Dire Animal: Is there a template?

[zoobob9]

I've looked in the MM1 and the Dire Animal entry doesn't have a template associated with it. Is there a template online or in a more obscure book, or would it be best to just "reverse engineer" it, by which I mean comparing an animal with the dire version and seeing if there's a trend. For that matter, has anyone already reverse engineered it, or would I be the first?

I ask because I want a Dire Moose. There's a moose from one of the Dragon Mags, I forget which one though.

[Venger]

Dire is not a template. It used to be treated a little like one in 3.0, but there wasn't any standardization that would allow you to reverse engineer the characteristics needed to make one dire.

Poke around frostburn. I'm sure you could find a suitably moose-like creature that could serve the same purpose in your game. if you wanted a mundane moose, they have stats for caribou, which is pretty much the same thing.

[Agent 451]

There is a dire template in Pathfinder (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/templates/dire-creature-cr-2-tohc) though. You could always use/adapt that.

There's also the Tome of Horrors, by Necromancer Games. The revised 3.5 version has a dire template. IIRC there used to be a free pdf preview of the book that included the template. I'll see if I can dig up a link.

edit: The link is down, but thankfully internet archives are a thing! Here you go! (http://web.archive.org/web/20110823023517/http://necromancergames.com/pdf/ToHDire.pdf) Dire moose included :smallsmile:

[Piggy Knowles]

There's definitely a dire elk in... MM2 I think? Could be a good base for a dire moose.

[Vaz]

A Megaloceros in Frostburn is a Dire animal. (Large, 6HD, Huge @13HD, Improved Grab, free Bullrush on Grabbed target with no AoO), while a Dire Elk (Huge, 12 HD) has none of those additional benefits, but better stats.

A Megaloceros has the additional benefits of being a Druid Companion (-6); it's no fleshraker, but it's fairly decent.

[Grinner]

There are two that I know of. The first is the aforementioned Pathfinder template. The second (http://www.necromancergames.com/pdf/ToHDire.pdf.) is a third party one written by Necromancer Games.

[gurgleflep]

I believe Tome of Horrors has one, the book is published by Necromancer Games.

[thorr-kan]

The Tome of Horrors one works well.

Does anybody know of any other templates like that that can spruce up animals?

Magebred from Eberron
Legendary? from Savage Species

[Coidzor]

Warbeast from MM2.

Horrid from, IIRC, The Eberron Campaign Setting. It's basically an upgrade for Dire Animals only though.

[Gavinfoxx]

I homebrewed a "Legendary Animal" (a template from monster manual II I think, dunno if the savage species ones are the same or not) by looking at the existing examples...



Applied to Animals only
Size and Type stays the same
Increase Hit Dice by 10, adding appropriate feats and skills
Increase Natural Weapon Damage by 1 die size, and Secondary Damage forms by 1 die size, with bites doing a minimum of 1d8 and claws doing a minimum of 1d6
Increase all Movement Speeds by 10'
Put a 10 point increase in two of the physical stats, and a 5 point increase in the remaining physical stat
Increase the Wisdom by 2
Increase the Charisma by 4
Increase Damage from Venom or Poison by 1 die size
Increase Racial Skill bonus by 4
Increase Natural Armor by 3
Increase CR by 5

[Crake]

Dire generally isnt a template because dire animals are generally higher hit dice than normal variants of the creature, and templates never give that. I've found the easiest way to make a "dire" animal is to advance the animal to the highest (or close to) HD a normal animal could achieve, then change it's saves to all good and give it some appropriate feats and skills to go with it's increased HD. That tends to emulate a dire animal pretty well.

Take the wolf and dire wolf for example. Advance it to 6 HD (the max for a wolf), it gets the bonuses and penalties for a size increase (+8 str, -2 dex, +4con etc) and an ability boost at 4HD, along with 2 extra feats. Bab stays at medium, so it ends with 4 bab, up its will save to good, so it has all good saves, and you pretty much end up with a dire wolf from the MM. Its not quite perfect, but it works pretty well.

It obviously doesnt work so well for the tiny animals like weasels or badgers, since they have no advancement HD in the monster manual. You can probably just up them to medium, give them something like 2-4HD and otherwise leave them alone (except for the good will save that dire animals get, give them that too).

[Clistenes]

Tome of Horrors of Necromancer Games has a Dire Animal Template:

-Keeps the Animal type.
-If the base animal is Tiny or smaller increase its size to Small. Otherwise, increase its size by one size category.
-Add the bonuses and penalties to abilities, attack, armor...etc., because of the increase in size.
-Add Str +4, Dex +2, and Con +2 to the modifications due to size.
-If the dire animal is Small, it has
1 HD or the HD of the base animal +1, whichever is greater. If the dire animal is Medium or larger, its HD is equal to the minimum listed value for its size category in the base animal’s advancement +2. If a Small or larger base animal has no advancement or its size normally does not
increase with advancement, the dire animal’s HD is equal to the maximum HD given for the base animal +2.
-It's speed is the same as the base animal +10 ft.
-Natural armor increases by +2 (stacks with the increase due to size).
-Adjust the damage of the attacks due to the increase in size and ability scores.
-Adjust the Special Qualities and attack to the creature new abilities, size and hit dice.
-All saves are good for a dire animal. The base value for each save is equal to (1/2 HD) + 2.
-A dire animal receives skill points equal to (2 + Intelligence bonus [minimum 1]) × HD +3. Any skill given in the statistics block of the base animal is a class skill for the dire animal.
-Same feats as base animal, with additional feats gained through the usual means from the increase in HD. If the base animal has Weapon Finesse and the feat would become useless after its increase in HD and Strength, then it may trade Weapon Finesse for Weapon Focus with one of its natural attacks.
-Challenge Rating: Follow the CR adjustment rules for an increase in a creature’s size in the MM, and add +1 to the result.
-Advancement: Dire animals can advance to three times their new HD.
-Level Adjustment: —

[TuggyNE]

Dire generally isnt a template because dire animals are generally higher hit dice than normal variants of the creature, and templates never give that.

The zombie template gives extra HD.

[thorr-kan]

Horrid! That's the one I'd forgotten from Eberron.

Warbeast is new to me.

Monster of Legacy from Weapons of Legacy.

Legendary is from MM2, not SS. Monstrous Beast is from SS. My mistake.

[Thistledown]

http://www.monsteradvancer.com/ is an online monster generator which has an option for "Dire"

I've found this site useful for generating monster stats/info for monsters summonable by "Summon Monster" type spells as it also has options for Celestial and Fiendish creatures.

Not every monster is listed on the site but most of the MM1 monsters seem to be so might worth checking out for you.

[ShurikVch]

Yes. In the Immortals Handbook - Epic Bestiary: Volume 1


Dire generally isnt a template because dire animals are generally higher hit dice than normal variants of the creature, and templates never give that.
Never say never.
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