Today is thanksgiving in the USA, so naturally someone asked about a Dire Turkey.

Peter Dell’Orto and I had ridiculous fun writing “Dire and Terrible Creatures” for GURPS, and it occurred to me that I could apply the same kind of thing to SRD5.1 pretty easily. So here’s a “switch” to apply to any kind of Dire Creature you want.

Dire Modifications

To make a conventional animal into a Dire one, up-gun them as follows:

• Size class increases by one (this will increase the HD type by one as well)
• Add +10′ to speed for all motive types listed for the base animal
• Add 3HD
• If there are any AC bonuses from armor, double them[1].
• Increase the creature’s stats:
  • +5 to STR, or enough STR to double the STR bonus, whichever is higher[2]
  • +3 to CON, or enough CON to double the CON bnus, whichever is higher
  • +1 to WIS or CHA, GM’s discretion

That should provide a fun challenge.

Notes

[1] Take the AC of the creature and subtract the DEX bonus. Anything left? That’s going to be the bonus from armor or tough hide. Double that. Going from Wolf (DEX +2, AC 13) to Dire Wolf (DEX +2) would double the +1 natural armor to +2, making the final AC 14.

[2] If the creature is DEX-based, which you will be able to tell because the attack bonus and damage types use the (usually higher) DEX bonus instead, don’t increase STR, boost DEX.