Author Topic: Centipede stats  (Read 1282 times)

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Offline Fingolfin80

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Centipede stats
« on: November 02, 2020, 12:21:13 PM »
I'm running a campaign for which I made a custom spell list more or less based on Land Forms from channeling companion. One of the spells allows the caster to turn into a centipede (ordinary, not giant), but I can't see stats for this animal in any of the manuals in my collection. I'm using RMU, so I checked RMU Creature Law and my old RMFRP Creatures & Monsters, but I can't find them. Do you know any other manual where I could look?
If you had to build it from scracth, where would you start? Maybe poisonous spider could be a good base. Any ideas?

Offline markc

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Re: Centipede stats
« Reply #1 on: November 02, 2020, 01:04:23 PM »
Not all centipedes are poisonous and IMHO depending on the spell rank it would be a higher spell then a base centipede.


What is an ordinary centipede? Once you answer that IMHO you have a better idea on what stats to use.


Right off the top of my head I have nothing.


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Offline Ginger McMurray

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Re: Centipede stats
« Reply #2 on: November 02, 2020, 01:05:09 PM »
Spider seems like a good place to start. I'd give a big bonus to the save vs the poison. Centipede venom is weak and rarely causes harm to humans. Certainly nothing to warrant 4hp per round until death.
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Offline Ginger McMurray

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Re: Centipede stats
« Reply #3 on: November 02, 2020, 01:08:13 PM »
Not all centipedes are poisonous

All centipedes are venemous but almost never cause anything beyind lasting pain unless the person is allergic or otherwise vulnerable. I'd consider that an open-end low scenario.
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Offline markc

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Re: Centipede stats
« Reply #4 on: November 02, 2020, 01:54:06 PM »
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centipede


Above it says most centipedes are generally venomous and it has been a long time since my zoology class and I do not remember the big difference between millipedes and centipedes except that mili have more then one leg per segment.


Having said that IMHO spiders might move faster but both are carnivorous so both would have offensive abilities according to what their food source is.


I do know of some very venomous centi and mili pedes in South America as that was what was mainly talked about in class as well as some that were very large.


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Offline jdale

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Re: Centipede stats
« Reply #5 on: November 02, 2020, 02:51:04 PM »
Millipedes have two leg pairs per segment, and are harmless herbivores. Centipedes have one leg pair per segment, and are venomous predators.

"Ordinary" is pretty broad. That could be anything from a 1" bug that is more or less harmless to anything larger than other bugs, up to a 12" Scolopendra capable of killing birds, rodents, bats, frogs, etc. Although even in the latter case, you are looking at a venom that is mostly painful (possibly activity penalties) rather than lethal to humans.

What do you want it to be? Probably this is a tiny form useful mainly for stealth. The relevant stats in that case basically come down to movement rate and stalking bonus, maybe some notes about their perceptive abilities.
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Offline markc

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Re: Centipede stats
« Reply #6 on: November 02, 2020, 03:14:55 PM »
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millipede


It says most mili are not carnivorous as well as most centi have venom.


The most is very important, IMHO but your game world has rules of its own to follow. ie god of cent and mili pedes has decred that all of his/her/its children are preyed upon and thus need some type of advantage vs their predators. Thus they all get venom or secrete something unusual like the note says in the centi article about prussic acid.


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Offline Ginger McMurray

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Re: Centipede stats
« Reply #7 on: November 02, 2020, 04:31:43 PM »
Interesting. This link says they're all venemous.

https://www.healthline.com/health/centipede-bites
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Offline jdale

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Re: Centipede stats
« Reply #8 on: November 02, 2020, 05:05:41 PM »
Not all centipedes can bite through your skin. So not necessarily venomous to people.
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Offline markc

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Re: Centipede stats
« Reply #9 on: November 02, 2020, 08:13:22 PM »
I remember the mili question from college that milii can have 1 or 2 legs per segment (generally 2, rarely 1) as a free professor give you the answer on a test deal.


Looking further (but I do not have my old book) it says biting centi use venom in a couple of sites. I do not remember if that is one of the breakdowns of the animal or not, ie biting and maybe cutting classifications to determin which ones are venomous.


Also it has been a long time ago but I remember from class when talking about venomous they were talking about venomous to people and not other animals. That could have changed since the 90's as they are changing how they do stuff all the time.


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Offline markc

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Re: Centipede stats
« Reply #10 on: November 02, 2020, 08:43:57 PM »
Game Info:
Questions I would ask for the game:
1) What rank spell is it? Or is the whole list centipede based?
2) How potent is poison in your game?
3) Does the player have to develop special skills to use the form? How many DP are they likely to spend?
4) General power level of centi vs a PC of their class and level?
4a) What is the forms general weakness?
4b) What is the forms general strengths?
4c) How medium or small is the centi? Is this an advantage or disadvantage?
4d) Does damage get transferred between forms and if so how does it do so?


Why the above:
1) Poison in some RM games is powerful vs other game rules and how the system deals with poison is important.
2) Transfer of damage between forms can be an issue in some games, from past experience when I adapted White Wolfs Werewolf rules to RM and also instituted some other rules for shape changing.
3) Try and avoid having shape changing be just extra "hits" for a PC vs the "hits" they have as a "person"


If you have the RMSS Mentalism Comp they has some rules on shape changing in the Training Package and the associated spell list section. It might be repeated in the RM2 SUC.
In general (from memory) in RM shape changing (SC) can be very powerful and depending on the setting it can be even more so. If you are playing in Middle Earth for example SC is generally powerful as magic in general is very low level effects and SC is a high level effect (I would also include summoning creatures as a high level effect).


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Offline markc

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Re: Centipede stats
« Reply #11 on: November 02, 2020, 09:12:36 PM »
To the OP,
Have you asked this question before?


Why? I seem to remember this exact question from the past but after doing a search did not see the info listed.
I seem to remember almost this exact issue coming up before, ie Land Forms spell list and a creature that has special damage (ie poison) and turning it into a unique spell list for a specific form.




Areas I forgot:
1) Is the players Re affected? ie are they between the animals Re and the PC's Re? Or is their Re the same as an animal ?
2) Venom: can this only affect animals and not intelligent races? Or maybe the venom affects more int races as the spell list mastery increases.
3) Spell Mastery: In other versions of RM there is a skill called Spell Mastery, is this in your game and how does it interact with the list?


MDC
Bacon Law: A book so good all PC's need to be recreated.
Rule #0: A GM has the right to change any rule in a book to fit their game.
Role Play not Roll Play.
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Offline markc

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Re: Centipede stats
« Reply #12 on: November 02, 2020, 09:31:47 PM »
As to stats:
0) I might use a scorpion as a base and adjust from there.

1) How big is it? ie the size of a small dog? or what? Find a creature that seems to fit for movement.
2) AT: lower then a scorpion
3) Adjust DB for Qu and weak spots in segments.
4) Decide on poison/venom and how potent this is in the game.
5) Decide on Re of creature
6) Does this creature rule the world? This is a general analysis step I go through and see just how powerful my creation is and does it fit what I have intended.
7) Is this a a creature that you are going to scale with spell rank? If so does it still work or are the upper or lower ranks too powerful. ie just because it gets bigger in size does not mean that its poison/venom gets stronger necessarily. 


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Offline Fingolfin80

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Re: Centipede stats
« Reply #13 on: November 03, 2020, 02:30:05 AM »
Well, first of all thank you for the quick answers. You made very interesting points here, and there's a lot to consider.

To the OP,
Have you asked this question before?

No, I didn't. I came up with the list a couple of month ago, so it would be a very recent thread, but I would remember it.
Many of you asked what I intended for "ordinary": by that I mean a centipede that is samewhat akin to real life ones, nota a gigantic monstrous variation. However we are talking of a very low rank spell (lvl 2) and it is not intended to give a powerful combat form. It is mostly for sneaking and crawling, but the venomous attack is an interesting option in case of an encounter with small life forms (you don't want to meet a mouse in a hole between walls where you can't turn back to human without a way to scary it away). As per dimensions, I would say 10 - 15 cm.
That said, I would probably start with spider stats, giving it the abilities to climb and hide, and a venomous bite that in humans gives a small penalty due to pain.

Offline markc

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Re: Centipede stats
« Reply #14 on: November 03, 2020, 11:28:33 AM »
Why do you think being a centipede would be good for scouting?


I did a quick read of the Wikipedia article and they said the largest is about 30 cm so 10-15 cm might (might) be an average. But I am heavily guessing here.


MDC
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Offline markc

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Re: Centipede stats
« Reply #15 on: November 03, 2020, 01:48:54 PM »
I have a few minuets right now so I will give you the issues I see with scouting:
Note: I took a quick look at the RMSS Ch Comp last night but I think the list is also in the RM2 SUC.



1) You have to remove all of your equipment, if you do not it might crush you when you change.
2) Takes 9 rounds to change to form, as per rank 2 spell. Note I would also have it take 9 rounds to change back once spell ends or (see #3 below).
3) Spell is concentration and if your concentration is broken then IMHO it would start the change back to your normal form.
4) Senses: IMHO looking at the description of the centipede it would have the following senses; scent and tremor sense. Both would be fairly limited in range maybe 2 meters but could sense stronger smells and vibrations at greater distances.
ie from description they are blind, virtually def, cannot understand languages, etc 
4a) PC may have trouble interpreting what they sensed in centipede form after changing back into normal "Race" do to differences in perception. ie centipede might see a cloud of scent and that does not equate well to most player races perceptions.
4b) You could: Put a clairaudience and clairvoyance on the centipede and have the PC centipede under control of another PC as to go in specific directions. Both the clair spells would provide good info to the rest of the group.
5) The caster would want to get back to where their equipment is other wise you are a "Naked Spell Caster" and that is rarely a good thing in most games.


Interruptions commence so I have to go.
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Bacon Law: A book so good all PC's need to be recreated.
Rule #0: A GM has the right to change any rule in a book to fit their game.
Role Play not Roll Play.
Use a System to tell the story do not let the system play you.