Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 Phobos Sep 15, 2011 10:35:54	I can't find the info, book not with me, but are there still bears in DS? Making Summer Druid for player, see he gets bear.  Wondered if they exist, and even if so, if a better suited DS creature might not be in order. Suggestions (with images if ya have them) Worse case, I'd simply alter the bear to be more hair and plating, almost dire in look but not so large.
#2 phoenix_m Sep 15, 2011 11:10:40	Yes there are still bears, they're armored like a turtle (though I prefer Glyptodont like) plus there are Klar big psionic bears.
#3 theninjad Sep 15, 2011 13:04:53	This, of course, makes them one of the coolest things ever.
#4 DontEatRawHagis Sep 15, 2011 13:06:34	If you want you could use the monster themes in the back of the Creature Catelogue to Dark Sun-ify the bear.
#5 claytoniantomb Sep 16, 2011 23:53:09	I'd just use an athasian sloth, personally.
#6 mgbeach Oct 03, 2011 22:49:43	Here's the Klar, and a stat block from this post
#7 Phobos Oct 04, 2011 7:57:47	Nice, very nice.
#8 samichez Oct 05, 2011 9:48:18	I had a player who used a Summer Druid + bear in my campaign too. Not knowing about the Klar, we decided it was a beast spirit from the Green Age. Purely from a world flavor stand point mind you, not mechanically. It went along with the player's background ties to the primordials and the dead green age. She could see it all the time, but it only manifest itself in encounters for everyone else to see.
#9 Alphastream Oct 06, 2011 16:19:52	The Prism Pentad has a bear so massive that everyone can hide underneath its belly. The idea is basically that this is what bears became... but that's a crazy size to deal with in-game. For a druid I would choose something else, like a baazrag or jhakar. Or, make it a big lizard, carapaced hunting cat, etc.
#10 monastyrski Oct 08, 2011 2:55:16	In my games Athas has no mammals except sentient humanoids. It makes its ecosystem more consistent.
#11 Steely_Dan Oct 08, 2011 7:01:23	In my games Athas has no mammals except sentient humanoids. It makes its ecosystem more consistent. I thought of doing that, but the original Dark Sun (2nd Ed), had lions and jackals and stuff, which can be cool and makes sense ecologically.
#12 mgbeach Oct 08, 2011 18:25:04	In my campaign there are mammals.  Brutal, sometimes psionic, nightmare mammals but mammals nonetheless. This is for a very important reason... probably the most important reason... because I think it's cool and that's the way I want it.  Other DMs can roll with wave after wave of very similar reptilian foes.. and if that's what they find cool then they absolutely should do that. For my money, though, it's hard to beat a howling war party of Mad Max-style gnolls in bone and carapace armor bursting forth from an oncoming dust storm atop their customized Silt Skimmers.
#13 mgbeach Oct 08, 2011 18:46:36	In my games Athas has no mammals except sentient humanoids. It makes its ecosystem more consistent. I thought of doing that, but the original Dark Sun (2nd Ed), had lions and jackals and stuff, which can be cool and makes sense ecologically. Exactly! Too many people seem to think that on Athas as soon as you step foot outside a city-state it's like the movie Beetlejuice (this may date me and stump a few people here but I refuse to go with a different example ).  And while the world of Athas is certainly a very dangerous place, those dangers are spread across a landscape of great forests, mountains, scrub plains, savannahs, salt flats, huge oases, and more.  I mean, there is obviously a lot of damn desert.  But even in the deserts of earth there are many various creatures (including mammals) which call them home.  And according to factual information I just made up, a half-dozen tiny kangaroo rats can skeletonize a man in thirty seconds.  Take that, Athas.
#14 DontEatRawHagis Oct 15, 2011 17:28:47	In my games Athas has no mammals except sentient humanoids. It makes its ecosystem more consistent. I thought of doing that, but the original Dark Sun (2nd Ed), had lions and jackals and stuff, which can be cool and makes sense ecologically. Exactly! Too many people seem to think that on Athas as soon as you step foot outside a city-state it's like the movie Beetlejuice (this may date me and stump a few people here but I refuse to go with a different example ).  And while the world of Athas is certainly a very dangerous place, those dangers are spread across a landscape of great forests, mountains, scrub plains, savannahs, salt flats, huge oases, and more.  I mean, there is obviously a lot of damn desert.  But even in the deserts of earth there are many various creatures (including mammals) which call them home.  And according to factual information I just made up, a half-dozen tiny kangaroo rats can skeletonize a man in thirty seconds.  Take that, Athas. Yeh those little rat things are only dangerous in swarms.  In the Verdant Passage they mention that the ecology is constantly shifting as new creatures mutate.