Wolves, Panthers, and Bears; An Analysis of Malignant Beasts

The wilds are not safe. Everyone knows that. Monsters and spirits, dragons and devils, brigands and magi, all threats widely spoken of and deeply feared. But they are not what most deal with. The shepherd, traveler, and poor sellsword looking to make a quick profit must contend with simple beasts. And of them, three great families are the most known for their depredations. That is not to say that other beasts cannot host eaters of men among them, but it is these clans whose reputations are blackest, and whose presence in any guise near universally threatens those who come upon them. While many are what one could hazard as mundane, average, predicable... there are always exceptions.

 

 

 Wolves may be found in any place in the Known World with abundant prey to feed them. The most social of the three predacious clans, their kind primarily hunt in packs (2d6), or even great hordes (2d100) of several hundred if there are sufficient victuals to claim. Cities broken by siege or wasted by famine are often plagued by such occurrences. The wolves which hunt by themselves are fearful in their own way, however, for they are often the cleverest of them all.

All wolves fear fire, and prefer to hunt by night, but starvation and numbers can drive them to act even in broad daylight.

Some notable traits for the local wolf or wolf pack or swarm (roll 1-3 times):

1. Modulated howls that can convey complex meaning. For the purpose of sharing information, they can communicate three-word-sentences worth of information (THEY ARE HERE, FIRE WENT OUT, CIRCLE AROUND BACK)
2. It has an elongated neck it uses to peek over obstacles and around corners, and bite from unexpected angles. +1 to hit and advantage on being spotted, so long as only its head is visible.
3. It has an exceptionally long, snaggle-toothed snout. If it bites something around its own size or less they are surely grappled.
4. It is squat and short, near as tall as it is long. An ambush predator that dwells in holes, caves, or mountain passes. Advantage on surprise attacks.
5. It has short legs and a long body, a swift sprinter. Movement speed doubled for the first round, halved the next, normal after.
6. It has remarkably dexterous forepaws. It can do anything a human with hands could do, provided it has seen a human do it and it isn't too complex. It can also stand upright.
7. It has a hunched back and thick muscles, advantage on strength checks.
8. It has batlike wings of stretched skin for forelimbs, capable of slow, clumsy flight.
9. It has an additional pair of legs and climbs exceptionally well.
10. It can mimic voices with disturbing accuracy, capable of roughly guessing what words mean what, though it can't carry on a long or specific conversation without breaking down into glossolalia. 

 

A brutish breed of beast found in colder lands, bears are near the inverse of wolves. Solitary and direct, smashing through obstacles and pinning down prey, messily devouring them. They can contest drakes for territory and fight a man in armor on equal footing. In the days before primeval sin, they were some of the most feared Worldly things one could encounter. Their unreasoning, unstoppable brutality was a nightmarish force arrayed against the tribes of the time, and to this day many fear to speak their name. Unique among the three predatory families, they hibernate in the winter, and so humanity is spared their depredations during that most vulnerable time.

Traits of the local bear or bears: 

1. It has a segmented shell, AC as plate, tufts of hair emerging from the gaps.
2. It has an sagging pouch on its throat, which it uses to emit booming roars that can paralyze prey near it (save vs con or stunned for 1 round).
3. It has long, shaggy hair covered with local mosses and lichens, granting advantage on all checks to see it if it is hiding.
4. It has has a bony, oversized head it can use as a club or battering ram.
5. It has very loose, wrinkled skin, making it near impossible to grapple. It can always twist around to bite someone trying to get a hold on it.
6. It has a simian build, walking on its knuckles. It can't manipulate a door handle but it can grab, throw, climb, drag, and strangle.
7. It has a long, serpent-like prehensile tail, which it uses as a snare. Can regrow if cut off.
8. It can unhinge its elongated jaw and swallow a human whole, or simply bite with doubled damage.
9. It has shovel-like paws and can dig both burrows and pitfall traps, checking them periodically.
10.  It can survive for years, perhaps even decades, without eating if need be, resembling a mummified corpse, but if awakened by the scent of prey becomes a fearless, ravenous, incredibly fast horror. If prevented from eating for 1d4 hours after waking from such a state, it falls over and dies.

 

 

 

Not to be confused with their far more fabulous cousin, the tyger, panthers are great felines which are perhaps the most effective hunters of men. Where wolves must rely on cunning or numbers and the bear on clumsy brute strength, panthers possess seemingly intuitive knowledge pertaining to the swift dispatch of their prey, and boast forms often strong enough to do it by themselves, though some still do hunt in groups. They prefer warmer climes, but some dwell in the dark forests of the midlands and the mountains beyond.

Traits of the local panthers: 

1. It has exceptionally long teeth that can easily puncture the skull. Bite attacks on humanoids are treated as vorpal. Everyone knows this.
2. It hunts in packs (2d4), the dominant specimen having a majestic mane.
3. It can mimic human noises. Screams, sobs, cries, and understands what these noises mean. But not words.
4. It has long digits on its paws, with exceptionally long, scythe-like retractable claws. Doubled claw attack damage.
5. It has a complex pattern of stripes or spots that draw the eye and hypnotize prey. Unless it deliberately stays very still, those who look at it are unable to move without a difficult WIS check or use any reactions.
6. It has a powerful roar which stuns those who hear it and fail a standard CON check OR inflicts fear if they fail a standard WIS check, whichever is lower.
7. It has a tail-tip resembling a nest of thin, bony spines which can be flicked at prey, damage as shortbow, similar range.
8. It can fit anywhere it can get its head through.
9. Its fur can change color through subtle movements of its pelt. Advantage to stealth checks no matter the territory, save for very complex backgrounds (paintings, murals, moving wall of clockwork, etc).
10. It has a membrane of stretched skin running along its sides, connecting the front and rear legs. It can glide its movement distance but not ascend, and it needs a running start to move forward. It does not take fall damage unless this membrane is damaged.
 

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 And also, some generic traits you can stack or add to the pool:

1. It ate enough people to have distinctly human features. Humanoid hands and a mostly humanoid face. It can pass itself off as a chimera (a human merged with bestial parts) but its mind is that of a beast with better problem solving abilities (think octopus). In some primitive tribes of chimerae, such creatures are openly accepted in their ranks.
2. Spines like those of a porcupine grow haphazardly from its back. Melee attacks that miss deal 1d4 damage to the attacker unless they are clad in plate.
3. It has a barbed, venom-dripping tail-tip, the poison identical to local asps that it feeds on. If panther with the tail spike trait, the spikes are venomous.
4. It has exceptionally long, powerful limbs, granting it additional reach and movement speed.
5. It is gaunt and thin, requiring half as much food as others of its kind and halved HP. However, the size of its pack or swarm is doubled. If a bear, groups of 1d4+1. 
6. It is a giant of its kind, moving up a size class.
7. It can spend hours underwater and is a decent swimmer. Has bulging eyes, webbed digits.
8. It knows 1d4 lvl 1 spells, provided they are elemental, psychological, or physiological in nature (yes to buffs, charms, fireball, magic missile, no to conjuring demons or doing miracles or something like Knock. Usually.). They use the Physical Augmentation method detailed here, unless you rolled twice and get result 1 on the chart, at which point other Augmentations work.
9. They are artificial homunculi, the skin and bones slightly wrong and misshapen. Not actually animals, but carnotheurgic teratomas shaped into the fascimiles of beasts. Pelts and other parts have their value doubled. They don't behave logically as animals would. Disturbingly out of character, still very dangerous.
10. Large eyes, luminous. The creature is nocturnal if it wasn't before, and if it was its eyes are now bioluminescent, allowing it to see in pitch dark. 
11. It is deeply experienced with humans, normal traps and snares don't work.
12. Its saliva is an anticoagulant. Wounds need to be thoroughly rinsed with water to scab.
13. It is heavily diseased. If you can smell its foul vapors you are probably already infected.
14. It has a symbiotic relationship with (1. birds who lead it to prey 2. something bigger and meaner it scavenges from 3. a gang of brigands they hunt with 4. a pagan priest it considers to be a child or pack member).
15. It stalks and harasses prey for days before killing. Stealing supplies, hit and run attacks, just watching from a distance. Causes exhaustion if no solution is found.
16. Actually a versipel, a human skin-changer. Lives somewhere nearby. Can be reasoned with in human form, or exposed.
17. An unsustainable aberration. Roll on the chart 1-2 more times. Will deplete the hex it is in and cause economic troubles and famine unless slain.
18. Notorious rivalry with all draconids. Will attack them on sight or by scent. Including if you got some on you.
19. Has a shaggy pelt with tufts at the joints. Considered a noble and luck-bringing breed, often in heraldry. Double pay for bringing one in alive.
20. Escaped creatures from a (1. traveling show, advantage on acrobatics and agility 2. defeated foreign army, remarkably coordinated 3. ancient ruin, +1 to all stats 4. eccentric sorcerer, know one random spell, no restrictions). They are (1-3. armored as chain 4. have barrels of gunpowder strapped to them and no fear of fire 5. covered in some unpleasant toxin 6. possessed by spirits, fearless and hostile 7. are undead 8. Actually still quite trainable so long as you can find the command words).

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 I am a fan of adding weird traits to mundane animals, or playing around with typical expectations for a species. There are no "tigers" in this world. There might be something coincidentally like a tiger, but  only as one endpoint of a blurry morass of feline predators called "panthers". Really, species is too precise for a world where spontaneous generation is a thing. I think its more fun to determine a broad archetype and assign a randomized pool of potential traits to that archetype without the expectation of precisely mirroring real world organisms or distribution. Then, even mundane animals can become interesting and unexpected. Its a bit different from Goblinpunch's method for spicing up the mundane, but I hope this proves equally interesting.