Apex Predators on Athas

Rhal-othan · February 16, 2021, 3:41am

What are the apex predators on Athas?
I assume there will be a different one for each terrain type:

Sandy Wastes
Stony Barrens
Rocky Badlands
Salt Flats
Scrub Plains
Silt Sea
Ringing Mountains
Forest Ridge
Crimson Savanah
Mudflats

Kalakoftyr · February 16, 2021, 12:11pm

This seems like a good topic to me. I can’t wait to see what people think. I’ll consider it myself and get back to you.

Sysane · February 16, 2021, 1:04pm

Nightmare beast. All environments.

ouroboros · February 16, 2021, 1:18pm

First and foremost, the dragon.
Secondly, drakes.

Star-Sage · February 16, 2021, 2:26pm

Here’s a starting point I used after some skimming and using 2e’s xp awarded as a guideline. I probably missed some very nasty critters, but some of the scariest critters around are collected here. I also list multiple examples when some critters are so nasty they deserve mentioning.

Sandy Wastes: Sink Worms, Antloids (in sufficiently large nests)
Salt Flats: Dune Trappers
Mountains: Braxats, Klars, Rocs
Rocky Badlands: Driks (more of an apex herd beast)
Tablelands: So-ut, Plains Giants
Forest Ridge: Sloths
Sea of Silt: Gray Silt Horrors, Silt Drakes, Sand Vortexes
Crimson Savannah: Trin (in packs they are one of the most feared things in the savannah)
Subterranean: Giant Psurlons
Anywhere: Dune Reapers (VERY deadly pack hunters), Stalking Horrors, Nightmare Beasts

Rhal-othan · February 16, 2021, 11:54pm

Great list @Star-Sage .
Only 3 things a Nightmare Beast won’t attack: the Dragon, Drakes and Megapedes - maybe we should add Megapede to the list?

Also, I always imagined Kirre being a Forest Ridge apex predator?

Sysane · February 17, 2021, 1:11am

Not on your list of environments, but Last Sea would be the squark.

Killer_DM · February 17, 2021, 1:30am

On that note, the Obsidian Elemental of the Obsidian Plain/Deadlands.

Star-Sage · February 17, 2021, 2:25am

I was actually debating adding megapede in, but I was trying to keep each environment relatively short and the Sink Worm seemed like tough competition for the Sandy Wastes while Antloids demonstrated a very different sort of threat. But megapedes definitely are one of the nastiest critters to stumble across.

As for the Deadlands being on the list, there’s not really any predators since there is no real ecosystem there afaik. That being said I am down with simply listing the deadliest monsters of each region, but I would also start including elementals and undead.

Rhal-othan · February 20, 2021, 3:32am

Your rationale makes sense @Star-Sage . The inclusion of Antloids was a nice surprise - we tend to think of apex predators as lone hunters and I like that you brought in the whole social hunting dynamic.

You also left off Drakes, which I find, for some reason, very satisfying. Maybe it was the early art but I always felt like Drakes were not a great match for DS.

Star-Sage · February 20, 2021, 3:48am

I mostly left out Drakes because the majority of them lack one specific habitat and they were already mentioned. I’ll admit I personally haven’t used Drakes, but I think they can work if used as a fixture of an area:

“Yeah we don’t go anywhere near that silt lake, the walking mountain (an earth Drake) is often seen there.”