Everybody loves monkeys, right?

Viscious Primate PC-killers

From time to time, some genius in R&D at TSR decides that reducing a tremendously powerful critter’s AC makes it a low-CR beastie. Such is the case, as we discovered this week at our weekly D&D game, for Dire Apes.

Your typical Dire Ape has approximately 40 hit points, which is reasonably on-par with a 6-7th level fighter. They have an abysmally low AC of 15 (the same as a normal domesticated dog). This would normally mean that a party of adventurers of 6th level would grind through these beasties like a tablesaw through butter.

But let’s factor in the offensive end of things: A dire ape has two attacks at +8 and one at +3, to the tune of 1d6+6, 1d6+6, and 1d8+3 damage each round with each attack quite likely to land on your average adventurer. When both claws hit the same opponent (and why shouldn’t an Ape focus on one opponent at a time?) it gets an automatic Rend attack.

The Rend attack basically allows an automatic hit for each of the two claws, for an additional 2d6+12 damage. This means that against somebody with an AC of 17, a Dire Ape is quite likely to land 4d6+1d8+27 damage in a given round. It doesn’t take a mathematical genius to figure that my seven victims (players, whatever) ended up taking serious casualties while dealing with room 202 and 203 of the Crater Ridge Mines.

It was sick. Remind me not to throw Trolls at them any time soon. They rend also…