Looking for a reptile combat mount for an evil CK

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RockJock
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Looking for a reptile combat mount for an evil CK

Unread post by RockJock »

Hey all, I'm looking for suggestions for a combat worthy mount for an evil cyber knight. Man sized character, so nothing too small/too big. The mount can be intelligent, or just an animal, preferably MDC based. A few thoughts/options so far: Blood Lizard from SA2, various raptor like dinosaurs, Mega Steeds, Psi- Ponies, Black Market exotic robot horses with a reptile theme. Something like a Dragon Cat is pushing the reptile angle, but is doable, same with a Dragondactyl, or whatever the dark Pegasus like thing is called.

Any other thoughts or ideas?
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Re: Looking for a reptile combat mount for an evil CK

Unread post by Father Goose »

RockJock wrote:Hey all, I'm looking for suggestions for a combat worthy mount for an evil cyber knight. Man sized character, so nothing too small/too big. The mount can be intelligent, or just an animal, preferably MDC based. A few thoughts/options so far: Blood Lizard from SA2, various raptor like dinosaurs, Mega Steeds, Psi- Ponies, Black Market exotic robot horses with a reptile theme. Something like a Dragon Cat is pushing the reptile angle, but is doable, same with a Dragondactyl, or whatever the dark Pegasus like thing is called.

Any other thoughts or ideas?

I like the idea of a BM robot horse. Trick it out with a custom design to give it (cosmetic) draconic appearance to add to the fearsome motif. Like the drocolisk mounts from Dragon Age Inquisition.
taalismn wrote:Hey, you came up with a novel, attention-getting idea, you did the legwork, you worked it through, you made it fit the setting, even though initial thought might be 'nah, it can't work, it's too silly/stupid/lame', and you posted something that only required a little adjustment, yet can be added to, without diluting its original concept. How can we not give you due support and credit?
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Re: Looking for a reptile combat mount for an evil CK

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Xlicitx Eater in Rifter 14 or 15, maybe 16.
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Re: Looking for a reptile combat mount for an evil CK

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Chariot pulled by four Cactus People?
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Re: Looking for a reptile combat mount for an evil CK

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Mack.....wow.....at least you have a ready supply of refreshing Cactus Juice.


I'm leaning to the robot right now. If I come up with something I like better I might recycle the idea and make a robot companion of some kind.
Last edited by RockJock on Fri Sep 20, 2019 4:35 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Looking for a reptile combat mount for an evil CK

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You said it was an evil Cyber-Knight. :twisted:
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Re: Looking for a reptile combat mount for an evil CK

Unread post by Father Goose »

Mack wrote:Chariot pulled by four Cactus People?

Come on, Mack! You know it would be a covered hover wagon, not a chariot! How culturally insensitive of you!
taalismn wrote:Hey, you came up with a novel, attention-getting idea, you did the legwork, you worked it through, you made it fit the setting, even though initial thought might be 'nah, it can't work, it's too silly/stupid/lame', and you posted something that only required a little adjustment, yet can be added to, without diluting its original concept. How can we not give you due support and credit?
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Re: Looking for a reptile combat mount for an evil CK

Unread post by taalismn »

Father Goose wrote:
Mack wrote:Chariot pulled by four Cactus People?

Come on, Mack! You know it would be a covered hover wagon, not a chariot! How culturally insensitive of you!


Drop the hover part. The CK's evil(though admittedly, evil need not be unmindful of efficiency)
Okay, so maybe save the war wagon pulled by zombie babies for a Mystic Knight....
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Re: Looking for a reptile combat mount for an evil CK

Unread post by Axelmania »

What about those velociraptor-like things in SA2?
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Re: Looking for a reptile combat mount for an evil CK

Unread post by ShadowLogan »

RockJock wrote:Hey all, I'm looking for suggestions for a combat worthy mount for an evil cyber knight. Man sized character, so nothing too small/too big. The mount can be intelligent, or just an animal, preferably MDC based. A few thoughts/options so far: Blood Lizard from SA2, various raptor like dinosaurs, Mega Steeds, Psi- Ponies, Black Market exotic robot horses with a reptile theme. Something like a Dragon Cat is pushing the reptile angle, but is doable, same with a Dragondactyl, or whatever the dark Pegasus like thing is called.

Any other thoughts or ideas?

The main issue I can see with a kitted out Robot is the potential maintenance cost associated with them when you have to repair them, where MDC creatures will just have to bio-regenerate. Both types I would think could take advantage of barding. Black Market does have reptile/dinosaur theme robotic steeds IINM.

In terms of creature mounts and what roles the evil Cyber Knight is looking for it to fill I think a T-Rex (New West) would be an interesting mount. It has high melee attack damage capability, it comes with a Horror Factor, has a large MDC pool. Give it some type of weaponized barding...

The Blood Lizard from SA2 is bloody fast on foot, bio-regenerates per minute. Its combat abilities aren't as impressive as the T-Rex until you consider it can use hand-held weapons (including guns).

Expansion options differ from the type, robot steeds are possible, but then so can the creatures via Gene Splicer or Partial Bionic-Conversion, etc.

RockJock wrote:Chariot pulled by four Cactus People?

What's this pulling a chariot, no self respecting Evil Cyber Knight would settle for anything less than being carried on a litter (like C3P0 in Return of the Jedi by the Ewoks, only the throne is much more elaborate).
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Re: Looking for a reptile combat mount for an evil CK

Unread post by RockJock »

The Blood Lizard is the SA raptor type thing, and is a definite possibility.

If I go with the Black Market robot mount I can always use one of the automated cyborg repair systems to keep the repair cost down, even something similar to the Kremlin Cyborg repair tech.

The T-Rex might be a little big/hard to hide, but I like it. I am thinking about something like a Beast Dragon, or Woolly Dragon as a possibility, but I can't convince myself they would work for a minion.

Power level isn't really an issue for this build.

I'm doing something a little crazy. Basically a friend I played with years ago in another state wants a bad guy who is over the top for his group to go against. The players want their next go around to be more powerful, and the GM wants to give them a little taste of what that might feel like, to see if they really want to go full crazy. Anyway, he asked me to come up with something a bit out there, but still generally in the rules to spice things up. I'm looking at a name like Sisters of the Scales, or something similarly campy for a name. They may use this encounter/campaign as a reason to "upgrade", or stay with the game power level they are at.

I am building a lone rider type character who can handle multiple opponents of any type(tech, supernatural, magic etc). My premise is what happens when an evil Chiang-Ku takes the long road to creating minions? Take beautiful cloned True Atlanteans slaves with high end stats and major psychic powers as a starting point. Have them raised in Psycape, or a similar environment, trained as a Cyber Knight with a handful of tattoos, given a Paratee, given a very few choice cybernetics(maybe just cyber hearing) and very minor biowizard tweaks(I'm thinking heat and motion sensors), exposed to the Asylum Rift in Atlantis (for that oh so right alignment plus the extra psychics of course), enslaved by the Elixirs, spend the equal of a decade or two in an alternate dimension learning the fighting skills of the Samurai as well as all of the Japanese MA abilities( teachable by the right dragon), and covered with a very large number of Atlantean tattoos, from monster shaping to archery, and being bonded to a Drake as a familiar. Weapons ranges from a high end TW sword with emerald scabbard and Sword of Atlantis to a Kitanni Plasma Lance, and other equipment running the gamut from Palladium Fantasy style magic rings and gauntlets to a Noro Psychic Helmet in the form of a tiara and armor combining a reptile scale version of SA Biomancy Chitin Armor as an undersuit over laid with maxed out Black Iron armor (teleport ot wearer, weightless, silent, regen), and a Phase Field layered in between. This is far from an exhaustive list of toys, just meant to give a taste.

I know this is waaaaaay over the top, basically a CK-Tattooed Archer-Monster Hunter-Samurai-Martial Artist
that can equal most Master Psychics, plus has unlimited equipment. They will be a nasty opponent one on one for even a high level character, much more so when you throw in the autonomous rune sword, familiar and ridging animal into the mix, or realize there seems to be 5 of them (4 plus the actual dragon hiding as another clone). Most of what I'm looking at is doable within the rules if given enough time, money, and resources.
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Re: Looking for a reptile combat mount for an evil CK

Unread post by VIsgar »

Titan Raptor- WB27 pg 50

Shadow Serpent - WB32 pg 201
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Re: Looking for a reptile combat mount for an evil CK

Unread post by RockJock »

The Shadow Serpent is so big, but the general idea fits really well. I'm going to look through the Dino books and Lemurria, and see if anything pops up. The Shadow Serpent and T-Rex are just soooooo big.

A New West Glitter Mount is a possibility as well.

Thanks for all the help and suggestions all, well, at least thanks for the non-Cactus People suggestions:).
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Re: Looking for a reptile combat mount for an evil CK

Unread post by Daniel Stoker »

Well you can always say yours is a runt, or a smaller sub-species and halve the size and MDC and the like.


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Re: Looking for a reptile combat mount for an evil CK

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One of the Shadow Serpents natural abilities is to reduce its size by 60% making it overall as small as 27 feet long with half of that being tail.
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Re: Looking for a reptile combat mount for an evil CK

Unread post by RockJock »

i didn't remember that, sold on the Shadow. They are still big, but the smaller size is more managable.
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Re: Looking for a reptile combat mount for an evil CK

Unread post by Mack »

Since you're going for a TA CK, be sure to take a look at Secrets of Atlanteans, p123. It has guidance on the combo, including how much MDC and how many tattoos to use.
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Re: Looking for a reptile combat mount for an evil CK

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I'm looking at Secrets, but I am going with a higher power level conclusion then most. You can now have non "tattooed man" turned MDC with more than 6 tats, without any change in class, or any limits, other than the old no magic. If a True Atlantean CK with 8 tats gets a ninth I see him getting the extra PPE, and extra MDC, but he is still a CK, not reclassed as a Tattooed Man. Same goes for a Nomad Militia character(I don't recall the specialty Nomad's name). To be honest, I don't see a hard limit for how many tats a character can have.

I'm not going to allow a character like this for a PC, just not gonna happen in my game. That being said, secrets leaves me with the feeling that while tradition says only "tattooed men" have more than 6 tats, there are exceptions, and it isn't a mechanical limit, just a tradition. The mechanical limit I see is no Master Psychics, and the loss of spell casting ability for mages.

I am using the MDC and PPE gains as guide.
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Re: Looking for a reptile combat mount for an evil CK

Unread post by Curbludgeon »

Transdimensional TMNT has mutant dinosaurs. A triceratops shrunk to the size of a horse could have some serious natural armor and a headbutt, while an allosaurus could hold a weapon.
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Re: Looking for a reptile combat mount for an evil CK

Unread post by RockJock »

As in an intelligent mutant animal? Interesting idea. It might be a pain to get MDC out of them, but I like the idea. The SA2 Blood Lizard, and the King Raptor in one of the Dino books is sort of a similar idea. Not that they are so much mutant dinosaurs, but that they are dinosaur like beings with human level intelligence.
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Re: Looking for a reptile combat mount for an evil CK

Unread post by Curbludgeon »

After review, mutant dinosaurs aren't a good way at all to make a mdc mount. I misremembered the line in CB1r about how the only ones that get converted from sdc are those with super-heavy natural armor (meaning potential rhinos, turtles, triceratops, and ankylosaurids only, I think), with an optional addition for chimeras and throwbacks. If one goes with size 18 (starting horse) being necessary to serve as a mount for a human, then the best case scenario that I see is a triceratops with the background that grants 15 BIO-E and 35 points in vestigial drawbacks from the later-published AtB, which can barely scrape out 150 mdc.
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Re: Looking for a reptile combat mount for an evil CK

Unread post by Father Goose »

Curbludgeon wrote:After review, mutant dinosaurs aren't a good way at all to make a mdc mount. I misremembered the line in CB1r about how the only ones that get converted from sdc are those with super-heavy natural armor (meaning potential rhinos, turtles, triceratops, and ankylosaurids only, I think), with an optional addition for chimeras and throwbacks. If one goes with size 18 (starting horse) being necessary to serve as a mount for a human, then the best case scenario that I see is a triceratops with the background that grants 15 BIO-E and 35 points in vestigial drawbacks from the later-published AtB, which can barely scrape out 150 mdc.

If you really want to cheese it up, build your mutant dinosaur, then use the Eugenics Animal tables in Mutant Underground to grab the "Any Major" option and give it APS Metal. Built in Barding with 800 MDC!
taalismn wrote:Hey, you came up with a novel, attention-getting idea, you did the legwork, you worked it through, you made it fit the setting, even though initial thought might be 'nah, it can't work, it's too silly/stupid/lame', and you posted something that only required a little adjustment, yet can be added to, without diluting its original concept. How can we not give you due support and credit?
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Re: Looking for a reptile combat mount for an evil CK

Unread post by RockJock »

It might be stretching things, but I don't see why one couldn't start with an MDC dinosaur from Rifts as the basis of the mutant. That way the build starts with MDC.
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Re: Looking for a reptile combat mount for an evil CK

Unread post by The Beast »

Are the netherbeasts suitable, or are they too outside the realm of what you're looking for?
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Re: Looking for a reptile combat mount for an evil CK

Unread post by RockJock »

The Netherbeasts just don't fit what I'm looking for. Very powerful, and all that, just not the right flavor for me on this one. Good suggestion though.
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Re: Looking for a reptile combat mount for an evil CK

Unread post by SolCannibal »

Little random aside, but have you considered the possibility of an ogre CK? Better physical stats and pretty much the same as humans when it comes to serving as canvas for magical tattoos.
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Re: Looking for a reptile combat mount for an evil CK

Unread post by Orin J. »

get a robot unicorn, add scales. and a tentacle for the tail.
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Re: Looking for a reptile combat mount for an evil CK

Unread post by RockJock »

I like the robot unicorn idea, but stuck with the serpent for now.

SC, actually going with a set of True Atlantean clones for this, so beats a standard human statwise, with all the beauty still there. Basically, starts with one, but there will be several similar characters encountered over time as part of a plot thread.
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Re: Looking for a reptile combat mount for an evil CK

Unread post by 13eowulf »

I am surprised no one mentioned the Ruin Lizard from Madhaven, or the Risinor Dragon Stallion from Rifter 73.

Also, for what it is worth, the new Bestiary has a reptilian horse of some sort.
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