Sat Mar 17, 2007 8:40 pm  
What are the best two animals to use with an Animerge spell?

Laughing Cool

This little gem of a spell appears in the City of Splendors boxed set. but I have wondered how a Flavor of Greyhawk could be added to it. The spell is able to combine (on a successful system shock roll) combination animals that a PC mage can magically control (If the are a specialist alteration school mage). They can also be combined more than once yielding animals of supreme power. I was wondering if anyone else has used this spell and what animal combinations are your favorites.

I wondered if the fonts of knowledge from this site had some unique Greyhawk animals to add to the mix....I do love the World of Greyhawk as it is where I started playing as a teenager in Alaska!!

Here is the spell for those who don’t have access to it, for matter of discussions in this forum.

Level 6 Duhlark’s Animerge (Alteration) (Reversible)
Rng: 5 yards per lvl Comp: V,S,M
Dur: Permanent C/T: 1 round
A/E: 2 Creatures S/T: NONE!

A highly specialized form of polymorph other, this spell allows the caster to fuse two creatures together into one unique, amalgamated form, allowing a number of traits from each creature to remain dominant in its new singular form. The polymorphed creature acquires the following basic traits from one or the other of the animals involved in the merge: Body Shape, size, movement modes, speed, diet, INT, attack modes, defense modes, special attacks, special defenses, and AC. If the caster is a transmuter (alteration specialist), the caster can choose which traits are adopted in the new form; if not, the creature created is randomly determined by the DM.

When the spell is cast, both animals must be within twenty feet of each other, and the final animerged creature will emerge in the former location of the larger of the two animals. Both animals to make a system shock roll to survive the transformation (60% chance); if one fails, the spell fails and both animals die. If a caster attempts to merge opposing blooded creatures (warm vs. cold blooded), there is a 40% chance of survival for the creatures to be successfully animerged. Should either creature have INT > than 2-4 INT, there is a 75% chance that the creature’s mind will shatter, creating an uncontrollable mad animal (see special notes). In such an instance, the creature will use every physical ability it has to escape and attack anything that moves, perceiving movement as something causing it pain.

This spell will not work on any animals that have special magical adaptions such as plane shifting powers or fire breath. If the spell is used on such creatures, both target animals will perish due to the spell conflicting with their innate magics.

This is the spell and with luck (sometimes magical) that mage could create a number of the same types of hybrid animals. I have extensive lists of what types of creatures that my Transmuter has created. I have limited myself to simple 2 monster creations, but there is nothing in the spell to say that multiple castings can’t be cast on the same animerges.

A couple of my favorites are:

Hummingbird/Man of War Jellyfish: Nasty stinging tentacles, and it flies, hovers, lunges, you get the idea.

How about a Mammoth/Frog: Thump > Splat!!!!, how about a frog with tusks and a weight problem. Also the sticky tongue is a nice touch.

This one is just nasty: Kodiak Bear/Cobra, 10’+ tall with cobra eyes and fangs a foot long.

Well you get the idea. I have mine all set up, but I was wondering what others came up with. With all the game world materials I was wondering what World specific others might come up with. Also you could combine your favorite fantasy books most devastating monsters for a combo creature too!!

Now you know where unicorns come from Narwhal/Lt Warhorse!!

And an addendum to this.....

We can move on to monimerges when we have a monster thread. I might start one when I get a little more material entered in the computer. I have 300 monsters but they need some work and they need to be set up in Word.

How about a flock of electric eel/hummingbirds swarrning those high level pc's. Or borrowing one animal from you the komodo dragon/electric eel. The All the World Monsters Compendiums from Chaosium has done it but I thought it was worth mentioning.

Here are a few of the best source creatures to draw on. Each has a special factor in its makeup that lends itself to the magic of this spell.

Just add a bunny rabbit to any of them and I would say your PC's are in for a very bad day in most cases.

How about mixing any one of these little gems with another on the list.

Mandrin Wasp
Narwhal
Great White
Komodo Dragon
Cuttle Fish
Electric Eel
Mantis Shrimp
Hummgbird
Pirannah
Wolverine
Rhino
Skunk (Rhino/Skunk you'd pass out from the smell )
Dolphin
Lion Fish
African Bees (Pirannah/African Bees a swarm to beware )
Praying Mantis
Cheetah
Tiger (of course)
Buffalo (Buffalo/Lion Fish what a sting and oh yeah stick around for a while)
Warhorse (Warhorse/Tiger a mount with attitude, bring plenty of Kibbles & Bits!!)
Octopus
Kodiak Bear
Stellar Eagle

Here are a few more for the collection!!

Electric Eel/Cheetah Fast and Electrifying

Black Mamba/Japanese Killer Wasps This buzz is for you (4 or 5 times that is!!

Beaver/Great White Just wierd, but think of the beaver skin clothes you can make after you kill a huge beaver with 2 front teeth larger than the normal great white. Oh yeh, it moves on land!!

How about a Narwhal (sm whale long horn) and the Porsche spider (featured on the spider special on Nature) very Cunning, with webs, and now the size of a small pony. Oh, and a 4' long unicorn-like horn!!!

Perigrin Falcon/Black Widow spider. You have the speed of the worlds fastest bird with its ability to create driving strikes. Then you combine it with the poison and web making capabilities of the black widow. It leads to a small but desturbing little package of death.

Komodo Dragon/Electric Eel Whether it is the electric touch of the eel or the tearing jaws with thier deadly saliva this (smaller than normal komodo) could easilly kill its parent creature.

Stellar Eagle/Scorpion Another large bird of prey combined with an insect is this little beauty. It is one of the largest birds of prey and combined with the claws and (maybe down pointing) stinger of this little killer could end many foes or PC's lives.

Box Jelly Fish/Rhino With the size of a small horse or large dog this deadly foe can charge you and if you touch it, one of the most deadly toxins in the world could kill you in minutes.

Grasshopper/Heavy Warhorse This undersized steed may seem unorthodox but combine it with a large lance its falling weight behind this weapon could drive it deep/through any foe. (Featured in a book by Paul Zimmer "The Dark Border")

In the just wierd category I leave you with this little gem:

Giraffe Spitting Cobra It has an already long neck which is transformed into a trunk-like (elephant) flexibility, it has scales for skin, which can be added to a venom spitting that can be measured in 10's of feet..

Well for those who watch the nature channel when you are bored, keep this little spell in mind when you watch. Never know what you might come up with.

Maybe more later!!

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