PDA

View Full Version : How fast does a Dire Wolverine age?



Threeshades
2007-04-20, 07:50 AM
Yes it's a weird question. but i can explain.

I was DMing my party yesterday and they ran into a dire wolverine (i was just browsing the monster manual for a nice encounter and there i tripped over the dire animals). They defeated it of course (lvl3 party against a single standard-issue DW) and then found its cave. So i let them find a few healing potions, and a baby dire wolverine. I actually expected them to kill it or just leave it there (evil party) but they actually adopted it.

So I thought they should keep it if they want to. it might make a nice animal companin when they're higher level. But i've been wondering how long it would take for a little baby dire wolverine (right now it has the size of a small dog, or a big cat, to narrow that down a little) to become a bear sized adult.

Is there maybe any passage telling about how old dire animals get, or how much slower/faster they age than their normal versions?

Maxymiuk
2007-04-20, 09:15 AM
Details like that rarely matter in a typical D&D game, so I don't believe monster age categories actually exist anywhere (aside from dragons).

So I'll suggest you improvise. Among mammals the general tendency is that the bigger they are, the longer their lifespan - though I'm sure someone will be along shortly with notable exceptions.

Wiki puts a typical wolverine's lifespan at 5-13 years, with a newborn reaching adulthood within one year. My suggestion would be to simply extend that by anywhere between 50-100%.

Stephen_E
2007-04-20, 09:35 AM
You can probably just take the normal time to juvenile for a standard Wolverine and then add anywhere between 0-50%. The full lifespan should pretty definitely be extended. I'm not familiar with a normal Wovlerines lifespan, but I'd guess (based on cats and dogs) you'd be looking at something like 1 1/2 - 2 years to 80% of full growth. The 3rd year the last 20%, which is mainly bulking out, occurs.

Basically if you look at predators, ranging from housecats upto Bears and Large cats, they all have a similiar timespan from birth to young adult. Even though their is considerable difference on full lifespans. It may seem a bit odd at 1st, but keep in mind they all have the same evolutionary requirement. They have to be up and running as a independant creature resonably quickly. The parents can only afford to put so much effort into the offspring without seriously impacting on their own survival, and been a predator is a chancy lifestyle, you're only a few days of unsuccessful hunts away from the starvation line.

PS. I'm not surprised a evil party decided to adopt a baby wolverine. Adoption of pets is a character trait not covered in the alignment system. You can have well played Paladins that would've killed it on the spot, and the most muderous of evil characters who'll go out of their way to adopt and care for it (especially for a wolverine which has the combination of cute/vicious in it's character traits).

Stephen

Threeshades
2007-04-20, 10:07 AM
You can probably just take the normal time to juvenile for a standard Wolverine and then add anywhere between 0-50%. The full lifespan should pretty definitely be extended. I'm not familiar with a normal Wovlerines lifespan, but I'd guess (based on cats and dogs) you'd be looking at something like 1 1/2 - 2 years to 80% of full growth. The 3rd year the last 20%, which is mainly bulking out, occurs.

Basically if you look at predators, ranging from housecats upto Bears and Large cats, they all have a similiar timespan from birth to young adult. Even though their is considerable difference on full lifespans. It may seem a bit odd at 1st, but keep in mind they all have the same evolutionary requirement. They have to be up and running as a independant creature resonably quickly. The parents can only afford to put so much effort into the offspring without seriously impacting on their own survival, and been a predator is a chancy lifestyle, you're only a few days of unsuccessful hunts away from the starvation line.

PS. I'm not surprised a evil party decided to adopt a baby wolverine. Adoption of pets is a character trait not covered in the alignment system. You can have well played Paladins that would've killed it on the spot, and the most muderous of evil characters who'll go out of their way to adopt and care for it (especially for a wolverine which has the combination of cute/vicious in it's character traits).

Stephen

Thank you. I think will let it grow to at least middle size within a year, and make it grow to a full size dire wolverine within another 6 months. maybe even a little bit faster, because a whole year takes a lot of time to go by even in a role playing game.
Or if they level up fast enough i might get them some caster to accelerate its adolescense

Fhaolan
2007-04-20, 10:30 AM
So I'll suggest you improvise. Among mammals the general tendency is that the bigger they are, the longer their lifespan - though I'm sure someone will be along shortly with notable exceptions.


The only exceptions I can think of is within species themselves. i.e. I find that dogs significantly larger or smaller than 'average' tend to have shorter lifespans. Breeding programs have altered specific breeds of dog faster than natural evolution, causing structural and metabolic problems that lead to shorter lifespans. I assume that magical crossbreeding and the like will have similar problems, if not even more pronounced.

So, I guess it depends on whether the Dire Wolverine is a breed of wolverine that's oversized, or a seperate but closely related species. Bit science-heavy for a fantasy creature, but its the only basis we've got outside of personal whim.

Mewtarthio
2007-04-20, 11:00 AM
By the way, don't forget that there's a DC 20 Handle Animal check that somebody has to make to rear it properly. You can waive it, but just don't do so in ignorance.

Threeshades
2007-04-20, 12:15 PM
By the way, don't forget that there's a DC 20 Handle Animal check that somebody has to make to rear it properly. You can waive it, but just don't do so in ignorance.

it's still a baby so i put the DC to 15. And they are soon to be joined by a druid who should be able to handle it by the time it's adult.


I dont think dire animals are magically altered. it doesnt tell anythng about them in the books. they just say they are bigger, prehistoric looking versions of normal animals. So i suppose they are something like a subspecies.

Fhaolan
2007-04-20, 01:22 PM
I dont think dire animals are magically altered. it doesnt tell anythng about them in the books. they just say they are bigger, prehistoric looking versions of normal animals. So i suppose they are something like a subspecies.

It doesn't say anything about Dire's being subspecies, breed, or even a magical breed in the official books. That doesn't mean the DM can't arbitrarily declare it, of course. I was just pointing out the only RL 'rules' I was aware of for determining normal lifespan.

In RL there actually was a giant wolverine at one point. Modern taxonomy calls it a 'Megalictis ferox', and they existed in the Miocene period. Fossil record has them growing up to 7 feet in length. Twice the size of normal wolverines, but still only half the size as D&D Dire Wolverines. Ah well. :)