A Thanksgiving Monster for Your Games

[thegreyelf]

I share this over on Facebook every year, but you guys deserve it as well.

Many, many moons ago, my friend Eric and I, during the 3.0 era, decided to see if we could come up with a creature whose Challenge Rating was entirely determined by templates. We started with a basic CR 0 turkey, and built from there. The end result was...

THE FIENDISH DIRE HALF-DRAGON TURKEY OF LEGEND

All your life, you've roasted turkey for Thanksgiving. This year...the turkey roasts you.

So without further Ado, here you go.

AD&D Version (Should work for B/X or OD&D, too)

Castles & Crusades version

Original d20 version (for scholarly purposes)

I never bothered to do a 5e version. I probably should at some point.

[Finarvyn]

As you do damage, you get to eat the dire half-dragon turkey.

[simrion]

TheGreyElf,

Thank yo for this and Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours, and to the fine community here! I so miss the Holiday Specials of Dragon Mag which this puts me in mind of.

[thegreyelf]

Nov 25, 2021 5:22:28 GMT -6 Finarvyn said:

As you do damage, you get to eat the dire half-dragon turkey.

There are whispered stories of tavern keeps on the far reaches of civilization that keep these creatures in their basement and repeatedly remove their legs and wings, then force the creature to roast its own limbs with its fire breath. The creature then grows its limbs back within hours, allowing the innkeeps to build up a supply of this delicacy, which costs a near fortune to sample. It's rumored, however, that the meat is some of the best you'll ever taste (though some claim it just tastes like chicken).

Most feel these stories are unlikely at best, as taming these birds would be difficult (and that's putting it lightly); forcing them to repeatedly suffer such agonies and indignity would be nigh impossible. It's also questionable as to whether any adventurer of noble bent would ever patronize such an establishment.