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2024-05-20, 09:08 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Oct 2010
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- Dallas, TX
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Need Ideas for Dealing with a PC Who is Raising a Dire Piglet
Yesterday my players had an encounter with Dire Boars, and after it was over, one Dire Piglet, about 5-6 feet long, came out of the bushes. Fiona, our Druid, decided to raise it.
Yes, she grew up on a farm, and has Animal Handling.
So how long does it take before it’s a Dire Boar, how much can you train a Dire Boar, and what trouble can it bring the party in the meantime?
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2024-05-20, 09:26 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Dec 2015
Re: Need Ideas for Dealing with a PC Who is Raising a Dire Piglet
Last edited by Bartmanhomer; 2024-05-20 at 09:27 PM.
It's time to get my Magikarp on!
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2024-05-20, 10:19 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- May 2009
- Location
- Perth, West Australia
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Re: Need Ideas for Dealing with a PC Who is Raising a Dire Piglet
Let's just start catgirl-killing arguments by extrapolating from nature, accepting the risk that somewhere amongst creating its incredibly tight and robust rule system WOTC probably threw a "Dire Animal age categories" table in there.
Wild Boars take about 1 year to mature to adult size.
Since Dire Boars are Animals and not Magical Beasts, probably the best guess is that they're basically oversized boars that accordingly have a massive caloric intake in order to go from 6 to 12 feet long and weigh up to 2,000 pounds or so in under 12 months. That implies a seriously big appetite which has to be satisfied daily. Piglets don't wean for 2-3 months, so the druid's got to find some way to synthesise or outright obtain dire boar milk for it to live at least a while. The caloric intake is significant: A 50 kg (110 lb) boar needs around 4,000–4,500 calories of food per day, though this required amount increases during winter and pregnancy, with the majority of its diet consisting of food items dug from the ground, like underground plant material and burrowing animals. Transposing that to a dire boar that's already 6 feet long at piglet size means you need one hell of a big source of nutrition per day for it to develop normally.
They burrow, they have to be socialized, they eventually will get adolescent and therefore harder to control, and they won't shut up, meaning stealth with a wild boar around is going to be a lot trickier. There's a few DM screwjobs available in there.Last edited by Saintheart; 2024-05-21 at 05:55 PM.
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2024-05-20, 10:26 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Oct 2014
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- Sub-Prime Material Plane
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Re: Need Ideas for Dealing with a PC Who is Raising a Dire Piglet
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2024-05-20, 11:05 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jun 2012
- Location
- UNKNOWN
Re: Need Ideas for Dealing with a PC Who is Raising a Dire Piglet
your monsterpig is hungry
your monsterpig has eaten a commoners food stand
your monsterpig has eaten a commoner
your monsterpig has attracted an angry peasant mob
your monsterpig has wrecked up the local tavern
your monsterpig has gotten in a fight with the wizards pet bird
your monsterpig has flattened a pig farmer and released all their pigsI am rel.
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2024-05-20, 11:28 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- May 2009
- Location
- Perth, West Australia
- Gender
Re: Need Ideas for Dealing with a PC Who is Raising a Dire Piglet
your monsterpig has eaten your tent
your monsterpig has eaten another PC's tent
your monsterpig has found truffles
your monsterpig cannot find truffles
your monsterpig thinks a bulette is its mother
your monsterpig has gone wandering into a dragon's den
your monsterpig has eaten a treasure
your monsterpig has been freed by fey animal liberationists
your monsterpig is thought to be the avatar of the local goblin tribe's god
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2024-05-21, 02:41 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Sep 2022
Re: Need Ideas for Dealing with a PC Who is Raising a Dire Piglet
Wilderness adventure: food is hard too come by, everyone is suffering, then the chaotic neutral party members suddenly realise the monsterpig is made of meat. Lots and lots of delicious, lean, tasty meat...
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2024-05-21, 07:58 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Oct 2015
- Location
- Paris
- Gender
Re: Need Ideas for Dealing with a PC Who is Raising a Dire Piglet
First, can I put this opening post into my signature, because the words "dire" and "piglet" set side by side are I think a world-class first time that deserves to be recorded .
Then, your player must be commended for her creativeness, and I think while throwing an obstacle or two to the party because of the dire piglet, you should take care not to have your player feel she is being punished by her act of heart. Let the dire piglet solve an issue or two at the same time it creates one or two new ones: it's so cute the baroness pressures her husband into giving the party that safe-conduct that they need. It befriends the riding dog of the evil halfling bandit chief during the next ambush and the leader is thrown off saddle. Etc.Last edited by remetagross; 2024-05-21 at 08:18 AM.
VC XV, The horsemen are drawing nearer: The Alien and the Omen (part 1 and part 2).
VC XVI, Burn baby burn:Nero
VC XVIII, This is Heresy! Torquemada
VC XX, Elder Evil: Henry Bowyer
And a repository of deliciously absurd sentences produced by maddened optimisers in my extended signature
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2024-05-21, 08:14 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Sep 2022
Re: Need Ideas for Dealing with a PC Who is Raising a Dire Piglet
First off, everything that Saintheart said is a good guideline here and can give you lots of ways to make play interesting.
I wanna add:
On the upside: boars are very intelligent, so teaching it tricks and sociable behaviour should be relatively easy, especially for a druid who can speak with it and stuff.
On the downside: boars are very intelligent, so it'll be getting out of your restraints and into trouble like you wouldn't believe.
As for the caloric intake: goodberry is your (druid's) friend, even though lil' piggy should still learn how to forage.
Boars are very social creatures, so it'll probably be good friends with your group soon. This doesn't mean that friendly bites couldn't cost your sorcerer a finger or something, but it will be a PLAYFUL maiming, not an angry one.
Mechanics wise, you could use a dire boar statblock with lower stats at maybe half a year and gradually have it gain the remaining attribute points until it is grown. Maybe even throw in an extra trick or two, if the druid makes a point of caring for and training with it the entire time.
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2024-05-21, 08:23 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- May 2006
- Location
- Wandering in Harrekh
- Gender
Re: Need Ideas for Dealing with a PC Who is Raising a Dire Piglet
You are one ridiculous bard away from re-enacting The Black Cauldron.
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2024-05-21, 08:29 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Apr 2019
Re: Need Ideas for Dealing with a PC Who is Raising a Dire Piglet
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2024-05-21, 09:59 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Feb 2008
- Location
- Israel
- Gender
Re: Need Ideas for Dealing with a PC Who is Raising a Dire Piglet
"That will do dire piglet, that will do."
Check my extended signature
Including:
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Campaign logs archive, Campaign planning log, Tactical mass combat Homebrew, A unique monsters compendium.
2. My campaign logs:
Three from a GM's POV, One from a player's POV. Very detailed, including design and GMing discussions.
3. Various roleplay and real life musings and anecdotes:
For those interested, from serious to funny!
Thanks for reading!
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2024-05-21, 05:07 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Oct 2010
- Location
- Dallas, TX
- Gender
Re: Need Ideas for Dealing with a PC Who is Raising a Dire Piglet
This stuff is gold. Thanks, everybody.
Fiona (the druid) has named the dire piglet. She said, “The Piglet’s full name is Ozzymandias, Pig of Pigs and Boar of Boars. But he’s going to have to grow into it, so Ozzy will do.”
I’ve decided that Ozzy is about 3½ months old, and already weaned. [Why? According to Wikipedia, the mating season for wild boars is November to January. The gestation period is 133-140 days. That puts birth around May 1. And it’s mid-August in the game.]
It will be close enough to full grown that the Dire Boar stats will apply at age ten months. [Male wild boars leave the sounder at age 8-15 months, based in part on how much food there is. They are wandering through forests; that’s great for an omnivore. So 6½ months from now it will (or will not) be properly trained.]
Fiona has Animal Handling +6 at present; she can’t guarantee the Animal Handling yet. I’ve told her that she has a wild animal until she can make the roll.
What would be a tool for rearing a boar that can be made masterwork for a +2 bonus on the roll? She’ll have to order a custom-made one, of course. Nobody’s currently making things to rear Dire Piglets with.
You have provided me with a lot of good ideas. She’s also going to have to protect it from most people they meet. They are in the middle of a civil war with a major food shortage, and a six-foot piglet is a lot of bacon.
Thanks for asking. Feel free. I can control who can use my words. Or I can post them to the Internet. I was never naive enough to believe I could do both at once.
Agreed. I have already commended her by telling the party, "Fiona was up at daylight, trying to rid the world of injustice. As a result, she now has a pig." [It's a quote. If you don't recognize it, don't worry about it.]
I've also told her, "In the meantime, he squeals a lot, runs around a lot, and tries to eat nearly everything. You may not be able to keep Ozzy from challenging creatures you meet, or investigating interesting sounds or smells. I won’t use him to kill the party, but I will sometimes use him to put you in difficult and threatening situations. Difficult and threatening situations are a DM’s stock in trade."
Oh, of course, This thread exists to crowd-source the Dire Piglet shenanigans
More than you know. The party wizard is a teen-aged enchantress. She's also half-Fair-Folk. But the bard is no Fflewdder, and we have no Gurgi.
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2024-05-21, 05:39 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Oct 2013
Re: Need Ideas for Dealing with a PC Who is Raising a Dire Piglet
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2024-05-21, 05:46 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jan 2019
Re: Need Ideas for Dealing with a PC Who is Raising a Dire Piglet
With a dire piglet will bring LOTS of dire poo. And Pig poo sticks to EVERYTHING.
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2024-05-21, 07:36 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Mar 2021
Re: Need Ideas for Dealing with a PC Who is Raising a Dire Piglet
This whole thing has me thinking of my aunt, whom I love dearly, who has what was supposed to be a miniature pig as a pet. She named him Rasher (as in "a rasher of bacon"), and fed him enough that he was not miniature. He preferred to go his own way, often moving furniture around (causing the old, blind dog bump into furniture that wasn't there before).
She finally stopped letting him roam around the inside of the house when some of his grapes rolled under the fridge, and the pig tipped said fridge on it's edge to get said grapes, and then walked off. Fortunately no fridges were toppled in this experience.
She also caught a ****-ton of flak from the town for having a pig instead of a "normal" pet. They brought all sorts of nuisance court/citation issues.
Also, my uncle (her oldest brother) was visiting, and made sure that when she came home the pig was locked in the closet while he was cooking a ham.
Not sure if any of that helps...
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2024-05-22, 06:54 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Dec 2008
Re: Need Ideas for Dealing with a PC Who is Raising a Dire Piglet
Possible problems I can see (i.e NPC interactions)
Hungry locals deciding to try to capture the boar for food - How do they keep the innocent villagers from eating Ozzy?
Small child charges at the boar to hug it, because it's cute. The boar thinks it's under attack. Child is not hurt seriously, but now the locals think he's dangerous.
Ozzy getting jealous of other animals the druid talks with.
Have you ever some animals in the summer? Now give it hair to keep stuff stuck to it.
Random encounters become more frequent. Either they are trying to drive out Ozzy, or trying to eat him.
Dragons and similiar see the group as 'Humanoids with a side order of bacon'
Local druids don't realize it's the group druids buddy, and use spells to make it attack the group and run off.
Local noble of rank thinks the boar is a-boar-able (be sure to include the pun), and demands Ozzy be handed over as a 'gift'.
Whenever near a farm with pigs or similiar, Ozzy 'falls in love', possibly smashing right through the fence to spend time with his new ladies.
Ozzy develops a liking for the smell and taste of alcohol. He doesn't care how he gets it either.
Drunks with jars? Knock them over and drink.
Bar that's open? Go in, knock over tables and chairs.
Cart full of kegs? Jump onto the driver, knock him off and ride off when the horses bolt.
Local monks brew it? Charge in like a demon and chase them out.
Ozzy, seeing the rest of the 'family' using weapons in combat, one day picks up an axe by the handle and charges into battle. Rumors start that the group is training 'combat boars', and people start demanding them for themselves. Druids start trying to free him.
For some reason, he chews up two swords to be notched and serrated, and starts carrying them around everywhere. He sounds like he's nuts whenever he tries to talk.
He develops strange habits, including trying to sleep in trees, under the tents while people are in them, and diving down every hole he can find that's big enough.
Ozzy starts stealing stuff in the market. Stuffed toys, cloth, small children....
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2024-05-22, 07:13 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jun 2016
- Location
- The forest of my dreams
- Gender
Re: Need Ideas for Dealing with a PC Who is Raising a Dire Piglet
Well if you want the player to have fun with the Dire Boar. Its going to have to mature in about 4 or 5 sessions .
every session you need to remind druid to feed her dire piglet . You could RP that it eats waaay more food than any normal animal and Players will need to set aside gold or time to gather enough food
You can set up a story adventure or encounter caused by the naughty piggy . DM can god mod pets a bit if players fail handle animal .
Might want to suggest the druid makes the dire boar her animal companion if she wants full control of it .
You might RP the village NPC,s might not be very happy having a dire boar .
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2024-05-22, 07:59 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- May 2009
- Location
- Perth, West Australia
- Gender
Re: Need Ideas for Dealing with a PC Who is Raising a Dire Piglet
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2024-05-22, 08:30 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- May 2018
- Location
- Morocco
Re: Need Ideas for Dealing with a PC Who is Raising a Dire Piglet
She won't be the first Druid to have done so, so somebody will have some institutional knowledge to tap into
Someone needs to write "That's some pig" in spidersilk however, maybe the drow, maybe an aranea
Possibly also needs to attract attention from a superstrong stone monument delivery guy, his tiny dog and diminutive sidekick, maybe also a no-talent bard and grunts of the local Evil Empire. Fortunately their druid can be helpful if approached.
Also not allowed to lead farm animals in revolt and then rule them as a more terrible Queen than the Farmer ever was
Should certainly not be contacted by members of the Local Organised Crime for assistance in disposing of dead bodies.
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2024-05-22, 09:22 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- May 2009
- Location
- Perth, West Australia
- Gender
Re: Need Ideas for Dealing with a PC Who is Raising a Dire Piglet
We may as well continue with the jokes and suggest the Druid encourages monsterpiglet to take a couple of ranks in Perform (Sing).
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2024-05-23, 12:57 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Feb 2016
Re: Need Ideas for Dealing with a PC Who is Raising a Dire Piglet
the dire piglet must be paired with a dire bear
Last edited by Bohandas; 2024-05-23 at 11:20 AM.
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2024-05-23, 01:57 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jan 2019
Re: Need Ideas for Dealing with a PC Who is Raising a Dire Piglet
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2024-05-23, 04:05 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Oct 2013
Re: Need Ideas for Dealing with a PC Who is Raising a Dire Piglet
and a dire owl and an emo donkey, plus kanga and roo
make them all awakened and you have an adveturing party
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2024-05-23, 05:16 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jul 2018
Re: Need Ideas for Dealing with a PC Who is Raising a Dire Piglet
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2024-05-24, 03:48 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Oct 2015
- Location
- Paris
- Gender
Re: Need Ideas for Dealing with a PC Who is Raising a Dire Piglet
I HATE dire manure.
VC XV, The horsemen are drawing nearer: The Alien and the Omen (part 1 and part 2).
VC XVI, Burn baby burn:Nero
VC XVIII, This is Heresy! Torquemada
VC XX, Elder Evil: Henry Bowyer
And a repository of deliciously absurd sentences produced by maddened optimisers in my extended signature
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2024-05-27, 08:21 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jun 2016
- Location
- The forest of my dreams
- Gender
Re: Need Ideas for Dealing with a PC Who is Raising a Dire Piglet
My one player wanted a rust monster pet .
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2024-05-27, 09:00 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Apr 2019
Re: Need Ideas for Dealing with a PC Who is Raising a Dire Piglet
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2024-05-27, 11:56 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- May 2018
- Location
- Morocco
Re: Need Ideas for Dealing with a PC Who is Raising a Dire Piglet
Or a pantheon
https://www.sjgames.com/gurps/books/madlands/
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2024-05-28, 12:36 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Oct 2014
- Location
- Tulips Cheese & Rock&Roll
- Gender
Re: Need Ideas for Dealing with a PC Who is Raising a Dire Piglet
A pint of milk with a squashed goodberry mixed in twice per day, building up to just 8 hoodberries as an adult?
It's not as strong and universably applicable a spell as it is in 5e, for one you need to find (or grow?) fresh berries for it to work. But that would still be my first thought as the druid player.
Just what I needed to plant these dire beans.Last edited by Lvl 2 Expert; 2024-05-28 at 12:38 AM.