South American Dire Something

[Serpentine]

I have some kobolds in a South American-type continent and need a mount thing for them. Weasels aren't really appropriate for that area, and I have to do other stuff to prepare... (the game's kinda, you know, tomorrow). So. Who wants to make me a Dire Llama, Alpaca, Capaburra or other appropriate animal?

[Saithis Bladewing]

I could whip you up some kind of Dire Guinea Pig when I get back from going out. Failing that, a Dire Capybara?

[WhiteHarness]

Dire guinea pigs seem somehow appropriate for kobolds...

[AtomicKitKat]

Usually, add 50% to all physical stats of the base creature, and convert saves to all good? Oh, and about double the HD.

[Serpentine]

Failing that, a Dire Capybara?

damn, that's what I meant. And I'd go that rather than a Guinea pig. 'Course, it already is basically a Dire Capybara...

AKK, is that what the system is? I was trying to figure it out but I could find absolutely no pattern (I seem to recall the dire toad being bigger than a dire badger).

edit: Oh, and Saith, if you're up to doing that I'd appreciate it. I'm still open to other suggestions though.

[Abstruse]

Dire monitor lizards? Great for fording large Amazonian streams in the middle of the jungle, sneaky as all hell out in the jungles, and contrasting nicely with the "draconic heritage" thing kobolds like to have going now. Adults could easily transport half a dozen kobolds on their backs, serving as mobile archery/raiding platforms for the vicious tribescreatures.

So...

Dire Monitor Lizard

Large Animal
Hit Dice: 7d8+21 (52 hp)
Initiative: +2
Speed: 40 ft. (8 squares), swim 30 ft.
Armor Class: 16 (-1 size, +7 natural)
Base Attack/Grapple: +5/+19
Attack: Bite +12 melee (1d8+11)
Full attack: Bite +12 melee (1d8+11)
Space/Reach: 10 ft/10 ft
Special Attacks: --
Special qualities: Low-light vision
Saves: Fort +8, Refl +7, Will +3
Abilities: STR 30, DEX 15, CON 17, INT 1, WIS 12, CHA 2
Skills: Climb, Hide, Listen, Move Silently, Spot, Swim
Feats: Alertness, Great Fortitude
Environment: Warm forests and jungles
Organization: Usually solitary (but used as kobold raiding-mounts)
Challenge Rating: 3
Advancement: 8-12 HD (Large) 13-17 HD (Huge)

[Serpentine]

Hmm... Good idea Abstruse. I'm also thinking that the nine-banded armadillo might make a well-armoured warbeast (but not the others, they tend to curl up when in danger). I thought a skunk would be interesting, a jaguarundi would be close enough to a weasel with the added... sharpness of a cat, the tayra similarly... Overthinking much?

[Fhaolan]

Dire Alpacas.

[Burrito]

Would it need to be Dire? Why not just use jaguars? There are bears in South America too. Otherwise I think beefed up Chupacabras would be sweet also.

[Telonius]

A couple ideas: Giant Anaconda. Dire Poison Dart Frog. Thunderbird (use stats for a Roc). Alligator.

[Serpentine]

I'm certainly gonna have alpacas somewhere but not sure about dire ones. And I'm not sure that a chupacabra'd make a very good mount... I'm pretty definitely going for jaguarundi. I'll probably switch the weasel's Latch thing for a claw attack, and it's a pursuit hunter so I might give it Endurance or something. Otherwise, it can probably pretty much stay Dire Weasel. 'Cept it can climb trees pretty well... and it has longer legs... Eh, ionno, I'll figure it out. Unless someone else wants to be a darling and do it for me? For tomorrow? Maybe? *sigh*

[AtomicKitKat]

I must confess. I did in fact pull the adjustments out the rear. I was at work, so I was mostly running on guesswork. Add on "Upsize" to the list of adjustments.

I think it's gonna need to be Dire to carry those Kobolds. As is, Wikipedia gives their total bodylength(including tail) as 1.1m. That's Small. Barely over 2 feet, in fact. Just out of "Tiny".

Comparing Lion to Dire Lion in the SRD, it triples in dimensions, and septuples in weight.

So your Dire Jaguarundi is about 6-7 feet in length, and 42 kg, or about 92.4 lb, making it barely a Medium creature in mass, but not in dimensions(if you include the tail).

Interestingly, Weasel > Dire Weasel and Lion > Dire Lion shows that it's really only a 2-3 HD increase. So I guess if it goes to Small, it goes up 1 HD, Medium gets up to 2 HD, Large gets 3-6, etc.

Spoiler

Show

Dire Jaguarundi
Size/Type: Medium Animal
Hit Dice: 3d8+6 (19 hp)
Initiative: +4
Speed: 40 ft. (8 squares), climb 20 ft
Armor Class: 16 (+4 Dex, +2 natural), touch 14, flat-footed 12
Base Attack/Grapple: +2/+5
Attack: Bite +6 melee (1d6+3)
Full Attack: Bite +6 melee (1d6+3) and 2 claws +1 melee (1d3+1)
Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks: Improved grab, pounce, rake 1d3+1
Special Qualities: Low-light vision, scent
Saves: Fort +5, Ref +7, Will +4
Abilities: Str 16, Dex 19, Con 15, Int 2, Wis 12, Cha 11
Skills: Balance +12, Climb +11, Hide +8*, Jump +11, Listen +6, Move Silently +8, Spot +6
Feats: Alertness, Weapon Finesse
Environment: Forests
Organization: Solitary or pair
Challenge Rating: 2
Treasure: None
Alignment: Always neutral
Advancement: 4-6 HD (Medium); 7-9 HD (Large)
Level Adjustment: —

Dire Jaguarundis grow to be up to 5 feet long and can reach a weight of 120 pounds.

Combat

Improved Grab (Ex)
To use this ability, a Dire Jaguarundi 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 rake.

Pounce (Ex)
If a Dire Jaguarundi charges a foe, it can make a full attack, including two rake attacks.

Rake (Ex)
Attack bonus +6 melee, damage 1d3+1.

Skills

Dire Jaguarundis have a +8 racial bonus on Jump checks and a +4 racial bonus on Hide and Move Silently checks. Dire Jaguarundis have a +8 racial bonus on Balance and Climb checks. A Dire Jaguarundi can always choose to take 10 on a Climb check, even if rushed or threatened. *In areas of tall grass or heavy undergrowth, the Hide bonus improves to +8.

Note that I basically conflated the stats of Dire Weasel and Leopard together. A Leopard being more or less about the right size of the Dire-d Jaguarundi.

[Serpentine]

The trouble is, KitKat, that it's all inconsistent.

Ape (4HD, Large, CR 2) -> Dire Ape (5HD, Large, CR 3) = (+1, - , +1)
Boar (3HD, Medium, CR 2) -> Dire Boar (7HD, Large, CR4) = (+4, +1, +2)
Lion (5HD, Large, CR3) -> Dire Lion (8HD, Large, CR 5) = (+4, - , +2)
Rat (1/4HD, Tiny, CR 1/8) -> Dire Rat (1HD, Small, CR 1/3) = (x4, +1, +? (too lazy)
Weasel (1/2HD, Tiny, CR 1/4) -> Dire Weasel (3HD, Medium, 2) = (x6, +2, x4)
Wolf (2HD, Medium, CR 1) -> Dire Wolf (6HD, Large, CR 3) = (+4, +1, +2)

See? No real pattern! It's rather annoying. I'd probably pretty much stick with the weasel change, but base the jaguarandi itself on the housecat.

[AtomicKitKat]

The trouble is, KitKat, that it's all inconsistent.

Ape (4HD, Large, CR 2) -> Dire Ape (5HD, Large, CR 3) = (+1, - , +1)
Boar (3HD, Medium, CR 2) -> Dire Boar (7HD, Large, CR4) = (+4, +1, +2)
Lion (5HD, Large, CR3) -> Dire Lion (8HD, Large, CR 5) = (+4, - , +2)
Rat (1/4HD, Tiny, CR 1/8) -> Dire Rat (1HD, Small, CR 1/3) = (x4, +1, +? (too lazy)
Weasel (1/2HD, Tiny, CR 1/4) -> Dire Weasel (3HD, Medium, 2) = (x6, +2, x4)
Wolf (2HD, Medium, CR 1) -> Dire Wolf (6HD, Large, CR 3) = (+4, +1, +2)

See? No real pattern! It's rather annoying. I'd probably pretty much stick with the weasel change, but base the jaguarandi itself on the housecat.

*poke* Just take what I put in the Spoiler tags.

[Abstruse]

It is indeed annoyingly inconsistent. I ended up cribbing a number of stats for my dire monitor lizard from the dire boar, but dropped the CR to 3 since it didn't seem to have as much oomph. (It doesn't keep fighting if it's disabled or dying, for one thing.) I did up the natural armor by 1 AC, though, to reflect the tougher hide of a larger reptile.

It might not be a landshark, but it's good enough to serve as a worthwhile mount for small opponents. : )

[Serpentine]

*poke* Just take what I put in the Spoiler tags.

Ta 'Course, if the gnome does what she's supposed to (i.e. stick with illusions, stay out of combat, and don't try to go through a whole stable of them), I shouldn't even need the stats... In fact, what am I doing? I'll just use the dire weasel, give it a small bonus to attack and that rake attack, and not use Latch. Guh. I think too much.
Thank you for your help everyone! There's some ideas here I think I may use elsewhere (dire monitor lizards pulling sleds in the Reptile City could be interesting...).

[Exarch]

It is indeed annoyingly inconsistent. I ended up cribbing a number of stats for my dire monitor lizard from the dire boar, but dropped the CR to 3 since it didn't seem to have as much oomph. (It doesn't keep fighting if it's disabled or dying, for one thing.) I did up the natural armor by 1 AC, though, to reflect the tougher hide of a larger reptile.

It might not be a landshark, but it's good enough to serve as a worthwhile mount for small opponents. : )

You might want to consider dropping that natural AC back down by 1. On a recent hunting trip with my father, he pumped five .30-30's into a 450 lb. boar. Out of those five, three of the bullets got stopped in its shoulder grissle. First one hit and broke its spine just above the shoulders (lucky him). And that was on a regular boar, think about a Dire Boar!

(Ignore the actual Dire Boar that was killed by the bow and arrow. It was clearly three 20's in a row. That and Hp don't work irl...)

[TheTick]

damn, that's what I meant. And I'd go that rather than a Guinea pig. 'Course, it already is basically a Dire Capybara...

It's Speak, the furry, moist Avenger!