's Charisma down to 6.

When adding the long tail, we'll also provide it with a tail slap attack dealing 1d8 points of damage and remove the claw attacks.

So, now we've got this:
LIZARD MOUNT
Large Magical Beast (Aquatic)
Hit Dice: 8d10+24 (60 hp)
Initiative: +0
Speed: 30 ft. (6 squares), swim 40 ft.
Armor Class: 14 (–1 size, +5 natural), touch 9, flat-footed 14
Base Attack/Grapple: +8/+16
Attack: Bite +11 melee (3d6+4)
Full Attack: Bite +11 melee (3d6+4) and Tail Slap +6 melee (1d8+2)
Space/Reach: 10 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks: -
Special Qualities: Darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision, scent
Saves: Fort +9, Ref +6, Will +3
Abilities: Str 19, Dex 10, Con 17, Int 2, Wis 13, Cha 6
Skills: Swim +23
Feats: Cleave, Improved Natural Attack (Bite), Power Attack
Environment: Temperate swamp
Organization: Solitary
Challenge Rating: 4 ??
Treasure: None
Alignment: Usually neutral
Advancement: 9–12 HD (Large); 13–20 HD (Huge)
Level Adjustment: —
Skills: A lizard mount has a +8 racial bonus on any Swim check to perform some special action or avoid a hazard. It can always choose to take 10 on a Swim check, even if distracted or endangered.
It can use the run action while swimming, provided it swims in a straight line.

Will that do?
Arae'Kol Da'Ato
02-17-05, 03:40 PM In the Minds Eye on Wizards there's the Titan Salamander and they have a non-Psionic version. It's pretty good.
The Vorpal Tribble
02-17-05, 04:49 PM Hrmm, this isn't quite reptilian, so not sure if it'd still interest you:

--

Gglapagug

A bulky, rubbery, low-slung creature slowly plods into view on six thick legs. An unwieldy head with a fleshy mane of orange frills gapes open, revealing many rows of long, needle-like teeth.

Type: Large Aberration

Hit Dice: 5d8+25
Initiative: -1
Speed: 20 ft., 40 ft. (swim), 10 ft. (climb)
AC: 14 (-1 size, -1 dex, +6 natural)
BAB/Grapple: +3/+17
Attack: Bite +2 melee (2d6+6)
Full attack: Bite +2 melee (2d6+6)
Special Attacks: Improved Grab, Poisonous Skin
Special Qualities: Amphibious, Resistance to bludgeoning/10, Slow Metabolism, Surefooted
Saves: Fort +11, Ref +0, Will +8
Abilities: Str 22, Dex 8, Con 20, Int 3, Wis 18, Cha 5
Skills: Balance +6, Escape Artist +12, Listen +4, Spot +4, Swim +6
Feats: Endurance, Great Fortitude
________________________
Environment: Warm or Temperate swamp
Organization: Solitary, or Family (2-6)
CR: 4
Alignment: Lawful Neutral
Treasure: None
Advancement: -

A gglupagug's rubbery body is low-slung with a rippled flap of skin that brushes against the ground. Supporting its substantial weight are six thick, boneless legs ending in wide, domed feet with eight splayed toes, each surrounded by a thin wrinkled membrane. Its head is large and unwieldy with a few tiny, recessed black eyes and a fleshy mane of orange frills. The gaping mouth is wide and stretched by a great array of sharp interlocking teeth. Dragging along behind is a wide taped tail that grips the ground. The entire form is in fact boneless, possessing a cartilage-like structure. Its main coloration is dark and murky with fantastically bright swirls and veins of turquois, lime greens or pale peach.

Gglapagugs are sentient but odd, slow thinking creatures. They live most their lives in swamps straining algae through their long teeth, which also are quite servicable as weapons.

Combat:
Gglupagugs are slow to enter combat, prefering to swim away from enemies. If forced to fight however it is a very stubborn warrior, grabbing on with its teeth and trying to drown or dash its opponent to death.

Natural Slime (Ex):
A giant salamander produces a very slick slime, giving it a +12 bonus to Escape Artist checks.

Poisonous Skin (Ex):
A gglupagug's skin-slime is slightly poisonous, causing a burning rash to exposed skin similiar in all ways to Red Ache except it comes from contact and not injury. It also has no 'incubation' period.

Riders of a gglupagug to prevent this coat their pants and skin in the saliva of the beast which forms a thin protective layer that lasts up to six hours.

Shallow Breather (Ex):
Giant salamanders breath through their skin and are immune to poisonous gasses. Likewise they can endure low levels of oxygen that would kill a human.

Slow Metabolism (Ex):
A giant salamander can live without nourishment for up to two weeks.

Surefooted (Ex):
Gglupagugs are very well balanced and made for traveling over slick terrain, giving them a +12 bonus to balance checks to keep from slipping. They also gain a +10 bonus on ability checks made to resist being bull rushed or tripped when standing on the ground

Skills: A gglupagug has a +4 racial bonus on any Swim check to perform some special action or avoid a hazard. It can always choose to take 10 on a Swim check, even if distracted or endangered. It can use the run action while swimming, provided it swims in a straight line.

---

Training a Gglupagug

A gglupagug requires training before it can bear a rider in combat. Training a gglupagug requires four weeks of work and a DC 20 Handle Animal check. Riding a gglupagug requires an exotic saddle. A gglupagug can fight while carrying a rider, but the rider cannot also attack unless he or she succeeds on a Ride check.

Gglupagug eggs are worth 4,000 gp apiece on the open market, while young are worth 6,000 gp each. Professional trainers charge 2,000 gp to rear or train a gglupagug

Carrying Capacity: A light load for a gglupagug is up to 300 pounds; a medium load, 301–600 pounds; and a heavy load, 601–900 pounds.
Olly
02-17-05, 05:33 PM I was looking at the Warhammer Fantasy lizardman cold one riders and it struck me that some kind of reptile that was less 'flat' than a crocodile might make a good amphibious mount for lizardmen in my campaign world that I'm working on...I'm not trying to stat a warhammer creature, more make something derived from it...the 'cold ones' arent amphibious. here's what I'm aiming for:

Large creature, reptilian
native to swampy environments
has a natural swim speed and natural land speed (swim would need to be fairly fast, perhaps 40 feet, to make them obviously mountworthy)
Natural attack being a bite or possible gore (depends, carniverous or herbiverous), feet/talones are webbed for fast swimming
long tail, balance bonus?
some natural armor, obviously

I know what I want...the problem is just 'making' the thing...I'm pretty sure this is an Animal type, not much else itd fit in.

Since cold ones are basically deinonycus, why don't you just use dinosaurs?
PhaedrusXY
02-17-05, 05:42 PM There are amphibious iguanas in the Galapagos Islands. I don't know of any D&D stats for iguanas, but giant versions of these might work. Using dinosaur stats is also a good idea, even if you just use the stats for a made-up creature.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Uratoh 02-17-05, 02:07 PM	I was looking at the Warhammer Fantasy lizardman cold one riders and it struck me that some kind of reptile that was less 'flat' than a crocodile might make a good amphibious mount for lizardmen in my campaign world that I'm working on...I'm not trying to stat a warhammer creature, more make something derived from it...the 'cold ones' arent amphibious. here's what I'm aiming for: Large creature, reptilian native to swampy environments has a natural swim speed and natural land speed (swim would need to be fairly fast, perhaps 40 feet, to make them obviously mountworthy) Natural attack being a bite or possible gore (depends, carniverous or herbiverous), feet/talones are webbed for fast swimming long tail, balance bonus? some natural armor, obviously I know what I want...the problem is just 'making' the thing...I'm pretty sure this is an Animal type, not much else itd fit in.
The Vorpal Tribble 02-17-05, 02:53 PM	I have just the perfect mount for you. The Gglupagug that I made for my home MUD. I'll convert it to D&D for you. :cool:
kliate 02-17-05, 02:59 PM	The Dragon Turtle seems to be a fair starting point for what you're after: DRAGON TURTLE Huge Dragon (Aquatic) Hit Dice: 12d12+60 (138 hp) Initiative: +0 Speed: 20 ft. (4 squares), swim 30 ft. Armor Class: 25 (–2 size, +17 natural), touch 8, flat-footed 25 Base Attack/Grapple: +12/+28 Attack: Bite +18 melee (4d6+8) Full Attack: Bite +18 melee (4d6+8) and 2 claws +13 melee (2d8+4) Space/Reach: 15 ft./10 ft. Special Attacks: Breath weapon, snatch, capsize Special Qualities: Darkvision 60 ft., immunity to fire, sleep, and paralysis, low-light vision, scent Saves: Fort +13, Ref +8, Will +9 Abilities: Str 27, Dex 10, Con 21, Int 12, Wis 13, Cha 12 Skills: Diplomacy +3, Hide +7, Intimidate +16, Listen +16, Search +16, Sense Motive +16, Spot +16, Survival +16 (+18 following tracks), Swim +21 Feats: Blind-Fight, Cleave, Improved Bull Rush, Power Attack, Snatch Environment: Temperate aquatic Organization: Solitary Challenge Rating: 9 Treasure: Triple standard Alignment: Usually neutral Advancement: 13–24 HD (Huge); 25–36 HD (Gargantuan) Level Adjustment: — Its rough, deep green shell is much the same color as the deep water the monster favors, and the silver highlights that line the shell resemble light dancing on open water. The turtle’s legs, tail, and head are a lighter green, flecked with golden highlights. An adult dragon turtle can measure from 20 to 30 feet from snout to tail, with a shell from 15 to 25 feet in diameter, and can weigh 8,000 to 32,000 pounds. Dragon turtles speak Aquan, Draconic, and Common. COMBAT Dragon turtles are fierce fighters and generally attack any creature that threatens their territory or looks like a potential meal. Breath Weapon (Su): Cloud of superheated steam 20 feet high, 25 feet wide, and 50 feet long, once every 1d4 rounds, damage 12d6 fire, Reflex DC 21 half; effective both on the surface and underwater. The save DC is Constitution-based. Capsize (Ex): A submerged dragon turtle that surfaces under a boat or ship less than 20 feet long capsizes the vessel 95% of the time. It has a 50% chance to capsize a vessel from 20 to 60 feet long and a 20% chance to capsize one over 60 feet long. Skills: A dragon turtle has a +8 racial bonus on any Swim check to perform some special action or avoid a hazard. It can always choose to take 10 on a Swim check, even if distracted or endangered. It can use the run action while swimming, provided it swims in a straight line. Dragon turtles have a +8 racial bonus on Hide checks when submerged. Now what we're going to want to do is adapt this creature into something that fits your specifications. First, we'll drop it down to large size - reducing it's Str score, Con score, hit dice and natural armor bonus in the process. We'll also up it's speed and make it less draconic/more animal (let's say Magical Beast for now). Adjustments: Str -8 (now 19), Con -4 (now 17), Natural Armor: Since the creature uses scales rather than a shell, we'll drop the natural armor even further down to a +5. Hit dice: Drop to 8d10 Speed: Increase Swim to 40ft, increase land speed to 30ft To make it more beast-like and less dragon like, lets remove the breath weapon. Similarly, since the creature is now significantly smaller we'll drop the Capsize ability. In order to make the creature more suited to being a mount, we'll make the Int score 2 and cut it's Charisma down to 6. When adding the long tail, we'll also provide it with a tail slap attack dealing 1d8 points of damage and remove the claw attacks. So, now we've got this: LIZARD MOUNT Large Magical Beast (Aquatic) Hit Dice: 8d10+24 (60 hp) Initiative: +0 Speed: 30 ft. (6 squares), swim 40 ft. Armor Class: 14 (–1 size, +5 natural), touch 9, flat-footed 14 Base Attack/Grapple: +8/+16 Attack: Bite +11 melee (3d6+4) Full Attack: Bite +11 melee (3d6+4) and Tail Slap +6 melee (1d8+2) Space/Reach: 10 ft./5 ft. Special Attacks: - Special Qualities: Darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision, scent Saves: Fort +9, Ref +6, Will +3 Abilities: Str 19, Dex 10, Con 17, Int 2, Wis 13, Cha 6 Skills: Swim +23 Feats: Cleave, Improved Natural Attack (Bite), Power Attack Environment: Temperate swamp Organization: Solitary Challenge Rating: 4 ?? Treasure: None Alignment: Usually neutral Advancement: 9–12 HD (Large); 13–20 HD (Huge) Level Adjustment: — Skills: A lizard mount has a +8 racial bonus on any Swim check to perform some special action or avoid a hazard. It can always choose to take 10 on a Swim check, even if distracted or endangered. It can use the run action while swimming, provided it swims in a straight line. Will that do?
Arae'Kol Da'Ato 02-17-05, 03:40 PM	In the Minds Eye on Wizards there's the Titan Salamander and they have a non-Psionic version. It's pretty good.
The Vorpal Tribble 02-17-05, 04:49 PM	Hrmm, this isn't quite reptilian, so not sure if it'd still interest you: -- Gglapagug A bulky, rubbery, low-slung creature slowly plods into view on six thick legs. An unwieldy head with a fleshy mane of orange frills gapes open, revealing many rows of long, needle-like teeth. Type: Large Aberration Hit Dice: 5d8+25 Initiative: -1 Speed: 20 ft., 40 ft. (swim), 10 ft. (climb) AC: 14 (-1 size, -1 dex, +6 natural) BAB/Grapple: +3/+17 Attack: Bite +2 melee (2d6+6) Full attack: Bite +2 melee (2d6+6) Special Attacks: Improved Grab, Poisonous Skin Special Qualities: Amphibious, Resistance to bludgeoning/10, Slow Metabolism, Surefooted Saves: Fort +11, Ref +0, Will +8 Abilities: Str 22, Dex 8, Con 20, Int 3, Wis 18, Cha 5 Skills: Balance +6, Escape Artist +12, Listen +4, Spot +4, Swim +6 Feats: Endurance, Great Fortitude ________________________ Environment: Warm or Temperate swamp Organization: Solitary, or Family (2-6) CR: 4 Alignment: Lawful Neutral Treasure: None Advancement: - A gglupagug's rubbery body is low-slung with a rippled flap of skin that brushes against the ground. Supporting its substantial weight are six thick, boneless legs ending in wide, domed feet with eight splayed toes, each surrounded by a thin wrinkled membrane. Its head is large and unwieldy with a few tiny, recessed black eyes and a fleshy mane of orange frills. The gaping mouth is wide and stretched by a great array of sharp interlocking teeth. Dragging along behind is a wide taped tail that grips the ground. The entire form is in fact boneless, possessing a cartilage-like structure. Its main coloration is dark and murky with fantastically bright swirls and veins of turquois, lime greens or pale peach. Gglapagugs are sentient but odd, slow thinking creatures. They live most their lives in swamps straining algae through their long teeth, which also are quite servicable as weapons. Combat: Gglupagugs are slow to enter combat, prefering to swim away from enemies. If forced to fight however it is a very stubborn warrior, grabbing on with its teeth and trying to drown or dash its opponent to death. Natural Slime (Ex): A giant salamander produces a very slick slime, giving it a +12 bonus to Escape Artist checks. Poisonous Skin (Ex): A gglupagug's skin-slime is slightly poisonous, causing a burning rash to exposed skin similiar in all ways to Red Ache except it comes from contact and not injury. It also has no 'incubation' period. Riders of a gglupagug to prevent this coat their pants and skin in the saliva of the beast which forms a thin protective layer that lasts up to six hours. Shallow Breather (Ex): Giant salamanders breath through their skin and are immune to poisonous gasses. Likewise they can endure low levels of oxygen that would kill a human. Slow Metabolism (Ex): A giant salamander can live without nourishment for up to two weeks. Surefooted (Ex): Gglupagugs are very well balanced and made for traveling over slick terrain, giving them a +12 bonus to balance checks to keep from slipping. They also gain a +10 bonus on ability checks made to resist being bull rushed or tripped when standing on the ground Skills: A gglupagug has a +4 racial bonus on any Swim check to perform some special action or avoid a hazard. It can always choose to take 10 on a Swim check, even if distracted or endangered. It can use the run action while swimming, provided it swims in a straight line. --- Training a Gglupagug A gglupagug requires training before it can bear a rider in combat. Training a gglupagug requires four weeks of work and a DC 20 Handle Animal check. Riding a gglupagug requires an exotic saddle. A gglupagug can fight while carrying a rider, but the rider cannot also attack unless he or she succeeds on a Ride check. Gglupagug eggs are worth 4,000 gp apiece on the open market, while young are worth 6,000 gp each. Professional trainers charge 2,000 gp to rear or train a gglupagug Carrying Capacity: A light load for a gglupagug is up to 300 pounds; a medium load, 301–600 pounds; and a heavy load, 601–900 pounds.
Olly 02-17-05, 05:33 PM	I was looking at the Warhammer Fantasy lizardman cold one riders and it struck me that some kind of reptile that was less 'flat' than a crocodile might make a good amphibious mount for lizardmen in my campaign world that I'm working on...I'm not trying to stat a warhammer creature, more make something derived from it...the 'cold ones' arent amphibious. here's what I'm aiming for: Large creature, reptilian native to swampy environments has a natural swim speed and natural land speed (swim would need to be fairly fast, perhaps 40 feet, to make them obviously mountworthy) Natural attack being a bite or possible gore (depends, carniverous or herbiverous), feet/talones are webbed for fast swimming long tail, balance bonus? some natural armor, obviously I know what I want...the problem is just 'making' the thing...I'm pretty sure this is an Animal type, not much else itd fit in. Since cold ones are basically deinonycus, why don't you just use dinosaurs?
PhaedrusXY 02-17-05, 05:42 PM	There are amphibious iguanas in the Galapagos Islands. I don't know of any D&D stats for iguanas, but giant versions of these might work. Using dinosaur stats is also a good idea, even if you just use the stats for a made-up creature.