I'm trying to build a BBEG that is a drow cavalier, mounted on a cave lizard that can crawl along walls/ceilings. Similar to the lizard mounts described for drow nobles in the Dark Elf series.
Anyway, there are no large lizards...
Any suggestions?
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One Giant Cave Lizard coming right up!
XP -- 1200
N Large animal
Init +2; Senses: Blindsight 60ft., low-light vision, light blindness, scent; Perception +8
DEFENSE
AC 16, touch 9, flat-footed 16 (-1 size, +7 natural)
hp 30 (3d8+16)
Fort +11, Ref +3, Will +2
OFFENSE
Speed 30 ft., swim 30 ft., climb 15ft.
Melee bite +9 (2d6+10 plus grab and poison)
STATISTICS
Str 23, Dex 11, Con 23, Int 1, Wis 12, Cha 6
Base Atk +2; CMB +10 (+12 grapple); CMD 20 (24 vs. trip)
Feats Great Fortitude, Skill Focus (Perception)
Skills Climb +19, Perception +8, Stealth +0 (+4 in Caves,) Swim +15; Racial Modifiers +4 Stealth (+4 Stealth in Caves)
SPECIAL ABILITIES
Poison (Su) Bite—injury; save Fort DC 17; onset 1 minute; frequency 1/hour for 6 hours; effect 1d2 Dexterity damage; cure 1 save. The save DC is Constitution-based.
I just slapped this together with templates. I could cobble together a from-scratch cave lizard later if you want.
Thanks for the response guys. I guess I should have been a little more specific about my concern. It's not really the lack of large lizards, as both of you have shown that's pretty darn easy to remedy. The issue is how would these work with the mount rules? Is a monitor lizard that has had its size increased and the cave template applied still a viable "animal companion" for the mount rules?
I know I could just SAY the drow has the lizard as a mount, but I wanna at least TRY to do it within the rules, so that I'm not doing anything my players themselves aren't allowed to do if they wanted to (not that I expect any of them to make cavaliers with giant lizard mounts).9
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That being the case, I'd say no (at least if you use the bad boy I created.) A CR4 mount is very powerful for a 1st level PC. Now, if you're drow bad guy is around level 8 or higher, I'd treat the cave lizard like a higher level druid AniComp. Give it abilities equivalent to a Cavalier's mount -4 levels. That should bring it down to a manageable challenge for the party. Otherwise, you're going to have to crunch some numbers, remove some abilities, etc. to get the thing's CR down to a 2 at best. You may as well just build a monster from scratch at that point.
That being the case, I'd say no (at least if you use the bad boy I created.) A CR4 mount is very powerful for a 1st level PC. Now, if you're drow bad guy is around level 8 or higher, I'd treat the cave lizard like a higher level druid AniComp. Give it abilities equivalent to a Cavalier's mount -4 levels. That should bring it down to a manageable challenge for the party. Otherwise, you're going to have to crunch some numbers, remove some abilities, etc. to get the thing's CR down to a 2 at best. You may as well just build a monster from scratch at that point.
Sounds good to me. It's still a bit of a workaround with no actual rules text to support it, but it sounds fair enough to me. I'm probably gonna remove the poison bite too.
Thanks.
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Well, that ruling isn't completely without precedent.
From the Cavalier mount rules:
"A Small cavalier can select a pony or wolf, but can also select a boar or a dog if he is at least 4th level. The GM might approve other animals as suitable mounts."
I don't know if that makes you feel any better, but I think you could apply the logic for a small cavalier getting to select a dog or boar to a medium cavalier getting to choose something beside a horse.
I was also thinking, to more closely emulate the drow cave lizards from those books, you might apply the Giant and Cave templates to a deinonychus. I've never read the books, but I've got a mini for a drow on a cave lizard and the thing looks a bit like a raptor to me.
Edit - Also, apparently, it's been too long since I looked at the Druid class. I hadn't noticed they got rid of the Animal Companions for higher-level Druids stuff. Anyway, I still think the -4 level thing sounds fair. Just make sure, if you run with it, it's something you'd let your players do and it should be okay.
Well, that ruling isn't completely without precedent.
From the Cavalier mount rules:
"A Small cavalier can select a pony or wolf, but can also select a boar or a dog if he is at least 4th level. The GM might approve other animals as suitable mounts."I don't know if that makes you feel any better, but I think you could apply the logic for a small cavalier getting to select a dog or boar to a medium cavalier getting to choose something beside a horse.
I was also thinking, to more closely emulate the drow cave lizards from those books, you might apply the Giant and Cave templates to a deinonychus. I've never read the books, but I've got a mini for a drow on a cave lizard and the thing looks a bit like a raptor to me.
Edit - Also, apparently, it's been too long since I looked at the Druid class. I hadn't noticed they got rid of the Animal Companions for higher-level Druids stuff. Anyway, I still think the -4 level thing sounds fair. Just make sure, if you run with it, it's something you'd let your players do and it should be okay.
The ones from the Dark Elf Trilogy were really just big monitor lizards with sticky pads on their feet and darkvision.
Wait, were's this Cave Template? I can't find it.
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CR 3
XP 800
N Large animal
Init +1; Senses lowlight vision, darkvision 60ft., scent; Perception +8
DEFENSES
AC 17, touch 10, flat-footed 15 (+1 Dex, +6 natural)
hp 28 (3d8+15)
Fort +10, Ref +4, Will +2
OFFENSE
Speed 30 ft., Climb 20ft.
Melee bite +8 (2d6+9)
STATISTICS
Str 21, Dex 13, Con 21, Int 2, Wis 12, Cha 6
Base Atk +2; CMB +7; CMD 18 (22 vs. trip)
Feats Great Fortitude, Skill Focus (Perception)
Skills Climb +17, Perception +8, Stealth +1 (+5 in caves) Racial Modifiers +4 Stealth (+8 in caves)
ECOLOGY
Environment subterranean
Organization solitary, pair, or pack (3–8)
Treasure none
There ya go. I enjoy making monsters.
cave template (I didn't use that for the above monster)
I did this fora small character (deep gnome) and used the giant frog Druid companion. You would have to houserule letting it grow to large. We swapped out swim for climb.
No wonder I couldn't find it, it's from the Advanced Bestiary, not an actual Paizo product. But after looking it over, it looks good. I think I'm gonna go with the templated monitor lizard just because there's already anicomp rules for it, and just reduced the effective cavalier level. Fits the concept that it's drow NOBLES that get it to do that too, as nobles are more likely to have higher class levels.
Thanks everyone for you help. Now, to add the cave template to Hero Lab, and figure out how to make the effective mount level four levels lower....