Lair of the Fleshweaver [3.5 Hybrid Creatures, Vote up]

[Eldan]

Mwahahahahaaa!

Okay, here goes. Previously, I made the Octocrow, which was a magical hybrid of, you guessed it, Octopus and Crow. I always liked those strange D&D animal hybrids. Owlbears. Sealions. Tigerbats. I want to make more of them.

So, I'm submitting myself to the sadistic whims of the playground. How will this work? There will be several questions to vote on (more on that later), through which we will end up with two animals. Next, using eldritch magics men was never meant to know, I will unite them into a single, hideous monstrosity. For that monstrosity, I will create a D&D 3.5 statblock, a description, a bit of fluff and ecology and, if my limited artistic skills allow, a pencil sketch.

How will the questions work? Well, giving a list of animals is obviously too broad. Instead, we will do the following: I will ask for broad groups of animals first, then refine a bit from there, then give a smaller list of ten or so animals to combine. Animal, here, also refers to what D&D calls Vermin.


So, playground: choose.

What kind of Animals will we combine?* (Choose two, or the same twice)

Arthropod V
Amphibian
Bird IV
Echinoderm (Starfish. And only starfish.) I
Fish II
Mammal I
Mollusc IV
Reptile IV

*(Disclaimer: Eldan is a biologist and is aware that he excludes a lot of animal groups and places a lot of emphasis on chordates, as well as including several paraphyletic groups and groups that shouldn't even be on a proper list. He doesn't care, and there will never be a Nemasponge.)

Finished:
Hummipede
Snailstar
Tasmanian Garlic

[Howler Dagger]

I vote for Echinoderm and Mollusc

[Eldan]

And for that I love you. One starsnail coming up

[Mangles]

Can't go wrong with a good old reptile bird.

[TravelLog]

I want a reptile and myxomycetes (or barring that, mammal)

[EdroGrimshell]

Reptile and Arthropod, specifically a snake or raptor (or both) with a spider or wasp (or both).

[gkathellar]

Arthropod and bird.

Alternatively, an arthropod/mammal called the "hairy old lobster."

[Volthawk]

Hmm, Fish/Bird. Flying sharks! Or like a kind of piranha-bird thing, that fly in flocks. Flocks of flying piranha.

[Mulletmanalive]

I vote for Mollusc. If i can't make a second vote for that...

Arthropod? What's an octopus?

[Matar]

My vote is on reptile + fish.

A jelly fish/raptor would be the most terrifying thing to ever be spawned.

Eldan you should totally add like bacteria to the list or something. That'd be freaking awesome.

[Eldan]

I vote for Mollusc. If i can't make a second vote for that...

Arthropod? What's an octopus?

Octopodes are also molluscs. I'm counting that as two votes for molluscs, which is allowed.

[flabort]

I vote for Echinoderm and Mollusc

I second this.

changed vote, see below.
(that's awesome, BTW)

[Eldan]

And for that I love you. One starsnail coming up

You thought I was joking, weren't you?

No, Sir. Now, the picture is pretty bad, since I didn't have a scanner available (or real paper) today and had to make a picture of the sketch, but I wrote up those stats on the train home. Note: this doesn't count for the actual vote.

Snailstar

"Phh. It's a big, weird snail. What's it gonna do?"
-Rachnar Fate-tempter

Spoiler

Show

Small Vermin (Amphibious)
HD 3d8+6 (18 Hp)
Speed 5 ft. (1 squares); Swim 15 ft.,; Climb 5 ft.
Init: -2
AC 12; touch 9; flat-footed 12
(+1 size, -2 dex, +3 natural)
BAB +2; Grp +2
Attack Slam +2 ranged (1d3, 20/x2 and improved grab,)
or
Poison darts +0 ranged (1d4/20x2 and poison)
Space 5 ft.; Reach 5 ft.
Special Attacks: Poison darts, Poison, Improved Grab, Razortongue
Special Qualities: Vermin Traits, Mindless, Blind, Tremorsense 30 ft
Saves Fort +5 Ref -1 Will +2
Abilities Str 10, Dex 6, Con 14, Int --, Wis 12, Cha 2
Skills Climb +8*, Escape Artist +6*, Hide +6*
*The snailstar has a +8 racial bonus on these skills.
Feats Improved Grapple (B)
Environment: Tropical oceans, tropical swamps and marches, mangroves
Organization Name (Number appearing)
Challenge Rating 2
Treasure None
Alignment Neutral
Advancement 4-5 HD small; 6-9 HD medium, 10-13 HD large
Level Adjustment -

Poison darts: (ex) The snailstar's darts are studded with vicious barbs that are covered in poison. When fired, the barbs stick in the wound and have to be removed, which deals 1 point of slashing damage. If the one doing the removing is not protecting his hands with gloves or similar means, he too is affected by the poison. If the barbs are not removed, the victim is automatically affected by a second dose of the poison one minute after the wound occurred.
The darts are treated as thrown weapons with a range increment of 20 feet.

Poison: (ex) Contact DC 14, 1d6 points dexterity/1d6 points strength

Improved Grab: (ex) To use this ability, the snailstar must hit with an arm or tentacle 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 use it's razortongue.

Razortongue: (ex) The snailstar does not have teeth the same kind as vertebrates do, nor does it have it's mouth on the head. Instead, it has a large opening in the middle of its body, between its arms. It has a long tongue, covered on all sides with vicious, razor-sharp barbs and hooks, which it uses to quickly reduce its victims to a bloody pulp.
When grappling a victim with its arms, the snail can automatically deal 1d6 points of slashing damage every turn instead of using its slam attack against the victim.

Ecology: Snailstars have a fleshy, central body mass and elongated neck, with four long eyestalks. Despite this, their vision has degraded compared to other snails, leaving them unable to distinguish more than light and darkness. They have five long, quite flexible arms, two in front and three behind the shell, which they use to hold prey. Apart from their shell, they have an exoskeleton consisting of rows and ridges of calcium carbonate "knobs".
Snailstars have an internal system of tubes, which they use to move water throughout their body and out of small tubes called feet, which they use both to hold prey and to move rapidly underwater. These tube feet are drawn into the body when the snail moves on land.
Snailstars live in the water of wet, warm areas where they prey mainly on animals smaller than themselves which they paralyze with their poisonous darts before slowly eating them alive with their razortongues. Their main prey are fish, but they can also leave the water and even climb on trees, where they attack seabirds, monkeys, crabs or snakes.
Unlike some other tropical aquatic snails, snailstars are not brightly coloured. instead, they have dull brown and black stripes, which they use to hide among dead vegetation to wait for their prey.
Snailstars are simultaneous hermaphrodites, meaning that they have both male and female sexual organs, which are completely internal. Instead, during mating season, they use a special form of their poison dart, expelled from the same dart sac below their head, to transfer genetic material to their potential mates.

[flabort]

Aw, sweet. OK, now that that got made, I change my vote from seconding that, to... Bird and arthropod.

[Domriso]

I love this. I want more. Mollusc and arthropod is my vote.

[Eldan]

Our animal will be an arthropod.

Run-off vote:
Bird arthropod, mollusc arthropod or reptile arthropod?

The next vote posted decides.

[gkathellar]

Bird-Arthropod.

EDIT: I hope that included people who have voted before. Otherwise, sorry about clogging the space.

[Eldan]

There we go, then.

Round two, select one from each of the two following lists.

What kind of bird?

Ostrich-like III
Fowl (i.e. chicken-like)
Sea bird (of all kinds. Gliders, divers, swimmers, waders)
Raptor (includes owls and falcon-like birds, i.e. hawks, eagles et al) II
Vulture I
Parrot and parrot-like
Hummingbird V
Woodpecker
Corvid (crow-like) II

What kind of Arthropod?

Trilobite
Spider (including harvestmen/opiliones, even though they aren't spiders)
Scorpions III
Myriapod (milli- and centipedes) V
Crustacean (shrimps, crabs, lobsters, wood lice, barnacles) I
Beetle
Fly
Mayfly
Bug
Hymenopteran (ants, bees, wasps) II
Moth or butterfly
Mantis II
Stick insect
Dragonfly (and Damselflies, of course)



Feel free to suggest others if I have somehow snubbed your favourite of lacewing, mite or passerine, nominate them. The categories above are intended to be quite broad, not quite taxonomic and mostly including the more well-known groups.

[Mulletmanalive]

Myriapod Corvidae! It must be done!


Sooooooo many wings...0.o

[gkathellar]

Myriapod Hummingbird! So many wings ... moving so fast ...

[Rafinius]

Ostritch - Hymenopteran

[The Underlord]

Scorpion ostrich!

[Howler Dagger]

Raptor-Mantis

[Morph Bark]

So we put in votes, you make creatures, and for every combination of creature you make, you subtract one from each of the types of creature your combo-creature is made up of (so you don't keep making same kind the whole time due to it being popular or having been popular pages ago)?

[Necroticplague]

Corvid Scorpiod!

[flabort]

Raptor Crustacean.

Hawk-shrimp?

[EdroGrimshell]

Hymenopteran (preferably a winged one), and a Raptor i guess, would have prefered to see a reptile though.

[Eldan]

Counted up to here.

And no, I won't formally exclude anything. But I might veto something I think is too similar to something already done.

[Eldan]

Counted up to here.

And no, I won't formally exclude anything. But I might veto something I think is too similar to something already done.

[drakir_nosslin]

Hummingbird myriapod!