Animal's with high strength

[Milo33]

My party is about to ambush a very powerful and well prepared spell caster. He has a cat that he pretends is his familiar but is actually a very powerful animal that he cast baleful polymorph on. I'm trying to get the cat's strength as high as possible while restricting myself it's original form being some kind of animal. So far the highest strength creature I could find is a brachiosaurus with a strength of 37. Does anyone know of a stronger animal?

[Bob Bob Bob]

WHALE! No, seriously. Only 38 though. For added hilarity (and a real bump to strength), make it freaking Moby Dick. 50 Strength, gives free reign to quote Captain Ahab. That last one might be a plus or a minus, depending on your tastes. It worked out well for Wrath of Khan.

[Milo33]

Heh, that's great. Thanks!

[voideternal]

Unrelated, but remember to adjust ability scores based on the original creature size.

Polymorph wrote:

If a polymorph spell is cast on a creature that is smaller than Small or larger than Medium, first adjust its ability scores to one of these two sizes using the following table before applying the bonuses granted by the polymorph spell.

A Brachiosaurus, being gargantuan, would result in Str 25 after the adjustment, and 21 after Beast Shape III.

[Milo33]

Ah geeze. Thanks for the heads up!

[lemeres]

Yep- so we are looking for a creature that already encompasses the desired prodcut: the densest, smallest mass of fury we can find.

[Avoron]

Advanced great white whale is still your best option by far, with 34 strength in cat form.

Second place is advanced basilosaurus, with a strength of 29 as a cat.

Next come advanced blue whale, advanced whale, and advanced mastodon, tied with a strength of 26.

Advanced brachiosauruses would end up with a slightly lower strength score of 25, along with advanced zeuglodons and dire crocodiles.

It's interesting that almost all of these creatures are aquatic.

[Milo33]

Huh. Well the whale is by far the best, but also is the least cool and just a little to bizzare for my tastes. A dinosaur trapped in cat form can be cool, but a whale just seems bizarre. I'll probably go with the advanced baisilosaurus. Thanks so much for your help everyone, and you in particular Avoron, that was huge help.

[Cevah]

Well, I used the bestiary spreadsheet and came up with the highest strength by type.

space saver:

28 Drakainia (Huge aberration)
28 Roper (Large aberration)
28 Somalcygot (Large aberration)
32 Star-Spawn Of Cthulhu (Huge aberration)
38 Cthulhu (Colossal aberration)

25 Mastodon (Huge animal)
25 Woolly Rhinoceros (Large animal)
25 Woolly Rhinoceros Elasmotherium (Large animal)
25 Dire Smilodon (Large animal)
26 Hetkoshu (Gargantuan animal)
27 Basilosaurus (Gargantuan animal)
32 Great White Whale (Colossal animal)

30 Stone Colossus (Colossal construct)
30 Battlehulk (Huge construct)
31 Clockwork Goliath (Gargantuan construct)
31 Jade Colossus (Colossal construct)
33 Iron Colossus (Colossal construct)

27 Jabberwock (Huge dragon)
27 Wyrm Red Dragon (Gargantuan dragon)
27 Fafnheir (Colossal dragon)
28 Ancient Brine Dragon (Huge dragon)
28 Tor Linnorm (Colossal dragon)
31 Mythic Wyrm Red Dragon (Gargantuan dragon)

20 Ankou (Large fey)
20 Poludnica (Medium fey)
21 Grimm (Large fey)
21 Black Rider (Medium fey)
22 Red Rider (Medium fey)
23 Tunche (Huge fey)

28 Shadow Giant (Large humanoid)
28 Mythic Great Cyclops (Huge humanoid)
29 Storm Giant (Huge humanoid)
30 Ocean Giant (Huge humanoid)
30 Ferrous Giant (Huge humanoid)
34 Savage Great Cyclops (Huge humanoid)

32 Mogaru (Colossal magical beast)
34 Bokrug (Large magical beast)
34 Oma (Colossal magical beast)
36 Leviathan (Colossal magical beast)
36 The Ravager (Gargantuan magical beast)

21 Mute hag (Medium monstrous humanoid)
21 Boreal Creature (Large monstrous humanoid)
21 Popobala (Medium monstrous humanoid)
21 Stormghost (Large monstrous humanoid)
23 Humbaba (Colossal monstrous humanoid)
25 Nependis (Large monstrous humanoid)
30 Grendel (Large monstrous humanoid)

25 Riftcreeper (Gargantuan ooze)
25 Vespergaunt (Medium ooze)
27 Living Lake (Colossal ooze)
28 Mezlan (Medium ooze)
30 Shoggoth (Huge ooze)

35 Kostchtchie (Large outsider)
37 Balor Lord (Large outsider)
37 Alastor (Large outsider)
38 Kostchtchie (Huge outsider)
39 Onyst (Huge outsider)

21 Zomok (Gargantuan plant)
21 Mythic Treant (Huge plant)
21 Tobongo (Gargantuan plant)
21 Splinter Drake (Large plant)
21 Widow Creeper (Large plant)
22 Razor Treant (Huge plant)
24 Mu Spore (Colossal plant)
24 Sard (Colossal plant)

27 Mother's Maw (Large undead)
27 Mother's Maw (Large undead)
27 Nightcrawler (Gargantuan undead)
31 Nightwave (Colossal undead)
31 Red Wyrm Ravener (Gargantuan undead)
38 Winterwight (Medium undead)

21 Glass Urchin (Huge vermin)
21 Giant Tarantula (Gargantuan vermin)
21 Giant Dragonfly (Medium vermin)
22 Goliath Stag Beetle (Huge vermin)
23 Goliath Spider (Colossal vermin)
25 Titan Centipede (Colossal vermin)

The Dire Smilodon is only 2 less than the Basilosaurus. Now your tiny housecat is really a large cat. :-)

/cevah

[lemeres]

As a note, I will post the table for adjusted scores when you go from somthing big to medium. Also, I will generally assume there is an extra -2 str for going tiny (based off of beast shape II, and by association, polymorph)

polymorph school wrote:

Table: Ability Adjustments from Size Changes

Creature's Original Size Str Dex Con Adjusted Size
Fine +6 -6 - Small
Diminutive +6 -4 - Small
Tiny +4 -2 - Small
Large -4 +2 -2 Medium
Huge -8 +4 -4 Medium
Gargantuan -12 +4 -6 Medium
Colossal -16 +4 -8 Medium

This means that, a colossal creature going to medium loses 16 str, while a large one only loses 4. That meanst that Cthulu is weaker than a roper in kitty arm wrestling.

A quick look Cevah's list makes Winterwight the most valuable, since it starts off medium, which means it is the only listed one that doesn't lose anything due to the chart I posted, and has the highest str of undead (and ties with a lot of the best on the list).

The listed outsiders all look good.

The giants are all about equal (not great though)

And the rest are kinda....meh. For the most part.

[Avoron]

Oh, for some reason I was assuming cats were diminutive. So each of those options I posted would have a strength score two higher: 36 for an advanced great white whale or 31 for an advanced basilosaurus.

Cevah and lemeres, Milo did say he was restricting himself to the original form being an animal.

[Cevah]

lemeres wrote:

As a note, I will post the table for adjusted scores when you go from somthing big to medium. Also, I will generally assume there is an extra -2 str for going tiny (based off of beast shape II, and by association, polymorph)

polymorph school:

Table: Ability Adjustments from Size Changes
Creature's Original Size Str Dex Con Adjusted Size
Fine +6 -6 - Small
Diminutive +6 -4 - Small
Tiny +4 -2 - Small
Large -4 +2 -2 Medium
Huge -8 +4 -4 Medium
Gargantuan -12 +4 -6 Medium
Colossal -16 +4 -8 Medium

This means that, a colossal creature going to medium loses 16 str, while a large one only loses 4. That meanst that Cthulu is weaker than a roper in kitty arm wrestling.

A quick look Cevah's list makes Winterwight the most valuable, since it starts off medium, which means it is the only listed one that doesn't lose anything due to the chart I posted, and has the highest str of undead (and ties with a lot of the best on the list).

The listed outsiders all look good.

The giants are all about equal (not great though)

And the rest are kinda....meh. For the most part.

Roper starts off with 34 at large. That goes to 28 tiny.

Cthulhu starts off with 56 at Colossal. That goes to 38 tiny.

Cthulhu > Roper in kitty wrestling.

As to listing non-animals, well, I wanted completeness across the bestiary.

/cevah