Send In The Clowns… (or, Converting the Oddballs)

[Shade]

Probably not.

A monstrous scorpion has a +4 racial bonus on Climb, Hide, and Spot checks. Do we want to retain any of that? I'm guessing "no" for Climb and Hide, since they don't possess scorpionlike legs or coloration, but I could see the Spot bonus.

 

[freyar]

I'll agree with that: bonus to Spot but not Climb or Hide.

 

[Shade]

So...

Skills: Scorpion venom dogs have a +4 racial bonus on Jump and Spot. *Scorpion venom dogs have a +4 racial bonus on Survival checks when tracking by scent.

7 ranks: Listen 3, Spot 4?

 

[freyar]

Agreed!

 

[Cleon]

Well, I guess we should go in between here. How about 150 for an egg, 300 for a pup, and 200 to train?

That seems too cheap for a poison-attacking creature you can sic on your enemies.

I'd prefer something like 400 gp for an egg, 800 for a pup, 200 for training, and 1000 gp for a fully trained dog.

 

[Cleon]

So...

Skills: Scorpion venom dogs have a +4 racial bonus on Jump and Spot. *Scorpion venom dogs have a +4 racial bonus on Survival checks when tracking by scent.

7 ranks: Listen 3, Spot 4?

That and giving it Alertness, Improved Initiative, Track (B) all sounds good.

I wouldn't mind increasing the poison damage to 1d6/1d6 Con like the Viper Venom Dog, since the original has "save vs. poison or die".

 

[freyar]

That seems too cheap for a poison-attacking creature you can sic on your enemies.

I'd prefer something like 400 gp for an egg, 800 for a pup, 200 for training, and 1000 gp for a fully trained dog.

Raising the price is ok by me; estimation by CR is tricky.

That and giving it Alertness, Improved Initiative, Track (B) all sounds good.

I wouldn't mind increasing the poison damage to 1d6/1d6 Con like the Viper Venom Dog, since the original has "save vs. poison or die".

Agreed to those feats, too. I'll agree to the poison increase, and we should double check that the save DCs are a little harder than for the viper, since the original text said you save at +2 vs the viper venom dog poison but not the scorpion venom dog poison.

(Boy, that was a mouthful.)

 

[Cleon]

Raising the price is ok by me; estimation by CR is tricky.



Agreed to those feats, too. I'll agree to the poison increase, and we should double check that the save DCs are a little harder than for the viper, since the original text said you save at +2 vs the viper venom dog poison but not the scorpion venom dog poison.

At the moment the Scorpion Dog's venom DC is a point better due to its higher hit dice. If we want it higher we could tweak the Con a bit.

A Small Viper has Con 11, a Dog Con 15
A Medium Scorpion has Con 14, a Riding Dog Con 15

Averaging those would give a Viper Dog Con 13 and a Scorpion Dog Con 15 (well, Con 14.5 but who's counting).

Dropping the Viper Dog's Con to 13 would make its venom DC 2 lower than the Scorpion Dog.

How about it?

 

[freyar]

That's fine, or we can increase the scorpion dog's Con, as Huge scorpions have Con 16.

 

[Shade]

Sure, the increase in price for the viper dog's eggs, pups, and training makes sense. Updated.

I'd rather boost the scorpion dog's Con, or give it a racial bonus, rather than reducing the viper dog's Con.

Let's not change the poison. For starters, giant scorpions in past editions had "save or die" poison, and now no longer do so. And, more importantly, since the creature is clearly created by merging a monstrous scorpion and a dog, the additional venom potency doesn't really make sense.

Updated with the skills and feats, but left the above two bits open to debate.