Does anyone know if there's a 3.5 stat block for an individual cranium rat?
Cranium Rats
Mon, 2006-07-17 17:40
#1
Cranium Rats
Tue, 2006-07-18 08:48
#3
Cranium Rats
I thought of that until I noticed that the stats for both cranium rat and normal rat swarms were different.
Wed, 2006-07-19 02:18
#4
Cranium Rats
Swarms are very different 
A single cranium rat is like a rat, a dozen is kinda cunning, a swarm thinks better then a human and fires mindblasts :twisted:
Wed, 2006-07-19 13:13
#5
Cranium Rats
I was hoping for something more along the lines of 2e stats that gave the number of rats necessary for an intelligence level.
Thu, 2006-07-20 03:58
#6
Cranium Rats
You thnk too hard about details. If that question really pops up, just improvise
Thu, 2006-07-20 12:21
#7
Cranium Rats
You thnk too hard about details. If that question really pops up, just improvise
I write for a living, what else do you expect? Besides, I don't like the fact that there's no single entry for a cranium rat. How else am I supposed to rebuild The Us to fit my campaign?
Fri, 2006-07-21 01:30
#8
Cranium Rats
Use second edition stats 
Fri, 2006-07-21 17:03
#9
Cranium Rats
I thought about that...lol, just wanted to see if someone else had already done a conversion for them since my players are chomping at the bit for me to run another session. 
Sat, 2006-07-29 21:14
#10
Cranium Rats
There are stats for a group of Cranium rats in the second edition supplement Faces of Sigil.
Sat, 2006-07-29 21:48
#11
Cranium Rats
The 3.4 edition Fiend Folio (I say 3.4 because it wasn't completely 3.5) has stats for three different Cranium Rat swarms. For a single rat you just use normal rat stats, as somebody already mentioned. Hope that helps.
Mon, 2006-07-31 18:03
#12
Cranium Rats
I was hoping for a version that also included the Int score based on the number of rats rather than "use normal rats for individual cranium rats" or being stuck with the Fiend Folio entries as the only possibilities. Basically, a formula for the Int scores for cranium rat groups.
Tue, 2006-08-01 13:47
#13
Cranium Rats
I was hoping for a version that also included the Int score based on the number of rats rather than "use normal rats for individual cranium rats" or being stuck with the Fiend Folio entries as the only possibilities. Basically, a formula for the Int scores for cranium rat groups.
This may be kind of half-assed but you can probably figure out the collective intelligence of a group of cranium rats by determining how many you need to cast certain spells. For instance, if it takes 3 cranium rats to cast a magic missle, then you can assume that they have a collective intelligence of 11, the intelligence required to cast a 1st level spell.
Hmm, I wonder if I can extract the cranium rat scripts from Planescape: Torment using Near Infinity. That is bound to have a list of what level spells a specific number of cranium rats can cast.
You may also consider using the stats of the "moonrat" in Monster Manual II. It's sort of a lunar based cranium rat presented as a non-swarm creature. Adapt the Lunar Modifier table to work for number of cranium rats instead of amount of moonlight.
-4 "Beastmaster" 20
Tue, 2006-08-01 16:28
#14
Cranium Rats
Hello everyone. Long-time lurker, new member, but I've been reading this for a bit and had to post something on it
Ok, a normal rat has an intelligence of 2. According to the Fiend Folio Cranium Rats are Magical Beasts. As Magical beasts, and ones inclined to magic or psionics, I don't think it would be unreasonable to give a single rat an INT of 4 or even 5. The Fiend Folio gives 3 swarms and their INT values: 9 for 75 rats, 13 for 150 rats, and 19 for 300 rats.
A little mathmatical juggling with those values and a starting INT value of 4 or 5 means that if one rat has an int of 4, then about every 15 rats that gather together would add 1 to the INT of the swarm. Castable spells and Mind Blast DCs would be easy to calculate from that.
By this logic, a group of up to 15 rats would have an INT of around 5, 16-30 would have 6, 31-45 have 7, etc. This way you could theoretically calculate the intelligence and casting sapacity of any number of rats, even "The Us" you mentioned before.
Hope that helps, or even makes sense
Thu, 2006-08-03 00:36
#15
Cranium Rats
Your numbers seem to be close, but don't work out for the larger swarms...To make it work you have to subtract 1 from Int for groups of more than 75. Or, you could extend the Int entry for 60-75 to 60-90 to fit. After this one grouping, it fits the progression based on the two larger entries.
Thu, 2006-08-03 05:05
#16
Cranium Rats
Hmm, I wonder if I can extract the cranium rat scripts from Planescape: Torment using Near Infinity. That is bound to have a list of what level spells a specific number of cranium rats can cast.
I'm afraid not. What happens inside the game is that a number of non-spellcasting rats are created, and among them is one that casts spells. It doesn't check for the number of rats, it just casts a set list in rapid succession.
Something to keep in mind when using the Cranium Rat swarms from Fiend Folio is that it casts spells as a sorcerer rather than a wizard. Remember to increase its charisma together with its intelligence if you want all the numbers to match up.
Fri, 2006-08-04 01:32
#17
Cranium Rats
The charisma increase would make sense because bigger swarms would definitely be more convincing then smaller ones
You use a regular rat. They're not inteligent when they're alone