Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 oakspar77777 Jul 05, 2005 22:40:07	Every ecology works off of the abundance of the feeder creatures and the inefficiency of the primary predators. For example, wolves feed primarily off of the weak, elderly, and sick herd animals and, surprisingly, mice. Lions feed off of both the same (minus mice) as well as a surprising amount of carrion for such a "famed" hunter. The problem with a D&D world, however, is that the predators are super efficient (not the animal ones, though they have elite forms as well). In a world with baby dragons, basilisk, G-cubes, and the like, how could a common house cat ever survive in the wild? Now, in a low-magic low-fantasy world, that is not an issue, since most of the power is in leveled creatures (which requires sentience, that tends to limit the slaughter). In other campaigns, however, other answers should be found. Common feeder animals (cockroaches, house mice, mosquitoes, etc) could likely survive the D&D world (or a nuclear apocalypse). Things that predate on them, however, could not survive the competition. The solution is to find a way to augment vanilla creatures, while at the same time keeping their "vanilla" nature. Thus, to give a cat a fire elemental template would NOT be a good answer, since it would make the cat a general threat (and vanilla animals should never be a threat to PCs). Giving the cat a single Blink ability that auto triggers off of extreme stress once a day, however, would be a good answer. Here are some ideas that I have found add depth to my campaign worlds: Invisible Mice - They are not a threat (physically), but what could be more frustrating than never even seeing the little critters that keep gnawing holes in the packs and leaving little black rice grain sized "presents" in the PC's food. Mirror Imaged Quail - Makes shooting the right bird a little harder when the flushed bird suddenly becomes one in a flock of five. Blur Roaches - Makes them 20% harder to stomp on. Displacement Sparrows - Pretty song, hard to catch, and always looks like it is just outside of its cage. No matter what the animal is, giving it just enough magical nature to make it fit into a high fantasy world helps give the world the depth that players crave.
#2 derren_s. Jul 30, 2005 5:30:30	I don't think giving normal animals magical abilities is the right way to make it more "real". That would make herding animals nearly impossible when they have magical defense and escape abilities. (Imagine the trouble a butcher would have when pigs could stoneskin themselves.) I rather favor inventing new herbivore monsters, some with a higher CR, to serve as food for the many monsters out there.
#3 olshanski_home_dup Jul 30, 2005 7:44:22	I noticed that all of your special improvements are of a magical defensive nature: Invisibility, blink, blur, mirror image. All of these defenses are thwarted by true seeing or blindsight. It only stands to reason that many predators should have evolved either true seeing or blindsight... both of which are fairly rare among low-level predators. In fact, I'd say that the primary survival mechanism of cockroaches, mice, and small birds is not defensive in nature, but rather their hardiness, their ability to eat anything, and their very fast breeding. It doesn't matter if you stomp on cockroaches, in a few weeks a single cockroach breeds a few thousand offspring. You could stomp them 24 hours a day and still not finish the job. Any serious threat to mice, cockroaches, or small birds is going to come from vast environmental change or perhaps disease. The real world is teeming with predators. Studies have found 1000 spiders per square yard of perennial wildflowers. Mice and birds themselves are predators vs insects. Mice are fed upon by foxes, weasels, stoats, cats, owls, crows and kestrels - even large toads. "Vanilla" creatures have no need for special defenses. Their fast breeding is more than adequate. If you want to give these magical defenses to all of your lower level life forms, then a large number of your mid-level predators should have true seeing or blindsight. Although it may be "cool" to give everything in your world a little touch of magic, there is a famous saying that I like to keep in mind... "If everything is special, nothing is."
#4 gilean_dup Aug 03, 2005 11:01:47	Only apply it to advanced animals, or something like that. Perhaps a template. And remember to change the type into magical beast. Otherwise, a fine idea.
#5 perrywrogers Aug 09, 2005 14:44:55	I like it just as a 'flavor' idea for the fantasy world. It will help to spice up, and make the rp experience more memorable.
#6 zombiegleemax Aug 10, 2005 16:12:32	This is brilliant. Overusing it wouldn't be good, but as a way to spice things up now and then, it's very handy. Apart from anything else it explains blink dogs.
#7 yabanjin Aug 23, 2005 20:56:38	They nay-sayers just didn't get it! You're article was fantastic! I mean, come on, what happens when an alchemist's rabbit farm of magically mutated bunnies that have the ability to leap 30' escape and breed (as bunnies do)? More importantly, hadathemtharvarmitstaste? Nice work. Good ideas.
#8 zombiegleemax Aug 27, 2005 20:54:16	I rather favor inventing new herbivore monsters, some with a higher CR, to serve as food for the many monsters out there. This is what I'd like to see- some super-cows in the Monster Manual, that aren't a threat to players but do serve as an excellent food source.
#9 zombiegleemax Sep 28, 2005 15:28:52	Nice. In at least one of my campaigns, there are regions that are more or less magical than others. I have found these little otherwise-mundane creatures to be one terrific way to add relatively subtle sparkle and wonder to the environment where it fits.
#10 573v3 Oct 05, 2005 11:18:14	Awesome idea! I like how it would slighty send a ripple through the world. If the high seaters on the food chain have magical abilities, why not a few of the bottom? Kinda reminds me of the Titanic toad. Why wouldn't a crafty wizard supersize a cow to feed a village for a few months?
#11 gilean_dup Oct 21, 2005 3:17:35	Nice. In at least one of my campaigns, there are regions that are more or less magical than others. I have found these little otherwise-mundane creatures to be one terrific way to add relatively subtle sparkle and wonder to the environment where it fits. Ley lines always work. In on of my games, the fauna is quite different near a nexus, where 3 of them meet. One could implement something like the planar touchstones for nexus points, and grant the benefits to animals with a feat.
#12 zombiegleemax Dec 24, 2005 2:35:05	This is a great idea. Just inspired me for a whole new world. Fantastic. I ran into a problem. I find my world becoming over populated by blind mice! Invisible mice? They will infest any community. OVER INFEST.
#13 zombiegleemax Jan 08, 2006 5:03:16	I like the idea of animals having evolved magical solutions to the world, to keep up with the competition. However, If you start doing that in a campaign world you have to ask, with loads of terrifying monsters and now your magical animals, how did humanoids not get in the action. Now, i know a few like drow have spell-like abilities, but for humanoids to have survived in this world and evolved from other, magical animals, where are their magical powers?
#14 aeolus91 Jan 08, 2006 8:54:12	This is a great idea. Just inspired me for a whole new world. Fantastic. I ran into a problem. I find my world becoming over populated by blind mice! Invisible mice? They will infest any community. OVER INFEST. Then make it so that not ALL mice are invisible. One in a thousand maybe? One in ten thousand? Make it a really rare genetic trait, then work out the tables to see how many there are. For example, say perhaps that before an invisible mouse is born, twenty generations before it, on both the paternal side and maternal side, all must have had one specific half of the invisibility gene, and the other parent must have the other specific half, going back twenty generations. Or something like that... whatever you choose. Maybe they don't overrun villages because the True Seeing cats weed them out.
#15 zombiegleemax Jan 13, 2006 9:21:52	Or you could use this for small side-quests: Solving the breeding problem which the magical enhanced rabbits caused. And because heroes don't exist to keep the animal population at bay, the breeding speed of the predators could be based off the 'food' animal population
#16 oakspar77777 Jan 18, 2006 18:38:02	True Seeing cats are the natural answer, to be sure. Of course, an invisible mouse dies in a trap like any other. As to what magic humanoids have, how about 20 levels of Wizard? Not every mouse needs to be invisible. Not every Rabbit or Gazzel needs to have Jump. The trick with spice is to have enough without having too much.