stats for the were-hippo please.

[jules]

there was(in our world)a case(once)of a were-hippo,but for the life of me I can't think what the stats would or could be,help!

[cure]

There is a body of opinion that says that lycanthropes should be carnovores or at least omnivores. They don't have to be animals of prey, wereraven feed on carrion, but they at least feed at the trough of animals of prey. Either your werehippo is an exception or it has unusual eating habits. (Hippos are herbavores, right?)

[Isabella]

Whelp, wikipedia (which should always be taken with a grain of salt) claims hippos have sometimes been filmed/reported eating carrion or even resorting to cannibalism, but that it's aberrant behavior.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippopotamus#Behavior

That being said, the hippo is considered one of, if not the deadliest animal in Africa. I sometimes get the feeling that the "no herbivore" idea was put in not only to avoid the silliness of weregazelles or whatever, but to avoid the truly horrifying combos that would be were-elephants or what-have-you.

I thought there was a dire-hippo entry somewhere, but I can't find it in my books. You may just have to bite the bullet and make your own hippo stats to apply the template to. My guess would be it has a very nasty bite.

(Show this to your friends next time they claim hippos are cute:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Pete ... ns_083.jpg)

[NeoTiamat]

Check Sandstorm.

Regular Hippos are a CR 6, 8 HD animal with a preeetty nasty bite attack (2d6+10), as well as Improved Bull Rush Improved Overrun, and Power Attack. If ever your PCs are thinking that regular animals are too weak, toss a hippo at them. (Literally or figuratively, your choice).

Dire Hippopotami are a CR 14, 18 HD animal with Str 34, and so are probably out of reach for any lycanthropes. Of course, if you ever want to see a Darklord get put down by a hippo...... these guys can do it!

[Rotipher of the FoS]

I've never even heard of a werehippo. It sounds more like something that belongs in Spelljammer or Mystara than Ravenloft, to be honest (too zany ).

OTOH, there is a canon precedent for an herbivorous werebeast in Professor Arcanus, the were-gorilla from CotN:Werebeasts. He's a maladictive werebeast, not a natural or afflicted one, so if you really want a were-hippo in your Ravenloft game, that's probably the way to go; it's contagious strains of lycanthropy that should remain limited to meat-eating animals, IMO.

[The Giamarga]

Being a werebeast is like multiclassing into an animal. Take the stats of a werewolf and compare them to the wolf. You get the werewolf's attribute modifiers by subtracting 10 (or 11 if odd) from the wolf's stats for example. Now take the Hippo stats and build your lycanthrope from there.

Check out Sean K Reynolds Savage Progression articles for more detailed info on the mechanics of lycanthropes.

[Wiccy of the Fraternity]

there was(in our world)a case(once)of a were-hippo,but for the life of me I can't think what the stats would or could be,help!

The Great Book of Monsters had this one with stats for 2nd Edition, but I've never seen another werehippo since, sorry.

[jules]

the were-hippo was once of a life time thing!(there was only one person that claimed to be a were-hippo,so I thought that it would make a good ravenloftian monster,thats all!)

[Zettaijin]

Myself, I'm waiting for some stats on were-penguins.

There's something unsettling about those birds...

[Hazgarn]

An acquaintance of mine once ran his group up against a weremoose. Thankfully, the party's ranger made his save... How embarrassing would it be to contract weremoose lycanthropy?

[HuManBing]

A Møøse once bit my sister ...

No realli! She was Karving her initials on the møøse
with the sharpened end of an interspace tøøthbrush given
her by Svenge - her brother-in-law - an Oslo dentist and
star of many Norwegian møvies: "The Høt Hands of an Oslo
Dentist", "Fillings of Passion", "The Huge Mølars of Horst
Nordfink".

We apologise for the fault in the
subtitles. Those responsible have been
sacked.

Mynd you, møøse bites Kan be pretty nasti...

We apologise again for the fault in the subtitles. Those
responsible for sacking the people who have just been sacked
have been sacked.

Møøse trained by TUTTE HERMSGERVORDENBROTBORDA

Special Møøse Effects OLAF PROT
Møøse Costumes SIGGI CHURCHILL
Møøse Choreographed by HORST PROT III
Miss Taylor's Møøses by HENGST DOUGLAS-HOME
Møøse trained to mix
concrete and sign com-
plicated insurance
forms by JURGEN WIGG
Møøses' noses wiped by BJORN IRKESTOM-SLATER WALKER

Large møøse on the left
half side of the screen
in the third scene from
the end, given a thorough
grounding in Latin,
French and "O" Level
Geography by BO BENN

Suggestive poses for the
Møøse suggested by VIC ROTTER
Antler-care by LIV THATCHER

[Hazgarn]

Quick! Cue the llamas!

[Garudos Celestar]

It's worth noting that humanoid hippopotami (and jackals, ibises, cats, etc.) are part of Egyptian mythology, so the existence of a were-hippo-like creature would not be totally out of place in Har'Akir or Sebua... the bigger issue is that since Har'Akir is based around a single oasis, rather than being representative of the bulk of the prime Akiri empire, there's not really a good place for it to live.

Perhaps rather than making the were-hippo a true lycanthrope, it could be used as a kind of spirit worshipped by an Akiri cult. Use the stats for a hybrid were-hippo, drop the ability to assume other forms or spread the curse of lycanthropy, and change its type to outsider. Just because the rest of the Akiri empire is still sitting happily in its prime world doesn't mean that there aren't hints of a broader world in the tombs and temple of Mudar (or is it Muhar... I can never remember which name became the canon one.)

[jules]

Any new thoughts on the subject?

[ewancummins]

Hippos are only funny and cute at a distance, assuming we mean the full size types and not adorable pygppos (pygmy hippos).

Hippos are actually very dangerous animals, and they have killed quite a lot of humans over the years.

Yes, my first impulse would be to snuggle the hippo if I encountered one in the wild. Then I'd realize the extreme danger and flee!

Make sure you bring enough gun.
And the right were-beast allergen, it seems...