Nemeans

Hey people, I'm creating some npcs for my chronicle, and i would like for one of them to have a nemean animal or at least something like a nemean animal, but I'm not sure what its rating would be. 3 like the Coatl or 4 like the Kirin. The nemean is pretty powerful, but it has the same legend as the Coatl, so I'm inclined to make it a 3 dot birthright.

What do you think? And, if you take hogzilla as a 3 dot creature, how would you "improve" him to make it a 5 dot creature?

Hope you can help me,
Xelloss

Nemeans are a 5 dot creature minimum.  Probably more then that actually.  They are giant legendary creatures that double their stamina(and possibly also their str?), they are way too powerful for a creature.   That said, I gave one to a player as a 5 dot creature at demigod. 

Lambach is right here while legend does have some bearing on the power of a creature, it's no the end of all measuring stick. Nemean are especially powerful at hero level especially when taking beast like large cats, wolves and other superpredators.

What some people have suggested and I have done is to open up the possibility of ratings higher then 5 in certain birthrights once the characters hit demi-god.

While it's certainly not an option everyone will like. Allowing follower and creatures ratings of 5+ after demigod is one proposed solution to keep followers relevant. Nemean, being a template that improves the creature with legend could be a good example here. Start whatever beast as a 5 dot creature then add up the birthight rating as it grows in power.

It's not canon, but carefully done I believe it can offer interesting options.

I was very disappointed with creatures and followers so I made a similar houserule.   At hero they pay the cost for whatever kind of crature or follower they want.  And depending on how many creatures there are, the creatures begin growing in legend.  They are able to spend 5 birthright points to keep letting their creature grow at demigod and god(I give 10 birthright points at demi and god, 5 they choose, 5 that someone makes for them, ST chosen).   One creature, its 2 legend below you, 3 creatures is 3 legend below and 5 creatures is 4 legend below you.   At demigod I also let the add a template.  So our scion of baldur had a bear with him through hero, and at demigod it became a nemean bear. 
Its a pretty good system, the creatures are kinda useful now, can sometimes hit things, but never are able to take center stage.  Birthright wise still probably not a "smart" investment, but it fits some character ty pes and works.  And characters that want animals or followers don't feel completely jipped.

Lambach:

At demigod I also let the add a template.  So our scion of baldur had a bear with him through hero, and at demigod it became a nemean bear. 

How well did the bear do at god level?

Near impossible for things to dmg, but also fairy inneffective as any kind of dmg source.  However it was always better at fighting then the gods who had escewed combat past hero.  It helped in coordinated assualts, but I'd say past god the thing it got used most for was intimidating the shit out of demigods and heros and mortals.

Lambach:

Near impossible for things to dmg, but also fairy inneffective as any kind of dmg source.  However it was always better at fighting then the gods who had escewed combat past hero.  It helped in coordinated assualts, but I'd say past god the thing it got used most for was intimidating the shit out of demigods and heros and mortals.

Well, not a total loss then. coordinated assaults are a good tactic for characters that haven't invested heavily in epic dexterity. As long as everyone is having fun with it, it's good.

I, for my par am planning a special reward for the Loa character in my game with an egg they recovered from a mounstrous alligator.

ooo, yeah, eggs are always very cool, especially if they have no clue what it comes from.  One the girls in my game has two little babies that are toddling around that may become followers eventually.

Lambach:

yeah, eggs are always very cool, especially if they have no clue what it comes from.  One the girls in my game has two little babies that are toddling around that may become followers eventually.

That does sounds interesting.

In the context of the alligator egg, however. My Pcs are all very high in mental attributes. They accurately identified eggs of the monster alligator they killed. But the pcs figured out that the dude that was running the shrine where they were found the egg was trying to corrupt the eggs somehow and through various boons they found out there is a connection with the Loa and with the sea, so they are all wondering what exactly the baby will be like and I've hinted that the mother was a debased version of what it was supposed to be.

One of the PCs whom is a Russian corporate tycoon used his money to build an incubator and hired personel to build it a living enclosure and see to it's care. Those poor zookeepers, they are in for the job of their lives.

or....
job of their deaths!
......sorry

Lambach:

or....
job of their deaths!
......sorry

hehe, you have to get some in every once in a while.

That said I haven't done the exact details on what the creature will look like but I'm going to look for inspiration in bayou stories and a few african legends. The loa character in question is completely inept at combat except for a few dots in firearms with an old revolver and relies mostly on his 5 dots of zombie followers. Whom have spawned more laughs then we can count.

I did a bit of the opposite. My players killed two basilisks and found a nest of small eggs.

I'd done some digging and found that a few basilisk legends involve the creature being hatched from a chicken egg. Thus, the nest of eggs they took were just chicken eggs.

Of course, then I had to develop a system for the hatching and development of basilisks after they did some in-game research on special needs for basilisk eggs.

Hmm, thanks for the reply, and yeah, you were right, I should've read a bit further, the creature birthright at 5 dot is, for example, the Gullinbursti, which is, when I checked Ragnarok, a nemean boar (with pumped up legend of course).

I'm creating an NPC scion of Ares, and the guy has 2 birthrights, a relic, The Golden Apple, and a 5 dot boar as a creature (i did some research and found out that boars were associated with Ares), but, do to my not reading enough, I thought that the nemean wasn't that powerful (didn't read the entire nemean template, my bad).

Hahahahahahahaa, special needs for basilisk eggs hahahahaha. Combine that with the ones taking care of the Giant Alligator egg, and you have the "Montrous Pet Daycare Center", which could be a good investment for the scions hahahaahaha, or, if you find enough  freaky specimens, you can call the place "The Little Shop of Horrors" or "Pet shop of Horrors"

Thanks,
See ya,
Xelloss

Xelloss:

Hahahahahahahaa, special needs for basilisk eggs hahahahaha.

I was hoping they'd just stick them in an incubator and watch perfectly ordinary chicks hatch in a week. Blast those crafty players.

As I've commented before, nemeans in general and nemeans based on larger animals in particular are far more dangerous than their legend suggests, because a lot of their damage, accuracy and soak comes from their doubled regular attributes and the nemean skin bonus.  A Legend 1 nemean tiger can do a pretty good job of kicking around various Legend 4 combat scions.