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View Full Version : The Penguin: Reloaded (An attempt at building a better penguin)



OOTS_Rules.
2007-11-28, 08:45 PM
I have made my own homebrew penguin, as I have a currently not-built character concept about them and the Frostburn penguins stink. Introducing, the penguin!

Emperor Penguin

Medium Animal (Cold)
HD 2d8+0 (9)
Speed 10 ft. (2 squares), Swim 30 ft. (6 squares)
Init: +0
AC 13; touch 13; flat-footed 11
BAB +1; Grp -4
Attack Slap +2(1d3+1, 20/x2)
Full-Attack Slap+2(1d4+0, 20/x2), Slap+2(1d4+0, 20/x2), Peck+0(1d6-1, 20/x2)
Space 5 ft.; Reach 5 ft.
Special Attacks: None
Special Qualities: Slide (Move an extra 20 feet but take 1 damage per slide on rough surfaces. Take 1d3 points of damage on jagged surfaces. You can make a full attack after a slide), Huddle (Share space with at least three penguins to provide +5 AC to all in huddle. Lose 1 extra point of AC for every two penguins added to the huddle. A random penguin in the huddle is attacked, grappled, disarmed, or tripped during a huddle if striken), Natural Swimmer (A penguin does not need to roll a swim check to enter water and has a swim speed, but needs to roll swim checks to dive and perform underwater manuvers)
Saves Fort +4 Ref +6 Will +1
Abilities Str 12, Dex 14, Con 10, Int 2, Wis 10, Cha 8
Skills: Hide +11, Swim +7
Feats: Multiattack
Environment: Cold, Aquatic/Desert
Organization Single (1), Mates (2), Family (5), Crowd (10), Brood (20), Stampede (100)
Challenge Rating 1/3
Treasure No Treasure
Alignment: True Neutral
Advancement None
Level Adjustment +0

A lumbering avian walks up to you. The bird has a white abdomen, black feathers, a bluish back, and a purplish beak. It reeks of dead fish, and has flickers of snow on its feathers. It lets out a fearsome cry and charges

Emperor Penguins are social animals, both foraging and nesting in groups. In severe weather the penguins huddle together for protection. They may be active day or night. Mature adults travel throughout most of the year between the nesting area and foraging areas in the ocean. From January to March, Emperor Penguins disperse into the oceans, traveling and foraging in groups. It is estimated that there are at least 250,000 Emperor Penguins, distributed into as many as 40 independent Antarctic colonies.

They normally dive to between 150 and 250 m (490 to 820 ft), although they can venture deeper, the deepest diving on record being 565 m (1870 ft). The longest they can hold their breath when underwater is 15 to 20 minutes. Their swimming speed is 6 to 9 km/h (4 to 6 mph), but they can achieve up to 19 km/h (12 mph) in short bursts. One of their feeding strategies is to dive to about 50 m (164 ft), where they can easily spot the sub-ice fish, Pagothenia borchgrevinki, swimming against the under surface of the sea-ice, which they then catch. They then dive again and repeat the sequence about half a dozen times before surfacing to breathe. They may also blow bubbles into the cracks in the ice to drive out the hiding fish.

On land they alternate between walking with a wobbling gait and sliding over the ice on their bellies, propelled by their feet and their flipper-like wings.


As a defense, Emperor Penguins stand in compact huddles (also known as the turtle formation) ranging in size between ten and many hundreds of birds, each leaning forward on a neighbor. Those on the outside tend to shuffle slowly around the edge of the turtle producing a slow churning action, giving each bird a turn on the inside and the outside. The Emperor Penguin is almost four feet tall and can go up to 99 pounds.
A penguin speaks with body language and an individual cry. No two cries are the same.
.

Combat

An emperor penguin runs away if encountered solitary, but stand and fight in a group. Penguins begin a fight by sliding at their adversary and unleash a combination of pecks and slaps. If the penguin group is injured, they huddle together for protection. If only one or two penguins remain, they flee. Being group animals, penguins are noticeably weaker when solitary.

(Low CR is due to abilities also hurting penguin and requiring said penguin being in groups or water to be at their best)

Maldraugedhen
2007-11-29, 12:11 AM
The rules for Huddle don't really make sense. The most effective huddle, the way it's written, is a 4-penguin huddle--beyond that, it loses effectiveness, until, with a 24-penguin huddle, you're practically guaranteed to hit all of them simultaneously. This would mean a hundred-penguin huddle would be an XP farm. And meat farm.

Easier solution: force target randomization. -1 AC per penguin beyond the fourth, but force a random penguin to be hit. It's really hard to miss a big ball o' penguin, but hard to hit a particular one.

Paragon Badger
2007-11-29, 01:35 AM
The rules for Huddle don't really make sense. The most effective huddle, the way it's written, is a 4-penguin huddle--beyond that, it loses effectiveness, until, with a 24-penguin huddle, you're practically guaranteed to hit all of them simultaneously. This would mean a hundred-penguin huddle would be an XP farm. And meat farm.

Easier solution: force target randomization. -1 AC per penguin beyond the fourth, but force a random penguin to be hit. It's really hard to miss a big ball o' penguin, but hard to hit a particular one.

Outside of the water, they aren't the most elusive of prey.

...Thankfully, their land predators are usually just as inept. :smalltongue:

Might knock down speed another 5 feet, cause of 'Waddle of the Penguins.'

DracoDei
2007-11-29, 09:04 AM
Since I duobt they burn especially easily I don't know why you gave them the [Cold] subtype... or is their more to that subtype than I know about?

Gungnir
2007-11-29, 09:36 AM
Also, with Huddle, you just made another Grapple Bomb. You should have a limit on how many can enter the same square, to prevent catgirl combustion.

OOTS_Rules.
2007-11-29, 10:09 PM
Since I duobt they burn especially easily I don't know why you gave them the [Cold] subtype... or is their more to that subtype than I know about?

They have the [cold] subtype due to being arctic animals. Living in the cold makes the hot much hotter.

FlyMolo
2007-11-29, 10:57 PM
Sounds cool. Pretty inventive, interesting abilities. I like. I'd knock down the land speed though. Penguins on land move about as fast as toddlers. In a subdivision of 6 seconds, they're not going to move more than 10 feet, tops.

OOTS_Rules.
2007-12-01, 12:04 PM
Fixed. Thanks for the criticism and ideas.