Dire Animal

Dire animals are larger, tougher, meaner versions of ordinary animals. They tend to have a feral, prehistoric, or even demonic appearance.

The frostfell is home to a number of dire animals that are unrelated to the mundane animal species found in other parts of the world. For example, the smilodon (or saber-toothed tiger) is not a tiger or a dire tiger. However, it is presented here because it is thematically similar to the various dire animals in the Monster Manual. Like other dire animals, it is more resistant to enchantments and other magic that influences its mind or attitude, and thus has a good Will save. It is also more savage, more ill-tempered, stronger, and less fearful of humans and other humanoids than a normal animal.

Dire Polar Bear

This tremendous white bear is the size of a small house. Its claws seem like black swords, and its forequarters are armored with bony ridges.

These bulky carnivores are much bigger than a dire bear, averaging almost 20 feet in length and weighing as much as 15,000 pounds. Dire polar bears are aggressive hunters that stalk explorers and travelers, looking for a chance to attack.

Combat

A dire polar bear attacks by tearing at opponents with its claws.

Improved Grab (Ex): To use this ability, a dire polar bear must hit with a claw attack. It can then attempt to start a grapple as a free action without provoking attacks of opportunity.

Scent (Ex): A dire polar bear can detect opponents within 30 feet. The exact location is not revealed unless the creature is within 5 feet. See Scent.

Skills: A dire polar bear has a +8 racial bonus on any Swim check to perform some special action or avoid a hazard. It can always choose to take 10 on a Swim check, even if distracted or endangered. It can use the run action while swimming, provided it swims in a straight line. A dire polar bear’s white coat bestows a +12 racial bonus on Hide checks in snowy areas.

Source: Frostburn , page 115.

Glyptodon

This odd creature is the size of a draft horse, but its body is low to the ground and covered by a thick armor of leathery bands. A tail ending in a heavy spiked club of bone trails behind its dome-shaped body.

Glyptodon (literally, “carved tooth”) is an enormous armadillo like creature⁠—​if an armadillo were the size of a small wagon. It has a short snout and powerful jaws, with no teeth in the front of the mouth, but grinding teeth farther back in the mouth. While it is a plant-eater, its armor plating and heavy knobbed tail makes it very capable of defending itself against smaller predators and even of chasing off other grazers. Glyptodons are especially hostile to horses, musk oxen, and other arctic and subarctic herbivores that compete with them for the rich summer grasses.

Glyptodons are often prey for sabertoothed tigers, dire lions, and other deadly hunters such as dragons and humans.

A fully grown glyptodon is about 10 feet long and 5 feet tall, and weighs about 3,000 to 4,500 pounds.

Combat

A glyptodon found by itself is common, but the creatures also fight in small groups, circling around the young to create a wall of armored flesh. If provoked, a glyptodon typically begins a combat by attempting to trample its foe.

Augmented Critical (Ex): A glyptodon deals triple damage if it scores a critical hit with its tail attack.

Trample (Ex): As a full-round action, a glyptodon can move up to twice its speed and literally run over Medium or smaller creatures. This attack deals 1d6+7 points of damage. Trampled opponents can make attacks of opportunity against the glyptodon at a –⁠4 penalty. If they do not make attacks of opportunity, trampled opponents can attempt a DC 20 Reflex save for half damage. The save DC is Strength-based.

Training a Glyptodon

Small and Medium humanoids such as neanderthals, goblinoids, and orcs sometimes use glyptodons as mounts or pack animals. They are particularly useful as archery platforms on a battlefield, as their gait is slow and steady.

Training a glyptodon requires six weeks of work and a successful DC 25 Handle Animal check. Riding a glyptodon requires an exotic saddle that includes a prod that a glyptodon can feel through its armor. A glyptodon can fight while carrying a rider, but the rider cannot also attack unless he or she succeeds on a Ride check.

Carrying Capacity: A light load for a glyptodon is up to 400 pounds; a medium load, 401–800 pounds; and a heavy load, 801–1,200 pounds. A glyptodon can drag 6,000 pounds.

Source: Frostburn, page 116.

Megaloceros

This large elklike creature has shaggy fur and a huge set of antlers easily ten feet across.

The megaloceros is a large, powerful deer, standing up to 7 feet tall at the shoulder with 100-pound antlers spanning 12 feet. It favors lakes and bogs, and can be trained to serve as a mount. The creatures’ enormous antlered skulls are popular decorations for castles and hunting lodges. These beasts also serve as powerful totem animals for neanderthals and snow goblins, who call the animals “Great Snow Elk.”

Combat

Megaloceroses prefer to avoid combat, except during mating season, when males are extremely aggressive and territorial, and during the spring calving season, when female megaloceroses are extremely aggressive in defense of their young.

Megaloceroses typically charge the most obvious or brightly colored target, attempting to gore and toss it, then return to trample and finish it. When an entire herd is threatened, the young males sometimes charge two and three together against a threat.

Improved Grab (Ex): To use this ability, the creature must hit a Medium or smaller opponent with its gore attack. If it gets a hold, the megaloceros scoops up the opponent with its antlers and can toss it aside.

Stampede (Ex): A frightened herd of megaloceroses may flee as a group in a random direction (but always away from the perceived source of danger). They literally run over anything of Large or smaller size that gets in their way, dealing 1d12 points of damage for each five megaloceroses in the herd (DC 18 Reflex save half).

Toss (Ex): A megaloceros can vigorously shake any creature caught in its horns and fling it in a random direction. Resolve the toss as a bull rush maneuver (+9 check modifier), except that there is no attack of opportunity, since the megaloceros has already grabbed its foe when it tries to toss the victim. The megaloceros does not need to move with its foe in order to throw its foe more than 5 feet. If the tossed victim beats the megaloceros’s Strength check, he remains in his current square with no ill effects and is not grappled any longer. Tossed victims take impact damage on landing as if they had fallen a distance equal to the distance they were tossed.

Scent (Ex): A megaloceros can detect opponents within 30 feet. The exact location is not revealed unless the creature is within 5 feet. See Scent.

Training a Megaloceros

Small and Medium humanoids such as neanderthals, snow elves, human druids, and gnomes sometimes use megaloceroses as mounts; Midgard dwarves use them as pack animals. Their speed and height are particularly useful for scouts and reconnaissance of all kinds. Their gait is fast, jarring, and prone to sudden shifts in direction.

Training a megaloceros requires four weeks and a successful DC 20 Handle Animal check. Riding a megaloceros requires an exotic saddle. A megaloceros can fight while carrying a rider, but the rider cannot also attack unless he or she succeeds on a Ride check.

Carrying Capacity: A light load for a megaloceros is up to 400 pounds; a medium load, 401–800 pounds; and a heavy load, 801–1,200 pounds. A megaloceros can drag 6,000 pounds.

Source: Frostburn, page 117.

Smilodon (Saber-Toothed Tiger)

This powerful great cat has heavy shoulders, a bobtail, and two huge, curved fangs jutting from its mouth.

Twice as large as a lion, skilled in deadly hunting tactics, and equipped with murderous fangs, the smilodon (or saber-toothed tiger) is the lord of icy plains and hills. The saber-toothed tiger is not actually closely related to other tigers. A smilodon is more than 8 feet long and weighs more than 800 pounds.

The pride is ruled by the female saber-tooths, though sometimes two or even three males are tolerated. The creatures’ favored prey are herbivores such as branta, mammoths, glyptodons, horses, and megaloceroses. Although they work together, fights over dominance, food, territory and mates are common, and sometimes even lethal. A saber-toothed tiger’s roar is louder than a lion’s.

Weaker saber-tooths are often driven out of the pride in pairs, after which they set up hunting territories in forests or hills. They use caves or small earthen dens for bearing litters and rearing their young.

Combat

The saber-toothed tiger is a canny hunter, rarely greedy but with a large enough appetite to require frequent kills. Sabertoothed tigers do not chase down prey over long distances. Instead, they leap or charge from ambush, waiting for prey to come close before attacking.

Groups of saber-toothed tigers work together much like lions and other social hunting cats; one group will startle prey, sending it running directly into a second group of tigers. They sometimes ignore motionless prey.

Augmented Critical (Ex): A saber-toothed tiger deals triple damage if it scores a critical hit with its bite attack.

Improved Grab (Ex): To use this ability, the sabertoothed tiger must hit with a bite or a claw attack. It can then attempt to start a grapple as a free action without provoking attacks of opportunity. If it wins the grapple check, it establishes a hold and can rake.

Pounce (Ex): If a saber-toothed tiger charges a foe, it can make a full attack, including two rake attacks.

Rake (Ex): A saber-toothed tiger gains two additional claw attacks against grappled foes or foes it pounces on (attack bonus +10, damage 1d6+3). Rake attacks are not subject to the normal –⁠4 penalty for attacking with a natural weapon in a grapple.

Scent (Ex): A saber-toothed tiger can detect opponents within 30 feet. The exact location is not revealed unless the creature is within 5 feet. See Scent.

Skills: Saber-toothed tigers gain a +4 racial bonus on Balance, Hide, and Move Silently checks. In forest terrain, their Hide bonus improves to +8.

Source: Frostfell, page 118.

Woolly Mammoth

Covered in brown, shaggy fur, this elephantlike creature has two huge, curving tusks and towers almost fifteen feet tall.

Woolly mammoths are members of a family of many elephantlike species; all are enormous, furred animals with surprising intelligence, large tusks, and a love of cold climates. The largest woolly mammoths live on the open steppes, where their sheer size protects them from most predators. The only exceptions are intelligent humanoids, such as humans, neanderthals, and orcs—and even these are often reluctant to face down a woolly mammoth directly.

The woolly mammoth has a shoulder height of about 15 feet, weighs between 9 and 11 tons, and has tusks roughly 15 feet long. It lives in large family groups on open steppe.

All woolly mammoth herds are led by the eldest female woolly mammoth, her sisters, and her daughters. Male woolly mammoths are the fighters but not the dominant animals in woolly mammoth herds.

Woolly mammoths often venerate the bones of their dead, and after any combat they return to the site of a herd member’s death.

In some cases, the woolly mammoths handle the bones of the dead years after the death of a mate, sibling, or child. Frost folk and others believe that this is how woolly mammoths communicate with the dead, and that woolly mammoth spirits and totems have great power in the land of the dead.

Combat

Woolly mammoths are usually aggressive only when stalked or threatened or when they fear for the safety of their young. Like elephants, woolly mammoths have long memories, and will take revenge on creatures that harmed them in the past. Woolly mammoths prefer to fight as a herd rather than individually, though the lead bull in a herd (usually a male with advanced Hit Dice) will often fight alone to defend the females and young.

Improved Grab (Ex): To use this ability, a woolly mammoth must hit a Large or smaller foe with a gore attack. If it gets a hold, it tosses its opponent.

Toss (Ex): Woolly mammoths vigorously shake any creature caught in their tusks and fling it in a random direction. Resolve the toss as a bull rush maneuver (+20 check modifier), except that there is no attack of opportunity, since the woolly mammoth has already grabbed its foe when it tries to toss the victim. The woolly mammoth does not need to move with its foe in order to throw its foe more than 5 feet. If the tossed victim beats the woolly mammoth’s bull rush check, he remains in his current square with no ill effects and is not grappled any longer. Tossed victims take impact damage on landing as if they had fallen a distance equal to the distance they were tossed.

Trample (Ex): As a full-round action, a woolly mammoth can move up to twice its speed and literally run over Large or smaller creatures. This attack deals 2d8+18 points of damage. Trampled opponents can make attacks of opportunity against the woolly mammoth at a –⁠4 penalty. If they do not make attacks of opportunity, trampled opponents can attempt DC 29 Reflex saves for half damage. The save DC is Strength-based.

Scent (Ex): A woolly mammoth can detect opponents within 30 feet. The exact location is not revealed unless the creature is within 5 feet. See Scent.

Training a Woolly Mammoth

Giants and humanoids such as frost folk, humans, and ogres sometimes use woolly mammoths as mounts or pack animals. Training a woolly mammoth must begin with a young animal; adults rarely cooperate and will starve themselves rather than submit to training. Training a young woolly mammoth requires six weeks and a successful DC 25 Handle Animal check. Riding a woolly mammoth requires an exotic saddle or howdah, which includes a prod that the animal can feel through its fur and its thick hide. A woolly mammoth can fight while carrying a rider, but the rider cannot also attack except with a lance or a missile weapon.

Carrying Capacity: A light load for a woolly mammoth is up to 5,592 pounds; a medium load, 5,593–11,184 pounds; and a heavy load, 11,185–16,776 pounds. A woolly mammoth can drag 40 tons.

Source: Frostburn, page 119.

Zeuglodon

The creature is massive, longer than most ships. Its sleek, serpentine body glistens black, yet its tail and head are undoubtedly whalelike in appearance…with the possible exception of those large sharp teeth.

Zeuglodons are massive, almost serpentlike whales that lurk in the coldest oceans. They are a uniform dark gray or black in color. Their heads are long and narrow, with numerous serrated teeth in the jaws. Unlike most other whales, their bodies are quite thin and almost serpentine in shape. They possess two pairs of flippers; the front pair is large and well developed, but the back pair is atrophied nearly to the point of uselessness. A little more than half of a zeuglodon’s body is taken up by its long and powerful tail.

The massive flukes of a zeuglodon’s tail can smash even the hardiest ship to splinters in a short time. Zeuglodons up to 75 feet long have been sighted by reputable sailors, but stories abound of massive zeuglodons measuring well over 120 feet in length. It’s likely that most people unfortunate enough to encounter such a creature didn’t survive to tell the tale.

Combat

Sailors rightly fear these mighty creatures, for unlike most other whales, zeuglodons are foul-tempered and highly territorial. They are quick to attack anything that intrudes too closely to their territory, and ships avoid waters known to be inhabited by zeuglodons. Although its jaws are filled with massive sharp teeth, a zeuglodon’s most dangerous weapon is its tail. These creatures are surprisingly swift and adroit in water, and can slam enemies with their tail with devastating accuracy.

Stunning Strike (Ex): Any creature struck with a critical hit by a zeuglodon’s tail slam must make a DC 31 Fortitude saving throw or be stunned for 2d4 rounds by the force of the blow. The save DC is Strength-based.

Blindsight (Ex): Zeuglodons can “see” by emitting high-frequency sounds, inaudible to most other creatures, that allow them to locate objects and creatures within 120 feet. A silence spell negates this and forces the creature to rely on its vision, which is approximately as good as a human’s. See Blindsight.

Hold Breath (Ex): A zeuglodon can hold its breath for a number of rounds equal to 8 × its Constitution score before it risks drowning.

Skills: A zeuglodon has a +8 racial bonus on any Swim check to perform some special action or avoid a hazard. It can always choose to take 10 on a Swim check, even if distracted or endangered. It can use the run action while swimming, provided it swims in a straight line.

A zeuglodon has a +4 racial bonus on Spot and Listen checks. These bonuses are lost if its blindsight is negated.

Source: Frostburn, page 120.