[There were some complaints about this one when this PDF released. People wanted a killer rabbit ala Monty Python and the Holy Grail, but the whole appeal to me of Night of the Lepus is that the rabbits are 100% ordinary except for their size. And their occasional, inexplicable bloodlust. The original version had a kick attack that did Str x. 2 damage, but that’s been removed in favor of an ordinary bite. Both because real rabbits bite when cornered, and because I had a cavalier player with a dire rabbit mount whose mount was positively broken at high levels.]
Dire Rabbit CR 1 N Animal The only thing out of the ordinary about this rabbit is its size—the animal stands half as tall as a man at the shoulder.
Overgrown relatives of ordinary rabbits, dire rabbits are inoffensive but can prove dangerous if cornered and destructive in numbers. Like their smaller brethren, they are strict herbivores and eat grains, roots and leaves. Diurnal creatures, they are most active during the day and return to their burrows once the sun sets. Dire rabbits are not very stealthy, relying on their keen senses and great speed to avoid predators. They will, however, fight savagely if cornered or confronted in their burrows. Dire rabbits tend to live communally in warrens, the burrows of which can extend for miles. These burrows contain a number of individual rabbits or mated pairs that live in loose association with each other and with no hierarchy.
Dire rabbits grow to maturity very rapidly and are extraordinarily fecund. Predation and disease generally keep the populations of dire rabbits in check, but massive surges in dire rabbit populations are not unknown. During such outbreaks, dire rabbits can blacken the plains with their numbers and do massive damage to croplands and grain stores. A dire rabbit stands about two feet high at the shoulder and weighs seventy pounds. Dire rabbits can be found in grasslands, forests and tundra. Arctic dire rabbits have the ability to shed their brown summer coats and grow thick white fur during the snowy winters—these dire rabbits gain a +4 racial bonus to Stealth checks made in snowy conditions.
Dire Rabbits as Animal Companions Starting Statistics: Size Small;Speed50 ft., burrow 5 ft.; AC+1 natural armor; Attackbite (1d3); Ability Scores Str 11, Dex 16, Con 10, Int 2, Wis 13, Cha 5; Special Qualities leap, low-light vision.
[I’m going to be sprinkling in some prehistoric animals throughout the World Tour block, probably one per continent. Coelophysis I’ve always considered to be a big deal dinosaur, possibly because of how many specimens are known, partly because my family’s spent a lot of time in Arizona and New Mexico. It appeared in AD&D as “podokesaurus”, referring to a specimen of a similar animal that was discovered in Massachusetts and destroyed in a fire (but since paleontology in the first half of the 20th century was dominated by New Yorkers, was commonly referred to in the literature). Although there’s lots of dinosaurs in PF1e, there’s none that are CR 1 (at least not real dinosaurs; the pterosaur dimorphodon is in this CR), so I wanted to fill one in.]
Dinosaur, Coelophysis CR 1 N Animal This bipedal creature is lean and low to the ground, with a long neck and head on one end and a long tail at the other. Its arms are short and clawed, and when it opens its mouth, many small sharp teeth are visible.
Coelophysis are among the first of the carnivorous dinosaurs, and they are not at the top of the food chain. They are small predators of smaller game, hunting lizards, proto-mammals and insects. When prey is scarce, they will scavenge and steal scraps of the kills of larger animals, filling a niche similar to that of jackals or coyotes in a more mammal-dominated ecosystem. They have incredibly keen eyesight; useful for both spotting potential prey and potential predators. Coelophysis do not hunt cooperatively, although they may congregate around scarce water sources in the deserts where they live, or accumulate into flocks in order to find mates.
A coelophysis is up to ten feet long, but most of that is their tail; they weigh between thirty and forty pounds on average. The same statistics can be modified to represent other small carnivorous dinosaurs. Add the advanced simple template to represent an ornitholestes; although these dinosaurs are shorter in length than a coelophysis, they are more robust and muscular. Add the giant simple template to reflect an animal like lillisternus or gojirasaurus.
Coelophysis as Animal Companions Starting Statistics: Size Small; AC+1 natural armor; Speed 40 ft.; Attack bite (1d4), 2 claws (1d2); Ability Scores Str 10, Dex 15, Con 14, Int 2, Wis 11, Cha 9; Special Qualities Improved Initiative as bonus feat, scent. 4th-Level Advancement: Ability Scores Str +2, Con +2; Special Qualities slink
Coelophysis CR 1 XP 400 N Small animal Init+6;SensesPerception +8, scent Defense AC14, touch 13, flat-footed 12 (+1 size, +2 Dex, +1 natural) hp13 (2d8+4) Fort+5,Ref+5,Will+0 Defensive Abilities slink Offense Speed40 ft. Meleebite +4 (1d4), 2 claws +4 (1d2) Statistics Str10,Dex15,Con14,Int2,Wis11,Cha9 Base Atk +1;CMB+0;CMD12 FeatsImproved Initiative (B), Weapon Finesse SkillsAcrobatics +6 (+10 when jumping), Perception +8, Stealth +10; Racial Modifiers +4 Acrobatics, +4 Perception Ecology Environmentwarm desert and plains Organizationsolitary, pair, gang (3-6) or flock (7-50) Treasurenone Special Abilities Slink (Ex) A coelophysis gains a +2 dodge bonus to AC against attacks of opportunity caused by moving away from or within the threatened area of a larger opponent.
[Commissioned by @arachcobra. Rimworld is yet another video game that I haven’t played with an impressive bestiary, and the thrumbo is one of the game’s iconic creatures. Since the game is popular, there’s plenty of fanart, but since the game has a very simple, cartoony visual style, there’s a lot of variation. To give you an idea, here’s what the in-game thrumbo looks like:
So there are willowy thrumbos and stocky thrumbos, thrumbos with single hooves, cloven hooves, claws or elephant-like feet, thrumbos with beaks or horse heads or rhino-like lips. I chose the picture I did because I like the sense of mass it conveys, and the logical design of “a sauropod, but mammalian”, which is what the original pog seems to be going for. This also goes along with my recent typhlotheriumin experimenting with high CR creatures of the animal type. In game, a thrumbo can tank five shots from a rocket launcher before succumbing, so I wanted to make sure they were nice and beefy.
Also, thrumbos appear to be popular among furries with a size kink, but that’s neither here nor there. But if I had to learn that while searching for images, so do you.]
Thrumbo CR 14 N Animal This majestic beast has shaggy, silvery-white fur. Its feet are paw-like and clawed, and its face has a short muzzle but powerful jaws. A single large horn grows from its brow with a crescent blade.
A thrumbo is a mega-herbivore and ecosystem engineer native to alien worlds. It has a mostly mammalian physiology, able to maintain a constant body temperature and feed its young with milk. Thrumbos eat plants, particularly the bark and shoots of trees, and cut down trees with their horns in order to feed on morsels out of their considerable reach. This horn and strength also serves them well as a defense—no mundane predator would dare hunt an adult thrumbo, and many magical predators would do well to think twice. In herds, they are even more defended.
Thrumbos can be found in many different biomes, although their thick fur means that they prefer cooler climes. This fur is thick enough to stop blades as well as claws and fangs, and is valued for use in making lightweight but durable armor. Treat thrumbo fur armor as if it were a mithral chain shirt for all purposes, including pricing, except that Craft (weaving) is necessary to make it and it does not count as metal for the purposes of spells and effects. A single thrumbo carcass can yield enough fur for four Medium or smaller suits of armor, or 1 Large suit. Harvesting fur from a live thrumbo is very tricky, as they are ill-tempered and barely able to be domesticated.
A thrumbo can live to be over two hundred years old if it does not succumb to disease, predators or starvation. Folklore in lands where thrumbos live credits them with incredible wisdom, and even that they can speak but choose not to.
Thrumbos as Animal Companions Starting Statistics:SizeMedium;Speed 40 ft.; AC +4 natural armor; Attack gore (1d8), 2 claws (1d6); Ability Scores Str 14, Dex 14, Con 13, Int 2, Wis 13, Cha 7; Special Abilities hacking gore, low-light vision, irascible, scent.
7th-Level Advancement:SizeLarge;AC +3 natural armor; Attack gore (2d6), 2 claws (1d8); Ability Scores +8 Str, –2 Dex, +4 Con; Special Abilities DR 2/-; trample (2d6)
Thrumbo CR 14 XP 38,400 N Huge animal Init+6;Senseslow-light vision, Perception +18, scent Defense AC26, touch 10, flat-footed 24 (-2 size, +2 Dex, +16 natural) hp225 (18d8+144) Fort+21,Ref+10,Will+18 DR5/- Defensive Abilities irascible Offense Speed40 ft. Meleegore +24 (2d12+19), 2 claws +24 (1d8+13) Space15 ft.; Reach10 ft. (15 ft. with gore) Special Attacks powerful blows (gore),trample (2d8+19) Statistics Str37,Dex14,Con27,Int2,Wis21,Cha10 Base Atk +13;CMB+28 (+30 bull rush, +32 sunder); CMD40 (44 vs. trip) FeatsGreat Fortitude,Greater Sunder, Improved Bull Rush, Improved Initiative, Improved Sunder, Iron Will, Lightning Reflexes, Power Attack, Run SkillsAcrobatics +9 (+13 when jumping),Perception +18, Swim +20 SQhacking gore Ecology Environmentcold and temperate land Organizationsolitary or herd (2-6) Treasureincidental Special Abilities Hacking Gore (Ex) A thrumbo’s gore attack deals slashing damage. In addition, it ignores the first 5 points of hardness of wooden objects. Irascible (Ex) A thrumbo’s good saves are Fortitude and Will instead of Fortitude and Reflex. Handle Animal and wild empathy checks to influence its behavior suffer a -4 penalty, as if it were a magical beast.
[By the standards of cryptids, the minhocão has a pedigree in legitimate science, first reported in Europe by famed botanist Augustin Saint-Hilaire and later discussed in Nature Magazine. It was Saint-Hilaire’s opinion that the minhocão was a large undescribed species of lungfish, although not nearly as large as the 20-50 meter claims that sometimes get thrown around. Since then, different cryptozoologists have played pin the character on the animal, with Bernard Heuvelmans claiming it was a giant burrowing glyptodont (!) and Karl Shuker giving it a caecelian identity. It’s this latter one that shapes most existing artistic representations, and what I went with for my version.
What do I think? I think that there may well have been a lungfish at the heart of some of the reports, but it’s probably just misidentifications and folklore surrounding the anaconda.]
Minhocão CR 10 N Animal This creature looks something like an immense earthworm, except that earthworms do not have fang filled jaws, or short tentacles on the upper jaw. Its skin is leathery, and small scales are visible beneath the surface.
The minhocão, or giant caecilian, is an enormous burrowing amphibian found in poorly drained soils in warm environments. They are ambush hunters, preying on creatures both above and below the surface. Giant vermin are a favored prey, but if these are scarce, they will grab livestock, megafauna or even giants in their jaws and drag them below ground to devour. They are sometimes hunted by purple worms and other even stronger predators, but defend themselves with a hemolytic toxin in their skin. A creature that touches a minhocão with its bare hands (or worse, mouth) have their blood cells die, fluid accumulate under their skin, and eventually die of liver and kidney failure.
A minhocão is completely blind. Its eyes are covered by skin, and it senses the world with nostrils set on short tentacles and a powerful sense of vibration. They are typically solitary, but females are attentive parents. They grow extra layers of fatty skin along their bodies, which the juveniles eat, regrowing it and repeating the process several times before the young minhocãos are strong enough to hunt on their own. They prefer subtropical climes to tropical ones.
Minhocão as Animal Companions Starting Statistics: Size Medium; Speed 20 ft., burrow 20 ft., swim 20 ft.; AC +3 natural armor; Attack bite (1d8); Ability Scores Str 12, Dex 16, Con 13, Int 1, Wis 13, Cha 8; Special Qualities blind, blindsight 7th-Level Advancement: Size Large; AC +3 natural armor; Attack bite (2d6); Ability Scores Str +8, Dex -2, Con +4; Special Qualities grab, toxic skin (Con based DC)
Minhocão CR 10 XP 9,600 N Gargantuan animal Init +6; Senses blindsight 60 ft., blind, Perception +10 Defense AC 24, touch 8, flat-footed 21 (+2 Dex, +16 natural, –4 size) hp 138 (12d8+84) Fort +14, Ref +10, Will +7 Immunegaze attacks, visual spells and effects Defensive Abilities toxic skin Offense Speed 20 ft., burrow 20 ft., swim 20 ft. Melee bite +18 (4d6+19/19–20 plus grab) Space 20 ft.; Reach 20 ft. Special Attacks swallow whole (2d8+19 bludgeoning, AC 18, 13 hp) Statistics Str 36, Dex 14, Con 23, Int 1, Wis 13, Cha 8 Base Atk +9; CMB +26 (+30 grapple); CMD 38 (can’t be tripped) FeatsBlind-fight, Improved Critical (bite), Improved Initiative, Iron Will, Power Attack, Toughness Skills Perception +10, Stealth +11, Swim +21; Racial Modifiers +8 Stealth SQhold breath Ecology Environment warm swamps or underground Organization solitary or pair Treasure none Special Abilities Blindsight (Ex) A minhocão’s blindsight is based on detecting scent and vibrations. If it is in an area of strong scent, such as a stinking cloud spell, it is treated as having tremorsense instead. Toxic Skin (Ex) A creature that strikes a minhocão with an unarmed strike or natural weapon exposes itself to the creature’s poisonous skin. Skin—contact;save Fort DC 22; frequency 1/round for 4 rounds; effect1d4 Constitution damage; cure 1 save. The save DC is Constitution based.
