Wildlife

[Winter83]

My favourite suggestion topic, dont bash me for it
Pet peeve of mine is that outdoor areas, especially forests (Not the FOD, that place is simply evil) do not give a foresty feeling. They are more like outdoors dungeons.
Instead of hostile mobs all around, I'd rather see the areas more thematic. Small game for hunting, an occassional wolfpack spawning. Wild boars, a bear when you go near the mountains. The bears in the Arelith forest are.... odd? They gang up with whatever critters around to devour your soul. They do not give an impression of being animals. More just "hey that's some red bunch of pixels giving xp".








Seeing the new animal companions gave me ideas.


Skittish wildlife like deer, badgers, birds : HIPS, permahasted, most will flee when attacked (so a deer wont eat the lowbies), good stealth skills good detection skills.

Practically you'd need hunter skills to bring down these prey.


Snakes, small spiders: Dont intentially hunting players. Attack when attacked. (Starts neutral to PC). Stay in stealth, can HIPS. Once attacked, or you get too close they retaliate.

Bears, Boars: Similar to the above. Get to close to them you'll regret it. Up their power. PCs can chose to wait them to pass through an area to keep them neutral, or find a detour. (or attack)
Bears are rare encounter. Solitary. But very powerful. Knockdown, terrifying rage maybe:? (some lowish DC) Barbarian fast movement. Massive HP. Lowish AB. So they dont devastate every lowbie in an instant.

Boars are in pairs or surrounded by piglets. Piglets' behavior is similar to skittish prey.
Can cause bleeding wounds. Disease. Knockdown. Rage.


Wolves: Most aggressive. Attacking in packs 5-8. Can stealth, no hips. Maybe cripple, some fear howl. A reason to avoid them in general. But not overpowering.

Mountain lions: Solitary, but powerful. Start in stealth, can sneak, can cripple, can make bleeding wounds. On mountain areas.







TAGS: Immersion, RP opportunites

[Marsi]

I'd love something like this.

On Ravenloft the wildlife works very much alike your suggestion.

More aggressive animals will go about their business, and you don't have to kill them to pass by (which is great for rangers/druids who hate having to do so).

Then there's wolves/bears/etc that are hostile to the more skittish animals and attack them (like how goblins will attack deer, only the animals run away rather than fight back).

[Alchuilas]

Always felt the same.

[KregorRanger]

I play a ranger, and I approve of this message.

At the very least, let aggro animals have a chance of going neutral in the presence of a PC with empathy ranks. Otherwise a of the above.

[SwampFoot]

I wouldn't like to see hordes of wildlife with crippling strike and HiPS. I see my ranger's badger companion spam HiPS like a champ. Now imagine a group of wolves doing that. Good luck keeping yourself from becoming flat-footed with a -3 str modifier.

[Winter83]

I would add HipS only to those animals who's behavior is skittish. To enforce you more search checks when trailing. Or if you are not good in detection risking to lose the prey.

But I'd not even mind Hips and fancy features neither only if animals acted like animals for the joy of hunters and wilderness lovers.

Bear mobs are quite strange, similarly to wolves mixed in with spiders.

For instance I can imagine spiders descending from above upon the unwary traveler. Or small ones in stealth like the hairy spiders in the Bramble's deep part.

[Tathkar Eisgrim]

Spider spawns could be set up via a silk tripline 'trap'. PC's walk over the trap and tiny spiders spawn out of a nearby silk cocoon. Kill the tiny spiders and 'Mother' shows up.

[Hoeya]

But I love the idiot deer that just keep headbutting the wolverines rather than just running away. Free xp, pls.