Dinos! or "The Terrible Thunder Lizards"

[AslanCross]

Dinosaurs make everything better.

Brace for nerdgasms:

Spoiler

Show

OMG DINO RIDERS!

I used to be so frustrated with that show when I was a kid, because I never seemed to catch it on Saturday mornings. I had a few of those toys as well.

Anyway, I had a campaign (that died just recently) that involved a Zhentarim invasion of Cormyr (Forgotten Realms). The siege of the capital city was supposed to include several Fiendish Battletitans (Genetically-Modified Magical Beast T-Rex) charging the hapless defenders. The Battletitan (Monster Manual 3) is probably the closest you get to Dino Riders in D&D.

Okay, put some Shifter or Kobold artificers with wands of fireball on it and you're done.

[Heliomance]

It happened to us. Level 2, I think.

"Okay, everyone make spot checks. Who got above 20?"
A couple of hands go up.
"You see some squirrels in a nearby tree. They're dancing."
Naturally, this sets of our adventurer paranoia, and we're just plotting to kill the squirrels, when
"Everyone else sees the T Rex charging towards you."

[JadedDM]

Ah, what a coincidence. I'm using dinosaurs right now in my 2E game. The party (all halflings, levels 2-3) encountered a T. Rex the other night. They (wisely) hid until it passed by, but I'm pretty sure I scared the pee out of most of them.

My players have, in previous campaigns, faced dragons, beholders, mind-flayers, and demons...but for some reason, the idea of a mundane T. Rex sent them into a blind panic.

[OldSchoolGamer7]

I think the attraction to dinosaurs goes back to our childhood. I know that I was obsessed when I was five or six with them, even correcting my teacher in kindergarten as to the enunciation of some of their names. I still have the enduring image of a Triceratops charging a hungry Rex in defense of it's own life burned into my own brain as well as the idea of having a hunter-themed Druid with a Deinonychus/Fleshraker at my side.

As far as the challenge factor, they may be a little weak, but, used intelligently, I have no doubt that everyone will have a good time running from them, killing them, and parading around that dagger made from a T. Rex tooth. I know I'd enjoy it.

[Foeofthelance]

Heh, once played a kobold archmage hierophant or somesuch (somewhat of a gestalt wizard/druid from Races of the Wild) with a deinychous familiar/animal companion/mount named Atta. Unsurprsingly, I don't remember what the kobold's name was...

Atta had been given a maximized jump check, which meant that even if she couldn't fly she could come pretty close, which generally meant doom for her enemies. Though she did have a bad habit of forgetting the rather squishy lizard man on her back...

[Callos_DeTerran]

Dragons are just cooler than dinos.

-JM

Who ever says this has never had the awesome picture of being in battle with a juvenile black dragon who's about to deal the death blow to the party when a T-Rex who had snuck close under the sound of battle burst from the swampy jungle foliage and tackle the dragon to the ground with it's jaws locked around the screaming dragon's neck.

An epic battle ensued though we wisely fled once the T-rex won and came looking for seconds.

[Ovaltine Patrol]

My players once did battle with a clan of inbred, bayou-dwelling dinosaur riders, including an ogre mounted on a triceratops.

[Kaiyanwang]

There are places in my campaigns with dinosaurs. Are like Lustria in Warhammer Fantasy.

Once, my players encountered a BIIIIIIG group of triceratops nervous near to a stampede in a tight zone. With dead magic.

The girl with the druid PC was actually swearing in real during the wild empathy check.

Such an interpretation performance.

[poxjedi]

hehe.... *watches raptor island again*

(what? I have it on tivo.)