Featured Creature -- Eagle

There's a dearth of avians and sea creatures here at the G&S HQ, so let's remedy that with this week's entry.  And since it's still 4th of July week in the U.S., I'll do my patriotic duty and stat out our national dinosaur bird.

Eagle
Among the noblest and most majestic of raptor birds, eagles range most of the world and prey on all manner of species.  They have even been known to attack prey larger than themselves, and are in fact one of the physically strongest flying birds in all the animal kingdom.

In fantasy realms, eagles often ally with elves and other fey creatures, especially in times of war against goblins, orcs, and the twisted worg wolves who serve them.

To small terrestrial species, eagles are a nightmare from the sky, but they are also respected for their courage.  Potential prey approaching an eagle would do well to shower the bird with flattery, as eagles are quite susceptible to their own self-image as the kings of the birds.

     AC: 7
     AT (Dam): 2 claws, 1 bite (1d2/1d2/1d4)
     Beginning HP: 5 [6]
     Habitat: Sub-arctic to sub-tropical
     MV: 2; flying 12
     SZ: Small

Species Traits:

• Excellent Vision: Eagles can see three times better than a longpaw under normal conditions, granting them a +4 bonus on all lore checks to spot hidden objects or track moving targets on the ground from great heights. 
• Flyby Attack
• Great Strength: Eagles are among the strongest flying birds in existence; some have been known to lift targets three times their own body weight into the air.  They get a +2 bonus on all lore checks involving airborne feats of strength made against targets on the ground.
• Low-Light Vision
• Spatial Awareness: Like other flying birds and most sea creatures, eagles can easily think and fight in three dimensions. They suffer no penalties in "aerial" combat against land-dwelling creatures who enter their habitat.
• Swoop: Eagles can mount a flying charge attack against creatures at a lower altitude.  This gives them a +2 to hit and lets them inflict double damage on their target.  However, it imposes a 2-point penalty on their Armor Class.
• Ultravision
• +6 bonus on all move silently checks while airborne
• Suitable Niches: Herbalist, Runner, Scout, Warrior

Featured Creature: Raven

NOTE: These stats have been edited to conform to the rules revisions posted on 9/8/15.

At a reader's request!

Raven

Ravens feed on carrion and gather in isolated, abandoned places.  For this reason, they are often seen as dreary or spooky by other beings, despite their great aptitude for play.  They also have a reputation for pointless thievery, often taking great risks to collect meaningless shiny objects from the places they visit. Nonetheless, ravens are highly intelligent and social beings, and the best tool-users among all of bird-kind.

A raven's favorite food is the eyes of the dead.   They feel it honors the fallen by passing their dying sight onto another, becoming the basis of stories that will perpetuate memories of the dead long after they are gone.  Many ravens claim to experience visions or prophetic dreams after eating the eyes of the dead, though whether these visions are genuine or just mad rantings is any non-raven's guess.

     AC 7
     AT (Dam): Bite (1d3); talons (1d2; this is a single attack with both feet at once)
     Beginning HP: 3 
     Habitat: Temperate
     MV: 3; 20 flying
     SZ: Tiny   

Species Traits:

• Bauble-Snatcher's Curse: All ravens carry their mythical hero's curse, and find shiny trinkets of any or no value almost irresistible.  Whenever you encounter such a trinket -- be it well-guarded or not -- you must succeed at a Challenging Charm save, or be compelled to try and steal the object from whoever possesses it.  Luckily, you  get a +2 bonus on your Trickster lore check when attempting this larceny. This bonus does not apply in circumstances where you succeeded on your saving throw.
  
• Eye Peck: On any unmodified attack roll of 19 or 20, you can pluck out or otherwise damage one of your enemy's eyes (provided the enemy has eyes, that is).  This attack blinds her in that eye, imposing a -2 penalty on all further attack rolls, or lore checks that rely on paw-eye coordination.  If you manage a second such attack against the same opponent, she is permanently blinded, a condition that can only be healed through magical means.
• Flyby Attack
• Low-Light Vision
• Tool-Use: You gain a +2 bonus on all Scout lore checks to use tools or decipher the function of simple longpaw devices.
• Ultravision
• -4 penalty on all lore checks involving feats of strength.
• +3 bonus on Runner or Trickster lore checks that involve flying stunts
• Suitable Niches: Familiar, Guardian, Herbalist, Magic-User, Runner, Scout, Seer, Trickster.
  

On Beyond Purple: Taking Back Ultravision

Infravision and ultravision were two of the coolest concepts in old-school D&D. Never mind that their descriptions were scientifically embarrassing.  The prospect of playing a character with special sight powers was always appealing.

During the switch-over from 2nd edition to 3rd and later editions of the game, infra- and ultra-vision got subsumed into the character/monster traits of Low-Light Vision and Darkvision, since those were their actual functions in old-school game terms.

SQUAWK! I see you in a whole different light.

Their disappearance provoked a lot of nostalgia in me, and I could never quite let them go.  I always thought they could give excellent perks to PCs that were separate from just being able to see in the dark.

In the old rules, for instance, infravision could be optionally defined as the ability to detect creatures and objects by their natural heat emissions.  This could grant bonuses on checks to detect invisible creatures, provided they had a warm-blooded metabolism.

But the original game didn't have many good ideas what to do with ultravision, the ability to perceive colors in the ultraviolet spectrum.  The descriptions of the ability provided in older editions were, as noted, scientifically embarrassing.  But they needn't have been.

Unlike infravision, something like ultravision actually exists in nature; more than half of all bird species can see ultraviolet light.  And when you do a little perfunctory reading on its possible evolutionary advantages, some game effects are immediately suggested.

The prevailing hypotheses are that bird UV vision evolved because it provided advantages to foraging and hunting (some fruits are more visible in the UV spectrum, as are many prey animals' excretions), signalling and camouflage (making them more visible to each other, but less visible to predators who can only see into the violet range), and sexual selection (flashier birds get more mates).

Thus, an old-school fantasy RPG about animal characters can revive Ultravision, and make it better!  Here's  my preliminary write-up for the Ultravision Species Trait, which will ultimately be found in the descriptions for several bird and fish species:

• Ultravision: In addition to normal vision, you can perceive colors in the ultraviolet spectrum.  This grants you a +2 bonus on all Herbalist and Scout lore checks to gather nutritious fruits and berries (Herbalist lore), to spot hidden predators, or to track other animals by their excrement trails (Scout lore).  When tracking, this species trait stacks with any bonus you receive from the Scent ability.