monsters

[chris manning]

so on page 15

Creature:

the creature listed is a Dire Rat, but there is no Dire rat in the bestiary?

[Martin S Minville]

chris manning wrote:

so on page 15

** spoiler omitted **

Look like its the Giant Rat instead ?

[James Jacobs]

Dang... yeah. We won't be using "Dire" for anything in 2nd edition but for dire wolves. It's a giant rat. We changed it in the bestiary at the last second (it was the only lingering incorrect dire animal that snuck by editing) but it as too late for the adventure.

Instead of dire animals, the "tougher" animals in 2nd edition will either be represented by giant versions of the animals (as in the giant rat), animals from the fossil record (so we'll have smilodons but not dire tigers, cave bears but not dire bears, mammoths but not dire elephants... the ONE exception is that we still have dire wolves because that's what the real-world megafauna prehistoric wolf was actually called), or brand new animals we make up (I don't think any of these are in the Playtest Bestiary but I could be mis-remembering).

[chris manning]

thanks for the quick response james - i went with the giant one anyway :)

[James Jacobs]

chris manning wrote:

thanks for the quick response james - i went with the giant one anyway :)

Excellent. Since we did the same! :P

[Themetricsystem]

Unabashed pride in necromancy

I must ask, why did Dire get the axe but the Elementals remain divided up based on their power using ambiguous terminology?

I feel like Dire has a lot of history to it whereas Major and Greater really don't verbally seem to play nice with automatically knowing which is more dangerous.

[Captain Morgan]

Themetricsystem wrote:

Unabashed pride in necromancy

I must ask, why did Dire get the axe but the Elementals remain divided up based on their power using ambiguous terminology?

I feel like Dire has a lot of history to it whereas Major and Greater really don't verbally seem to play nice with automatically knowing which is more dangerous.

I think having a lot of history is why some of these monsters got their names changed. They probably want to make the game have more of a distinct identity. This might be for legal reasons-- I've heard some stuff about D&D copyright becoming stricter, though I haven't verified that.

[Fumarole]

Captain Morgan wrote:

I think having a lot of history is why some of these monsters got their names changed. They probably want to make the game have more of a distinct identity.

Whatever the reason is, it makes cataloging one's miniatures a pain. Hopefully, the second edition bestiary will include both names, much like the playtest bestiary does, that makes it a bit easier.