BX Monsters A to Z: Cat, Great

Back to the BX Monsters series, with a single entry that packs a lot of punch: Cat, Great. 

As normal animals go in D&D, there's a lot of utility to be found in the great cats. They're smart, curious, fierce, and powerful, capable of being a credible threat to low- to mid-level parties, but far from an automatic combat encounter. They're also familiar enough that most DMs can readily grasp their possibilities and most players can easily assess the hazard they pose.

Great cat varieties listed include:

The mountain lion, smallest of the Basic Set's great cats, which will venture farther into caves and dungeons than any of the others. They are adapted to a wide range of terrain types, from forest to mountains to desert, and in different parts of their range they may be known as cougars, pumas, panthers, or catamounts.  With a reasonably sturdy 3+2 HD, a maximum damage potential of 12 points, and up to four appearing, they're nothing to scoff at for a party of level 3 or below, but not too much for an Expert level group to handle. Mountain lions are ambush predators, often pouncing from trees or higher ground, and can leap as high as 18 feet to return to the heights. Possibly the most famous great cat in all of D&D history is the mountain lion pet of the Mad Hermit in module B2: The Keep on the Borderlands.

The panther, more generically known as the leopard, which encompasses both the standard spotted coat and the less common all-black variant. They're modestly tougher than mountain lions, with 4 HD and total maximum damage of 16 points. Interestingly, the panther has both the best Armor Class (4, two full points better than all the other great cats) and movement rate (210'(70') as compared to the other cats' 150'(50') across the board.) Wikipedia reports them to be capable of sprinting at 36 mph (58 km/h), as well as making leaps of up to 20 feet horizontally and almost 10 feet vertically. Interestingly, the real world leopard/panther is a solitary hunter, though occasional groups consisting of an adult female and partially grown cubs are possible, which perhaps explains the Number Appearing of 1-2 (1-6). 

The lion, most famous of all the great cats, and the most social. Lion prides, according to Wikipedia, typically number around 15 individuals, including up to four adult males, but prides as large as 30 are possible. Compare the by-the-book Number Appearing of 1-4 (1-8), which seems pretty scanty. Perhaps the implication is that these are hunting groups, not full prides, but the full pride should at least be reflected in the monster description. Hunting is almost exclusively the duty of female lions, while males are heavily responsible for protecting the pride from attackers, including rival prides and other predators. Lions can make short sprints, but lack long-range endurance. Besides being a savannah cat mislabeled as King of the Jungle, lions are infamous for their unwilling roles in gladiatorial battles and executions. With a robust 5 HD and up to 20 points of damage, they're a fearsome test even in the questionably low numbers given in the rules.

The tiger, who is a lot more deserving of titles of royalty than the lion. Tigers are generally solitary, ambush predators. Like lions, they can sprint up to 40 mph or so over short distances but lack endurance, and will not usually pursue prey alerted to its presence. Unlike the smaller great cats, they seldom climb trees, but are strong swimmers. At a hefty 6 Hit Dice, a tiger is roughly as tough as a small dragon, and can dish out an impressive 24 points of damage in a round. A single tiger might not be a match for a party averaging at least level 4 or so, but a stalking tiger would make a fine antagonist when the party is trying to return to civilization with one or more wounded or weakened members.

Finally, the so-called saber-tooth tiger, the mighty smilodon. In fact, the saber-tooth tiger was actually represented by several species, spanning a range of sizes from roughly that of a mountain lion to larger than a modern tiger. At a whopping 8 Hit Dice and 32 points of potential max damage, this monster represents the latter end of the range. Sabertooths had stronger, thicker forelimbs than those of modern great cats, which enabled them to grab and hold prey in order to slash its throat with their outsized canine teeth. (Modern cats, interestingly, do not slash or tear prey with their teeth to kill it, but generally will clamp on to the neck with powerful jaws, either breaking its neck or holding on to effectively strangle it to death, with teeth serving to enhance grip.) The sabertooth is of course the go-to big cat for any Lost World-type setting within the campaign. 

All of the great cats have strong Morale scores, fast movement rates, and a Treasure Type of U or V, presumably representing incidental loot from prey or shiny stuff they just can't resist because they're still cats, after all. Adventuring parties may have some success warding off aggressive cats with fire or displays of flashy elemental magic; I'd probably apply a morale penalty of -1 or -2 in those cases. They're also likely to respond to dropped food, but the overall description does state that some great cats develop strong tastes for particular prey, which sometimes includes humans... in which case, that chunk of salt-pork may not discourage them from the chase!

Aside from the clunky claw/claw/bite attack routines, there's not much I'd change about great cats. Every campaign should have a few, whether they serve as primary antagonists in a man vs. nature survival scenario, big unpredictable predators to make wilderness-traveling PCs nervous, or pets and guardians trained and kept by more intelligent creatures.