Giant Platypus

[Yunru]

Ah I remember this one fondly. It was the first homebrew creature I ever designed.

Giant Platypus:
Large Beast, Neutral
Challenge 2 (450 Exp)
Speed 30, Swim Speed 30
Immunity: Poison
Vision: Darkvision 30"
STR 8 DEX 16 CON 14 INT 10 WIS 13 CHA 10
AC 13 HP 55 (10d8+10)
Amphibious: The Platypus can breathe air and water.
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 12 (2d8+3) piercing damage, and the target must succeed on a DC 14 Constitution saving throw or take an additional 18 (5d6) Poison damage.

Yeah, I took some liberties with how real platypi are assembled, but it only makes it a little weirder.

Here's a slight revision though, to keep it more in line with trends I've seen in creatures since then:

Giant Platypus:
Large Beast, Neutral
Challenge 2 (450 Exp)
Speed 30, Swim Speed 30
Immunity: Poison
Vision: Darkvision 30"


Str
Dex
Con
Int
Wis
Cha


8
16
14
3
13
10


AC: 13
HP: 65 (10d8+20)
Amphibious: The giant platypus can breathe air and water.
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 12 (2d8+3) piercing damage, and the target must succeed on a DC 12 Constitution saving throw or take an additional 18 (5d6) Poison damage.

[Yddisac]

If you want to get a bit closer to real platypus anatomy, you could always split the bite damage and the poison damage into two separate attacks and give the platypus Multiattack. Maybe have the ankle spike do 1d6 piercing and force a save for 4d6 poison? I dunno. Solid overall, especially the second version with 3 Int. Makes me want to throw one of these at players :P

[daemonaetea]

I'd be tempted to lower the damage a bit and drop it down to a CR 1. By the DMG, the defensive portion of the monster is a CR 1/2, and the offensive portion is CR 4, so it does calculate out to a CR 2. The problem is that the creature very much behaves like the two halves of that equation. It has an ok amount of HP, and a low AC. A party will be able to kill it very quickly. On the offensive side, it only has one attack, but that attack is a doozy. If it hits, which is marginal, and if the character fails the save, which is about fifty-fifty, that character is almost certainly going down no matter who they are at 3rd level or below, and for the squishier members at level 4 or 5. But a big bag of HP with only a single attack like this is kind of worthless at level 5 and above, so there's a pretty narrow range where I think this would see consistent use.

So overall what you've got is a very short battle, during which the creature either does minimal damage, or takes a person down per hit. That's a lot swingier than I like in my battles. Toning down the damage a bit means you could more easily use it at lower levels, or that you could toss a few more at the party to spread that damage around and keep thing tense. Separating out the poison attack would be another good move, as suggested above, since it would split the damage up so it's not quite so targeted, and would allow the creature to be more reliably able to get off at least one hit per round to make the battle more consistent. Two attacks of roughly 15 damage each would make this a more viable encounter at level 3, and even something I'd be willing to use at level 2 since a low roll, or a save, could easily let a person survive the one hit this thing is likely to get off before the party pummels it to death.

[patrickborrelli]

Pretty cool...if I am nitpicking, I would agree with daemonaetea and say damage seems a bit aggressive.
Also, I know it is in line with other similar beasts in WotC materials, but seeing a non-intelligent beast with a Wisdom of 13 seems counter-intuitive to me, unless you take Wisdom to represent Instinct in the case of non-intelligent species.

[Sindeloke]

If Con is 14, shouldn't it be 10d10+20 hp?

[Yunru]

If Con is 14, shouldn't it be 10d10+20 hp?

Good catch, you can tell I was originally inexperienced.