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Old 07-17-2018, 10:29 PM   #11
lwcamp
 
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Default Re: Making Animals more Dangerous

Maybe not quite what you are looking for, but mosquitoes (and their associated diseases) kill around one million people every year (600,000/year from malaria alone) with countless more sickened and incapacitated (and sometimes permanently disabled). That's somewhere on the order of 2000 to 3000 people killed per day. They seem plenty dangerous to me.

Next in like are venomous snakes, which kill on the order of 200,000 people per year, with many more permanently maimed or crippled. They are much less of a threat if you have good footwear, but unfortunately the places with the deadliest snakes also tend to have impoverished people who live near their fields while storing their crops near their houses (both of which attract rodents, which attracts snakes), who can't afford solid, well built houses that keep rodents and snakes out, and who can't afford boots.

But to make large megafauna more threatening to adventurers, you could first alter their behavior (make a leopard a habitual man-eater), then play to its strengths (leopards are very stealthy, they attack by surprise from behind against unaware prey that is not well protected. Have the man-eating leopard target the weakest member of the party, when away from the main group, when it is not expected and when the victim is not wearing armor. Or have the leopard jump through the window into the house the party is sleeping at, at night when everyone is asleep and unarmored, and then grab one victim and drag him/her out of the house and into the darkness). Just as adventurers can be more skilled and capable than their normal human conspecifics, so to can boss-level animals. Give our leopard +3 ST, +3 DX, +2 IQ, and +2 HT from general awesomeness, plus skill in stealth, brawling, wrestling, tactics, and maybe (if campaign appropriate) cinematic combat skills (who says leopards can't be Trained By a Master? Are you going to tell the leopard that? Go ahead. Say it to his face).

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Old 07-17-2018, 10:40 PM   #12
AlexanderHowl
 
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Default Re: Making Animals more Dangerous

Well, with IQ 6, a leopard could have Trained by a Master (though that would be one awesome leopard). I would give it Attribute Substitution (Flying Leap based on Will) and Attribute Substitution (Invisibility Art based on Will) to allow it to become a truly dangerous creature. With that type of leopard, you might have a TPK.
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Old 07-17-2018, 10:55 PM   #13
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Default Re: Making Animals more Dangerous

In my current campaign, I gave one of the starting PCs Trained by a Master without his ever having had a sapient trainer. The premise was that while hiding from his enemies in the wilderness, he observed the animals closely and learned many survival and stealth skills and some combat skills from what he saw. . . .
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Old 07-18-2018, 07:28 AM   #14
AlexanderHowl
 
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I think a number of martial arts styles possessed similar origins. I think I would only that origin story if the character possessed Animal Empathy and Animal Friend, so the character would intuitively understand the principles of the actions of the animals that they observed. Each animal observed in depth for years would reveal an Animal Style. For example, Bear Style would reveal Karate and Wrestling, the perk of Biting Mastery, and the cinematic skills of Body Control and Power Blow.
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Old 07-18-2018, 08:51 AM   #15
Tomsdad
 
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Default Re: Making Animals more Dangerous

One thing the stats in Campaigns are racial base lines, better than average individuals will exceed them.

Or put it this way assuming you have Humans with ST scores greater than 10, you should have Polar bears with ST scores greater than 20.

Since most animals end up relying on Thr based damage, KYOS will give them a boost too.
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Old 07-18-2018, 01:10 PM   #16
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Default Re: Making Animals more Dangerous

All it really takes is having animals attack intelligently. And I don't mean using a 'higher IQ' score, I mean using actual pack tactics, being ambush hunters, etc.
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Old 07-18-2018, 11:56 PM   #17
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Default Re: Making Animals more Dangerous

Quote:
Originally Posted by evileeyore View Post
All it really takes is having animals attack intelligently. And I don't mean using a 'higher IQ' score, I mean using actual pack tactics, being ambush hunters, etc.
Yes. That's exactly what Refplace did with his article Animal Combat Styles, in Pyramid Combat 2: giving each kind of animals (ambush predators, bird of preys, pack predators ...) a much more realistic, interesting and effective manner of fighting. A must have for people who want more believable animals in their games.
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Old 07-19-2018, 01:55 PM   #18
martinl
 
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Default Re: Making Animals more Dangerous

I have been known to take the easy route and just give them metal heads.
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Old 07-19-2018, 02:28 PM   #19
Anthony
 
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Default Re: Making Animals more Dangerous

Quote:
Originally Posted by evileeyore View Post
All it really takes is having animals attack intelligently.
Intelligent attack tactics for an animal involve attacking unarmed people from behind. This is not terribly relevant to PCs vs animals.
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Old 07-19-2018, 03:40 PM   #20
AlexanderHowl
 
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Default Re: Making Animals more Dangerous

I agree. With rare exception, normal animals just do not do well against humans armed with modern weapons and combat experience (most PCs). A Cunning skill (similar to the trait in Bestiary 3e) would help out though.

I would have Cunning be a Per/Hard skill that creatures could use when they are being hunted by another creature. It would allow them to detect hunting behavior, recognize traps, detemine the best places to ambush their hunters, etc. On a successful roll, the character would gain a +1 on all of their rolls against a particular hunter, plus an additional +1 for every two points of success, for an hour.
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