Doomwolf intelligence

[Anonymous]

Ok, another rules q. (I am sure august must be sticking pins into a dolly figure of me while slowly roasting it over an open fire by now).

Tier V of the animal kinship kai discipline says a kai can order a monsterous aniumal/beast around, as long as it is intelligence 2 or lower. Then it goes on to state that a kai could order a doomwolf around.

Yet in the bestiary chapter, doomwolves have an intelligence of 6. WHere does the mistake lie? The kai desc, or the doomwolf intelligence score?

Also, burrowcrawlers have an intelligence of 1, does this mean a level 5 kai could effectively semi-control a 110hp burrowcrawler? Now I know it would be limitited, and I am fine if it is so, just want to make sure.

 

[Anonymous]

The mistake is not the intelligence of the doomwolf because its stats are exactly the same as the "Worg" in D&D Monster Handbook 3.5 Ed.
Intelligence score = 6.

 

[mthomason]

The problem appears to be in defining the boundary between animal and intelligent race. Some "intelligent" races have an INT as low as 6, while the Doomwolf's cunning boosts it's INT to 6... The INT score has been used to define when something is a monstrous animal as opposed to a monster, for purposes of using Animal Control with it, with an assumption that anything with INT 2 or lower is an animal.

Interestingly enough, an Ape only has an INT of 2.

If forced into a corner on this one, I'd probably call that the Doomwolf ought to be INT 2, if that's the definition of animal intelligence levels, despite evidence to the contrary that they ought to be more intelligent.

 

[Anonymous]

Yet what about the burrowcrawler, would you allow your kai players to be able to control it?

 

[mthomason]

Yet what about the burrowcrawler, would you allow your kai players to be able to control it?

I'd say yes, but be creative with it's interpretation of their instructions to make it ineffective if they tried to abuse the power

If it's a life-or-death situation, I'd let them use it. If it's a case of "I want a huge monster as my pet" I'd have it get hungry and eat a villager next time they wandered through a civilised area, have it not be able to tell one enemy from another, and otherwise screw with their intentions.

 

[Anonymous]

I just read in lone wolf flight from the dark that burrowcrawlers are immune to mindblast and animal kinship. (section 170. Well, that solves that. Thanks for your view though math.

Ona a side note, the version in the gamebook must be a weaker version/smaller version, for a lone level 5 kai(lone wolf) to be fighting it.

 

[mthomason]

I just read in lone wolf flight from the dark that burrowcrawlers are immune to mindblast and animal kinship. (section 170. Well, that solves that. Thanks for your view though math.

Ona a side note, the version in the gamebook must be a weaker version/smaller version, for a lone level 5 kai(lone wolf) to be fighting it.

Hmm, been a looooong time since I played that one

However, the book "knows" that LW won't have tier V in Animal Kinship (or at least is very unlikely to, unless it was the very first discipline he learned seeing as he's now L5). So just because it was immune to his Animal Kinship at that point in time, doesnt mean you have to let it be immune to someone with tier V and the ability to influence monstrous creatures.

 

[August]

1) One the voodoo dolly question, not at all. We all make mistakes; it happens.

2) The answer lies in the changes I needed to make to the Doomwolf but failed to remember before submitting the text. The Doomwolf should have an Intelligence 2, but it's really not a huge issue. Just allow the power to work on Doomwolves and run it as is...

3) Yes; as has been mentioned in numerous other threads, the monters from Lone Wolf are often scaleed up or down depending on the book and the iteration of its appearance. The burrowcrawler presented in the rulebook is NOT the beast little Lone Wolf fought in Flight From the Dark.

4) Yes, the doomwolf is exactly the same as the dire wolf in the SRD. This is intentional (though I did forget to drop the INT to provide for certain powers and disciplines), as I was trying to illustrate how easy it is to use d20 statistics from other sources to model parts of Magnamund.

Take care,
-August