Oceanic Beasties

[Regitnui]

Yeah, I know the MM has a whole lot of these, and I've dug through the DMsG to find more, but there's one glaring exception; seals. The merfolk culture in my campaign keeps seals as pets and hunting 'dogs', but I can't find any stats at all for the poor creatures. This extends to their relatives; walruses, sea lions (not the chimerical maned mercat, the real creature) and the other pinnipedia. Anybody seen a good stat block anywhere? Or failing that, any good reskinning suggestions?

[Ninja_Prawn]

any good reskinning suggestions?

Give mastiffs and lions a swim speed? Replace Pounce with some kind of Charge?

[Afrodactyl]

I would agree with Mastiffs with a swim speed as a seal, and say wolves as sea lions, with maybe a worg/lion/dire wolf as a pack alpha kind of thing. You could even maybe use one of the shark stat blocks for a sea lion.

Maybe a giant boar without the charge feature as a walrus?

And then you already have stat blocks for mammoths, killer whales, sabertooth tigers, etc.

[Regitnui]

Give mastiffs and lions a swim speed? Replace Pounce with some kind of Charge?

Huh. I hadn't thought of that. Remind me to come to you first if I have a refluff problem. :smallbiggrin:


And then you already have stat blocks for mammoths, killer whales, sabertooth tigers, etc.

I'm not looking for arctic beasties, but it does underline a problem with the MM's stat blocks, and what seems to be a prevailing trend; very few monsters exist to support amphibious encounters; most adventures are land- or underground-based, fair enough. Then there's a token nod towards sharks and killer whales for the shipwreck drama. But there's not a lot of monsters that can chase PCs from the land into a lake or ocean (or vice versa) and keep chasing them. Hydras, water elementals, crocodiles, lizardfolk... yeah.

[Ninja_Prawn]

Huh. I hadn't thought of that. Remind me to come to you first if I have a refluff problem. :smallbiggrin:

Hah, thanks. When it comes to re-fluffing, I shoot from the hip, and I don't be takin' no prisoners!