Sloth Stats [3.5]

[BIGMamaSloth]

My first attempt at what I'm weary to even call "homebrew" was to take the 3.5 stats for a dire sloth and remove the dire template from it, (Both from the tome of horrors 3.5 update by necromancer games) So that I could have stats for a regular old sloth. Heres what came out:

Type Animal
Size Tiny
Init +0, Hit Dice 1d8, Speed 5 feet
AC 13, Touch 13, Flat-footed 12, Fort +5, Ref +3, Will +1, Base Attack Bonus 0
2 Claws +0 (1d2)
Bite -5 (1d3)
Abilities Str 6, Dex 12, Con 10, Int 2, Wis 12, Cha 10
Feats Great Fortitude

Special qualities:

Rend (Ex): A sloth that hits with both claw attacks latches onto the opponent's body and tears the flesh. This automatically deals an additional 1d2 points of damage.

Single Action Only (Ex): A sloth has poor reflexes and can perform only a single move action or attack action each round. A sloth can move up to its speed and attack in the same round, but only if it attempts a charge.

Skills: Sloths receive a +4 racial bonus to Hide and Swim checks. In areas of dense undergrowth, the sloth receives an Additional +4 racial bonus to Hide checks. A sloth has a +8 racial bonus on Climb and can always choose to take 10 on a Climb check, even if rushed or threatened.

So I have a small problem or two with this. A 0 foot movement speed would seem to imply it can never get anywhere on it's own. Would a 5 foot movement speed be a reasonable if generous estimate? Changed to 5 foot movement so sloths can, you know, live.

Secondly Is small the correct size here? A house cat is tiny sized and A sloth with arms not stretched out seems to be only slightly larger than that. turns out sloths average about 2 feet, meaning the upper end of tiny.

Third, would this make a reasonable familiar? If so what bonus would it give to it's master?

And If anyone else can think of any thing iffy with these stats, I'd love to here em. Any insight is welcome and appreciated.

[Wyntonian]

Well, small says they're about the same size as a halfling or gnome. If that works for you, well, more power to ya.

I'd call it a 5 foot speed. Throw them a bone. And by a bone, I mean the ability to procreate, eat and do other life-related things. I can't think of a sessile mammal. Also, I think a sloth can move 5 feet in 6 seconds, realistically.

Lastly, 10 str means that they're about as strong as an average, run-of-the-mill human. Now, I've never arm-wrestled a sloth, nor participated in a squat-bench-deadlift contest with one (although I now have a new bucket list item :smalltongue:), I have a sneaking suspicion that I'd win.

As for a familiar, well, I'd personally love to have a sloth hanging off my next caster.

[BIGMamaSloth]

Ya, A sloth hanging off my next caster is why I created this. 10 str did seem odd to me. I'm going to change them to tiny after a quick check with the SRD size charts and wikipedia. That will reduce there str to 6. Movement speed is going up to 5 feet.

[Deepbluediver]

I don't play a lot of casters with familiar, but most of them struck me kind of boring. They provide some small, static bonus which occasionally helps out in the first few levels, then gets forgotten about as the wizard learns to shred reality with a thought.

Since sloths spend most of their time in trees, a bonus to climb checks would seem the logical choice, but how often is a caster making climb checks?
Something more interesting might be that having this as a familiar reduces or eliminates the need to sleep and/or rest before preparing spells. Now, some interpretation would be required depending on how your group normally defines the 8 hours of rest/sleep requirement, and I certainly don't intend for a caster to prepare a days worth of spells any time he feels like it, but it seems players could find some good things to do when you don't have to waste 1/3 of your life sleeping.

[erikun]

The sloth should have a climb speed, as well - probably the same as their land speed, possibly up to 10'.

Get rid of the bite attack. It makes more sense for a Dire Sloth/Megatherium, but your average sloth isn't going to be biting through much of anything.

[EDIT]
You could always just take the stats of a coconut and make it an animal for your average sloth. :smalltongue:

[Mangles]

A fun fact. Baby sloth's are so inept that they often grab their own arms and legs instead of tree branches and fall out of the sky.


Also their dex seems really high. These guys are not agile in any way. Rend also seems on the strong side for a familiar. Although the damage they are doing its really a moot point.

[Mystify]

sloths may not be fast, but they can definitely get places if they want to.

I visited a zoo one time, and all of the animals were being really lazy. The most active animal was a tiger playing with its ball. The second most active was the sloth. It was climbing around its branch at a decent clip.
a 5ft climb speed is not at all unreasonable.

[jojolagger]

Something more interesting might be that having this as a familiar reduces or eliminates the need to sleep and/or rest before preparing spells. Now, some interpretation would be required depending on how your group normally defines the 8 hours of rest/sleep requirement, and I certainly don't intend for a caster to prepare a days worth of spells any time he feels like it, but it seems players could find some good things to do when you don't have to waste 1/3 of your life sleeping.

25% reduction. 6 hours rest for spell preparation, 6 hours sleep for most, 3 hours trance for elves. Then, between the 1 hour to prepare spells, the caster isn't slowing the party down to have spells.

Also, 5 ft move speed is way to generous. a Three toed sloth has a maximum ground speed of 6.5 feet a minute. It doubles to 13 feet a minute when climbing and running from predators. [numbers from wikipedia]

[ReclusiveDruid]

I have a problem with the 5 ft move speed. Obviously, it can't be 0 because sloths can move. However, according to Wikipedia, "On the ground the maximum speed of the three-toed sloth is 2 m or 6.5 feet per minute." Their run speed is about 4 m or 13 feet per minute, so that is about 2 feet per round. Perhaps they have a climb speed of 5 ft, but I think that the speed should be either 1 ft (if that is possible) or just 0 with an foot note "Speed is so slow it is negligible over short times."

Dex 12 is unreasonable. Sloths are slow and not at all agile. "Sloths are very sturdily built," so I feel Con should be higher to make up for such low other stats. Sloths are really sneaky creatures, so I like the bonuses to hide. However, they are also very quiet creatures. So much so that they go to the ground to defecate so predators don't hear their poop falling. They make up for being so slow by being hidden to predators.

[Debihuman]

Here it is in proper 3.5 format (SRD format).

Some parts were missing and some modifiers (such as Str penalty to damage) were forgotten.

Fort save is +2 (good save for Animals) + Con bonus +0 +2 Great Fortitude for a total of +4 not +5.

Since it can only make single action attacks it cannot use both claws and bite in the same round. It can either attack with both claws or bite as a full round attack.

Skill points: 4 ranks, skills should be Climb, Hide, Swim. Two ranks in Hide and one each in Climb and Swim. It should use its Dex modifier for Climb checks instead of its Strength modifier.

Climb +1 rank -2 Str, +8 climb speed = Climb +7,
Hide +2 ranks, +1 Dex +4 racial, +8 size = Hide +15 (+19 in trees)
Swim +1 rank -2 Str + 4 racial = Swim +3

I tweaked some of your text to be more consistent with a sloth's actual habitat. It lives in trees and so the Hide bonus should apply there specifically.

Added familiar section too.

What do you think?

Sloth
Tiny Animal
Hit Dice: 1d8 (4 hp)
Initiative +1,
Speed: 5 ft, Climb 5 ft.
Armor Class: 13 (+2 size, +1 Dex), Touch 13, Flat-footed 12
Base Attack/Grapple: +0/-10
Attack: Claw +0 melee (1d2-2)
Full Attack: 2 claws +0 melee (1d2-2) or bite -5 melee (1d3-2)
Space/Reach: 2½ ft./0 ft.
Special Attacks: Rend
Special Qualities: Low-light vision, single action only
Saves: Fort + 4, Ref +3, Will +1
Abilities Str 6, Dex 12, Con 10, Int 2, Wis 12, Cha 10
Skills: Climb +7, Hide +15 (+19 in trees), Swim +3
Feats Great Fortitude
Environment: Warm forests (tropical rainforests)
Organization: Usually solitary
Challenge Rating: 1/6
Alignment: Always neutral
Advancement: 2-3 HD (Small)
Level Adjustment: —

Combat

Rend (Ex): A sloth that hits with both claw attacks latches onto the opponent's body and tears the flesh. This automatically deals an additional 1d2 points of damage.

Single Action Only (Ex): A sloth has poor reflexes and can perform only a single move action or attack action each round. A sloth can move up to its speed and attack in the same round, but only if it attempts a charge.

Skills: Sloths receive a +4 racial bonus to Hide and Swim checks. In areas of dense forestation, the sloth receives an additional +4 racial bonus to Hide checks to hide in trees. A sloth has a +8 racial bonus on Climb and can always choose to take 10 on a Climb check, even if rushed or threatened.

Familiar
A sloth familiar grants its master a +3 bonus on Hide checks.

Debby