So I’m messing around with DAW and trying to put together some creatures from my Wretched Menagerie. Nothing needs to be purchased to follow along, I promise. The Pixie Rabbit is one of the creatures in Furry Pests:
Pixie Rabbit [1 hp]—AC 1; move 60, jump 240; attackbite nil; save F0; morale –3. Weighs 7 stone, 5 feet long. This exceptionally large rabbit is usually herded by pixies as a war mount . . . well, retreat mount. They are large enough to carry a pixie and gear.
The DAW statistics, I think, look like this:
HD: 1 hp (0.25 HD)
Man-Sized (120 per unit)
Role: War Mount (8 tricks; Morale shifts to –1)
Normal Load 2 stone (special note: 0.5 in the mouth; it can only support 1.5/3 on its back)
Price: 825 gold (see below)
Monthly Wages: 0
Weekly Supplies: 0.5 gold
Handler Cost: 0
Total Cost: 2 gold (monthly)
Battle Rating: 0.004 (for a full unit, I rounded to 0.5)
BR with no rounding is actually 0.00065, but pixie rabbits are incredibly fast (240') and can achieve exceptional vertical leaps. I don't mind rounding up on BR to account for that, and it gives mounted pixies a roundish 0.06 BR (for a 120-pixie unit BR of 7.2).
For pixie rabbit mount pricing, I started with the assumption that for every 16 pixie rabbits raised, one was suitable as a war mount (nine are suitable as non-combat mounts, and the remaining six are suitable only for pixie labor). Each rabbit takes a year to grow to full size, and costs 2 gold per month for fodder and care. The war mount’s fodder and care up to the moment training is completed is about 132 gold. Actual training cost suggests that, if pixie rabbits are a normal domestic animal for pixies, the base cost should be about 25 gold per month of training; however, pixies themselves cost 10× what a normal mercenary costs, so standard pixie trainers likely command higher prices as well: we’ll call it 125 gold per month of training. At 5.5 months (taming + 8 tricks), that is 687.5 gold. Plus raising costs, we can round that off to 825 gold for a trained pixie rabbit war mount.
I actually tried very hard to only use information in ACKS and DAW (the 1 in 16 number came from the 2d4 tricks number in ACKS, for example).
I guesstimated the supplies cost based on the other listed herbivores, and costs for animal training and pixie mercenaries are covered quite sufficiently in DAW v4a. The one year to physical maturity, I just took from the Flemish Giant rabbit (the closest real-world analog).
But it did help to know, in the back of my mind, some of how you were thinking at the time.
Titanic Toad [8]—AC 4; move 90, swim 30; attackbite 2d6 ortongue nil (reach 20 ft., +2 to hit, grab 2d6); save F4; morale –1. Weighs 100 stone, 10 feet long. These oversized amphibians are the mass of a destrier horse, but substantially squatter.
Toads have tongues capable of reaching up to twice their length and grabbing a man-sized or smaller opponent. A grabbed opponent is dragged to the frog’s mouth and suffers bite damage each round until the grab is escaped. The frog cannot take other actions while chewing the opponent (and only one opponent at a time can be chewed).
And DAW:
HD: 8
Large (60 per unit)
Role: Hunter (2 tricks)
Load 15/30 stone (toads are not built for loads)
Price: 5,000 gold (see below)
Monthly Wages: 0
Weekly Supplies: 60 gold (see below)
Handler Cost: 25 gold per month (150 gp / 6 animals per handler)
Total Cost: 265 gold (monthly)
Battle Rating: 0.375
For pricing, titanic toad handlers cost 150 gold per month. I started with the assumption that titanic toads require two years to maturation, but that the first year requires only 25% of their supply cost (as tadpoles), and the second year requires the full supply cost and one trainer per six growing toads, for a total raising cost of 3,900 gold. Training is only for two tricks (2.5 months), but requires the trainer's full attention, for a cost of 975 gold. Final cost was 4,875, which I rounded to 5,000.
In DAW: Battles, they look more like this:
Unit Move: 2/3/4 IM (0/0/1 in water)
Unit AC: 4
Unit HD: 8
Unit Hit Points: 32
Unit Attack Throw: 2+ (see below)
Unit # Attacks: 7
Unit Morale: -1
For the unit attack throw, titanic toads have a 3+ for a normal bite, and 1+ for a tongue attack plus chewing. Of the two, chewing is going to be more effective when the opponent is small enough, but this ignores the benefits of the cleave factor against low-HD opponents. Rather than have a wide variety of statistics depending on the opponent’s precise size and HD, I went with an average between the two, and treated cleaving normally (a chew usually means two or more rounds of chewing, which is almost equivalent).
Magma Soldier [2+2••]—AC 3; move 120; attackslash 1d8 orspit magma 1d8 (range 75'); construct immunities; save F1; morale +4. Weighs 15 stone, 5.5 feet tall. Pumice-stone constructs with a core of magma, the size, shape, and mass of a human warrior, armed with obsidian blades and volcanic glass eyes. Basic construction costs 15,000 gold and takes 22 days, with a final research throw 1+ (assuming a +2 from INT, and +6 from a 75,000 gold workshop).
DAW Campaigns:
HD: 2+2••
Man-Sized (120 per unit)
Role: Construct
Load 5/10 stone
Price: 15,000 gold
Monthly Wages: 460 gold
Weekly Supplies: 0
Handler Cost: 0 (handled as part of monthly wages)
Total Cost: 460 gold (monthly)
Battle Rating: 0.1083... (13 en masse)
DAW Battles:
Unit Move: 2/4/6 LF
Unit AC: 3
Unit HD: 2+2
Unit Hit Points: 20
Unit Attack Throw: 8+ (see below)
Unit # Attacks: 3
Unit Morale: +4
Magma Soldiers would be fearsome, but there are less expensive options that are more fearsome: a unit of them would be more about conspicuous consumption, I think. Especially since it would take an 11th level caster a little over seven years of dedicated work to build a single unit!
