#or maybe a tiger wolf spider

[sordidmusings]

Sending off Moon Moon

In keeping with the trend of life updates on the blog, I bring some sad sad news: my pet wolf spider Moon Moon has died 😞 she was such a pretty and active bugger and did me such a good job of carrying on!! True spiders don’t live long enough :(( I’m very happy to have spent a year and some months cooing love at her that she’d never understand 💀

My fav memories of her include her giving me a damn heart attack when she finally made a perfectly hidden and closed burrow and I thought she somehow Houdini-ed herself out of a magnetically closed enclosure, watching her preen herself to keep up her status as Beautiful Very Wonderful Proper High Class Lady, watching her get startled by prey items a third her size because she (like most of my spiders) is a damn scaredy cat, and getting to hold this fast flighty son of a bitch for a brief moment on enclosure changes. I’d like to say she was a Good Girl about it, but this little brat has a Need for Speed and always tried to yeet herself into the dangers of being free in my house 😤 she’s scared of meal worms, what did she think she was gonna do trapped in a house with giants?? If only it were possible for her to have conceptualized such things lol

Below the cut is Moon Moon content so an arachnophobia warning for y’all who ain’t about my eight legged children lol

I was surprised to see I didn’t take many photos or vids of her cuz I def stared at her a lot and def meant to 💀 I’m gonna blame being hypnotized watching so no grabbing phone 🤷🏼‍♀️ but I did have one pretty good vid of her preening so I cut that down to post. Here’s the beauty queen!!

Sorry not sorry for the stupid mumbles 🤷🏼‍♀️

Also, thanks to all the moots who let me gush about her and my other 8 legged babies 💙💙💙

[lani-heart]

|| series masterlist || SPECIAL SHORT STORY ||

paring(s) -> ATEEZ x reader warning(s) -> SUGGETIVE note -> HAPPY HALLOWEEN !!

y/n’s perspective

“I really wonder how they’re older than I am,” Jongho said as I laughed. San and Wooyoung were arguing about what I should dress for Halloween, which was a bit silly since they fought against putting cat ears or fox ears on my head. 

Yeosang just smiled at their stupid behavior… mainly with evil intent because he and Seonghwa already agreed on my outfit and had it in their room away from the two fighting. 

“y/n-nie why not a dog–” “SHUT UP YOU OVERGROWN WOLF!” Woosan yelled at Mingi, who, at the sudden shout and growls, hid behind Yunho who only laughed at the sight.

“Why does it matter anyway? The two of you have the matching couple outfit” Yunho pointed out and the two glared at him. “Aren’t you going as a spider?” San said and Wooyoung laughed. “What a pathetic outfit–” “y/n! They're mean!” Yunho yelled while now going towards me on the couch hugging my waist and placing his head on my lap. 

“Let them handle their immaturity themselves,” Seonghwa added as Hongjoong laughed beside him. The only ones who knew about the Halloween outfit were the two tigers and Mastermind doberman. 

“y/n I’m your first hybrid–” “I knew her longer!” The two argued and I sighed. While looking at the trio who only looked away from me wanting to enjoy their fight more. 

“You like my costume right?” Yunho pouted and I smiled. He was going to be dressed as spiderman. In a normal outfit with the one piece suit under the clothes to reveal in a dramatic fashion. “Of course I do!” I said and he smiled and wagged his tail. 

“I want to dress as Spiderman!” Yunho came over to yell happily. “Oh?” I asked knowing where this was going… Since he got into video games he’s also gotten into comics, especially Spiderman comics. It was… cute seeing the big golden retriever wag his tail happily while reading a comic or even watching anything Spiderman related in front of the TV.  “But I thought we were gonna do a matching outfit!” Mingi asked, pouting at the older canine hybrid who signed at his friend’s distress. “You can be venomous?” he asked and Mingi scoffed. “That stupid alien, no thanks” he pouted and Yunho really really really wanted to be dressed as the superhero. “Mingi… you don’t have to match with Yunho? You can be anything you want that maybe Yunho wouldn't dress as anyway?” I asked and his mind went blank. “I don’t know! I just know I would rather have Jongho threaten me than be dressed as a stupid alien” he said and I laughed. For some reason… his irrational fear from Jongho yelling at him that one time traumatized him for life. “Oh! Let me and Yeosang choose!” Yunho said and he looked at his friend skeptical.  “Don’t dress me stupid?” “I promise!

Mingi… Well, his outfit did end up being picked by Yeosang and Yunho… While Yeosang liked to tease the wolf… Yunho was absolutely serious about what they ended up choosing. Yeosang laughed at the princess outfit he chose… but Yunho told me to buy it happily and with his eyes sparkling that I couldn’t say no.  So I said to myself I'd take Mingi to choose his outfit instead but I didn’t expect his reaction to simply smile softly at Yunho and say it was perfect. Truthfully… When Yunho pulled it out everyone was shocked he was being serious and even laughed until Mingi spoke up and said he loved it when everyone then had to pretend they never thought of it as a joke.  So Mingi was gonna be a pink princess with a tiara and everything for Halloween with his canine best friend as spiderman… how truly opposites they were. 

“y/nnie! y/nnie! I wanna dress up with Sannie!” Woyoung yelled excitedly when he heard we were celebrating this year. He grinned and looked at so many costumes while he simply let him choose what they would be. Until he found something… Harry potter. While it was now fall Harry potter was now back in season in which he and San binged it all.  And then… they found sorting quizzes… “HOW THE HELL ARE YOU A SLYTHERIN?!” Wooyoung yelled when he saw the words Slythern in the sorting quiz that San took. He was sure he would’ve been a Hufflepuff but no… he made the panther take so many quizzes until each time it was Slytherin.  Wooyoung of course was a Gryffindor.  So the two were dressing up as mages… but for some reason when it came to asking me what I would wear, I was gonna tell them Yeosang and Seonghwa said they have an outfit for me… that they got too excited and cut me off saying I should be a hybrid this year. Which I thought of as dehumanizing at first but the two were so excited I figured out it was primal for them… it's like when San put me in Wooyoung’s collar that one time. They wanted to see in a… different way. 

“Halloween? I hate the holiday” Hongjoong said when he saw the Halloween decorations Wooyoung mass ordered. “Hmm? Is it because of the…” I trailed and he nodded. I was gonna say he didn’t have to celebrate when Seonghwa came into the living room where he also saw the decorations. “Oh, are we celebrating? Are we also dressing up?” he asked, actually excited with his tail swishing behind him. “Huh? Oh, Wooyoung and San so far have taken the intuitive approach and ordered their outfits already, while I know Yuno and Mingi are thinking about theirs "I said and Soenghwa nodded while looking at Hongjoong.  “Should we dress up? Maybe we can match?” he asked his fellow tiger who chuckled and reluctantly agreed. “Ok, why not?” he asked as I was confused at his sudden acceptance. “If it makes you uncomfortable–” “It's fine really… the circus can ruin everything about my life,” he said and I smiled at his sudden response.  “Circus? Hmm… we can even dress up as clowns” he laughed and I was shocked he said that while even Hongjoong laughed. “I’d want to be something scarier than a clown”  he suggested so why did we end with their suggestions…  Hongjoong wanted to be a pirate of all things which also wasn't scary like he said… while Seonghwa, I think he’s been online too much and showed me the sudden phenomenon of hot men behind the Ghost Face mask and wanting to be Ghost Face… I’d be lying if I didn’t find it a bit attractive. 

“Yeosang said that I’m like Gloomy Bear and that I should dress up as him?” Jongho said and I didn’t want to laugh. I really didn’t… but Yeosnag hex to have been joking when he suddenly said that.  Then again… he is a bear hybrid with an obsession with fruit. While gloomy is a domesticated bear with a love for pomegranates.  “It's a pink bear Jongho,” I said and he scoffed. “So he was making fun of me again,” he said but signed and huffed. “I guess I'll do it… I have nothing else to dress up as and I don’t wanna be a vampire like Seonghwa-hyung was suggesting” he said and I smiled.  He respected Yeosang the most… so he decided on doing hybrid safe fur paint while simply being gonna wear white clothing with a blood platter, a simple outfit, and effortless. 

“How did you get Seonghwa to agree to you doing this?” I asked and Yeosang smirked. He wanted to be a wolf… while he was a canine hybrid he wanted to be dressed as the Big Bad Wolf. In simple black clothing while adding gray spray paint to his ears and tail with a pink bonnet on his head. It was cute when you didn't see his face… which he was gonna add fake blood on his canine teeth and face while wanting to dress me up as Red Riding Hood.  Seonghwa took charge with Yeosang to find me an outfit while he suggested something sexier. Yeosang also liked the primal aspect of it and bribed Seonghwa with something he still won’t tell me.  All to be matching with me as Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf.

please don't be a silent reader !! reblog, comment, and like <3

[ttkinnie]

Tokyo Revengers characters as animals 💖 (for no reason)

Kazutora: let's start with the most obvious one, our resident tiger. Which is funny considering he gives 0 tiger vibes. Or maybe rescued declawed tiger from an abusive circus. Wait a sec... Hanma and Kisaki have a circus theme going on... why did I never notice this? This starts well. Saddest tiger pic I could find

Baji: A black gray wolf of course. 'nuff said

Chifuyu: A cat. Kitty kitty meow meow. Not crazy enough to be orange, but he's gotta have green eyes and a kind face. This tuxedo:

Koko: Talking about cats, here he is. Most obvious choice I've ever made. Black cat of course, very fancy, will knock shit off the counter and eats only the most expensive wet food

Inupi: second most obvious one because you've gotta pick the race of the dog too. I say he's the only serious golden retriever you've ever seen.

Takemichi: A mouse. He is squeaky and scared, looks like he eats cheese. Very cute. Big eyes.

Hinata: A doe, beautiful and kind but will ram into you if you touch her loved ones

Naoto: a buck because I am unoriginal. he does give off buck vibes tho

Hanma: I know the official art makes him a caracal but I love being contradictory so maned wolf it is. Plus look at its long legs and creepy demeanor, it's him

Kisaki: Listen, I am not the most partial person when it comes to him. He's my little meow meow, I wanna put either cat or bunny ears on him and squish his cheeks. But! Let's be honest, that boy is a snake. The deadliest snake in the world, the saw scaled viper, not the most venomous but highly aggressive. He eats mouse Takemichi for breakfast. Also look at its scales, they remind me of his adult hair.

Mikey: A honey badger, small and cute but will bite your balls off and kill your family for fun.

Draken: A lion, beautiful mane and a symbol of strength. Lives among a tribe of lionesses (lucky him)

Mitsuya: I do not like spiders. At all. But an animal literally producing silk is the only choice for Mitsuya. However I am not masochistic so i won't put a spider image, just the web

Taiju: Great white shark. Very smooth skin. Anyone who tells you they have sandpaper skin is lying.

Hakkai: A seal, same eyes, same innocence, favorite prey of the great white shark

Yuzuha: An orca, beautiful but deadly. Only predator of the great white shark. Also eats seals but let's not comment on that. I support women's wrongs.

Pah-chin: it's too cliché to put warthog here, so i won't. He's a cane toad, one of the stupidest animal on Earth, one of their most common cause of death is eating shit they shouldn't because they stuff their mouth without thinking. They also hump anything, including dead animals from another species, and lay their eggs anywhere, which leads to a high mortality rate among their offspring. Why did I give so many facts? I don't know. Look at it.

Peh-yan: A tarsier. it's the eyes.

Sanzu: Arctic hare, crazy eyes and a gift for divination if you can understand his language

Senju: a cutie baby. Bunny x2, will kick you.

Takeomi: a rat. I am not a hater, rats can be cute, but this guy definitely gives off rat vibes

Wakasa: So very pretty. White leopard of course.

Benkei: A bull. I always thought his tattoos were a bull, but I was wrong I just looked it up. Still a bull.

Shinichiro: This one was though, but I'd say a koala. I'm partial about it, but I feel like he would give his children poop to eat, and their reproductive habits are also not a good look on them.

Emma: Japanese dwarf flying squirrel because I play favorites and that's the cutest little furball ever. it looks like it's wearing eyeliner

Izana: Another small but deadly thing, the Australian box jellyfish, found notably along the coast of Malaysia (I feel so clever right now)

Kakucho: Fiercely loyal dog, he's a Rottweiler. Don't tell me Izana and him don't have some kind of puppy play going on.

Ran: Secretary bird. Canonically hates Kisaki which explains why he stomps snakes to death. Wears killer eyeshadow and looks like they hate your fashion style

Rindou: Did you know a group of male Pacific tree frogs is called a chorus? me neither, which is why Rindou is a Pacific tree frog. Peace of music, yeah

Mucho: Polar bear, cold and aggressive. Plus arctic hare and polar bear, there's a theme

[cure-typhoon]

what animal do u associate to each kid or troll. like u see this animal and r like yup thats [blank].

HMMM okey theres like certain animals the characters are already established as, but i dont totally agree with all of them

Beta kids and Alpha Kids:

June and Jane - Okey everyone says bunny for June and i understand why but idk I preffer a cameleon or a lizard and the bunny for Jane or maybe a bull for her, yeah i think that fits

Rose and Roxy - Yeah yeah theyre cat people and whatever but i always imagined as Roxy as a Fox and Rose as an owl lol or a black puma or like those scotish round cats

Dave and Dirk: Dave is those little birds that i see around where i live (sparrows?) and Dirk is a peacock

Jade and Jake - I dont have any creative one for Jade, i mean she is totally a dog but also a wolf or a coyote and Jake HMMMMM hyena (dont ask idk why) or like....parrot or white cockatoo

Beta Trolls and Alpha Trolls:

Karkat and Kankri: crabs, like there has never been a more crab character than karkat, he is a king crab, spiky boi. kankri is a spider crab

Aradia and Damara: Bighorn sheeps for both but also this one for Godtier Aradia

Tavros and Rufioh: Buffalos

Sollux and Mituna: why bees, like i get it but whyy. they are this

Nepeta and Meulin: Nepeta is a Tiger and Meulin is a Lion

Kanaya and Porrim: the fucking fluffiest moth i cant recall the name and Porrim is a moon moth

Terezi and Latula: Dragonfly for both of them

Vriska and Aranea: IM NOT LOOKING FOR SPECIFIC SPIDERS theyre both wolf to me, well Vriska is a Wolf and Aranea is a Jackal

Equius and Horuss: this fuckers

Gamzee and Kurloz: EDIT BECAUSE I FORGOT ABOUT THEM bdkadn

They're both clownfish no i won't apologize

Eridan and Cronus: Cronus is an electric eel and Eridan is a whale or a dolphin, maybe a pelican

Feferi and Meenah: Feferi is a jellyfish and Meenah is a Mantaray

[husky-studies]

Okay so HONESTLY im gonna ramble about this idea i got from reading one of the genshin sagau posts about the creator and their books that are read are popping into tevyat BUT imagine if it were the movies we have watched (inspired from @sagaubeloved sorry for the ping if it bothers you 😭)

LIKE imagine if ur a horror movie fanatic, IMAGINE THE CHARACTER'S REACTION. Idk if u watch horror bcs u like it or u just like a good scare or two but imagine showing them a movie like maybe the nun 2 or fnaf or coraline or ANY HORROR MOVIES. Imagine if the people (scholars, maybe some theatrics enjoyers?) are horrified watching it "THE CREATOR WATCHES THIS?!" "Yeah i do-" They'd either get nightmares or became really paranoid cause horror movie end credits sometimes scares me like 'based on-' no. I think they'd be paranoid because it says based on real life or something. Especially if its coraline, HONESTLY I COULDNT SLEEP MUCH FOR A FEW DAYS BECAUSE OF THE SPIDER MOM OR WHATEVER OTHER MOM THAT IS 😭😭 buttons for eyes (no- not identity v-) or if its something like FNAF then they'd probably be paranoid 💀 (until they know its actually from a game that has like 13 versions with i think 8 being the ACTUAL part of the series and the rest being spin-offs)

Now other than horror movies we have something moreeeee child friendly? Maybe some of y'all still watches trolls (i heard trolls 3 was about to be released), disney maybe, dreamworks am i the only one who suddenly remembers ratatouille talking about this-. The characters would be less horrified with this and go like "oh, this is the type of movie creator likes? Sounds nice" IF YOU'RE LIKE ME AND YOU HAVE THE DISC OF THE MOVIES AND YOU PLAYED THAT ONE MOVIE YOU JUST CANT STOP WATCHING BECAUSE ITS SO DANG GOOD, they'd probably cherish THAT movie more than the others because BRO, THE CREATOR watches that shit 24/7 WHO WOULDNT KEEP THAT MOVIE DISC FOR THE WHOLE TEVYAT TO SEE. AND YK WHATS FUNNY, IF ITS A MOVIE THAT HAS LIKE ANIMALS AS THE MAIN CHARACTERS (Madagascar, Lion King, etc) idt they'd even know what a LION is. I MEAN THE BASIC ANIMALS LIKE DOGS, CATS AND BIRDS ARE THERE (does rishboland tigers count as tigers here-) BUT SOMETHING MORE WILD LIKE LIONS or SPECIFIC BIRD TYPES, MONKEYS????(wolfs should exist i mean, theres wolvendom, snakes also exist cuz if not then wtf is changsheng, deers, dragons???)

Okay maybe some science fiction enjoyers, something futuristic or robotic like Transformers maybe? (Im sorry my brain could only thing of that 💀 like any transformers movie) They'd either be baffled at that or like taking notes, they'd probably compare those futuristic stuff like the robots with RUIN GUARDS or WHATEVER ELSE IS THE BRANCHING OFF OF THOSE THINGS. Maybe Sumeru would get the gist? Tbh sumeru kinda have more gadgets but we dk abt snezhnaya yet (im thinking snezhnaya has some of their own gadgets as well)

[the-monkey-ruler]

How many forms of the 72 changes could cultivated animals/yaoguai handle? You said that the heavenly soldiers could only handle a limited number.

I don't think I said that they "could only handle" like it's not a requirement.

It's more like an observation. And this is my PERSONAL take based on these observations

Overpowered (Wukong and Erlang) - 72 transformations

Powerful (Highest rank soldiers/runaway heaven yaogaui)- 36 transformations

Strong (Most celestial solider/Demon Kings) - 18 transformations

Impressive (training immortals/stronger earth yaoguai) - 1 to 2 spells

Common (most yaoguai) - humanoid body

Weak (cultivating yaoguai) - cannot speak

We see that Wukong having 72 transformations is considered unusual. On the level of like a once-in-an-immortal-lifetime kind of genius that happens once in a million years. The only other person we see with this same power is Erlang Shen who is considered the best fighter in all of heaven and the only man that can go toe-to-toe with Wukong. I cannot stress enough how powerful Wukong is as a demon and how he being able to single-handling take on all of heaven is something very unusual and a massive threat within himself.

So from that we can easily assume since only the two most powerful characters in the novel have the 72 transformations have this kind of power that this is not common and that other demons shouldn't not be able to have it. Personally I think that no one else but Wukong and Erlang have this level or even come close.

Then we see what is the next level with is the 36 transformations. This is what we see that Zhu Bajie has. Bajie who was the Canopy Marshall of the Reeds, who was in charge of 80,000 men alone and only answered to the Jade Emporer himself because he was so highly ranked. From this observation, we can assume that Marshalls or other extremely high-positioned celestial soldiers have the 36 transformations. Pretty much every powerful celestial that isn't Erlang Shen himself.

I would argue that only MAYBE some Demon King could have 36 transformations, but this is highly unlikely as most yaoguai cultivate through eating humans and not through proper training under a teacher. There could be leeway that perhaps heaven-runaway animals that claim to have cultivated through heaven-means could have this power. This makes it so that maybe 5 Demon Kings out of the nearly 30 could have this level of transformation, and especially the ones that have said they cultivated because they gained knowledge in heaven, not just ran away. I would say this is like Yellow Wind Demon, Yellow Robe Demon, Golden and Silver Horned Kings, Scorpion Demon, and Bull Demon King.

And last is the 18 transformations. This is what we see what Sha Wujing has and he was a Curtain-Lifting General, which is a slightly higher position but we can assume to be closer to the common celestial solider power-wise. This is what I believe that most celestial soldiers have been able to master and is the standard. And what I think that most Demon Kings are able to master as well. I would find it impressive if Demon King could gain a human form, let alone master other spells. I would say this is like Black Wind King, White Bone Demon, Singled Horned Rhino King, Nine-Headed Insect, Jupiter's Rival, Hundred-Eyed Demon Lord, and White Deer Spirit.

We see only higher rank demons like Generals able to perform maybe one or two transformations and that was to escape combat. Only Demon King seem to have one to more than one spells. Or we see that some demons are able to master serval spells I would but they are not powerful as Wukong is easily able to overpower them. I say these impressive demons are like Tiger Vangarud, Tiger Immortal, Elk Immortal, Antelope Immortal, all Eight Tree Spirits, all Seven Spider sisters, and Iron-Backed Grey Wolf.

As for normal everyday yaogaui that have cultivated on their own I would say that they are not capable of transformation spells at all. Most demons we see on this journey are underlings and we see none (that I remember) perform any spells. Just that they are able to cultivate by eating humans to understand language and gain a humanoid body takes all their accumulated power, and they are under a teacher to learn more, they are following a demon king to serve. We see this like Sly Devil, Wily Worm, Hill-Pawing Tiger, Sea-Lolling Draong, Going and Coming, and Springe Grace.

And demons that are still cultivating and cannot speak like the Python Demon.

[erivroom]

MDZS Shapeshifting Cultivation AU plans

this is mostly just a note for my future fanfic writing, because I have a lot of fic ideas surrounding these ideas and plan to link this post in their notes. posting this publicity for any feedback (pls i beg any ideas) and if anyone wishes to use this as well for fics go ahead!!

Non-cultivators do not have animal traits. These traits come through by learning shape-shifting cultivation.

Not only is it extremely difficult to learn to hide their traits, it is extremely rude to do so for many reasons. The main and biggest reason is hiding your traits as a cultivator is like a big “fuck you” to your ancestors.

While there is A LOT of genetic factors, that is not always the case. The genetic factor is usually just upon the main clan families. A cultivator can never gain traits from the main clans, so they are seen as mythical beings even within this universe.

For rogue cultivators it’s USUALLY random, and can even be from the outer clan types. This is because somewhere in their family tree far back there would have been someone from this clan.

Cultivator children born within a main clan branch have their animal traits from a very young age, and they do not typically change beyond a FEW exceptions. If these changes ever happen, even to outer branching families it’s seen as negative, as they have “abandoned” their clan.

Qishan — Wen family are wolves, outer branches are based on house dogs

lmao wwx is scared of dogs it’s perfect

Wen Rohan — Black wolf (like a Tiangou)

Wen Chao — Brown wolf

Wen(Zhao) Zhuliu — Asian Black Bear, often confused as a dog bc he was taken in by the Wens and all that

Wen Ning — Siberian Husky

Wen Qing — German Shepherd

Wen Yuan — Rabbit (??? i’ll explain it in the fic. maybe. maybe it’s better to just leave it a mystery LMAO)

Yunmeng — Main Jiang family wild/big cats, otherwise house cats

Jiang Fengmian — Leopard

Yu Ziyuan — Spider

Jiang Cheng — Lynx

Jiang Yanli — Tiger

Wei Wuxian — Black Fox

Wei Changze — Maine Coon

Lanling — Main Jin family are Peacocks, otherwise birds

Jin Guangshan — Peacock, normal coloring

Jin Zixuan — Peacock, normal coloring

Jin Guangyao — Peacock, white coloring

Qin Su — Peacock, Red coloring, was thought to be a phoenix so… yeah that. happened.

Mo Xuanyu — Peacock, Charcoal/Black colored, often called a crow to belittle his heritage

Jin Ling — Qiongqi

Xue Yang — an actual crow

Qinghe — Main Nie family are Qilin, others are other horned beings (deer, moose, sheep, ect.)

Gusu — Only main family are Dragons, others are bunnies (how does this make sense? it doesn’t but it just is how it is.)

Also, eastern dragon, not western. Wormji.

Lan Wangji’s mother was a White Long-tailed weasel.

Other

Song Lan — Black bat (it’s funny bec–)

A-Qing — a mole

Baoshan Sanren and her disciples become Nine-Tailed Foxes through cultivating. One of if not the only exceptions to changing attributes the cultivation world has ever seen. Nobody knows how it’s done, and only her disciples have ever become nine-tailed foxes.

This pisses off the Wens no doubt, because they think as canines the Nine-Tailed Fox should belong to them.

Cangse Sanren was a grey nine-tailed fox

Xiao Xingchen was a white nine-tailed fox

Fics based on this post

none yet, I’ll add my links when I post them though if anyone else uses this post and wants me to add their fic link feel free to let me know!

You can use the ideas in this post without credit, I’m fine with it ^^

[zuzsenpai]

Zuzu's bug-ventures June 8-16, 2024 (insects/spiders from a state park in northeast Pennsylvania) (re-uploading because of file size issues)

I figured I would make a collage after getting so many! A couple of the above photos have duplicates, so all in all I believe I found 65 distinct kinds. I'm still working to ID some of them, but all the ones I think I have ID'd are under the cut. Anyway, it was truly a fun experience. Maybe next time I'll have a camera that isn't a shitty phone!

You can see full size photos of most of these here.

IDs under the cut

Just a note, I'm not 100% on any of these. My IDs are speculative based on google searches, reddit, and so-on. If you think something is wrong, PLEASE let me know!

Also, each image has 9 insects/spiders in a grid. I will be referring to each grid of 9 insects/spiders as a single image below, and identifying all 9 based on rows within the image. If that makes sense. Hopefully it does!

Image 1 (first row left):

Top row (from left to right): Northern paper wasp (I'm told it's carrying caterpillar meat); Hickory tussock moth; Ground beetle of some kind (could not ID)

Middle row: Fall cankerworm moth; Barn spider; Red ichneumon wasp

Bottom row: Long-horned caddisfly; Copper underwing caterpillar; Brush-legged mayfly

Image 2 (first row right):

Top row: Very loud very big bee (could not ID); Common blue mud dauber wasp; Harvestman spider

Middle row: Limoniid crane fly; Firefly; Hoverfly

Bottom row: Elegant grass-veneer moth; Tiger crane fly; Western honey bee

Image 3 (second row left):

Top row: Two-spotted bumble bee; Marsh fly; Yellow-collared scape moth? (could not ID)

Middle row: Wolf spider (male); Macaria moth; Tipula lunata (type of crane fly)

Bottom row: Robber fly; Brown-toed forest fly; Virginian tiger moth

Image 4 (second row right):

Top row: Blue dasher dragonfly? (could not ID. Dead in spider web); White admiral butterfly; Chalk-fronted corporal dragonfly

Middle row: Clubtail dragonfly? (could not ID); Hemlock borer beetle; Eastern tent caterpillar

Bottom row: Another Tipula lanata crane fly; Double-banded grass-veneer moth; Horace's duskywing butterfly

Image 5 (third row left):

Top row: Cabbage white butterfly; Spongy moth caterpillar; Dragonfly exoskeleton (could not ID)

Middle row: White-striped running crab spider; Jumping spider (could not ID, but yes there is a spider in this photo!); Orchard orbweaver spider

Bottom row: Soldier beetle; Fortunate wave moth; Another white admiral butterfly

Image 6 (third row right):

Top row: Tussock moth caterpillar; A third white admiral butterfly (this is the last one I promise! They just have so much variation!); Another spongy moth caterpillar

Middle row: Common green bottle fly; Eastern parson spider; Another orchard webweaver spider

Bottom row: Blue dasher dragonfly (possibly female); Calligrapher fly; Dun skipper butterfly

Image 7 (last row left):

Top row: Another fortunate wave moth? (could not ID); Orbweaver spider of some kind (Could not ID); Eastern tiger swallowtail butterfly

Middle row: Stonefly exoskeleton; Ontario sallfly; Lesser house fly

Bottom row: White-striped black moth; Pale metarranthis moth (this one is my favorite find); White planthopper? (could not ID)

Image 8 (last row right):

Top row: Millipede; Immaculate grass-veneer moth; Flat wireworm beetle

Middle row: Twobanded Japanese weevil (WEEVIL TIME!!); Earwig; Bob's yellow and black millipede

Bottom row: Click beetle; Sod webworm moth? (could not ID); Deer fly

And that's it! Again, let me know if I made mistakes or if you know any of the ones I couldn't ID.

[little-pup-pip]

i remember u posting a thing where it shows all the requests you haven't done yet. I just want to see as I requested something long ago in 2023. I'm not trying to seem pushy, I'm just curious!

(this was rhe person that requested a bugbo thing)

Here you go!! This is very long, so I put the list under the cut!

These are the requests sent after I stopped accepting them that I didn't delete for various reasons. If you sent in a request after I closed them on March 14th and don't see it here, you'll need to send a new one (please don't take it personally if I deleted it)!!

Black + squirrel

Asra (the arcana)

Shurara (keroro gunsou)

Ring tailed lemur

Buzz light-year

Rottweiler

Yellow raccoon petre

Lionel Messi

Sonic the hedgehog

Light pink and blue bunnies

Middle school gym class

Jenny wakeman (my life as a teenage robot)

Chris Kratt (wild Kratts)

Yuri (doki doki literature club)

Cole (Lego Ninjago)

Crowley (good omens)

Stingray

Prince + bunnies

CG vil (twisted wonderland)

Alt + Wolf-dog

Golden retriever

Hobbes (Calvin and Hobbes)

Kipo (kipo and the age of wonderbeasts, I think)

Leif (my inner demons)

Little big planet 3

Clouds + pastel blue

Outdoorsy + animals

Sun and stars + bunnies

Chase (paw patrol, I actually have two of these waiting)

Cinnamoroll

Eastern red bat

Octopus regression

Tiger CG

Aquarium trip

Pastel coloring + kitties

lavender/grey bunnies

Pastel dolls

Jumping spiders/Leopard geckos

Dr. animo (ben 10)

Shuichi saihara

Black Shiba inu

This is everything left from before I closed my requests!

Osamu dazai (bsd)

Flutist

The dazzlings (equestria girls)

Vampire with Halloween themes

Guardians of ga'hoole

Gromsko (MW2/3)

V (murder drones)

Cg SD-N (murder drones)

Cassidy (overwatch) and cowboys

TMNT Leonardo

Ranboo

Pastel kitty

Lackadaisy

Epithet erased

Another OC named cerys

Pikmin

Slay the princess

Someone's pictures (Idk what to call this one just know that I'm going to do it)

The Magnus protocol

Bive (regretavator)

Donnie darko

Megamind

Jake Peralta (Brooklyn nine nine)

Allister (pokemon)

Umi (idk from where I'll figure it out eventually)

Rottweiler puppy and the creek

Monster tom (eddsworld)

Gnarpy (regretavator)

Xianzhao loufu (hsr)

Cg jing yuan (hsr)

Cupcake and dino

Kitty petre pomni (tadc)

Shiromo (pui pui molcar)

Jack harkness (doctor who)

Pettoism

Cg basil hallward (the picture of Dorian gray)

Cats

Spiderman (again! lol)

Mei (Lego monkie kid)

Cats + cakes

Houndoom (pokemon)

Wolfwalkers from cartoon saloon

Lucifer (hazbin hotel)

Critterspace (drafts)

Minecraft lush caves (drafts)

Ibara saegusa

Llewellyn Watts (Murdoch Mysteries)

Jake (trailer park warlock, drafts)

Cult of the lamb (pet dreaming themed)

Tubbo

Cassie (fnaf: ruin)

Black kitten + space

Grey draik (neopets)

Pumpkin head (still needs more research)

Someone's OC Avery & siblings

Maki harukawa

Brown, lime green and forest green puppy

Dylan (the magic roundabout)

Zombies

Vincent (dead plate)

Osamu dazai (bungo stray dogs, drafts)

Vision CG (marvel, drafts)

Light blue

Bearded vulture

Mind (Chonny Jash/CCCC)

Seam CG (deltarune)

John Constantine (Justice League Dark)

Keralis (Hermitcraft, maybe)

Tula tones (novi stars, drafts)

Eevee + dragons (or witchy themes which I may do instead)

Kitten + stars (I think, the request actually says stairs though and it's been confusing me)

Mushrooms

Grey + Ross federman youtooz (drafts)

Boyfriend.xml (Friday night funkin')

Puppet (fnaf)

Genshin impact (drafts)

Eddsworld

Karako Pierot (hiveswap)

Scorpion

Border Collie

Mortal Kombat

Puppy + SpongeBob (drafts)

Baby vulture (drafts)

Rain world/slugcat (drafts)

Border Collie

Modded smash hit rooms

Crying child (fnaf)

Agent Smith CG (the matrix)

Rolfe DeWolfe CG (Rockafire Explosion)

Slime rancher

Puppet (fnaf)

Parado (Kamen Rider)

Tally hall

Rockabilly (probably)

Felix Lee

Charles Xavier CG (X-Men)

Naoto Shirogane (persona 4, drafts)

Kitoto

17th century dutch (drafts)

Sees behind trees (drafts)

Allay (Minecraft, I think. Drafts)

Tasmanian devil (drafts, can't figure out if they want the cartoon or animal)

Spamton CG (deltarune, drafts)

Grunge + lop eared bunnies (drafts)

Yume-Nikki (drafts)

Daxter (jak and daxter, drafts)

Madness combat for puppies (drafts)

James Sunderland (silent Hill, drafts)

Shirokuma (Danganronpa, drafts)

Leo (IDW comic, drafts)

[floatingcamel23]

minecraft idea: sub species? breeds? crossbreeding? hybrids???

lets say you breed a black wolf with a oak wolf. normally it depends on the biome. BUT, imagine instead of it being depending on the biome, what if it depends on the parents? there should be a chance it would be a oak wolf and a black wolf. but there should be a chance for a mixed breed. see where im heading with this? you could get a oak/black wolf if your lucky! thats the mixed breeds. for sub species, it could be variants of mobs like a cave slime or a wild boar. we (kinda) have these like the stray, bogged, husk, drowned, wither skeleton, cave spider but they are exclusive to hostile mobs. so maybe this could be a way to bring in mobs from spin off games! now for hybrids. the only way i can see this happen is if minecraft adds more animals. if minecraft added zebras, lions, tigers, snakes, lizards, more fish, more birds, etc, we could breed specific creatures to get a hybrid. (note that most hybrids wont be able to be breedable just like in real life.) i doubt that mojang will do this though. (I WANT TO MAKE A YAKALO SO BADLY THO-) though we do still have the hostile mobs. you wont be able to breed them but you can try to find a hybrid in the wild. they would be rare though and it would encourage players to explore to find them. though we can also make do with the mobs we have. ever heard of a geep? its a sheep/goat hybrid. if mojang adds alpacas (PLS ADD THEM MOJANG-) then we can breed them with llamas and make a huarizo which is a llama/alpaca hybrid. dont forget the Cama! camel/llama hybrid. imagine a zombie/enderman hybrid! nvm i zombie could just infect it. we would be fucked if someone coded all of this to the game! ("wink wink" do it. code this to the game, mod creators.) thats all! bye!

[the-ellia-west]

How many of My Characters have an Animal Motif in J&R (Side characters and Villains included)

Ronan - Wolf

Mangrove - Tiger/Monkey

Finn - Crow

Morena - Owl

Wild - X (Ghosts aren't animals)

Phenik - Snake (Any)

Rose - X

Jak - Goat

Fye - X (Sirens don't count, do they?)

Niisuda - Rattlesnake

Aseiri - Fox

Eynalis - X

Jatár - X (Rat Bastard Maybe)

Vimadé - Spider

Underground - Cobra or Black Mamba

Tyrant - X

[imthepunchlord]

Ok, so I was looking at those posts about what the kwami's powers echoed, and realizing I had a lot of free time, I thought, "Hey, maybe I could try the whole organizing 5 groups of 7 miraculous, it could be fun and give me something to do". And my god, this was so HARD, I have gained a whole new level of respect for you. Here's what I managed to cobble together. Keep in mind I worked purely off of the themes you said the powers echoed, what you said the miracle boxes were tied to, and the color symbolism of the boxes (I didn't even attempt to factor in color or pairs)

Red

Ladybug

Cat

Butterfly

Dragonfly

Turtle

Horse

Tiger

Yellow

Songbird

Pig

Mouse

Grasshopper

Monkey

Mantis

Rooster

Green

Fish

Frog

Swan

Rabbit

Bear

Crane

Eagle

Blue

Bee

Deer

Dog

Dove

Lion

Snake

Peafowl

Purple

Fox

Goat

Wolf

Spider

Raven

Owl

Bull

It is very hard, especially trying to do a pleasing color wheel and trying to get some decent pairs, and yeah, it's just not easy. It's kinda why I decided to try and explore different numbered groups as there are clearer themes and ideas to work off of, and it's been easier to set up so far.

Either way, you got pretty close to those placements, at least where I have them at this time. Major kudos and what you were able to think of and put together.

[have-some-facts]

The biology teacher talked about camouflage and mimicry in animals yesterday.

I’m interested.

There are different types of camouflage. Mimicry is one of them. This is when an animal looks like another animals or something gross. Mimicry sometimes also is when an animal sounds like something else. For example, there is a moth that mimics the sound of a tiger moth because those are not really tasty.

You also have examples of moths that look like a broken twig, a caterpillar pretending to be a venomous snake and a butterfly looking like a leaf. Maybe you see a pattern here. It’s a lot of butterflies and moths. Other insects do it too! For example hover flies and stick bugs mantises. And we all know those smaller wasps, right? Well, those are the, completely harmless, hover flies! They use this to not get attacked by humans.

Octopi also use camouflage! (Only one species though, this species is called the mimicry octopus)When they swim over the ocean ground they let their tentacles free after them too look like some kind of flat fish. When they’re swimming normally/up the octopi also let their tentacles go free. They do this to look like a lion fish. When the octopi are resting or sleeping they bury themself under the sand. The octopi let their two of their tentacles go free to make it seem like a very venomous snake.

The hawk-moth caterpillars also ‘use’ batesian mimicry. They have adapted themselves to look like highly venomous snakes. They do this because well, they’re caterpillars- they’re quite big too.

The mimicry of octopi and other creatures looking like dangerous animals is called batesian mimicry.

There is also acoustic mimicry. This is when animals sound like another animal. I’ve talked about one moth sounding like another (tiger) moth, right? Well, other animals do this too.

Several species of spiders mimic ants. Though this is not as handy as you might think. They have a smaller waist and therefor can carry less egg sacs. They don’t reproduce as much as other spiders do.

Then we have Emsleyan mimicry. This is when a dangerous animal mimics a less or non dangerous animal. I actually cannot find or understand the explanation to this. So I apologise for that.

Now we’re going to my favourite type of mimicry. Aggressive mimicry. This is the wolf’s in sheep’s clothing approach where an animal looks like prey or has a limb that looks like prey.

Two of my favourite examples here are the alligator snapping turtle and the spider-tailed horned viper.

The alligator snapping turtle will hang out underwater and open it’s mouth. Snapping turtles have a tongue that they can move to represent a worm. The snapping turtles will just wait, unmovingly, for an animal to be stupid enough to try and eat the ‘worm’ in the mouth of the snapping turtle.

No thank you.

Now, onto the spider-tail horned viper. This snack or viper has a weird looking tail. The snake itself will hide/camouflage with some rocks and move its tail to mimic a moving spider. The first time I saw a video I was convinced it was a spider, till I saw something fly to it to try and eat the spider and I saw a snake jump out of there to grab it.

Unbelievable, right?

I already talked about how mantises can look like ants, right? (If not, they can)

There are mantises that look like flowers. Let’s take the orchid mantis as example for this. They use this as hunting camouflage. They climb up an orchid and sit next to the flower to then wait for a prey to come. It’s really cool and they are also very beautiful.

They of course are also different mantises. Some look like leafs and also dead leafs.

And that is all for now! Have a good day!

[josephine-futturwoman]

Whoooaaa this is trippy… so you’re like Josh but female and from a different timeline? Wowwowow!! It’s like something from the mcu or into the spider-verse!

Yeah ikr?! Crazy! And I looooveeee SPIDER-MAN into the spiderverse!! It would be sooo cool to be a spider person, if only Tiger and Wolf knew how to travel through different dimensions.. Who knows, maybe a spider-man me exists somewhere out there?!?!

[greyplainsttrpg]

5e Villain Arc 5.5 2024 One Next

The last post was a diatribe into specifically the absurdity of turning into a Brown Bear at Level 2. My problem with turning into a Brown Bear is that it is really easy and really powerful for a Level 2 Character to be able to do consistently. My complaint is not that the Brown Bear is the best thing that the Moon Druid can turn into. No. What makes the Moon Druid so unbelievably ridiculous is that the Brown Bear is THE FLOOR of what you can do at Level 2. The Floor, mind you, is twice per day getting a bunch of temporary HP, literally healing as you do it, getting a bunch of Str and Con, getting Longstrider, getting multi-attack, getting to-hit bonuses, etc. The Ceiling is MUCH higher, especially in comparison to what every other Class can do at Level 2. This ceiling is also far and above what every previous iteration of the Druid. Yes, including "omega-busted 3.5." The 3.5 Druid IS good, but not that good.

Let's first start with an overview of some of the crazy animals that a Druid can transform into at Level 2:

Dire Wolf: Fast, strong, bulky, stealthy, solid perception (best skill in the game).

Giant Eagle: 80 flying movement, strong, advantage on sight-based Perception (not a Spot Check btw inshallah) (still the best skill in the game) (also, the druid keeps THEIR Wisdom, btw).

Giant Spider: We'll circle back to this in a moment, HOWEVER, Climbing Movement, +7 stealth, stupid bite attack that does a crapload of damage, web projectile to control any non-martial Str-based Character (worst Ability Score, btw).

Lion/Tiger: The two are pretty similar, tbh. I think they are okay. They have a conditional multi-attack triggered off their pounce action, but like this is clearly just a worse bear in most situations. Getting advantage to attack as a lion (so long as sduifbewivb) is AN upside.

Reef Shark: This is not a CR 1 monster, but it is important to note that the Moon Druid gets immediate access to a pretty solid aquatic option on command. If the DM planned a "hard fight because water" and they forgot that they have a Moon Druid in the party, well that fight is pretty much over now. That is a bit of an exaggeration, but it adds to the overall stew of "why being a 5e DM sucks." The Moon Druid has a solution to basically every problem at Level 2 via spellcasting or wild shape. It peeves me a bit that the shark does not specifically require salt water to function, but whatever.

This is just what is available in the Player's Handbook. This does not include everything in the Monster Manual that the Druid gets access to. Granted, these are actually pretty slim pickings. The Giant Octopus is an upgrade to the Reef Shark in many cases. Nothing else stood out to me at CR 1 that was not better than the ones in the Player's Handbook, tbh.

Let's compare this to what every other Class gets at Level 2:

Barbarian; Reckless Attack and Danger Sense: The Druid gets ways to have Advantage via its various forms without the downside of giving opponents Advantage to hit them. Danger Sense does not matter if the Druid turns into a literal spider that cannot activate traps, a bird that flies above traps, just tanks the damage from the pathetic traps in 5e by being a self-healing bear, or is turned into something with excellent Dexterity.

Bard; Jack of All Trades: Why have 1/2 Proficiency when you could have +7 Proficiency to the skills you need by turning into the animal that accomplishes it? Yes, I know that an animal form will NOT give you all the skills you might want. The Druid cannot perfectly replicate this, but they can often outperform it when possible.

Cleric; Channel Divinity: Turn Undead and maybe a feature from their Divine Domain. If you happen to be fighting undead, this feature is great. If you are not fighting undead (most of the time), then this feature does literally nothing.

Fighter; Action Surge: This gets better, but for now Action Surge is strictly worse then being a Bear and always having more movement and multi-attack.

Monk; Ki and Unarmored Movement: Ki for multi-attack and Unarmored movement for bonus to movement. Literally just being a worse bear with more resources and without the option to have a flying movement speed of 80.

Paladin; Spellcasting, Divine Smite, Fighting Style: The Druid already has better spellcasting. many of the wild shape forms are similar to paladin fighting style. Divine smite is somewhat similar to the Druid healing themselves with Spell Slots during the transformation into Wild Shape in how they work. I think Divine Smite is better, but the average damage of being a bear out-performs the paladin with divine smite until the paladin receives Extra Attack. Even then, the bear is still doing pretty solidly at Level 5 with fewer resources.

Ranger; Fighting Style and Spellcasting: Strictly worse than the Paladin because no Divine Smite. Otherwise the same (excepting that the Ranger has Fighting Styles that the Druid cannot emulate).

Rogue; Cunning Action: LMAO. Okay, buddy.

Sorcerer; Font of Magic: Being able to shift how your magic works a bit is not overall as good as the inherent flexibility of being able to turn into so many different animals at Level 2. I'm strictly comparing the depth of flexibility between the two features, and I would rather be able to turn into anything.

Warlock; Eldritch Invocation: Again, in a purely flexibility comparison, whenever you have to choose anything you are losing to the Druid which does not really need to compromise.

Wizard; Arcane Tradition: A few of these are quite good. Portent, from Divination, is maybe the single only feature that is similarly potent to Wild Shape. Twice per day, the Divination Wizard can replace any d20 roll with an alternate roll. Depending on those dice rolls, that could be more critical to success than turning into a Brown Bear. On average, turning into a Brown Bear or anything else is probably better, but it is is debatable. Other than that, Abjuration is pretty good. Enchantment is okay. Evocation is okay.

So, besides the Divination Wizard, no other Class can compete with the Mood Druid at Level 2.

The counterargument I have heard a lot is "yeah, but the Moon Druid is not as good at higher Levels." Well, considering D&D 5e falls apart at higher levels anyway, idk how much I believe that or care. For one, the Druid is still a full Caster. For another, they eventually get to turn into an elemental which is... okay. I see it like this: between levels 2-8 or so, the Moon Druid is the party's primary combat threat and best utility option. After that, they shift solely to the party's best utility option and remain a solid combat threat. Also, by the time Combat Wild Shape becomes less good, the Druid can just cast Polymorph instead to be a CR ridiculous beast. Let me say it like this: I would prefer to be a level 15 Moon Druid over a Level 20 Fighter (any archetype). This is purely for the utility/power of being a full spellcaster with a huge upside of being able to quickly spam out extra HP as a Bonus Action. What the Moon Druid eventually lacks in offensive output with their Wild Shape they make up for in being the bulkiest spellcaster in the game (and it is not even close). I would likely prefer to be a Moon Druid over anything else in the game at basically any Level. Adaptability, speed, and bulk are just that good.

The Druid was not always this way. Combat Wild Shape has a lot in common with the bizarre power-creep of Dexterity (discussed in Villain Arc 4). In an attempt to simplify the nature of Wild Shape for players, the result is something obviously over-centralizing. It's not a perfect 1-1, obviously, but they share a number of aspects in game design failure. What is interesting about Combat Wild Shape is that it was actually fine in the D&D Next Playtest. In fact, it was actually way more interesting in that version. Let's take a look at what Wizards was cooking up before they burnt the house down.

So the text formatting describing what you get after the entry itself is... questionable, but this is not a final product so filing an actual complaint about that is actually unfair. This is the kind of thing I was expecting to change going from the Playtest to the Final Release. Not whatever the hell happened.

The important thing to note with this version of Wild Shape: You get access to kinds of forms over several levels. So all Druids start with the Hound, and then the Moon Druid gets bonuses to being a Hound. Then all Druids get the Steed, and then the Moon Druid gets the Bear and Cat. All Druids get the Rodent and Fish form at 7th Level. Finally, the Moon Druid can turn into a mammoth or some other huge animal. The Moon Druid gets access to a couple of unique forms (Bear, Cat, Behemoth) and they get bonuses to being them. It is a pretty okay subclass. In its current form, I would argue that it is actually somewhat weaker then Land Druid. If I were to make some edits to this Druid Circle, I would add a bird (or "Raptor") option instead of Cat. I think the Cat is too much of an in-between of the Bear and Hound and does not provide enough utility over what a Raptor would provide. Additionally, I think they should get Proficiency to the relevant Saves in their Wild Shape forms. Infinite uses of Wild Shape is a bit silly, but it is Level 20 so I don't really care. Like, it basically means that the Moon Druid can always heal themselves back to at least half-health+. It's not THAT overpowered though, so it's fine I guess. Now that I'm thinking about it, I would probably increase the healing from reverting from an animal form to be Double Level or Level + WIS MOD + PROF or something. It needs a little more sauce, in my opinion because the Druid doesn't just, like, get an infinite number of health-bars. I also think the bonuses to STR and DEX could actually go up. +2 and +4 are not amazing.

That's the primary difference between this Druid and the released Druid. This Druid assumes the SHAPE of an animal, but they can also fudge it around with room for player expression. The Release Druid just IS a bear (or whatever). One of the reasons that Release Moon Druids are so overpowered is because they do not need to spread their ability scores out, like, at all. They can roll up with a 8, 8, 8, 15, 15, 15 pre-species point-buy and do totally fine. Because in what situation are they not using the physical attributes of a better form? When they are casting spells in the background? The Next Druid needs to actually consider their ability scores. They are not a Bear, they are a Druid with the appearance of a Bear. It is a huge distinction that sets a wildly different tone for the game.

Another interesting thing to note here is that the small forms (fish and rodent) are locked away to a higher level than the more obvious combat or utility forms. That's because being Small but with the HP of a Druid is actually pretty epic and powerful. This is why CR is NOT a good metric to determine what is or is not reasonable for a PC to be able to turn into at X Level. Small is kinda cracked actually, and being able to access these forms should be gated to a higher level.

This leads us to the elephant (CR 4 btw) in the room. Binding the Druid to the worst thought-through mechanic in any TTRPG was always going to lead to disaster. This is my conspiracy theory, but I genuinely believe that the Moon Druid in particular is responsible for the entire cascade of nonsense that is the CR system in 5e. Maybe not intentionally, but certainly functionally. Let me explain.

Let's pretend that I am a WotC Designer in the years 2013-2014. We have come up with this system called "Challenge Rating" that clarifies what a party of 4 PCs should be able to fight and defeat with using some amount of resources. Similar to WoW and Skyrim, some of the early enemies a party should be able to fight are animals. I'm not sure WHY this is the case, but it is. However, there are now two questions: 1) what Level should a party be to fight the animal and 2) what level should the moon druid be able to turn into it? The result has beast-master results. Because I don't think the average person knows just how truly nightmarish and kaiju-adjacent brown bears are. They are faster than horses, can run as long as horses, they weigh several hundred pounds, their claws are razor-sharp, they consistently carve and powerlift their way through cars to get a baggy of peanuts, they can climb trees and other objects as fast as they run. Do you know how bears deal with wild fires? They run INTO the wildfire to get to the other side as quickly as possible. Their survival strategy for the kill-everything button is to just tank the damage. And it works. Bears are more powerful than your wall of fire spell. Bears have some of the most sensitive noses in nature, exceeding dogs by a fair amount. The actual power of grizzly bears is not properly reflected on their stat block. Why are they so terribly nerfed? Probably so that the Moon Druid can turn into them at Level 2. All the animals in 5e are not accurately portrayed. They are all much slower, weaker, and less adapted than their real-life counterparts. Take for example the expected Strength Score of a Brown Bear. It naturally has 19 Strength. As a game mechanic for a Player to turn into, that is a pretty impressive number, but for an actual bear that number is pretty terrible. Think about it like this: the strongest humans can temporarily power-lift something as heavy as a sedan car for a few moments by a few inches. Bears have been known to simply push these kinds of cars over for scraps of food. This is funnier when you think about elephants. Elephants have 22 Str? That's it? Like, no. They don't. Bears should probably have like 25-30 Str, and elephants probably have like 50 Str. HOWEVER, this would be really weird game mechanics in the situation that something were to turn INTO a bear or an elephant. Imagine being an elephant for a moment. You just are the biggest thing on land currently existing (that is alive and can move). One mid-level wizard and a couple of elephants could probably defeat most dragons.

Think about it like this. Ignore the the total number and consider just the modifier as it presents on a d20. Each number on a d20 is equivalent to 5%. RaR, a Brown Bear is 20% (+4) stronger than a guy/gal/gaul (first thing that came in my head and I thought it was funny--don't tell Caesar lol). An elephant is 30% stronger than a commoner. Like, think about that. What the hell? What--the hell. That's not how elephants work. 30% stronger? If you could deadlift around 250lbs with some practice, then an elephant could deadlift 325bs. Now, how much can an Elephant deadlift is a confusing question because they don't/can't do that. However an elephant can lift over 650 lbs with their trunk alone. So an elephant's trunk, not the elephant itself, is 260% stronger than an average-ish human. And an elephant does not practice specifically to be the swolest elephant, so we don't really know what the peak strength of an elephant's trunk is. Anyway, put into 5% increments and then added to 10, the elephant's trunk should have a Strength of 62 and possess a modifier of +26. That is not the elephant itself. That is the trunk, okay. Now, as game design, should the elephant's trunk have a +26 to attack and damage? Probably not. That's why it MIGHT not be a good idea to give enemies the same kinds of ability scores as player-characters. Would you believe that D&D did not use to do enemies this way?

Is AD&D/2nd Edition perfect? No. Does this game properly represent an elephant? Probably not. However, the elephant has an effective +11 to attack, 5 attacks that each do 2d6 or 2d8 damage, has an average of 55HP (you have to understand, that's a pretty solid amount of HP for AD&D) or more if you assume max role (many GMs do, thus 88HP), and they appear in groups of up to 12. What is the CR of AN elephant, let alone 12 elephants? You might say, "but Mr. Greyplains, this is not strictly more powerful than the 5e version!" True. Again, this is not a perfect translation of an elephant either. However, the numbers that are smaller are scaled to a game that generally has smaller numbers. Assuming a Character is the same level as the Elephant's hit die, a Wizard will have an average of 32 HP at Level 11, and a Fighter will have an average HP of 61-70 (if they have at least 15 Con for the second number). So 2d8 + 2d8 immediate damage could high-roll 1-shot a Level 11 Wizard. It could then Trunk/Stomp the fighter for 2d6/2d6 and then stomp something else for another 2d6. Then up to 11 more elephants get to resolve. Back to the primary subject at hand.

This leans the conversation back into Villain Arc 4 territory. I think that the solution to Strength's problems, in particular, is to just let it get unbounded from the other ability scores. You want to have super-heroic strength? Sure. Put enough levels into Fighter, and you can have like a 26 Strength or something. Pop-off king/queen/themperor. I'm not against super-heroes being as strong as bears. I'm against bears being as strong as a strong guy. Strength can be less useful overall (as per Villain Arc 4) if the number is allowed to get gigantic. This hits on the similar subject as Villain Arc 3. The Beast Master Ranger is partly so bad because of how weak the animals they control are. The real-world elements of Dungeons and Dragons 5e are worse then their reality equivalent IN ADDITION to being worse than their magical alternative. Truly, it is the Strength Ability Score, in particular, that is the actual through line of WotC's terrible game design.

What level should 4 adventurers be able to fight a brown bear? Like, a real one. I have no idea. You see, the problem with CR is that I have no idea who the party is, what their levels are, what their equipment is, what the temperament of the Players are, what the temperament of the GM is, etc. A PC that is optimized to fight a bear could probably do it pretty easily with planning. Say for example you had a character who could train several dogs (impossible RaR, btw) who could spook a bear into a specific position. At this point, the character would take their very powerful projectile to the place wear the bear is cornered and then kill it from a safe position. This is how bear hunting works. It is terrible for the bear but also the dogs because the hunters VERY OFTEN just leaves the dogs in the woods, however people CAN kill bears with a winning strategy. Is this hunter a Level 1 Player character? Are they part of a Level 1 party, they being a Level 1 character and each of their three dogs also being level 1 characters? People hunt elephants. It sucks, but it is achievable. It's not that hard. The general trick is to 1) have a car and 2) have a gun.

The Moon Druid is just the perfect synthesis of everything wrong with 5e. The Moon Druid is too powerful, yet they are also too weak. They are too weak because otherwise the non-casters would not be able to compete with their most common form--the brown bear. The same kinds of non-casters that historically are absolutely capable of killing the un-nerfed, real-world bear with proper strategy (without character levels). The Moon Druid should not be able to turn into a bear because turning into a bear should be essentially game-ending. The game is fundamentally vexing because the elements which are based in reality are weird and video-gamey to a comical degree. I can see an anti-simulationist argument here of "yo, this is a game, it does not have to be realistic." Sure, but if the designers want to use real creatures in their game, those will be used as touchstones to compare all other elements of the game to.

The result of this nonsense is that 5e is not a power-fantasy game. The PCs are not that powerful, really. The universe they inhabit is just so incredibly flaccid that it crumbles to the slightest bit of organic strategy and exploits of mechanics. It is a daycare. You are a child in a padded room with little toys to smash into each other with no actual risk. And I, as the DM, am the underpaid daycare worker who is begging you to play with the toys fairly and to stop hitting the other children with the toys. The parent, WotC has LEFT the building and only comes back to reprimand me for not allowing their precious little child to do whatever they want because "I'm paying for this service" in the sense that we only are working daycare because they provided the context to allow it to exist. Not a perfect analogy, but that's how it feels DMing a 5e game with a Moon Druid PC. "Oh yeah, I turn into a bear! Oh yeah, I turn into a giant spider! Oh yeah, I turn into a shark!"

Fucking kill me.

#transrights

#freepalestine

#buymybook

Previous Villain Arc Post:

[doubleddenden]

I'm tempted to shop around for fakemon artists to commission. These brain storming sessions for these new starters I want to make are harder than it usually is for me (then again I'm also tired and hurting from falling through a rotten porch and dealing with niblings, so that might be a thing).

I think the ideas are there, though.

To reiterate: the region is based on the US Gulf Coast states with a somewhat stronger emphasis on where I grew up or exaggerations of places I've been here.

Lately there's a trend of starters having a theme matching something about their regions- Galar, Hisui, and Paldea especially.

However, I decided to make the unifying theme be that NONE of the pokemon you choose are from the region- well, maybe relative species, but not the precise ones being used. In fact, they're alien as in outer space and crop circles alien.

They're also literal takes on animals named for animals.

So for instance, the one I'm really happy with idea wise is a Rhinoceros beetle- or, basically a large Rhinoceros with extra limbs, a hard shell, basically beetle qualities. It's a grass/steel type.

Slightly okay with but might change my mind on: leopard frog- as in something akin to a quadruped leopard or cheetah body plan, but it's got something like a tree frog face and tongue and feet, and it's got a long tadpole tale. Fire rock type tentatively. Other ideas I'm currently wrestling are some sort of fire turtle, a literal bull frog, a bull mastiff, leopard gecko, etc.

The water type I'm having a lot of issues deciding on. Originally I was going to do a water type wolf spider that's bipedal, has 6 arms to fight with, has canine qualities, and can split it's mouth open- but really the idea has little to do with a water associated animal that can live on land without stretching too far in different directions (like seadog+ bell diver spider) to make it fit the description. Other ideas include a bipedal mantis shrimp with a body plan akin to a Scizor, Golisopod, and Lurantis fusion, but shrimp can be found on the coast. Third idea barely matches the above theme but it's essentially a sea bunny that turns into a sea Dragon/blue gaucus. 4th is a tiger shark- you get the idea.

And then again I'm tempted to scrap the idea entirely and just go for something slightly more reasonable like a flying fox fire bat and another attempt at my crab guy.

The rhinoceros beetle is cool though. Keeping him for something. Quite frankly so is wolf spider and leopard frog in concept.

Anyway I'm wanting to shop to see if I can maybe get help visualizing things?