Arcanobiology: Magical Beasts Redeveloped

[aimlessPolymath]

A little while ago, I came up with the idea of a druidic spellcaster who would have to hunt down their spells by finding a creature with an appropriate spell-like ability and killing it. I immediately discarded the idea for two obvious reasons:
1. It would be fun for precisely nobody to have a party member go off on a sidequest on their own in order to gain a class feature just to be on par with everyone else
2. Many spells wouldn't be represented by any creature printed so far.

While the first is enough on its own to bin the whole thing, the second made me interested in developing magical beasts that are mostly not intended for the PCs to fight, but are useful for worldbuilding. There are no prey magical beasts, as far as I know, for example.

Spare ideas for if I run out:

Pigeons which cast obscuring mist; a pest common in port towns.
PF: Ants which cast ant haul; capable of carrying like 5 pounds each, surprisingly. Their queens can use control vermin, allowing the swarm as a whole to animate their hive by acting in unison.
Shimmering Butterflies, able to fire off color spray to disorient predators. Their yearly migrations produce a scintillating pattern.
The natural predators of the pigeons: Gust eagles. Updraft seagulls, too.
PF: Tool-using monkeys which can use Shillelagh, Wood Shape, and Thorn Javelin.
A whole set of cats with bless, bane, and doom, maybe bestow curse.


Starting off the list:
Mist Pigeons.
Tiny Magical Beast
Hit Dice: 1/4 d8 (1 hp)
Initiative: +2
Speed: 10 ft, fly 40 ft (average)
Armor Class: 14 (+2 size, +2 Dex), touch 14, flat-footed 12
Base Attack/Grapple: +0/-13
Attack: Claws +4 melee (1d2-5)
Space/Reach: 2 1/2 ft/0 ft
Special Attacks: Mist Emission
Special Qualities: Low-light vision
Saves: Fort+2, Ref+4, Will+2
Abilities: Str 1, Dex 15, Con 10, Int 1, Wis 14, Cha 6
Skills: Listen+3, Spot+5, Hide+4, Move Silently+4
Feats: Stealthy, Weapon FinesseB
Environment: Urban near coasts, Coastal cliffs.
Organization: Solitary, Pair(2 mated), Flock (3-16)
Challenge Rating: 1/4 on their own, 1/2 as part of a larger encounter
Treasure: None
Alignment: True Neutral
Advancement: -
Level Adjustment: -
A common pest in port towns and near the coast, mist pigeons have adapted well to civilization. These pests are often difficult to track down and deal with due to the cloud of fog that surrounds them, especially in groups. During the spring, migrating flocks have been known to shut down ports for days at a time. However, while they are often hunted by ambitious children looking to make some silver during most of the year, they are well loved during the summer, where they provide much desired shade and coolth.

Mist Emission (Sp): A mist pigeon is capable of producing a cloud of fog around itself, as per obscuring mist, at will. A group of at least three of them, working together, can produce the effects of a fog cloud. These effects last indefinitely.

Sand Drake
Medium Magical Beast
Hit Dice: 3d8+9 (22 hp)
Initiative: +2
Speed: 30 ft, burrow 10 ft (sand only)
Armor Class: 15 (+3 natural, +2 Dex), touch 12, flat-footed 13
Base Attack/Grapple: +2/+5
Attack: Bite +5 melee (1d8+4 plus Shocking Bite)
Space/Reach: 5 ft/5 ft
Special Attacks: Shocking Bite
Special Qualities: Low-light vision
Saves: Fort +8, Ref +5, Will +2
Abilities: Str 17, Dex 15, Con 17, Int 2, Wis 12, Cha 2
Skills: Climb +7, Hide +6 (+10 in sands), Listen +4, Move Silently +6, Spot +4
Feats: Alertness, Great Fortitude
Environment: Sandy deserts
Organization: Solitary, Ambush(1 plus Ranger 3)
Challenge Rating: 3
Treasure: None
Alignment: True Neutral
Advancement: 4-5 HD
Level Adjustment: -
This lesser cousin of blue dragons makes its home in the desert. While rarely domesticated (and often with shocking results for the trainer), they can be directed to an extent, enough to cooperate with those who can offer a sufficient supply of food. When hunting, it buries itself just below the surface, before lunging out to slay its target in one blow.

Shocking Bite (Sp): A Sand Drake's bite attack deals an extra 1d6 points of electricity damage per hit die (3d6 for the example drake). Once it does, it is discharged, and must wait 1d4 minutes before dealing this damage again. This is the equivalent of a 1st level spell.

Racial Bonuses: A Sand Drake gets a +4 bonus to Hide checks made in sandy environments.

[noob]

So mist pigeons can speak and write common.
It is one of the weird things in raw: anything that have three int or more can read and speak common unless specified otherwise.

[aimlessPolymath]

... Huh. Pretend I houseruled that away, then.
Let's do... a snake.
Also, I'm terrible with names, so if anyone has suggestions, that would be great.

King Constrictor
Small Magical Beast
Hit Dice: 1d8+1 (5 hp)
Initiative: +4
Speed: 20 ft, climb 20 ft, swim 20 ft
Armor Class: 17 (+2 natural, +4 Dex, +1 size), touch 15, flat-footed 13
Base Attack/Grapple: +0/-2
Attack: Bite+3 melee(1d2+3)
Space/Reach: 5 ft/5 ft
Special Attacks: Spell-like abilities, improved grab, constrict
Special Qualities: Scent
Saves: Fort +3, Ref+6, Will+3
Abilities: Str 15, Dex 19, Con 13, Int 6, Wis 12, Cha 12
Skills: Balance +12, Climb +10, Hide +5, Listen +6, Spot +6, Swim +10, Knowledge(nature)-1
Feats: Alertness, Ability Focus(charm animal)
Environment: Warm or temperate forests
Organization: Solitary
Challenge Rating: 1/2
Treasure: None
Alignment: Neutral Evil
Advancement: 2 HD(small), 3-5 HD (medium), 6-10 HD (large)
Level Adjustment: -
This small iridescent snake is found in tropical forests, where it relies on its ability to hypnotize small animals in order to capture its prey. It is often prized for its shimmering scales, which have a hypnotizing effect. As an animal companion, it is valued for its ability to hypnotize larger prey, holding them in place while the hunter prepares for the kill.

Due to its inability to attack larger foes effectively, a king constrictor will rarely attempt to attack anything of Small or larger size, but pets and familiars are fair game.

A king constrictor that has reached 5 HD and gained the ability to charm any creature is referred to as an Emperor of the Jungle. Due to their long-lasting charm effects, they often command a small "party" of creatures that they direct against their prey. Alternatively, they may join an existing group of predators, using their abilities to avoid being recognized as a thief.

Constrict (Ex): On a successful grapple check, a king constrictor deals (1d2+3) points of damage.

Improved Grab (Ex): To use this ability, a king constrictor must hit with its bite attack. It can then attempt to start a grapple as a free action without provoking an attack of opportunity. If it wins the grapple check, it establishes a hold and can constrict.

Spell-like abilities: A king constrictor can use charm animal, as the spell, once per hour. The save DC against this effect is 14. A constrictor of 5 or more HD has the ability to use charm monster instead. While it is unable to speak, it can with a DC 10 Charisma check communicate some general intents across species lines, such as "follow me" or "come here".

Skills: Snakes have a +4 racial bonus on Hide, Listen, and Spot checks and a +8 racial bonus on Balance and Climb checks. A snake can always choose to take 10 on a Climb check, even if rushed or threatened. Snakes use either their Strength modifier or Dexterity modifier for Climb checks, whichever is higher. A snake has a +8 racial bonus on any Swim check to perform some special action or avoid a hazard. It can always choose to take 10 on a Swim check, even if distracted or endangered. It can use the run action while swimming, provided it swims in a straight line.
This snake has lost its normal bonus on Hide checks due to its colorful scales.

Aaaand their natural predators.
Snakeater Badger
Small Magical Beast
Hit Dice: 1d8+2 (6 hp)
Initiative: +3
Speed: 30 ft, burrow 10 ft
Armor Class: 15 (+1 natural, +3 Dex, +1 size), touch 14, flat-footed 12
Base Attack/Grapple: +0/-5
Attack: Claw+4 melee(1d2-1)
Full Attack: Two claws +4 melee(1d2-2) and bite -1 melee(1d3-1)
Space/Reach: 5 ft/5 ft
Special Attacks: Reactive Defense
Special Qualities: Scent, low-light vision, Protection from snakes
Saves: Fort +7, Ref +5, Will +1
Abilities: Str 8, Dex 17, Con 15, Int 2, Wis 12, Cha 6
Skills: Escape Artist +7, Listen +3, Spot +3, Survival +1
Feats: Great Fortitude, TrackB, Weapon FinesseB
Environment: Warm or temperate forests
Organization: Solitary, pair, or cete (3–5)

Challenge Rating: 1
Treasure: None
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral
Advancement: 2 HD(small), 3-5 HD (medium)
Level Adjustment: -
The snakeater badger is most notable for its absolute hatred of any sort of obedience. All attempts at domestication led only to obstinate refusal to perform, all attempts at communication led to obscene responses, and every attempt to corral it for training led to it burrowing away at the first opportunity. Similarly, no druid has managed to corral it into being an animal companion for more than three hours. This is unfortunate, as its innate defenses would have made it an incredibly valued companion, able to survive through dangers that would kill a lesser beast. The only thing this badger can tolerate is another badger.

In the wild, its immunity to mind-affecting effects makes it the perfect foe against a whole class of mind-affecting beasts, as well as most elemental foes, which it exploits to the fullest; it is the primary predator of king constrictors, hypnotic vipers, flare flies, and killer bees. In general, it is solitary, most often joining together with others during mating season.

Reactive Defense(Sp): Upon taking damage, a snakeater badger may gain the effect of resist energy or barkskin, as it chooses, as an immediate action. Once it does, the effect lasts for 2d4 rounds. This takes place before the damage is dealt. A badger can only gain this effect once per minute.

Protection from Snakes(Sp): A snakeater badger is continually affected by protection from evil, except that the bonuses apply against snakes instead of evil creatures.

Skills A snakeater badger has a +4 racial bonus on Escape Artist checks.

[noob]

If at 3 int you were not able to talk then one human adventurer on 216 would be unable to talk.
And it would be very common for orc adventurers to be unable to talk.
In fact 3 int is considered by this game as the limit between an human like intelligence and an animal intelligence: below you are not sentient and above(including 3) you are smart enough to be an adventurer(which is a really complex work which you can not survive with animal like intelligence).
And each point of intelligence represents a huge difference.
So if you want to express "my mist pigeon is smarter than a monkey and less intelligent than someone who talks" then instead of giving it three int you should rather give it some kind of descriptive property like "a mist pigeon is surprisingly cunning" or maybe use int in a more continuous way like giving your mist pigeon 2.2 int.
For example your king constrictor is on average as smart as an orc.
Why would all orcs be able to talk read and write but not your king constructors?
Or alternatively if you want your magical animals to have high int you could let them talk.
And if you want them to have high int for the purpose of resisting drain maybe you could just give them a protection against int drain.

[aimlessPolymath]

It can't speak Common because its lungs are the wrong shape, clearly. It can't understand it because it wasn't taught Common, and has little reason to want to.
The houserule in this case refers specifically to creatures that should not have been able to learn a language in the first place; people raised by wolves, for example, probably shouldn't learn all of their racial languages automatically. While its intelligence allows it to learn languages, it doesn't get freebies, because it didn't have the upbringing.

On the other hand, mist pigeons, sand drakes, and the badgers have all been dropped to animal-level intelligence, because I realized that they don't really need any more.
The following creature, on the other hand, needs enough Intelligence to recognize the concept of a deception, but doesn't need to be able to speak.

Monstrous Chameleon
Small Magical Beast
Hit Dice: 2d8+0(9 hp)
Initiative: +2
Speed: 20 ft, climb 20 ft
Armor Class: 14 (+1 size, +2 Dex, +1 natural armor), touch 13, flat-footed 12
Base Attack/Grapple: +1/-2
Attack: Bite +4 melee (1d6+1)
Space/Reach: 5 ft/5 ft
Special Attacks: Disguise Self
Special Qualities: Low-light vision, Scent
Saves: Fort+3, Ref+5, Will+1
Abilities: Str 13, Dex 14, Con 10, Int 4, Wis 10, Cha 12
Skills: Balance+10, Bluff+3, Disguise+4(+14 with disguise self), Listen+2, Spot+2, Climb+10, Hide+6(+10 with disguise self)
Feats: Deceitful, Weapon FinesseB
Environment: Various warm environments
Organization: Solitary
Challenge Rating: 1
Treasure: None
Alignment: True Neutral
Advancement: 3-4 HD(Medium)
Level Adjustment: -
Monstrous chameleons are dangerous predators capable of disguising themselves as virtually any quadruped. In the wild, they primarily attack herd animals, relying on their disguise abilities to lure away members of the herd and attack them individually, then impersonate them to repeat the process. However, the construction of farms and ranches has disrupted this behavior; rather than attacking wild animals, they can attack livestock, pets, or people who wander out too far. Such raids are often confused for normal animal attacks, keeping the searchers from finding the beast in their midst.

Disguise Self(Ex): A monstrous chameleon can replicate disguise self, as the spell, at will, except that they may take on the appearance of creatures of one size larger than themselves. If needed, they can use this ability to blend with the environment, gaining a +4 bonus on Hide checks instead.

Skills: Monstrous chameleons have a +8 racial bonus on Balance and Climb checks. They can always choose to take 10 on Climb checks, even if rushed or threatened. They use their Dexterity bonus on Climb checks instead of their Strength.

And a prey animal:

Bush Rabbit
Tiny Magical Beast

Hit Dice: 1/2 d8 - 1 (1 hp)
Initiative: +2
Speed: 40 ft
Armor Class: 15 (+2 size, +2 Dex), touch 14, flat-footed 12
Base Attack/Grapple: +0/-12
Attack: Bite -2 melee (1d3-4)
Space/Reach: 2 1/2 ft/0 ft
Special Attacks: Bush shape
Special Qualities: Low-light vision
Saves: Fort+1, Ref+4, Will+1
Abilities: Str 3, Dex 14, Con 9, Int 2, Wis 12, Cha 5
Skills: Jump+0 (+4 when jumping), Hide+14
Feats: Run
Environment: Temperate plains
Organization: Solitary, pair, or down(3-16)
Challenge Rating: 1/6
Treasure: None
Alignment: True Neutral
Advancement: -
Level Adjustment: -
Bush rabbits have the rare distinction of being hated by farmers both for being a pest and for being a weed. Their ability to transform into a plant when needed allows them to easily escape particularly stupid predators, provide shelter for their family, and subsist in areas where little food is to be found by photosynthesizing. Of course, this also makes them a particularly difficult pest to catch, as they seem to have the knack of turning into a bush just in time for their hunters to run headlong into them, then run off in a different direction.

Bush Shape(Sp): Once per hour, as a standard action, a bush rabbit can assume the form of a Small sized shrub. The same rabbit will always take the form of the same shrub, though the shrub changes as appropriate for the season and local growing conditions- in particularly inhospitable environments, it will become a dead shrub. This otherwise functions as Tree Shape, except that the duration is 8 hours.

[ThatOneNinja]

These are all great ideas, although I suspect enterprising PC's will attempt to capture all of these animals and then use them as wondrous items.
Off the top of my head, my first instinct on seeing the mist pigeon is to capture them to provide portable stealth zones for rogues.
Also, consider the worldwide effects of these animals.
A mist pigeon swarm is quite useful for the occasional army.
A king constrictor could cause political havoc by messing with random people of authority.
The bush rabbit would be farmed for both food and the ability to easily consume them as fuel. Although, I'm not actually too sure what would happen if something is burned in tree shape...:smallconfused:

[rferries]

Magnificent world-building, kudos!

[noob]

Oh.
I expected to play a mist pigeon.
I guess getting that sla at will was probably too much cool.(With the two meanings of the term)
Or maybe I still can with a headband of intellect +2.
I could become a druid mist pigeon or a cleric mist pigeon.
With pathfinder a lot of stuff is possible.
But getting a headband of intellect +2 would need a weird background.

[Bohandas]

If at 3 int you were not able to talk then one human adventurer on 216 would be unable to talk.

There's a difference between being theoretically able to do something and actually knowing how. The animals in question are able to learn language to an extent but generally lack the requisite training and background; like gorillas.


So if you want to express "my mist pigeon is smarter than a monkey and less intelligent than someone who talks" then instead of giving it three int you should rather give it some kind of descriptive property like "a mist pigeon is surprisingly cunning" or maybe use int in a more continuous way like giving your mist pigeon 2.2 int.

That seems like a good idea and there's even sort of a precedent for it. In 2e it was possible to have a strength score that was strictly between 18 and 19.

[aimlessPolymath]

Thanks for all the responses, everyone!


These are all great ideas, although I suspect enterprising PC's will attempt to capture all of these animals and then use them as wondrous items.
Off the top of my head, my first instinct on seeing the mist pigeon is to capture them to provide portable stealth zones for rogues.
Also, consider the worldwide effects of these animals.
A mist pigeon swarm is quite useful for the occasional army.
A king constrictor could cause political havoc by messing with random people of authority.
The bush rabbit would be farmed for both food and the ability to easily consume them as fuel. Although, I'm not actually too sure what would happen if something is burned in tree shape...:smallconfused:

Well, there are some limitations to those exploits. The main ones are lack of control over the creature- there's really no way to turn mist pigeons off and on reliably, and if you carry them around, you're entirely likely to get lost, for example.
King constrictors, if left in a position where they can charm important officials... won't really do much other than ask to be fed. They aren't really ambitious unless you direct them, and are difficult to train due to their intelligence.
Bush rabbits... well, nobody's farming either bushes nor rabbits, which I think speaks to their impracticality for farming.

Noob:
Yeah, the cut to mist pigeons will make some people unhappy... but I think it makes sense, given that they don't do anything more complicated than normal pigeons do.

Current plans are to stick with the normal system for defining Intelligence, I think.

Alright, a predator & prey set. Something minor- I need to go back to working.

Faded Fly
Fine vermin(Bug)
Hit Dice: 1/16d8(1* hp)
Initiative: +4
Speed: Fly 30 ft(perfect)
Armor Class: 22 (+8 size, +4 Dex), touch 22, flat-footed 18
Base Attack/Grapple: +0/-17
Attack: Bite +12 melee (1*)
Space/Reach: 0.5 ft/0 ft
Special Attacks: -
Special Qualities: Mindless, Invisible
Saves: Fort+2, Ref+4, Will+0
Abilities: Str 1, Dex 20, Con 10, Int -, Wis 10, Cha 2
Skills: Hide+16 (+36 thanks to invisibility), Move Silently -4 when flying
Feats: Weapon FinesseB
Environment: Warm and temperate areas with vegetation
Organization: Solitary, pair, too many (3-100)
Challenge Rating: 1/8
Treasure: None
Alignment: True Neutral
Advancement:
Level Adjustment: -
Possibly the most annoying insect ever known, Faded Flies combine the irritatingly loud buzzing of an ordinary house fly with a stinging bite and the ability to become nearly invisible. As a result, actually locating it is down entirely to luck and the ability to hear. Their primary natural predators are mist pigeons- in whose fog the outline of the fly's movement is visible- and ocular bats, which can see past their invisibility to hunt them down.

They most commonly lay their eggs in dying and decaying flesh, where they develop over a period of around 15-20 days, depending on ambient temperature.

In most cultures, they are regarded as harmless pests. Their presence is generally linked to warm and windless weather.

Bug: Any amount of damage dealt to a Faded Fly is enough to kill it. Furthermore, its bite only has a 50% chance to inflict damage on any creature of Diminutive or larger size, and such damage is always nonlethal.

Invisible(Sp): An Invisible Fly is permanently invisible.

...Not my best work, to be honest. There just isn't much I can do with this, I don't think... unless...

Faded Fly Swarm
Fine vermin(Swarm)
Hit Dice: 3d8(12 hp)
Initiative: +4
Speed: 5 ft, fly 30 ft(perfect)
Armor Class: 22 (+8 size, +4 Dex), touch 22, flat-footed 18
Base Attack/Grapple: +0/-
Attack: Swarm(1d6)
Space/Reach: 10 ft/0 ft
Special Attacks: Distraction
Special Qualities: Mindless, Invisible
Saves: Fort+2, Ref+4, Will+0
Abilities: Str 1, Dex 18, Con 10, Int -, Wis 10, Cha 2
Skills: Hide+18 (+38 thanks to invisibility)
Feats: -
Environment: Warm areas with vegetation
Organization: Solitary, massed swarm(3-20 swarms)
Challenge Rating: 1
Treasure: None
Alignment: True Neutral
You always hear a swarm of Faded Flies before you see it. In fact, you never see it. Fortunately, they rarely form large groups, only swarming occasionally if many eggs have the chance to hatch at once. For this reason, the third day of the third week after a large battle is said to be unlucky, as the sound of the swarms taking flight is believed to be the sound of the soul leaving the body.

Distraction: A living creature that begins its turn with a faded fly swarm in their square must succeed a DC 11 Fortitude save or be nauseated for one round. The save DC is Constitution-based.

Invisible(Sp): A Faded Fly swarm is permanently invisible.

Aaaand:
Ocular Bat
Diminutive Animal
Hit Dice: 1/4d8(1 hp)
Initiative: +2
Speed: 5 ft, fly 40 ft(good)
Armor Class: 16(+4 size, +2 dex), touch 16, flat-footed 14
Base Attack/Grapple: +0/-17
Attack: Bite+6 melee(1)
Space/Reach: 1 ft/0 ft
Special Attacks: -
Special Qualities: Deaf, All-Seeing, Low-light vision, Darkvision 120 ft, All-Around Vision
Saves: Fort+2, Ref+4, Will+2
Abilities: Str 1, Dex 15, Con 10, Int 2, Wis 14, Cha 4
Skills: Hide+14, Spot+16, Move Silently+6
Feats: Alertness, Weapon FinesseB
Environment: Temperate deserts, warm forests
Organization: Colony(10-40) or crowd(10-50)
Challenge Rating: 1/10
Treasure: None
Alignment: True Neutral
Advancement:
Level Adjustment: -
While these winged mammals are often grouped with bats due to their appearance, they're really totally unrelated. Ocular bats appear similar to bats in that their forelimbs form webbed wings, but a glance at their face instantly tells them apart. Ocular bats possess a total of five green eyes; two are where they would be expected to be, two larger, catlike eyes replace the ears, and a single eye opens sideways in the center of their forehead. Combined, this lends them an unbelievable degree of visual acuity and depth perception, and their central eye possesses the ability to pierce past invisibility.

In most primitive cultures, they are alternately venerated as a source of wisdom and foresight, or cursed as monstrous demons. When tamed at great expense, they are able to identify monstrous threats from a great distance, though their ability to distinguish legitimate threats from unimportant pedestrians is somewhat lacking.

They subsist on a mixed diet of faded flies, shimmering butterflies, ordinary insects, and fruit.

All-Around Vision(Ex): Ocular bats' many eyes give them a +4 bonus to Spot and Search checks, and they can't be flanked.

All-Seeing(Sp): Ocular bats are continually affected as per see invisibility. They are immune to visual illusions.

Skills: Ocular bats have a +8 racial bonus to Spot checks, on top of their bonuses for All-Around Vision. In addition, they negate the first 10 points of distance-related penalties to Spot checks.

Tamed ocular bats can be purchased for 4,000 gp from hatcheries that rear them from birth. They can be trained to recognize up to ten individuals as non-threats, and scream if approached within a range of 60 ft by someone not recognized. They are rarely available for sale.
Training an ocular bat to serve as a guard requires 4 months of near continuous work and a series of eight DC 25 Handle Animal checks. If it is reared from birth, only six checks are required. Training them to recognize an individual is a DC 10 Handle Animal check.

[Pronounceable]

I've had this idea once that there isn't one single original wizard spell and every one is an imitation of a magical critter's special ability. There's no such thing as a fireball, wizards cast Drake's Spit; Wrath of the Blue Dragon is the spell that shoots lightning; Treant's Skin and Dragon Turtle's Shell are the spells that makes a caster's skin tough; Droweyes is the spell granting infravision; Eye of the Beholder is the thing that disintegrates things... And if there isn't a critter that a standard DnD spell can be copied from, make one. Didn't go anywhere with it, on account of it being too much work, but this here is also a cool idea and I approve of this thread.

[noob]

Even if all spells are imitation of magical creature abilities I guess people would still call a spell that launch fire and cause an explosion "fire ball" even if it is a copy of a volcanic swarm power.
Also there is abilities common to many magical creatures.
How would you call invisibility?
It would be very hard to know from which creature the invisibility spell was made first since it is a quite common power.
Ironically if I wanted to tame a creature to find creatures approaching me I would rather tame a regular bat because it have blindsense which is not spoiled by sneaking people.
I wonder: what would be the cost of taming a bat to stay on the shoulder of someone and screech each time there is a creature near it that is not the creature onto which it is.

[aimlessPolymath]

Noob: What you are referring to is on par with a portable alarm spell, approximately. The main benefits of the ocular bat are as follows:
-Much greater ability to be trained due to higher Intelligence- they can distinguish different people more easily, for example.
-Ability to detect creatures at a much greater range. Much, much greater range.
-Practically speaking, nothing except high level characters can successfully hide from them- and they won't be fooled by silence or feats like Darkstalker, either.
Their main downside is their inability to hear spoken signals and their sleep cycle (which leaves them most awake from 5-10 and 2-7), but they can be directed using pieces of colored fabric, and they are awake during the most useful part of the night.

Hm.

Bludgeoner Salmon
Diminutive Animal(Aquatic)
Hit Dice: 2d8+2(11 hp)
Initiative: +3
Speed: Swim 30 ft, see Bouncing Fish
Armor Class: 18 (+4 size, +3 Dex, +1 natural), touch 22, flat-footed 18
Base Attack/Grapple: +1/-10
Attack: Slam+8 melee (1d8)
Space/Reach: 1 ft/0 ft
Special Attacks: -
Special Qualities: Slap of Stone, Bouncing Fish
Saves: Fort+3, Ref+5, Will+1
Abilities: Str 4, Dex 16, Con 12, Int 1, Wis 12, Cha 3
Skills: Jump+9, Swim+11, Escape Artist+7, Spot+4, Listen+1
Feats: Weapon FinesseB, Skill Focus(Jump)
Environment: Temperate aquatic
Organization: School(10-50)
Challenge Rating: 1 in abundant water, 1/2 away from it
Treasure: None
Alignment: True Neutral
Advancement:
Level Adjustment: -
One day when Kord was traveling, he came upon a river. Being hungry and desirous of breakfast, he dived in, swimming to the bottom to grab the choicest of fish to cook. Seeing this, the salmon gathered against him, remonstrating with him to choose something else to sup on. But Kord swam on regardless, until one brave minnow challenged him to a test of wrestling for the lives of his family. "Ho!" said Kord, laughing at the thought that a simple minnow could fight against his immense strength. But when the time came for the duel, he found that he could not catch the minnow in his hands, for it would simply slip out whenever he grabbed for it, and when it jumped up and slapped him on the head, he was forced to admit defeat and let the minnow free.

In forfeit, he gave the minnow and its children's children the gift of strength, so that whenever you go hunting for fish, they can jump up again, to slap you away. Did this happen? Well, you can see the marks of his fingers today, if you know to look.

-Children's tale, warning them from going fishing when the salmon run.

Slap of Stone(Sp): A bludgeoner salmon has a +6 enhancement bonus to Strength only for the purpose of making slam attacks, and which deal bonus damage equal to 1-1/2 times its Strength as a primary attack.

Bouncing Fish(Ex): A bludgeoner salmon can make a DC 10 Jump check to move up to 5 ft as a move action. Whenever it hits with a slam attack, it can automatically jump 5 ft in any direction. It uses its swim speed and its Dexterity bonus instead of its Strength to determine its bonus to Jump checks.

Skills: A bludgeoner salmon has a +4 racial bonus on Escape Artist checks, and a +8 racial bonus to Swim checks, can take 10 on Swim checks even when stressed or threatened, and uses its Dexterity bonus instead of its Strength on Swim checks.


Doing something a little different for lore this time.

[Ranged Ranger]

Love this idea! I love all the ones you've created so far. I may create some over Christmas Break...

King Constrictor
A constrictor of 5 or more HD has the ability to use charm monster instead. While it is unable to speak, it can with a DC 10 Charisma check communicate some general intents across species lines, such as "follow me" or "come here".
Unable to speak? But, but... How can it sing? "Trust in me, just in me/Shut your eyes, and trust in me"

Faded Fly Swarm
You always hear a swarm of Faded Flies before you see it. In fact, you never see it. Fortunately, they rarely form large groups, only swarming occasionally if many eggs have the chance to hatch at once. For this reason, the third day of the third week after a large battle is said to be unlucky, as the sound of the swarms forming and flying away off is believed to be the sound of the soul leaving the body.
Love this! Although 23 (ish?) days seems to long, might want to have these mature a bit faster... For comparison: Houseflies grow from freshly laid egg to adult in 12 days (about half as maggot and half a pupa).

Ocular Bat
While these winged mammals are often grouped with bats due to their appearance, they're really totally unrelated. Ocular bats appear similar to bats in that their forelimbs form webbed wings, but a glance at their face instantly tells them apart. Ocular bats possess a total of five green eyes; two are where they would be expected to be, two larger, catlike eyes replace the ears, and a single eye opens sideways in the center of their forehead. Combined, this lends them an unbelievable degree of visual acuity and depth perception, and their central eye possesses the ability to pierce past invisibility.

In most primitive cultures, they are alternately venerated as a source of wisdom and foresight, or cursed as monstrous demons. When tamed at great expense, they are able to identify monstrous threats from a great distance, though their ability to distinguish legitimate threats from unimportant pedestrians is somewhat lacking.
-SNIP-
Tamed ocular bats can be purchased for 4,000 gp from hatcheries that rear them from birth. They can be trained to recognize up to ten individuals as non-threats, and scream if approached within a range of 60 ft by someone not recognized. They are rarely available for sale.
Training an ocular bat to serve as a guard requires 4 months of near continuous work and a series of eight DC 25 Handle Animal checks. If it is reared from birth, only six checks are required. Training them to recognize an individual is a DC 10 Handle Animal check.
Awesome creature and awesome world building.

[noob]

"-Practically speaking, nothing except high level characters can successfully hide from them- and they won't be fooled by silence or feats like Darkstalker, either."
Those "high level" characters are often low cr.
Look a cat for example: it have +16 in hide.
And +20 if there is tall grass or heavy undergrowth.
Oh and then an awakened cat is even better at hiding: it gets extra skill ranks.
Or you could meet a dark cat which would have +24 in hide and be only cr1.
Or meet a shadow creature(+1 cr template) at almost any level and shadow creatures have total concealment(in any situation other than full daylight) that prevents from knowing his square and since it is neither an illusion nor invisibility your creature can not know the square of a shadow creature while a bat could know the square if it gets near.
Or any other monster that is really small.
Do not forget being very small gives a huge bonus to hide.
Seriously seeing invisible and having a high spot is both stuff an usual team gets very frequently while getting blind-sight is rarer so I think that in most normal setups I would rather tame a bat.
So rules for taming regular bats would be cool.(so that I would have a bat, a dog and your bat too because why have a single bat when you can have two?)

I like the idea that a swarm of bugs is better at hiding than a lone bug but that is a bug in dnd 3.5 skill system.

[aimlessPolymath]

Ranged Ranger:
It's about 17 days, actually.
First two weeks: 14 days.
Third day of the third week: 3 more days.
And, well, the fifth day of the second week didn't quite have that fairytale feeling for me.

Also, feel free to create your own monsters. The process, so far, boils down to "pick an animal and pick a spell. Squish them together." I normally start with the spell, and pick a creature that feels close enough.

Noob:
Huh. I attribute that to a failure of the Spot rules more than anything else, to be honest. Given that I can often find my own cat when she's trying to sneak up on birds, there's clearly something going awry.
(thought exercise: a halfling is half as big as a human, so two halflings at 10 ft away from each other see each other as as big as two humans at 20 ft away from each other. However, they'll have an easier time hiding from each other, even though they seem to be the same relative size and distance as the humans.)

The main issue with training bats to detect enemies, IMO, is that they sleep 18 hours a day, which is a whole lot. I stretched out the awake time of ocular bats by a few hours to help with this, but it still leaves them more useful for guard duty in a building during peak thieving hours (and ideally, in addition to alarm spells) than adventurers on the go (who, as you mentioned, will have much higher Spot skills and see invisibility).

I'm somewhat less concerned with cats and more with the hypothetical thief (halfling rogue 2, the Stealthy feat, +4 Dex bonus), who purchased two potions of invisibility and one of silence for a bank heist. (he's not too worried about the cost, since the bank holds more than enough). He invisibly listens to a guard for the alarm password.

He's got a +15 Hide check without the potion (if I tallied right), and +35 with it. He's also literally impossible to hear. The bat will spot him, on average, by round 2 of him sneaking in, and possibly instantly if he fails to use cover. This isn't particularly consistent, but it's still pretty good.

They might also just not be very useful, and I think I'm okay with that, too.


... I should have named the fish "smackerel", darn it.

How about some more prey animals? Name is taken from the etymology of "bison", which is the base animal.
Wisent
Large Magical Beast(Good)
Hit Dice: 5d8+20(42 hp)
Initiative: +0
Speed: 40 ft
Armor Class: 13(-1 size, +4 natural), touch 9, flat-footed 13
Base Attack/Grapple: +3/+11
Attack: Gore+6 melee (1d8+6)
Space/Reach: 10 ft/5 ft
Special Attacks: Stampede, Cowlick
Special Qualities: Low-light vision, scent
Saves: Fort+9, Ref+4, Will+1
Abilities: Str 19, Dex 10, Con 19, Int 2, Wis 11, Cha 4
Skills: Listen+7, Spot+5
Feats: Alertness, Endurance
Environment: Temperate plains
Organization: Solitary or small herd(6-20) or large herd 20-30 plus 30% chance of one random wounded creature)
Challenge Rating: 2
Treasure: None
Alignment: Neutral Good
Advancement: 6-7 HD (Large)
Level Adjustment: -
These graceful beasts are portrayed in some stories to be the nursemaids to the First Man (or First Halfling, or in at least one legend Second Goblin). Out in rural environments where priests are rare, a wisent takes their place for the purpose of stabilizing and healing newborn children, helping the wounded to recover, and blessing endeavours- beyond its healing properties, their lick is often considered to be as the touch of the local deity.

While domestication of individual wisent is considered a sign of fortune and virtue, the mass raising of herds is looked down upon, and eating their meat is almost always strictly forbidden. Attempts to bring them into urban environments have worked about as well as one might expect; while they continue to heal those brought to them, they eventually die in captivity without reproducing, and the whole affair was scrapped.

Stampede(Ex): A frightened herd of wisent flees as a group in a random direction (but always away from the perceived source of danger). They literally run over anything of Large size or smaller that gets in their way, dealing 1d12 points of damage for each five bison in the herd (Reflex DC 16 half ). The save DC is Strength-based.

Cowlick(Sp): As a standard action once per day, a wisent can lick an injured creature adjacent to it. This heals 1d8+5 hit points to an animal or magical beast, or 1d4 hit points to any other creature.

Noob, this one is for you.
If you can keep them from stampeding, they're preeetty good to have for your army.

[noob]

I have seen some pathfinder creatures that fit your schematics.

Doppelrat (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/magical-beasts/doppelrat-kp/)
Is a quite cool creature: Clone+rat.
It is way less known than the blink dog.
The barrow rat is just a rat with stone skin.
The Shocker Lizard is call lighting + lizard.
There is tons of magical cats.(one with bestow curse,one about necromancy,one with a luck power,one who can attack stuff that casts and so on)

[Bohandas]

Semi-relevant:

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?480628-Fluff-building-Mundane-flora-and-fauna
http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?511604-quot-Weird-forest-quot-encounters

If you ever run out of ideas feel free to steal any of my weird animal ideas from these threads

[Bohandas]

How about squirrels that can spit fire seeds as a defense mechanism?

[aimlessPolymath]

I like the Shocker Lizard and Blink Dog, am ambivalent about the Doppelrat, and dislike the barrow rat (I feel that its stoneskin ability is generic and unrelated to the species, and could have been swapped for anything else combat-related without affecting the fluff).

Given that I intend to throw together some cats with luck abilities, I probably shouldn't comment on them. :/

Squirrels with fire seeds I very much like!
I'm going to swap the effects of berries and acorns, though, because I very much like the idea of squirrels burying acorns for later use as land mines. The puns on "cherry bombs" will have to go, I guess.
Combustion Squirrel
Diminutive Magical Beast(Fire)
Hit Dice: 1d8-1(3 hp)
Initiative: +4
Speed: 20 ft, climb 20 ft
Armor Class: 18(+4 size, +4 Dex), touch 18, flat-footed 14
Base Attack/Grapple: +0/-12
Attack: Bite+8(1d2-4)
Space/Reach: 1 ft/0 ft
Special Attacks: Ignite Seeds
Special Qualities: Low-light vision, scent, Burial
Saves: Fort+1, Ref+6, Will+1
Abilities: Str 2, Dex 19, Con 9, Int 2, Wis 12, Cha 9
Skills: Climb+12, Jump+8
Feats: Weapon Finesse
Environment: Temperate forests
Organization: Solitary, pair, or scurry(3-8)
Challenge Rating: 1/2
Treasure: None
Alignment: Neutral
Advancement: -
Level Adjustment: -
The bane of hunters, trappers, and particularly inquisitive dogs everywhere, combustion squirrels are singularly irritating creatures due to their ability to infuse explosive power into the nuts that they hoard away. They are easily identifiable by the brilliant red streak on their back, extending all the way down to the tip of their tail. Fortunately, while their namesake power is capable of dealing damage over a wide spread, in the end, it is usually more frightening than threatening, especially since it is almost always only usable once within a given area.

Their primary predators are either much faster, or fearless enough to not be startled away by a sudden burst of flame.

Attempts to control their population typically occur during two periods- first, the rainy season, when their explosive power is least likely to cause a cataclysmic forest fire, and second, immediately in the aftermath of those fires, when their normal defenses have been burned to bits. Attempts to make use of them as weapons have rarely proven effective compared to ordinary alchemical weapons, although a rather persistent group of rangers continues to attempt to control their detonations. To date, they have caused four forest fires, but somehow managed to avoid fatalities.

Burial(Sp): As it buries acorns, a combustion squirrel instinctively infuses them with its power. In general, in areas where combustion squirrels have dwelled, each square has a 50% chance of containing an explosive acorn.

Ignition(Sp): When cornered, a combustion squirrel will instinctively call upon the energy contained in its acorns as a standard action. When it does, each buried acorn within 50 ft instantly explodes, dealing 1d8+1 fire damage(Reflex DC 11 half) to each creature in the square it is buried in. This detonation also destroys any other acorns that might be buried in the same square, and does not deal additional damage if multiple explosions are in the same square. However, there is a 1% chance that this causes a forest fire.
This is the equivalent of a 2nd level spell.

Skills: A combustion squirrel has a +8 racial bonus to Climb checks and can always take 10 on these checks even when stressed or threatened. It uses its Dex bonus instead of its Strength for the purpose of Climb and Jump checks.

[Ranged Ranger]

Sweet! Although, I think you switched name part way through...
Conflagration Squirrel vs combustion squirrels

[aimlessPolymath]

Alright, I think I'm running out of steam, so I'll try to clear out some of my backlog.

Carrier Ants
These otherwise ordinary ants are each capable of carrying 2.25 lbs as a light load, 4.5 pounds as a medium load, or 6.75 lbs as a heavy load. By default, they travel at a speed of 20 ft/round.

Their queens have Int 4, and are capable of casting control vermin(CL 3) at-will on ants only. This allows them to control 1000 ants for each HD they could control. In general, there are around 6000 ants in a medium-sized colony, with larger or smaller ones up to half or twice that size.

While nearly harmless on their own (if occasional thieves of small animals, food left out, and in one notable occasion an entire cow), these ants will truly surge to battle in defense of their hive. When they do, they will lift their hive on their backs, distributing the weight across their bodies. When marshalled and directed by a queen, they can effectively animate the sticks and stones of their nest into a golem-like body, covered in a shifting mass of ants.

Animate Carrier Ant Hive
Medium Construct
Hit Dice: 3d10+20 (35 hp)
Initiative: -1
Speed: 20 ft, cannot run or charge
Armor Class: 13 (-1 Dex, +4 natural), touch 9, flat-footed 13
Base Attack/Grapple: +4/+6
Attack: 3 slams +6 melee (1d6+3)
Space/Reach: 5 ft/5 ft
Special Attacks: Swarming aura
Special Qualities: Darkvision 60 ft, Swarm animation, hardness 2, object resistances/immunities, fast healing 5 (see swarm animation)
Saves: Fort+1, Ref+0, Will-4
Abilities: Str 15, Dex 8, Con -, Int -, Wis 1, Cha 1
Environment: Warm forest
Organization: Solitary
Challenge Rating: 4
Treasure: None
Alignment: True Neutral
Advancement: 4-6 HD(medium), 7-10 HD(large)
Level Adjustment: -
What seemed before to be a simple mound suddenly springs to life, reaching towards you with limbs of packed earth and stone. Its surface shimmers... no, it doesn't shimmer. It crawls.

Swarming aura(Ex): An animate carrier ant hive's reach is filled with crawling, angry ants. The area within its reach is filled by an ant swarm. Use the statistics of a spider swarm, except that it has hit points equal to that of the animate carrier ant hive, and no tremorsense. It continues to swarm even if the animate carrier ant hive has been destroyed, even if its maximum hit points have dropped to 0.

Swarm animation(Ex): While an animate carrier ant hive is damaged, it heals 5 hit points each round. These hit points are taken from those of the swarm surrounding it. This ability functions even when the hive has been reduced below 0 hit points, but ceases to function when the swarm surrounding it has been destroyed. An attack can be directed at the hive's structure; if they do, the hive's maximum hit points are reduced by the damage dealt, but it has hardness 5 against the attack.

Slam attacks: The carrier ant hive receives one slam attack for every 10 hit points it possesses.

CR set at 4, but GM beware; this creature is relatively slow, but can deal out a lot of damage in melee. Canny players will destroy the swarm surrounding it with area attacks and kite it to death, or smash the hive to bits, but it's practically a micro-hydra in melee.
... Actually, it's pretty much strictly worse than a hydra. I might need to buff it up a bit.

[Bohandas]

Some ideas off the top of my head since you said you're running out of them:

*desert versions of non desert creatures that have adapted to the dry environment with the ability to cast create water

*Underwater camels that store air and fire in their bodies the way regular camels store water

*beavers with some kind of spell like ability that helps them to hunt the mighty treant

[Ranged Ranger]

Here's one for you; a real-world creature upgraded to fit a fantasy setting:

Firefly/Lightning Bug
Fine vermin(Bug)
Hit Dice: 1/16d8(1* hp)
Initiative: +4
Speed: Fly 30 ft(perfect)
Armor Class: 22 (+8 size, +4 Dex), touch 22, flat-footed 18
Base Attack/Grapple: +0/-17
Attack:
Space/Reach: 0.5 ft/0 ft
Special Attacks: -
Special Qualities: Mindless, Immunity to Electricity
Saves: Fort+2, Ref+4, Will+0
Abilities: Str 1, Dex 20, Con 10, Int -, Wis 10, Cha 2
Skills: Hide+16, Move Silently -4 when flying
Feats:
Environment: Warm and temperate areas with vegetation
Organization: Solitary, pair, display (20-200)
Challenge Rating: 1/4
Treasure: None
Alignment: True Neutral
Advancement:
Level Adjustment: -
Alternately known by two different names, largely based on the speaker’s attitude towards them.

Bug: Any amount of damage dealt to a Firefly is enough to kill it.

Light Displays(Sp): These small insects create intricate displays of light in their vicinity as a means of attracting a mate, informing others of food supplies, or warning of danger. These displays contain elements similar to both Dancing Lights as cast by a 1st level bard and Faerie Fire as cast by a 1st level druid.

Shocking Defense(Sp): When they feel threatened, these insects can generate a sphere of electricity around their body. This sphere starts barely larger than themselves, but grows to have a five-foot radius in one round before blinking out of existence. Any creature touched by the sphere takes 1d2 electricity damage. Anyone who takes damage from this affect must succeed a DC 12 Fort save or be stunned for 1 round.

Final Flash(Sp): Immediately after their death, the remaining energy from the insect is released. This is identical to Shocking Defense except it deals 2d4 damage and is accompanied by a flash of bright light. Anyone who takes damage from this affect must succeed a DC 12 Fort save or be stunned for 3 rounds. In areas of shadowy illumination or darkness, anyone within 20 feet with line of sight must also make a Fort save or be stunned.

Edit/Note:Shocking Defense roughly emulates the 3.0 version of gedlees electric loop... Edit: Now toned down...

[noob]

Watch out when copying stat-blocks: your insect do not have invisibility so do not include it in its hide modifer.
Also I think cr 1/8 is way too low for that:it got the ability to wreck any level 1 party that do not have spells.(due to it being super hard to hit and having high damage that can not be avoided)
CR 1/4 would be more appropriate.

[Ranged Ranger]

Woops! fixed...

Also have an idea for a snail species that teleports objects between each other's locations. Some kingdoms have attempted to domesticate them for mail delivery, but it was extremely inefficient b/c they had to send packages multiple times since they couldn't tell the snails which of their kin to send the package to... Also, packages would get lost or have to be tracked down if it was sent to a wild Mail Snail....

[aimlessPolymath]

Firefly needs a name fix in the description of Bug, and 2d18 damage looks like it's probably a typo.

Also, I feel like most of the damage numbers need to be tuned down significantly. Failing that, the size of a swarm should probably be changed; while an individual bug can be dodged for a while until the mage burns it with AoE, a swarm has dangerous odds of stunlocking someone for multiple rounds with loads of shocking defenses, and are far more dangerous than their CR would suggest. Is a group of 4 of them really CR 1, given that once one of them dies, the explosion will leave the party dead to the rest of them?

On the ideas presented: Generally speaking, I'm going to keep creatures in their own habitat unless there's a good reason not to. Creatures with create water are maybe a bit too easily used by desert tribes, too. I'm probably going to avoid "purposeful" creatures unless i can justify how they use their ability in the wild.

Here's a pair of intensely annoying scavengers:
Dust Vulture
Small magical beast
Hit Dice: 1d8+1 (5 hp)
Initiative: +2
Speed: 10 ft, fly 60 ft(average)
Armor Class: 14 (+1 size, +2 Dex, +1 natural), touch 13, flat-footed 12
Base Attack/Grapple: +0/-4
Attack: Talons +3 melee(1d4)
Full Attack: 2 talons +3 melee(1d4) and bite -2 melee(1d4)
Space/Reach: 5 ft/5 ft
Special Attacks: Destroy Water
Special Qualities: Low-light vision
Saves: Fort+3, Ref+4, Will+2
Abilities: Str 10, Dex 15, Con 12, Int 2, Wis 14, Cha 6
Skills: Listen+2, Spot+10
Feats: Endurance, Weapon FinesseB
Environment: Warm desert, warm plains
Organization: Solitary, pair
Challenge Rating: 1/2
Treasure: None
Alignment: True Neutral
Advancement: 2-3 HD(Medium)
Level Adjustment: -
Rather than scavenging like their nonmagical relatives, dust vultures opt to make their own prey via endurance hunting. They are generally found in areas where water is distributed very unevenly- desert springs, savanna water holes, pools of water, etc. During their infrequent hunts, they will choose a target to follow, keeping it from drinking water for up to three days. If their prey is stolen, they simply follow the predator instead.

To counter them, desert tribes pack ranged weapons and spare water supplies.

Destroy Water(Sp): A dust vulture can continually affect the ground under it as per control water(CL 5), reducing the depth of any water below it by 10 ft to a radius of 30 ft in each direction.

Skills: Dust vultures have a +4 racial bonus on Spot checks.

Eggnapper Rat
Tiny magical beast
Hit Dice: 1/4d8 (1 hp)
Initiative: +2
Speed: 15 ft, climb 15 ft, swim 15 ft.
Armor Class: 14 (+2 size, +2 Dex), touch 14, flat-footed 12
Base Attack/Grapple: +0/-12
Attack: Bite +4 melee(1d3-4)
Space/Reach: 2-1/2 ft/0 ft
Special Attacks: -
Special Qualities: Low-light vision, scent, Sanctuary
Saves: Fort+2, Ref+4, Will+1
Abilities: Str 2, Dex 15, Con 10, Int 4, Wis 12, Cha 6
Skills: Balance +10, Climb +12, Hide +14, Move Silently +10, Swim +10
Feats: Ability Focus(Sanctuary), Weapon FinesseB
Environment: Any
Organization: Solitary, pair, nest(1-2 plus 8-16 noncombatants), or infestation
Challenge Rating: 1/8
Treasure: None
Alignment: True Neutral
Advancement: -
Level Adjustment: -
Eggnapper rats, while not as numerous as their cousins by a wide margin, manage to make up for it by being far more difficult to deal with. They naturally emit an abjurationwhich prevents others from attempting to attack them, rendering normal methods of ridding oneself of an infestation far less effective- cats and other predators will generally ignore them after initial attempts to attack them are thwarted, their unusual intellect makes it difficult to trick them into eating poison, and while not as stealthy as most rats, they can still hide themselves away fairly well.

In the wild, despite the name, they mostly scavenge seeds and berries, only eating eggs during the early spring. During the summer and fall, some join existing packs of animals, riding along on their backs and taking their share from the hunts of the larger beasts. Some of the take is eaten, but the rest is stockpiled away. During the winter, they live off a mix of theft and their stockpiled food. They will normally rest near a hibernating animal- few creatures will chase a rat into a bear's den.

Sanctuary(Sp): An eggnapper rat is continually affected as per a sanctuary spell (DC 14). The save DC against the effect is Wisdom-based and includes a +2 bonus from Ability Focus. This is a mind-affecting effect. When this effect is broken by an attack, it will recover in 1d4 minutes.

Skills: Eggnapper Rats have a +4 racial bonus on Hide and Move Silently checks, and a +8 racial bonus on Balance, Climb, and Swim checks. A rat can always choose to take 10 on Climb checks, even if rushed or threatened.

A rat uses its Dexterity modifier instead of its Strength modifier for Climb and Swim checks.

A rat has a +8 racial bonus on any Swim check to perform some special action or avoid a hazard. It can always choose to take 10 on a Swim check, even if distracted or endangered. It can use the run action while swimming, provided it swims in a straight line.

[Ranged Ranger]

Toned down Firefly damage...

[Bohandas]

I just had funny idea; How about a blocky breed of dog that can solve dungeon puzzles with overly specific solutions for it's owner via a legend lore ability. I got the idea after learning that pixel hunting is also sometimes called "pixel bitching"

[noob]

Now I want to play an Eggnapper Rat.
Would la +1 fit or is it more worthy of la +2?