Interesting page for animal powers

[Doc Samson]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Most_Extreme

 

Hmm...this could be a job for Beetle Man! (a beetle was #1 for both strength and speed).

[Spidey88]

Re: Interesting page for animal powers

 

I hope the show got the facts better than that wikipedia page - man, there were a lot of little errors! Don't even get me started.

 

Still, some neat factoids accumulated there for ease of reference, but if you do plan on using them:

 

be sure you do a little research to back up what is posted there. For example:

 

baby octopuses do not eat their mothers (and though they're very smart, they don't need to learn how to generally survive - they've got plenty of instincts),

 

male black widow spiders are not always eaten by the females,

 

many biologists are pretty sure mako sharks can swim a lot faster than 30 mph (probably more like 50),

 

etc.

 

 

Anyway, I'm sorry to sound so critical, DocSamson: it's a good post and a good find - just take the facts with a grain of salt!

[Drhoz]

Re: Interesting page for animal powers

 

*agrees with Spidey*

 

oh, so many painful inaccuracies!

 

 

altho it does remind me that I haven't written up Odontomachus-man yet.

[Spidey88]

Re: Interesting page for animal powers

 

Hah! You mean I'm not the only one who thought about that? Cool!

 

 

+ 6d6 HA, linked with

 

+ 15" leaping, gestures (must touch jaws to ground), uncontrolled sounds about right.

 

link to entomological fun:

 

http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2006/08/21_ant.shtml

[Narratio]

Re: Interesting page for animal powers

 

Can you imagine the origin story? Mild mannered Peter Barker was bitten by a radioactive Odontomachus. Now, with the proportional strength, reflexes and senses of an Odontomachus, he wages a ceaseless war against crime and injustice!

 

Yep, that's got to go down well.

 

But it would lead us to Nematode Man and then the world get very silly indeed.

[Spidey88]

Re: Interesting page for animal powers

 

Odontomachus-Man's superleaps would look mighty hilarious, that's for sure.

 

Looks like he's going to bite the sidewalk, then POW! Explodes off in a fairly random direction, tumbling end over end (probably yelling at the top of his lungs at the same time). Breakfall and Acrobatics rolls in the 20's (or lots of rPD vs. falling damage) would be necessary to keep him alive, methinks...

 

Nematode Man? Maybe a duplicating shrinker who could eat away at your tissues from the inside (not even remotely silly), a being composed entirely of nematodes (like Swarm) making him rather disturbing to look at and almost entirely indestructible, or maybe he could mentally control vast armies of nematodes (they are everywhere, after all). Still, it'd likely be a very slow, ineffective army without some serious buffs:

 

"Oh no! Over the course of the last few minutes, thousands and thousands of teeny, tiny worms have collected on the surface of the soil!"

 

"Are they doing anything?"

 

"Not really. It's kind of slippery, though - and a little gross close-up."

[BoneDaddy]

Re: Interesting page for animal powers

 

If you should happen to run in to pistol shrimp man, back away.

[TheQuestionMan]

Re: Interesting page for animal powers

 

Animorphs

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animorphs#Animorphs

 

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teenage_Mutant_Ninja_Turtles_&_Other_Strangeness

 

List of Anthropomorphic Superheroes

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthropomorphic_Superheroes

 

 

Always good

 

 

QM

[Narratio]

Re: Interesting page for animal powers

 

See, this is why all the animal powers revolve around the big boys. Rhino, Tiger, Gorilla, Spiders and Wasps etc. There's not much point in being bitten by a radioactive stick insect, now is there?

[Vestnik]

Re: Interesting page for animal powers

 

See' date=' this is why all the animal powers revolve around the big boys. Rhino, Tiger, Gorilla, Spiders and Wasps etc. There's not much point in being bitten by a radioactive stick insect, now is there?[/quote']

 

I always liked the idea of Tapeworm Man. His main drawback is that to use his powers he has to find a host.

[Logan D. Hurricanes]

Re: Interesting page for animal powers

 

I always liked the idea of Tapeworm Man. His main drawback is that to use his powers he has to find a host.

That's a perfectly good villain concept.

[Narratio]

Re: Interesting page for animal powers

 

Yes, but first he had to be bitten by a radioactive tapeworm. Or swallow bits of one, and they don't turn up every day you know. Some animals are just intended to ever be part of a hero or villains origin story. Among these are stick insects, hamsters and Gnu (smoking or non-smoking)

 

Then there's overlaps. I mean, "Crocodile Man" meets "The Aligator" in a fight for reptilian supremacy? It's almost as bad as all the cat and spider based characters. Gets hard to tell them apart without a score card.

[Vestnik]

Re: Interesting page for animal powers

 

Sure it'll work. Tapeworm Man was an employee at a nuclear power plant. One day, there was a freak accident and he was exposed to radiation -- too little to affect him, but enough to spark strange changes in the tapeworm parasite residing in his bowels. Which then bit him. Voila! And Tapeworm Man was born.

[Narratio]

Re: Interesting page for animal powers

 

So he becomes a super parasite who has a super parasite inside him? That's bizarre enough to be in next years Marvel 'Who's Who'.

 

But there are still animals destined to never have thier own super hero/villain. The humble clam or oyster, the Three Toed Sloth or the garden snail.

[Dr Archeville]

Re: Interesting page for animal powers

 

I'm still waiting to see Sea Cucumber Man (Entangle [everted intestines] with Side-Effect of Drain on CON and/or BODY [due to having shot out parts of your intestines]?).

[Doc Samson]

Re: Interesting page for animal powers

 

So he becomes a super parasite who has a super parasite inside him? That's bizarre enough to be in next years Marvel 'Who's Who'.

 

But there are still animals destined to never have thier own super hero/villain. The humble clam or oyster, the Three Toed Sloth or the garden snail.

 

Never say never my good man.

http://www.marvunapp.com/Appendix2/slothgatherers.htm

[Vestnik]

Re: Interesting page for animal powers

 

He was in the Avengers? Awesome!

 

EDIT: No I see he wasn't. He should have been though.

[Drhoz]

Re: Interesting page for animal powers

 

Bone-Eating Snotflower Man would be interesting. Or rather, Bone Eating Snotflower Woman, since Osedax males are 50 to a 100 tiny tiny things that live inside her.

 

Or possibly Zombie Snotflower Girl, since that's another common name for this genus of deepsea, bone-sucking worms.

 

Lets see... Life Support : High Pressure, Cold, No Air... Minor Transform : Absorbs fat thru her feet.

[Drhoz]

Re: Interesting page for animal powers

 

Odontomachus Man

+ 6d6 HA' date='[/u'] linked with

 

+ 15" leaping, gestures (must touch jaws to ground), uncontrolled sounds about right.

 

http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2006/08/21_ant.shtml

 

 

Don't forget the double-knockback on the HA, with side effect of knocking Odontomachus-Man backwards as well. Plus exoskeletal armour, clinging, and 360-degree vision

 

possibly a limited telepathy to indicate pheremone communication?

[Spidey88]

Re: Interesting page for animal powers

 

Good call on the double KB! And naturally, he'd have clinging, exoskeletal armour, etc. like you say (I am an entomologist, after all;))

 

Maybe tracking for the scent group, usable by others, must pass through intervening space (or something like that) to represent laying down scent trails for other folks with disc. scent?

 

Do you think you'd have to limit the pheromone telepathy to other ant-beings? Or would it work for anyone, or perhaps teammates who spent a couple points in LS: pheromone communication?

 

A bit of a tangent (or tang-ant):

I made a villain character a while back called Bivouac (named after a grouping of army ants): he was essentially a humanoid ant with low-level super strength, an exoskeleton, nasty mandibles, etc. On his own, nothing to sneeze at, but not overly powerful - any starting superhero could probably take him out. Thing was, he had shrinking coupled with duplication - he could essentially split himself up into hundreds of mindlinked 3-inch-tall ant-men. And, at that size, not only did he retain his STR of 30 and moderate defenses, but the edge of his mandibles were effectively much sharper (and penetrating as a result). He could only create 8 duplicates at a time, but with the right setup, he could have tons already prepared...

 

Sure: a half-dozen little ant-men aren't very intimidating. You fly up to get some distance, and half of them throw their counterparts at you (STR 30 + less wieght than a baseball = distance). You try and brush them off, and find them very sticky (30 STR + Clinging) - and OUCH! Those little buggers can bite! Then a few dozen more start streaming out from that sewer grate...

 

His Achilles heel? Area attacks that do Knockback. He took an extra 18" from every hit at micro-size!

[Drhoz]

Re: Interesting page for animal powers

 

Good call on the double KB! And naturally, he'd have clinging, exoskeletal armour, etc. like you say (I am an entomologist, after all;))

 

Maybe tracking for the scent group, usable by others, must pass through intervening space (or something like that) to represent laying down scent trails for other folks with disc. scent?

 

works for me

 

Do you think you'd have to limit the pheromone telepathy to other ant-beings? Or would it work for anyone' date=' or perhaps teammates who spent a couple points in LS: pheromone communication?[/quote']

 

yes, it would have to have some pretty strong limitations, and very limited range of signals, too.

 

I made a villain character a while back called Bivouac (named after a grouping of army ants): he was essentially a humanoid ant with low-level super strength' date=' an exoskeleton, nasty mandibles, etc. On his own, nothing to sneeze at, but not overly powerful - any starting superhero could probably take him out. Thing was, he had shrinking coupled with duplication - he could essentially split himself up into hundreds of mindlinked 3-inch-tall ant-men. And, at that size, not only did he retain his STR of 30 and moderate defenses, but the edge of his mandibles were effectively much sharper (and penetrating as a result). He could only create 8 duplicates at a time, but with the right setup, he could have [u']tons[/u] already prepared...

 

heehee - nice!

[The Main Man]

Re: Interesting page for animal powers

 

So a smilodon was 32 times the size of a leopard? Wow. Just wow.

[Spidey88]

Re: Interesting page for animal powers

 

yes, it would have to have some pretty strong limitations, and very limited range of signals, too.

 

 

Yeah - I was thinking more from a gaming perspective. Realistically, it would be almost useless to anyone who wasn't gifted with the same abilities as Odontomachus-Man, but you might be able to make an argument that anyone with a good enough sense of smell might be able to figure out the gist of it (maybe even everyone, if he's pungent enough).

 

You could think of it like D&D's Saurials: they emit various smells based on their emotional states. Enough time spent in the company of one, and you might be able to figure out the smell code for fear, triumph, hungry, etc.

 

 

 

Glad you seem to like Bivouac, by the way - he was fun to play against the PCs! His team, the Swarm (led by a beefed-up Hornet) has some history with my GMNPC, and launched an ambush against our plucky heroes.

 

Everyone was pretty sure the guy flying around at high speed firing venomous organic darts with deadly accuracy was Bad News; and the 8', four-armed beetle-man who punched the team brick through several feet of concrete, knocking him out? He got taken mighty seriously. Super-fast insectoid martial artist? Taken out on phase 3 with a lucky hit from a thrown vending machine, from a nervous brick. Termite-man who could use tunnelling to drag foes through several meters of rubble, trapping them underground? Taken out after a few phases by a very frustrated martial artist/TK specialist. A few little ant-guys? Meh. Bigger fish to fry - we'll deal with him later.

 

Later, they realized he was probably their biggest problem, and couldn't put him/them down, either! The energy projector was sending the little guys flying all over the place with an area effect attack, but every other phase, I'd start humming "The ants came marching one by one, hurrah, hurrah...", and more would come out of the woodwork. Bivouac escaped at an opportune moment, with dozens of him carting off his unconscious teammates to fight another day.

 

I look forward to using the Swarm again (insert chilling laughter here...)

[Drhoz]

Re: Interesting page for animal powers

 

Yeah - I was thinking more from a gaming perspective

You could think of it like D&D's Saurials: they emit various smells based on their emotional states. Enough time spent in the company of one, and you might be able to figure out the smell code for fear, triumph, hungry, etc.

 

yeah, that would seem to be the way to go

 

Glad you seem to like Bivouac, by the way - he was fun to play against the PCs! His team, the Swarm (led by a beefed-up Hornet) has some history with my GMNPC, and launched an ambush against our plucky heroes.

 

I look forward to using the Swarm again (insert chilling laughter here...)

 

heehee. Shades of Tucker's Kobolds

 

let us know how it goes...

[Comic]

Re: Interesting page for animal powers

 

This thread really shouldn't go much farther without mentioning the pangolin.

 

Ranging from the size of squirrels to the size of large hares, pangolin have the following extraordinary qualities:

 

Armour - possibly the toughest armour of any animal, pangolin scales routinely deflect bullets, and protect these small ant-eaters from predation by the big cats of Africa.

 

Extended breathing - by storing air in their stomachs, pangolin can remain submerged in water for over 20 minutes.

 

Long tongue - anchored in the hip bones of its body, the pangolin's sticky tongue extends more than its own body length, and is prehensile. They will use this tongue to climb trees and swing, as well as to eat ants and termites from up to 18" inside their own nests and catch flying insects.

 

Tail - long in comparison with its body length, the pangolin's armored tail is prehensile and the scales it is plated with are sharp enough to amputate the paw of a leopard -- the pangolin's primary predator. Using their tails for climbing makes the pangolin one of the most mobile arboreal mammals known. Using their tails for swimming makes them by far the fastest primarily land animals in the water.

 

Burrowing - The hooked claws of the pangolin can dig extremely quickly and through harder substances than any other burrowing creature. They easily crack termite colonies, and for their size are the fastest burrowers of any animal.

 

Patagea - not enough that they cling to surfaces with their claws and scales, swing, leap extreme distances, swim, burrow, sprint either quadrupedally or bipedally and are named for their habit of curling into balls and propelling themselves by lashing with their lethal tails to roll substantial distances, pangolin have skin flaps that allow them to glide.

 

Stink - what mammal is complete without powerful scent glands in its defensive arsenal?