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So, I'll be playing a druid in an upcoming game and he's going to need - need - a dire weasel companion. Following are two incarnations. The first one is true to the old 3.5 dire weasel - the 10 foot long, 700 pound monster. At first I didn't want to stat this version up, as it does somewhat offend my sensibilities (despite being AWESOME) so I was just going to stat up version 2 alone... but I couldn't let it die. Also this isn't possible with version 2: this. Version 2 is a smaller dire weasel, a bit more realistic (realistic? Dire weasel? We'll ignore that statement...) and is basically just a badger/wolverine from the Core Rulebook with a bleed attack instead of rage.
Here they are:
Dire Weasel 1
Starting Statistics: Size Medium; Speed 30 ft.; AC +1 natural armor; Attack bite 1d8; Ability Scores Str 11, Dex 17, Con 13, Int 2, Wis 13, Cha 10; Special Attacks bleed 1d6 Special Qualities low-light vision, scent.
7th-Level Advancement: Size Large; Attack bite 1d8; Ability Scores Str +8, Dex -2, Con +4; Special Attacks bleed 1d8.
Dire Weasel 2
Starting Statistics: Size Small; Speed 30ft., burrow 10 ft., climb 10 ft.; AC +2 natural armor; Attack bite 1d6; Ability Scores Str 10, Dex 19, Con 13, Int 2, Wis 12, Cha 6; Special Attacks bleed 1d4; Special Qualities low-light vision, scent.
4th-Level Advancement: Size Medium; Attack bite 1d8; Ability Scores Str +4, Dex -2, Con +2; Special Attacks bleed 1d6.
Another idea I just had while writing this was to give them grab and have the bleed effect come in during grapples, which I think would make them more useful as well as make them more true to the 3.5 dire weasel. I'm way too tired to do that right now though, so we'll see about having that up tomorrow.
It's got a mean bite for a creature its size. I think those should be one die-size smaller. Version 2's Dex is too high. I would change the bleed damage to the grapple damage you mentioned. Most of it's okay, but I would make the following changes to the second version.
Starting Statistics: Size Small; Speed 30ft., burrow 10 ft., climb 10 ft.; AC +2 natural armor; Attack bite 1d4; Ability Scores Str 10, Dex 17, Con 14, Int 2, Wis 12, Cha 8; Special Attacks attach*; Special Qualities low-light vision, scent.
4th-Level Advancement: Size Medium; Attack bite 1d6; Ability Scores Str +2, Con +4.
And MAYBE throw something like this in.
7th-Level Advancement: Size Large; Attack bite 1d8; Ability Scores Str +4, Dex -2, Con +2.**
*Attach being the grapple damage, something like bite damage every round that a grapple is maintained by the weasel. I made it up for purposes of the edit.
**Take this listing with a grain of salt. I'm assuming you want to ride the thing, so it would be better for it to go up another size later on. I'm not so sure about the ability score changes I have for 7th level, I think a 16 Str and 20 Con for a large creature at 7th level is fair, but the size and bite damage would definitely go up. (I haven't yet figured out why one can have a wolf bigger than a bear.)
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It's got a mean bite for a creature its size. I think those should be one die-size smaller.
That was to compensate for it losing the two claws that badgers get, but I agree. No other animal companion starts with over-sized die, so I'd rather the compensation come from its attach ability.
Version 2's Dex is too high
The dex is actually comparable to other animal companions (see small cat. 21 Dex!!) Ability scores was one of my big worries with these. Animal companions tend to have drastically different stats, like the bird, which is nigh useless, to the T-Rex, which is incredible. Finding a good balance is tough, and I think they'd need to be adjusted again after adding in an attach ability.
The 4th and 7th level ability score increases are just the normal increases for going from medium to large and small to medium, so those shouldn't change. The base ability scores would need to be adjusted instead.
*Attach being the grapple damage, something like bite damage every round that a grapple is maintained by the weasel. I made it up for purposes of the edit.
My main reason for making this a bleed attack was because a while back James Jacobs said that if they ever released dire weasels they would change attach to some sort of bleed, and I am ever so inclined to follow his word... I think grab plus something like the bat swarms wounding ability might be fair.
How about:
Attach (Ex) Each time that a dire weasel deals bite damage in a grapple it drains blood, causing 1 point of bleed damage. Multiple wounds increase the bleed damage. The bleeding can be stopped by a DC 15 heal check or the application of a cure spell or some other healing magic.
My trouble with this is that you're basically just handing your dire weasel the wounding weapon property. It doesn't leave much room for differentiation between Version 1 and Version 2 either.
(I haven't yet figured out why one can have a wolf bigger than a bear.)
I felt like I was at the butt of a mean joke when I saw that :p
*Attach being the grapple damage, something like bite damage every round that a grapple is maintained by the weasel. I made it up for purposes of the edit.My main reason for making this a bleed attack was because a while back James Jacobs said that if they ever released dire weasels they would change attach to some sort of bleed, and I am ever so inclined to follow his word... I think grab plus something like the bat swarms wounding ability might be fair.
How about:
Attach (Ex) Each time that a dire weasel deals bite damage in a grapple it drains blood, causing 1 point of bleed damage. Multiple wounds increase the bleed damage. The bleeding can be stopped by a DC 15 heal check or the application of a cure spell or some other healing magic.
My trouble with this is that you're basically just handing your dire weasel the wounding weapon property. It doesn't leave much room for differentiation between Version 1 and Version 2 either.
Well, it is like the wounding property but it requires being grappled, unlike the weapon property. But I was unaware of the intended change to bleed, so that's fine. It does make up for the difference in attacks.
I missed the cat. Seems like none of the others in the CRB have above a 17 Dex.
The size comment on the end was more of a stab at Paizo. Sorry if I hurt your feelings. :(
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The size comment on the end was more of a stab at Paizo. Sorry if I hurt your feelings. :(
Haha no no no, you got me all wrong! I meant that I felt like Paizo was playing a mean joke on us. One of my players in Kingmaker is a druid with a bear companion and we were both puzzled/outraged when we saw its stats. Needless to say, we made some big changes.
Well, it is like the wounding property but it requires being grappled, unlike the weapon property. But I was unaware of the intended change to bleed, so that's fine. It does make up for the difference in attacks.
Good point about the wounding. I think I'll be going with this for my druid:
Dire Weasel
Starting Statistics: Size Small; Speed 30ft., burrow 10 ft., climb 10 ft.; AC +2 natural armor; Attack bite 1d4; Ability Scores Str 10, Dex 19, Con 13, Int 2, Wis 12, Cha 6; Special Attacks grab, attach*; Special Qualities low-light vision, scent.
4th-Level Advancement: Size Medium; Attack bite 1d6; Ability Scores Str +4, Dex -2, Con +2.
*Attach (Ex) Each time that a dire weasel deals bite damage in a grapple it drains blood, causing 1 point of bleed damage. Multiple wounds increase the bleed damage. The bleeding can be stopped by a DC 15 heal check or the application of a cure spell or some other healing magic.