I have a player that owns a duck (several actually) and he wants to buy a duck in the game. I know I could use some other bird stats, but I was wondering if anyone is aware of duck stats, and what book or resourse might have held this elusive information.
Thank you for your help . . . I would hate to become the victim of fowl play . . .
Exactly what does this player plan to do with said duck? Combat is no place for pets (nor is diplomacy or stealth), and if they were looking for dinner they wouldn't need stats, just a knife and a pot. Though I guess a Ranger might get a dire duck as an animal companion...but it would still be lamer than a dire badger.
So why does a character need a duck? Really, this thoroughly confunds me and I must know.
As I said, the player had ducks in real life, and he wants stats on top of keeping the thing as a pet.
Just a note on the campaign. The party sorcerer bought a dog. He has no animal training/handling skills, and I told him the dog would be no good for combat without training it to obey command. He still wanted it.
The party went back into the lair of a bright naga that had kicked their tails earlier. They sent the dog in first, and before it had a chance to run, the naga blasted it, but the PCs then opened fire on it and killed it.
So pets have a bad time of it in the campaign right now . . .
Oh man . . .
Now I have to see if I can work up stats for a Duck Lord (you know, like the cat lord, how each race of animals has a lord . . )
I've weened my own players away from livestock and such over the years, but occasionally get a player like your duck owner, Knight. Sounds very humerous.
As far as stats for a duck use the same stats for a raven (Monster Manual 278) with the following changes: Speed 10 ft., fly 40 ft., swim 20 ft.; +4 bite (1d3-5); Skills Listen +3, Spot +3, Swim +5 (since it has a swim speed it can always choose to Take 10 on Swim checks; a +8 racial bonus on Swim is included in that modifier)
Quack! Quack!
When I posted this on Candlekeep, I got three pages of duck jokes. Its a regular down lined Pandora's Box.
Thanks for all the replies by the way.
Not long ago I kept jokingly mentioning to the DM that my lone-wolf-walking-the-earth-like-Caine-in-Kung-Fu character wanted a monkey for a travelling companion. He threatened to give me one and I laughed and said of course I didn't want a monkey. After travelling with a caravan the caravan master asked if I'd take this animal off his hands, something someone'd traded him something for that he couldn't quite remember but either way he was stuck with this animal that he didn't necessarily want to care for: a monkey. And not just any monkey, a sharp-toothed carniverous thing that, in a malicious Michigan J. Frog sort of way, would talk to me and only me. No amount of detecting evil or detecting evil outsiders gave me any sort of information. After covering up a couple of mysteriously dead and munched dogs and cats near the inn we were staying at I deceided it'd be best to leave him with a local zoologist before embarking on the next leg of the campaign. That's when things went bad. Turns out the monkey was some sort of lower-planes minion of an especially nasty balor (are there any other kinds of balors?) who was using the "monkey" to keep tabs on my fiend slayer character (using the PrC that Monte Cook wrote up in Dragon a while back). The monkey freaked out over being left behind (I found out later he was under some sort of geas) and in an attempt to keep from failing at his task he opened a gate that his balor boss stepped through and proceeded to trash the zoologist's menagerie while attempting to beat the hell out of me and my fellow adventurers. It was a rough fight, as it's meant to be when fighting a balor, but we eventually prevailed (I was the last one standing, barely) and after tending to my compatriots I proceeded to track down the "monkey" that made this all possible, finding him cowering in the basement of the inn we were staying at. He went down in one round, but not before vowing to be back...evil little bastard.
...but we were talking about ducks, not monkeys. I've digressed. All I can think about stat-wise is that since duck quacks don't echo they shouldn't be heard too far away in stone dungeon corridors.
- Chris Shadowens
Chris, that was a great story.
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I direct you to the comedic Castle Greyhawk adventure, where you will locate the stats for a uniduck. "Much like a unicorn but they tend to squash when sat upon".
I don't remember the numbers but I'll try to dig up the module and let you know the stats at that point. I figured I'd mention it in case you know anyone with the module.
On page 166 of Frostburn, there are stats for a penguin. Its not a duck, but they are both water avian, and I'm sure it shouldn't be too difficult to tweek. I have a feeling that there may be chicken stats somewhere, that too (if found) could also be reasonably adapted.
Why rely on published sources?
There are excellent resources in the Monster Manual for designing your own creatures. As a tiny animal with no extraordinary abilities, a duck would be about the easiest thing to stat up.
If you ask me, that's half the fun of being a DM. : )
Ducks do echo. You just don't pay attention.
Well I'll be, he's right:
http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_817233.html
One more myth debunked by science. Damn you science! DAMN YOU!!!
- Chris Shadowens
I've weened my own players away from livestock and such over the years, but occasionally get a player like your duck owner, Knight. Sounds very humerous.
As far as stats for a duck use the same stats for a raven (Monster Manual 278) with the following changes: Speed 10 ft., fly 40 ft., swim 20 ft.; +4 bite (1d3-5); Skills Listen +3, Spot +3, Swim +5 (since it has a swim speed it can always choose to Take 10 on Swim checks; a +8 racial bonus on Swim is included in that modifier)
Quack! Quack!
How'd yoi manage that? My players occasionally remember that they like to use livestock on dungeons. I usually just kill off their livestock pretty quickly and they forget about the idea for a while...but it always crops up again.
hy would they want livestock in a dungeon?
LOL. . . I can think of many reasons. Back in my earlier yearss, before DMing and writing and a slew of other more important things came into my life, I would contastly tinker with my characters and their posessions.
It was fun! My keeps, wizard's towers, castles, and other strongholds were meticulously planned and populated. The stables were full of horses, there were chickens pecking in the yards, and I would even have creatures brought in if I had a moat. Tons of hirelings, upkeep costs, and all that silly bookkeeping stuff.
I've probalby bought every single item listed in the First and Second edition books, at one point or another, soi I can userstand how other can do it. Will PCs want to do this? Yes. Is it sane? That's the question.
:)
Exactly what does this player plan to do with said duck?
Maybe they want to know when they should duck.
Or, when not to, as Cmdr. Riker once said.
Who knows?
{{:{)}
LG
My friend is a pet fiend he goes out of his way to search for field mice or squirrels, it is pretty funny. Onr time I had him find a squirrel and he put it in his pouch; it turned out to be a rabid squirrel and his level 1 character died. He didn't even have any ranks in handle animal and he always scares the animals away because hes a half-orc barbarian.
Yeah he's wierd. CHICKEN!!
...and I thought my old gaming party from the 80's buying up 20 chickens and taking them into a dungeon was an isolated phenomena!!
Just to note--they didn't want to pay the high price for iron rations and wanted to BBQ the chickens along the way.
They didn't have enough money for cages, so they tied them in a string and they marched dutifully behind....until the first combat. The story is so famous in our circle of friends that no player in any of my games has attempted anything similar since then.
...almost as famous as the story of one of my players trying to take out a T-72 tank in my Twilight:2000 campaign by jumping up, pulling themselves up on the barrel of the main tank gun and throwing a grenade down the barrel....
As I said, the player had ducks in real life, and he wants stats on top of keeping the thing as a pet.
Just a note on the campaign. The party sorcerer bought a dog. He has no animal training/handling skills, and I told him the dog would be no good for combat without training it to obey command. He still wanted it.
The party went back into the lair of a bright naga that had kicked their tails earlier. They sent the dog in first, and before it had a chance to run, the naga blasted it, but the PCs then opened fire on it and killed it.
So pets have a bad time of it in the campaign right now . . .
Hmmm, I remember something from my 2ed days that dealt with these kind of antics. Besides giving them the Komoori druid encounter you should remember that some gods like dogs and other pets. After they've sacrificed some more dogs give them an advanced celestial dire-dog as an encounter....with extra fighter levels...yeah that will teach them.
or killer zombie dogs
Yeah, they love Resident Evil.
My kids have joined our regular group after some training up. Things have gotten very interesting. The only recent animal antics that have come up have been a scene at Zhentil Keep.
The party cleric goes to sleep, the party is very uneasy staying in the keep. While he is asleep, the party druid goes out and buys a slave so he can set him free. The party sorcerer goes out and buys a wolf from an animal trainer, then realizes that he might be hungry, so he buys two chickens. The party already has aquired a mysterious baby that they are taking care of.
The cleric wakes up and see two chickes, a half feral wolf, and a young boy in slave rags, as well as the baby.
At which point I say to my players, " you guys make the strangest impulse purchases."