Gargantuan/Colossal Wild Shape

[YellowJohn]

I'm statting up an epic level Wild Monk - a monk class variant which trades a monks bonus feats and some other superfluous junk for Wild Shape.

I'm looking at Gargantuan and Colossal wild shape as feat possibilities, but I'm struggling to find any animals in these size categories 🤔

Does anyone have any ideas? Or do I need alternate WS forms to get any mileage from these feats?

[Crake]

I'd suggest finding ways to expand the list of available creature types you can wild shape in to help you with this conundrum. Abberant wild shape's a good one to grab, I'm sure others can pipe up with more suggestions.

[Darg]

Master of Many Forms would be a good option too. It gives you extraordinary wild shape, fast wild shape, different form types, shapechanger subtype, extra shape types, and gargantuan wild shape as a class feature. I prefer to think they simply forgot the best thematic aspect of the Shifter class: infinite wild shape; and add it back as it doesn't really hurt much of anything at that point.

[Biggus]

Baleen Whale (SRD)
Cachalot Whale (SRD)
Dire Elephant (MM2)
Megalodon (MM2)
Roc (SRD)
Seismosaurus (MM2)
Spinosaurus (MM2)
Zeuglodon (FB)

As far as I know that's it for animals, although as far as I can see Wild Shape doesn't specify you have to become a typical member of the species; if not, there are others which can be advanced at least to gargantuan.

[DwarvenWarCorgi]

Legendary Elephant (MoW)

Edit: I'm away from books, but I believe its in that range.

[Biggus]

Legendary Elephant (MoW)

Edit: I'm away from books, but I believe its in that range.

There isn't a legendary elephant in there, there is a dire elephant though. Its stats are almost identical to the one in MM2.

[DwarvenWarCorgi]

There isn't a legendary elephant in there, there is a dire elephant though. Its stats are almost identical to the one in MM2.
You are correct. Apologies, my memory is failing me more and more lately......

[Biggus]

I had a bit more of a look, and I found 15 huge animals which can be advanced to gargantuan:

SRD
Dire Shark
Elasmosaurus
Giant Squid
Orca
Triceratops
Tyrannosaurus

MM2
Allosaurus
Ankylosaurus
Dire Elk
Dire Snake
Grizzly Mastodon
Quetzalcoatlus

MM3
Mastodon

FB
Dire Polar Bear
Woolly Mammoth

So, there's quite a bit of mileage to be had out of Gargantuan Wild Shape with just animals, but very little from Colossal WS. But then, most colossal creatures have such high HD you won't be able to turn into them until well into epic levels anyway, so you'll have plenty of time to pick up some alternate WS forms by then.

[ShurikVch]

Some more:

Gargantuan
Gigantosaurus (Dragon #318)
Plesiosaur (Stormwrack)
Stegosaurus (Serpent Kingdoms)

Colossal
Diplodocus (Dragon #318)
Liopleurodon (Dragon #318)

If unique creatures are acceptable too, then there also Lurking Two-Maws (Gargantuan, City of Stormreach (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/4ex/20080221a&page=2))

[DwarvenWarCorgi]

I had a bit more of a look, and I found 15 huge animals which can be advanced to gargantuan:

(List deleted for space)

You can add Dire Hippopotamus and Dire Tortoise from Sandstorm to that list (checked the book before posting this time).

Another thought I had, if your dm is up for homebrew, what about an epic feat that increases your effective Druid level for purposes of number of hit dice your new form can have. Getting to wild shape into things like Battlebriar (MMIII) or Legendary Tiger (Srd) earlier than normal could be more useful than a form so large you can only use it outdoors.

[Biggus]

Some more:

Gargantuan
Gigantosaurus (Dragon #318)
Plesiosaur (Stormwrack)
Stegosaurus (Serpent Kingdoms)

Colossal
Diplodocus (Dragon #318)
Liopleurodon (Dragon #318)

If templated or/and unique creatures are acceptable too, then also:
Deinosuchus (Gargantuan, Dungeon #145)
Lurking Two-Maws (Gargantuan, City of Stormreach (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/4ex/20080221a&page=2))
Stampede (Mob of Light Horses, Gargantuan, Dungeon Master's Guide II)
Titanic Mutant Toad (Gargantuan, Return to the Temple of the Frog (http://archive.wizards.com/dnd/files/Return_Temple_Frog.zip))

Alternate Form specifies you can't become a creature with a template unfortunately.


You can add Dire Hippopotamus and Dire Tortoise from Sandstorm to that list (checked the book before posting this time).

Another thought I had, if your dm is up for homebrew, what about an epic feat that increases your effective Druid level for purposes of number of hit dice your new form can have. Getting to wild shape into things like Battlebriar (MMIII) or Legendary Tiger (Srd) earlier than normal could be more useful than a form so large you can only use it outdoors.

It's certainly worth asking, the ELH (p.46) explicitly states that nonstandard epic feats should be allowed (although of course it's up to the DM which ones):

"Though this book contains more than one hundred fifty epic feats, it can't hope to encompass all the powers that your imagination can create. Rather than seeing this list as a restrictive collection of what is allowed, use it to spur your creativity. If you can dream of an epic character doing it, it can probably become an epic feat."

Also: thanks both for finding the extra creatures, I knew there'd be a few somewhere that I'd missed.

[ShurikVch]

Alternate Form specifies you can't become a creature with a template unfortunately.
But you listed Titanic Toad at #4...

[Biggus]

But you listed Titanic Toad at #4...

Good point, I somehow failed to take in that Titanic is a template, I'll remove it from my list.

[ShurikVch]

Good point, I somehow failed to take in that Titanic is a template, I'll remove it from my list.
OK

Still, Lurking Two-Maws isn't templated - just unique

[Biggus]

Still, Lurking Two-Maws isn't templated - just unique

Not sure if it's allowed, it's pretty cool though.

Found a few more which can be advanced to gargantuan:

Archelon (SW)
Mosasaur (SW)
Ceratosaur (SK)
Parasaurolophus (Dr#318)

[YellowJohn]

Thanks for all the options guys :-)
Sadly, looking over the options, nothing seems to overshadow the Dire Polar Bear until Battletitan (MM3) comes online at 36Hd - which is still Huge.

Asking for a Wildshape Boosting feat is a good idea though. Thanks for the suggestion 🙂