Stellar_Magic
2014-07-28, 04:44 PM
After helping a bit with the Apex Predator thread, I decided I really should share some of the guidelines I've developed for myself for creating statistics for the various animals, monsters, and other creatures that can appear in a pathfinder game. Generally most of this is designed for animals (as they are the most common thing ever), though I will later detail some of my thoughts on other types of monsters and creatures.
These are meant as general guidelines, not completely hard and fast rules, and keep in mind I made these for my own use to create a more internally consistent set of rules for designing these creatures. It is meant for more a stimulation point of view, and may contradict most of the official stats for creatures... considering the official stats were designed for making a creature of X CR in most cases and often have alternate stats for creatures if you going looking around, this is to be expected.
Plus, people would be really disappointed if the Giant Squid was realistically depicted in the bestiary as something that has a tendency to die very soon after being dragged to the surface. They want a monster squid, not an animal that's food for sperm whales.
In my case I tend to work the other direction, determining CR only after the whole monster or animal is effectively finished.
Hit Die
For animals, I generally think that the Hit Die is best if its consistent with their weight. A massive creature should obviously have more hit points then a light weight creature... This does tend to increase the hit die of most domesticated mounts quite a bit, since the average horse is over 1,000 lbs. Some light weight animals are much more dangerous then their hit die would make you expect, these are usually ambush predators (leopards, dromaeosaur type dinosaurs, and cheetahs) and would have a higher CR then their Hit Die depicts.
Other creatures have their hit die relatively lower then the official stats. An Allosaur for example weighs about as much as draft horse according to modern scientific estimates, so they have similar amounts of hit die and hit points... Though I shouldn't need to tell you which is more dangerous.
Here are the weights and apparent hit die for animals up to 235 tons (not that anything in the real world breaks 200 tons, but sometimes its good to be thorough). Keep in mind that non-animal creatures will have a different rate of proportionality with dragons having fewer hit die to their average ton for example.
Average Weight
Hit Die
Examples
<40 lbs
1d8
Archaeopteryx, Armadillo, Badger, Barracuda, Cat, Common Bat, Compsognathus, Eagle, Electric Eel, Fox, Velociraptor
80 lbs
2d8
Alligator Gar, Cheetah, Giant Armadillo, Giant Moray Eel, Snow Leopard, Wolf
140 lbs
3d8
Cougar, Giant Octopus, Leopard
160 lbs
4d8
Bighorn Sheep, Blue Shark, Bull Shark, Common Dolphin, Deinonychus, Goat, Jaguar, Llama, Lion, Mule Deer, Nothosaurus, Sheep, Terror Bird, Tiger, Wild Boar
560 lbs
5d8
American Alligator, American Lion, Antelope, Black Bear, Dimetrodon, Elk, Giant Squid, Great Hammerhead, Grizzly Bear, Pony, Quetzalcoatlus, Siberian Tiger, Smilodon, Swordfish
1,100 lbs
6d8
Cave Bear, Colossal Squid, Dromornis, Irish Elk, Light Horse, Moose, Pachycephalosaurus, Polar Bear, Saltwater Crocodile, Tiger Shark
1,700 lbs
7d8
Allosaurus, American Bison, Camel, Giraffe, Great White Shark (average), Heavy Horse, Short-faced Bear
2,600 lbs
8d8
Aurochs, Greenland Shark, Narwhal, Titanoboa
3,500 lbs
9d8
Megalania
4,800 lbs
10d8
Archelon, Elasmosaurus
6,000 lbs
11d8
Asian Elephant, Parasaurolophus, Styracosaurus
7,600 lbs
12d8
Dunkleosteus, Great White Shark (record), Iguanadon
9,200 lbs
13d8
Mastodon, Orca, Stegosaurus
12,000 lbs
14d8
African Bush Elephant, Ankylosurus, Wolly Mammoth
14,000 lbs
15d8
Steppe Mammoth, Tylosaurus, Tyrannosaurus
17,000 lbs
16d8
Sarcosuchus
21,000 lbs
17d8
Giganotosaurus
26,000 lbs
18d8
Diplodocus, Triceratops
32,000 lbs
19d8
Spinosaurus
38,000 lbs
20d8
Apatosaurus, Shantungosaurus
48,000 lbs
21d8
Kronosaurus, Whale Shark
56,000 lbs
22d8
Brachiosaurus, Humpback Whale
68,000 lbs
23d8
Sperm Whale
81,000 lbs
24d8
95,000 lbs
25d8
Pliosaurus funkei 'Predator X',
110,000 lbs
26d8
Megalodon (consensus), Right Whale
130,000 lbs
27d8
140,000 lbs
28d8
160,000 lbs
29d8
180,000 lbs
30d8
200,000 lbs
31d8
230,000 lbs
32d8
Blue Whale, Megalodon (highest estimate)
250,000 lbs
33d8
270,000 lbs
34d8
Amphicoelias
300,000 lbs
35d8
320,000 lbs
36d8
350,000 lbs
37d8
390,000 lbs
38d8
Blue Whate (record)
430,000 lbs
39d8
470,000 lbs
40d8
Size
Size, for most creatures, is pretty straight forward, simply find their length and compare it to the size and reach table you can find online and determine size category by the length. Note, I said its for most creatures. Using this method for bipedal creatures tends to result in rather wonky results. If the creature is a biped like a theropod dinosaur, terror bird, or primate it works better to determine size category based on the height of the creature.
This does tend to give much 'smaller' results for most dinosaurs then you'd expect, with only the very largest theropods getting the huge size category. However, their reach is pretty long, and since the majority of their body length is made up of tail... a smaller fighting space makes sense.
Ability Scores
Now that you've got a nominal hit die and size, next you need the ability scores. These involve quite a bit of calculation. Normally the total number of attribute points should be roughly around 65 + 1 per 4 hit die, which will give you a budget for assigning the number of attribute points for the mental scores, while the physical attributes can be determined by calculation, mental attributes are not so easily determined.
Okay, most important for creatures is strength. Its also the easiest to determine as there tends to be a rough correlation between body weight, carrying capacity, and strength. To calculate a strength score based on body weight...
Take the square root of the creatures weight in pounds and divide it by the carrying capacity multipler for a creature it's size and build. So... say you want to make stats for the largest Great White Shark recorded.
The square root of this 7,300 lb shark is 85.44... At 20 ft, its a huge creature so the carrying capacity multiplier is x4. 85.44/4 gives us a strength score of 21. This seems perfect for a powerful shark like the great white.
Next, we have to find the constitution score. Constitution reflects both the strength of a creature and its ability to handle disease, as a result its better to make it so that the constitution takes into account the number of hit die for the animal. My method to calculate an animals the constitution score is as follows.
Ten time the square root of (Animal weight/Average weight of hit die) + Special Size Modifier
So... the average weight of a 12 HD creature is 7,600 lbs... So (7,300 lbs\7,600) = 0.9605... The square root is 0.98 * 10 = 9.8 + 2 from huge size. So the total would be 12 Con, which seems kind of low, but not unreasonably so.
Next we need to find Dex. To do this, you need to go back to the Space, Reach, & Threatened area table as it includes the average weight for each size category. Generally an animal which weighs less then normal for its size category will have a higher dex score. Therefore to find the Dex...
10*Square Root of (Average Weight of Size Category/Animal Weight). In this case, the 7,300 lb Great White Shark is huge, which has an Average Weight of 18,000 lb.
18,000/7,300 = 2.465... The square root is 1.57... * 10 is 15.7, rounded up to 16. So the physical attributes of the largest Great White ever recorded is...
Str 21, Dex 16, Con 12...
Mental scores are determined mostly by behavior. Animals are always 1-2 int, and something like the Great White shark is certainly 1 Int. As a 12 HD animal, the total number of attribute points it should have would be around 68 (65 + 3 from HD).
68 - (21 + 16 + 12 + 1) = 18... so an average of 9 for Cha and Wis. As this is a solitary shark, I'd consider Cha a dump stat, so... Wis 10, Cha 8. Total Attribute scores...
Str 21, Dex 16, Con 12, Int 1, Wis 10, Cha 8
Now that you have the Hit Die and ability scores, most of the rest of the creation process will flow quite easily as the Hit Die determines so much of the animal, the attributes another bunch...
I'll post more on Natural Attacks, Natural Armor, and Special Abilities later.
These are meant as general guidelines, not completely hard and fast rules, and keep in mind I made these for my own use to create a more internally consistent set of rules for designing these creatures. It is meant for more a stimulation point of view, and may contradict most of the official stats for creatures... considering the official stats were designed for making a creature of X CR in most cases and often have alternate stats for creatures if you going looking around, this is to be expected.
Plus, people would be really disappointed if the Giant Squid was realistically depicted in the bestiary as something that has a tendency to die very soon after being dragged to the surface. They want a monster squid, not an animal that's food for sperm whales.
In my case I tend to work the other direction, determining CR only after the whole monster or animal is effectively finished.
Hit Die
For animals, I generally think that the Hit Die is best if its consistent with their weight. A massive creature should obviously have more hit points then a light weight creature... This does tend to increase the hit die of most domesticated mounts quite a bit, since the average horse is over 1,000 lbs. Some light weight animals are much more dangerous then their hit die would make you expect, these are usually ambush predators (leopards, dromaeosaur type dinosaurs, and cheetahs) and would have a higher CR then their Hit Die depicts.
Other creatures have their hit die relatively lower then the official stats. An Allosaur for example weighs about as much as draft horse according to modern scientific estimates, so they have similar amounts of hit die and hit points... Though I shouldn't need to tell you which is more dangerous.
Here are the weights and apparent hit die for animals up to 235 tons (not that anything in the real world breaks 200 tons, but sometimes its good to be thorough). Keep in mind that non-animal creatures will have a different rate of proportionality with dragons having fewer hit die to their average ton for example.
Average Weight
Hit Die
Examples
<40 lbs
1d8
Archaeopteryx, Armadillo, Badger, Barracuda, Cat, Common Bat, Compsognathus, Eagle, Electric Eel, Fox, Velociraptor
80 lbs
2d8
Alligator Gar, Cheetah, Giant Armadillo, Giant Moray Eel, Snow Leopard, Wolf
140 lbs
3d8
Cougar, Giant Octopus, Leopard
160 lbs
4d8
Bighorn Sheep, Blue Shark, Bull Shark, Common Dolphin, Deinonychus, Goat, Jaguar, Llama, Lion, Mule Deer, Nothosaurus, Sheep, Terror Bird, Tiger, Wild Boar
560 lbs
5d8
American Alligator, American Lion, Antelope, Black Bear, Dimetrodon, Elk, Giant Squid, Great Hammerhead, Grizzly Bear, Pony, Quetzalcoatlus, Siberian Tiger, Smilodon, Swordfish
1,100 lbs
6d8
Cave Bear, Colossal Squid, Dromornis, Irish Elk, Light Horse, Moose, Pachycephalosaurus, Polar Bear, Saltwater Crocodile, Tiger Shark
1,700 lbs
7d8
Allosaurus, American Bison, Camel, Giraffe, Great White Shark (average), Heavy Horse, Short-faced Bear
2,600 lbs
8d8
Aurochs, Greenland Shark, Narwhal, Titanoboa
3,500 lbs
9d8
Megalania
4,800 lbs
10d8
Archelon, Elasmosaurus
6,000 lbs
11d8
Asian Elephant, Parasaurolophus, Styracosaurus
7,600 lbs
12d8
Dunkleosteus, Great White Shark (record), Iguanadon
9,200 lbs
13d8
Mastodon, Orca, Stegosaurus
12,000 lbs
14d8
African Bush Elephant, Ankylosurus, Wolly Mammoth
14,000 lbs
15d8
Steppe Mammoth, Tylosaurus, Tyrannosaurus
17,000 lbs
16d8
Sarcosuchus
21,000 lbs
17d8
Giganotosaurus
26,000 lbs
18d8
Diplodocus, Triceratops
32,000 lbs
19d8
Spinosaurus
38,000 lbs
20d8
Apatosaurus, Shantungosaurus
48,000 lbs
21d8
Kronosaurus, Whale Shark
56,000 lbs
22d8
Brachiosaurus, Humpback Whale
68,000 lbs
23d8
Sperm Whale
81,000 lbs
24d8
95,000 lbs
25d8
Pliosaurus funkei 'Predator X',
110,000 lbs
26d8
Megalodon (consensus), Right Whale
130,000 lbs
27d8
140,000 lbs
28d8
160,000 lbs
29d8
180,000 lbs
30d8
200,000 lbs
31d8
230,000 lbs
32d8
Blue Whale, Megalodon (highest estimate)
250,000 lbs
33d8
270,000 lbs
34d8
Amphicoelias
300,000 lbs
35d8
320,000 lbs
36d8
350,000 lbs
37d8
390,000 lbs
38d8
Blue Whate (record)
430,000 lbs
39d8
470,000 lbs
40d8
Size
Size, for most creatures, is pretty straight forward, simply find their length and compare it to the size and reach table you can find online and determine size category by the length. Note, I said its for most creatures. Using this method for bipedal creatures tends to result in rather wonky results. If the creature is a biped like a theropod dinosaur, terror bird, or primate it works better to determine size category based on the height of the creature.
This does tend to give much 'smaller' results for most dinosaurs then you'd expect, with only the very largest theropods getting the huge size category. However, their reach is pretty long, and since the majority of their body length is made up of tail... a smaller fighting space makes sense.
Ability Scores
Now that you've got a nominal hit die and size, next you need the ability scores. These involve quite a bit of calculation. Normally the total number of attribute points should be roughly around 65 + 1 per 4 hit die, which will give you a budget for assigning the number of attribute points for the mental scores, while the physical attributes can be determined by calculation, mental attributes are not so easily determined.
Okay, most important for creatures is strength. Its also the easiest to determine as there tends to be a rough correlation between body weight, carrying capacity, and strength. To calculate a strength score based on body weight...
Take the square root of the creatures weight in pounds and divide it by the carrying capacity multipler for a creature it's size and build. So... say you want to make stats for the largest Great White Shark recorded.
The square root of this 7,300 lb shark is 85.44... At 20 ft, its a huge creature so the carrying capacity multiplier is x4. 85.44/4 gives us a strength score of 21. This seems perfect for a powerful shark like the great white.
Next, we have to find the constitution score. Constitution reflects both the strength of a creature and its ability to handle disease, as a result its better to make it so that the constitution takes into account the number of hit die for the animal. My method to calculate an animals the constitution score is as follows.
Ten time the square root of (Animal weight/Average weight of hit die) + Special Size Modifier
So... the average weight of a 12 HD creature is 7,600 lbs... So (7,300 lbs\7,600) = 0.9605... The square root is 0.98 * 10 = 9.8 + 2 from huge size. So the total would be 12 Con, which seems kind of low, but not unreasonably so.
Next we need to find Dex. To do this, you need to go back to the Space, Reach, & Threatened area table as it includes the average weight for each size category. Generally an animal which weighs less then normal for its size category will have a higher dex score. Therefore to find the Dex...
10*Square Root of (Average Weight of Size Category/Animal Weight). In this case, the 7,300 lb Great White Shark is huge, which has an Average Weight of 18,000 lb.
18,000/7,300 = 2.465... The square root is 1.57... * 10 is 15.7, rounded up to 16. So the physical attributes of the largest Great White ever recorded is...
Str 21, Dex 16, Con 12...
Mental scores are determined mostly by behavior. Animals are always 1-2 int, and something like the Great White shark is certainly 1 Int. As a 12 HD animal, the total number of attribute points it should have would be around 68 (65 + 3 from HD).
68 - (21 + 16 + 12 + 1) = 18... so an average of 9 for Cha and Wis. As this is a solitary shark, I'd consider Cha a dump stat, so... Wis 10, Cha 8. Total Attribute scores...
Str 21, Dex 16, Con 12, Int 1, Wis 10, Cha 8
Now that you have the Hit Die and ability scores, most of the rest of the creation process will flow quite easily as the Hit Die determines so much of the animal, the attributes another bunch...
I'll post more on Natural Attacks, Natural Armor, and Special Abilities later.