Rooster Stats

[Saint Martin]

Before you ask, yes, I am serious about this. In the Monster Manual and the Player's Handbook, I could not find the stats for a rooster or a chicken anywhere. And while this may seem strange, let me elaborate. I created a human Eldritch Knight character for one of my adventuring groups, and his background is the Noble background, using the Knight variant. I decided to make a coat of arms for him based on his house's motto: I Hail the Morning. Aside from the fact that I think it's a cool metaphor for a knight being a light in the darkness, it also fits with his house's background as the commoners' protectors and liberators. And what hails the morning better than a rooster? So I made his coat of arms a crowing rooster on a background of sky blue with a red sun rising behind. And as an Eldritch Knight, he can learn the spell Find Familiar. So I thought it would be fitting for him to have a rooster familiar. But for the life of me, I cannot find stats. Does anyone know of any stats for a rooster? Or could y'all think of some homebrew stats that I could use?

[Twelvetrees]

My advice would be to use the stats of a bird already in the game, like an eagle or vulture, and then just reduce its flying speed. Rename it a rooster and you should be set.

[Lvl 2 Expert]

The chicken in the 3.xe chicken infested commoner flaw is, I seem to remember, a raven with its flight speed turned into a glide speed. For a fierce fighting **** you could do something similar to a hawk or something (don't remember exactly which birds of prey are in the 5e monster manual), like twelvetrees says, or maybe add a glide or flight speed to a commoner-killing cat. For a large breed of chicken you could probably use a small creature, rather than a tiny one (sp an eagle rather than a hawk, apparently real world breeds only barely cross the weight boundary (http://chickenbreedslist.com/5-Largest-Chicken-Breeds.html), but birds are lightly build, so they're a bit bigger than a mammal of the same weight), that should help making it a slightly more suitable familiar for a knight.

[warty goblin]

Do note that catching a chicken - even one declining to fly - is extremely difficult. Damn little things can corner on a dime, and are surprisingly swift of foot as well. This is mostly ameliorated by the use of a piece of wire about a yard long, bent into a nearly closed hook at one end for snaring the thing by the leg. Run it as a chase, and if the player gets into the chicken's square, make them succeed at a dexterity check, on which they get advantage if equipped with aforementioned hook.

You should also represent the crazed bloodlust that you find in the occasional rooster. Sure your players may be epic heroes who kill orcs by the dozens, but to the rooster they're just another weirdo after his women who needs to be thoroughly pecked, clawed, and spurred in any body parts he can reach. Which for a human is anywhere from the ankle to mid-thigh or thereabouts; but a really good and pissed off rooster could literally get right up in a hafling's face. Where the rooster will attempt to remove the halfling's nose.

Hens can achieve a substantial level of violence as well, if she's feeling broody and you're going for her eggs. This however is generally limited to attempts to amputate your fingers by biting* them. This is uncomfortable, but lacks the headlong intimidation of the rooster's berserk assaults.


*It is a bite. They don't drive the point of their beaks into you, they lunge out, grab a small bit of your flesh in their beak, and then yank their head backwards. This pinches a bit, and can draw blood.

[Ninja_Prawn]

Reskins are all well and good, but I don't think Hawk, Owl or Raven really capture what you're going for here.

Chicken
Tiny beast, unaligned
Armour Class 11
Hit Points 2 (1d4)
Speed 25 ft., fly 25 ft.


STR
DEX
CON
INT
WIS
CHA


3 (-4)
12 (+1)
10 (+0)
2 (-4)
12 (+1)
6 (-2)


Senses passive Perception 11
Languages -
Challenge 0 (10 XP)

Egg Layer. Once per day, the chicken can lay an egg, which provides enough food to sustain one medium humanoid for the day.

Actions
Beak. Melee Weapon Attack: +3 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 1 piercing damage.



Fightin' C*ck
Tiny beast, unaligned
Armour Class 13
Hit Points 3 (1d4+1)
Speed 25 ft., fly 25 ft.


STR
DEX
CON
INT
WIS
CHA


5 (-3)
16 (+3)
13 (+1)
2 (-4)
13 (+1)
8 (-1)


Skills Athletics -1, Intimidation +1
Senses passive Perception 11
Languages -
Challenge 1/8 (25 XP)

Rampage. When the fightin' c*ck reduces a creature to 0 hit points with a melee attack on its turn, it can take a bonus action to move up to half its speed and make a beak attack.

Actions
Multiattack. The fightin' c*ck makes two attacks: one with its beak and one with its talons.

Beak. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 1 piercing damage.

Talons. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 1 slashing damage.

[WickerNipple]

Ya want a chicken, eh? Ok...

Rooster
Tiny beast, unaligned

Armor Class: 13
Hit Points: 1
Speed: 20, 10ft glide

Str: 2 (-4)
Dex: 16 (+3)
Con: 8 (-1)
Int: -5 (-9)
Wis: 12 (+1)
Cha: 4 (-3)

Skills: Perception +3, Acrobatics +5
Languages: --
Challenge: 0

Chicken-Walk: All attempts to grapple a chicken are made with disadvantage.

Actions:
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +0 hit hit, reach 5gt, one creature
Hit: 1 piercing damage

DM Notes: Add comical decapitations to taste.

[Addaran]

Chicken-Walk: All attempts to grapple a chicken are made with disadvantage.


That is the best homebrewed ability i've ever seen. :smallbiggrin:

Also, the OP is awesome for wanting a rooster familiar.

[JackPhoenix]

There are also homebrewed chicken stats here: http://www.middlefingerofvecna.com/2015/08/cluckromancy.html


You should also represent the crazed bloodlust that you find in the occasional rooster. Sure your players may be epic heroes who kill orcs by the dozens, but to the rooster they're just another weirdo after his women who needs to be thoroughly pecked, clawed, and spurred in any body parts he can reach. Which for a human is anywhere from the ankle to mid-thigh or thereabouts; but a really good and pissed off rooster could literally get right up in a hafling's face. Where the rooster will attempt to remove the halfling's nose.

I'm no halfling, but I had to defend my face from an angry rooster more then once. My father also broke a wooden broom handle over that bastard once, without any lasting damage to the rooster (I wasn't there to see it, though...I think it's more plausible he missed and broke the broom on the ground, but I digress)

[warty goblin]

Egg Layer. Once per day, the chicken can lay an egg, which provides enough food to sustain one medium humanoid for the day.


The sort of traditional chicken you'll find scratching their way about a decent farmyard is generally not capable of laying an egg a day. In good weather, and with good food, you'll get maybe two eggs every three days from a healthy, mature hen of a traditional breed. This declines somewhat with age, but is most noticeably impacted by temperature; in winter laying can drop all the way to zero. It can also vary with breed, but is pretty stable at 2/3 days or 1/2 days for most traditional types that are suitable both for laying and eating.

It's also worth pointing out that a fresh egg from a hen who's been out eating grass and bugs for a couple weeks in the sun is incomparably better than the things they sell in grocery stores. The yolk is damn near orange, and very thick compared to that of a hen living in a cage; almost over-easy texture straight from the shell. And the flavor is much better, richer and stronger. Scrambled up they're this glorious golden yellow color, with a wonderfully firm body, not the insipid pee-colored watery stuff they serve in restaurants.

(Of course for the freshest eggs possible, you clean out the egg duct when butchering the hen. She'll have the next several week's worth of eggs in there, still without shells and steadily growing in size from indistinguishably small up to ready to lay. You might even get one that's just forming a shell, which is often very wrinkly at this point, like your toes after you've been in the bath for a long time. )


Man, I miss having chickens. Marvelous creatures.

[Sir cryosin]

To the OP if I was your DM the firest time you tell me about this I would give you inspiration for it then everytime your chicken killed someone I'll give you inspiration to.

[hymer]

The sort of traditional chicken you'll find scratching their way about a decent farmyard is generally not capable of laying an egg a day.

Note sure how serious the egg-a-day ability is supposed to be, but just to note: A chicken egg tends to have less than 100 kcal to it, and an average expenditure on a slow day is probably in the 2000 range. And adventurers tend to have some hard days, and some of them are super athletes, with a resting expenditure over 3000.
Eggs are marvelous sustenance, except for vitamin C, but you do need much more than an egg a day.

[Ninja_Prawn]

Note sure how serious the egg-a-day ability is supposed to be is...

Yep. Fun > Game Mechanics > Verisimilitude.

Thinking about it though, perhaps eggs would make more sense as special sling ammunition than food?

[hymer]

Thinking about it though, perhaps eggs would make more sense as special sling ammunition than food?

You should definitely get advantage to heckling checks if you expend an egg on it.

[MeeposFire]

Yep. Fun > Game Mechanics > Verisimilitude.

Thinking about it though, perhaps eggs would make more sense as special sling ammunition than food?

Ah the rotten egg gambit. fling the egg and hit for minor damage and then make a save vs con or feel poisoned for several rounds or so?

However very fragile. IF hit hard enough (fail a save vs something that deals crushing damage or get hit by an attack for a lot of crushing damage) then all your rotten eggs break and you have to make saves to avoid being poisoned.

[Nicodiemus]

Since all familiars are effectively ectoplasmic entities you couldn't eat it or any egg it may lay. They're just fey/celestial/fiends reskinned as animals.

[Ninja_Prawn]

Since all familiars are effectively ectoplasmic entities you couldn't eat it or any egg it may lay. They're just fey/celestial/fiends reskinned as animals.

Is eating the eggs of a celestial a sin?

Though it should be noted that the stat block could represent a real chicken just as easily as a familiar one.

[JackPhoenix]

Is eating the eggs of a celestial a sin?

Though it should be noted that the stat block could represent a real chicken just as easily as a familiar one.

The original question was for a rooster, though...I'm pretty sure those counts as fiends, not celestials

[Balyano]

What's with this ''glide speed'' thing? Chickens can fly, they are just really lazy about it, never go more than a couple hundred feet at a time, and mostly just do it to roost in trees at night and to get into places you don't want them to be to annoy you.

I suggest their movement read: Landspeed - Your speed+1 in feet, Flight - enough...but after three rounds the chicken gets bored and says ''screw this'' and lands.

[Ninja_Prawn]

What's with this ''glide speed'' thing? Chickens can fly, they are just really lazy about it, never go more than a couple hundred feet at a time, and mostly just do it to roost in trees at night and to get into places you don't want them to be to annoy you.

I suggest their movement read: Landspeed - Your speed+1 in feet, Flight - enough...but after three rounds the chicken gets bored and says ''screw this'' and lands.

Maybe humanoids should get a glide speed if they grab a chicken and jump off a cliff... :smalltongue:

[Hairfish]

This sounds like an awful lot of trouble to go through just to play with a ****.

[Suteinu]

From WickerNipple: Chicken-Walk: All attempts to grapple a chicken are made with disadvantage.




"I feel like a Kentucky-fried idiot."

- level 8 Fighter w/ Tavern Brawler feat; Mic said he was a bum

[CaptAl]

What's with this ''glide speed'' thing? Chickens can fly, they are just really lazy about it, never go more than a couple hundred feet at a time, and mostly just do it to roost in trees at night and to get into places you don't want them to be to annoy you.

I suggest their movement read: Landspeed - Your speed+1 in feet, Flight - enough...but after three rounds the chicken gets bored and says ''screw this'' and lands.

Having been raised on a farm, specifically one for fighting chickens, I can attest to this. I've found chickens over 100 ft up in a tree, and catching a loose rooster is akin to wrestling an angry hornets nest.

[N810]

Talons Spurs. Melee Weapon Attack:

Also, hens are perfectly able to lay 1 egg a day, I collected many an egg as a boy.

Hmmm... maybe give them uncanny dodge as well...

[Flashy]

Also, hens are perfectly able to lay 1 egg a day, I collected many an egg as a boy.

Hmmm... maybe give them uncanny dodge as well...

Honestly from how people talk about it 1/short rest Blink is probably more appropriate.

[BootStrapTommy]

The original question was for a rooster, though...I'm pretty sure those counts as fiends, not celestialsI'm also pretty sure they don't lay eggs...

[JackPhoenix]

I'm also pretty sure they don't lay eggs...

Where are the basilisks coming from, then? (Or was it cockatrice, or am I mistaken in my mythology?)

[N810]

I believe it was cockatrice. As they look a lot like roosters (with some lizard bits).

[warty goblin]

Where are the basilisks coming from, then? (Or was it cockatrice, or am I mistaken in my mythology?)

I've seen both in modern fantasy. In Harry Potter, a basilisk came from a chicken's egg hatched under a toad. In The Book of the Dun Cow, Cockatrice (he was a unique beast) hatched from an egg laid by a rooster and hatched beneath a toad.