Monster Monday: Beaver and Dire Beaver - Those Dam Rodents

Today's Monster Monday is a twofer: the humble beaver and the moderately less humble dire beaver which had six-inch teeth and was roughly the size of a black bear.  Why am I talking about dire beavers like they were a real thing?  Because they were.  Castoroides leiseyorum roamed southern North America 1.4 million years ago.  Its relative, Castoroides ohioensis ranged across what is now the northern United States and Canada from about 130,000 years ago up to at least 18,000 years ago.  Ice Age North America wasn't just mastodons and saber-toothed cats; we had all kinds of crazy shit, like cheetahs and camels and saber-toothed salmon.

fossil C. ohioensis skeleton, via Wikimedia

There is some debate among paleontologists as to whether Castoroides built lodges and dams.  The shape of their teeth would have made them less efficient at cutting down trees than modern beavers, but it is known that a closely related genus of prehistoric beaver (Dipoides) built lodges, and a Castoroides fossil was found in association with what may have been a giant lodge in 1912.  Regardless of paleontology, the dire beaver statted up below definitely builds giant beaver dams and lodges, because that is too cool.  Modern normal-sized beavers have a tremendous effect on their local ecosystems by creating artificial ponds.  Imagine that but an order of magnitude greater.  Giant beaver dams would create huge ponds that attract all sorts of other creatures, from mundane fish and birds to nixies and shambling mounds.  A giant beaver dam might flood valuable farmland, creating conflict between farmers and the local circle of druids.  An older giant beaver dam might have become corrupted, home to oozes, aberrations, and - of course - skeletal dire beavers.

Lest we forget, normal-sized beavers are statted up below as well.  While they are less likely to serve as foes for low-level adventurers, beavers can act as familiars, granting their master a +3 bonus on Knowledge (engineering) checks.  They can also be prime targets for hunters and trappers, as they were in real life.  Beavers were historically prized for their water-repellent fur, which was used to make, among other things, top hats.  Beavers - both North American and European - have also traditionally been hunted for their castoreum, the secretion of the scent glands.  Castoreum is used in perfumery and in some traditional medicines.  In the Middle Ages, it was even used to increase the production of honeybees.  Any hunter or trapper who bags a beaver stands to profit not only from its fur but also its extracted castoreum.  Fun fact: because the castor glands are located near the beaver's testes, an ancient legend first attested in the works of Aesop but carried on by ancient and medieval naturalists says that beavers will gnaw off their own ballsacks to escape hunters.

via Wikimedia

The following text in gold is available as Open Game Content under the OGL. Open Game Content is ©2016 Jonah Bomgaars.

This brown-furred creature has huge chisel-like teeth and a flat tail

Beaver            CR 1/3

XP 135

N Small animal

Init +1; Senses low-light vision; Perception +1

DEFENSE

AC 12, touch 12, flat-footed 11 (+1 Dex, +1 size)

hp 8 (1d8+4)

Fort +3, Ref +3, Will +1

OFFENSE

Speed 20 ft., swim 20 ft.

Melee bite +1 (1d4)

Special Attacks gnaw

STATISTICS

Str 11, Dex 12, Con 13, Int 2, Wis 12, Cha 6

Base Atk +0; CMB -1; CMD 10 (14 vs. trip)

Feats Toughness

Skills Swim +8; Racial Modifiers +4 Swim

SQ hold breath

SPECIAL ABILITIES

Familiar

The master of a beaver familiar gains a +3 bonus on Knowledge (engineering) checks.

Gnaw (Ex)

A beaver’s bite attack ignores hardness when dealing damage to wooden items. 

ECOLOGY

Environment rivers/lakes, temperate forests, temperate swamps/marshes

Organization solitary, pair, lodge (2 adults and 2-6 kits)

Treasure none

   This furry aquatic rodent has huge chisel-like teeth that it uses to gnaw through trees to get at the nutritious fibers that make up a large part of its diet.  It also cuts down trees and trims branches to create dams, building their stick-and-mud lodges in the middle of the resulting artificial ponds.  Beavers react quickly to any sound of flowing water in order to repair leaks in their dams as soon as possible.  Beaver ponds create defenses for the beaver’s lodge, the only entrance to which is underwater.  Beavers’ tails are flat and paddle-like, aiding them in swimming but also in applying mud to their lodges and dams.  Most beavers have brown or tan fur, though some have reddish fur and a few are almost black.  Beavers are sought after for their valuable water-repellant fur and their scent glands.  Beaver scent glands are used in perfumery, as traditional medicine, and even to increase the production of honeybees.  A good beaver pelt will fetch a price of 2 gold pieces, and their dried scent glands an additional gold piece. 

   Beavers grow to be nearly three feet long not including their roughly foot-long tail, and weigh an average of 45 pounds. 

This trundling, man-sized beaver has giant teeth like a stonemason’s chisels

Beaver, Dire            CR 2

XP 600

N Medium animal

Init +2; Senses low-light vision; Perception +4

DEFENSE

AC 14, touch 12, flat-footed 12 (+2 Dex, +2 natural)

hp 19 (3d8+6)

Fort +5, Ref +5, Will +1

OFFENSE

Speed 30 ft., swim 20 ft.

Melee bite +4 (1d6+3), tail slap -1 (1d6+1)

Special Attacks gnaw

STATISTICS

Str 15, Dex 14, Con 15, Int 2, Wis 10, Cha 8

Base Atk +2; CMB +4 (+6 to sunder); CMD 16 (20 vs. trip)

Feats Improved Sunder, Power Attack

Skills Perception +4, Swim +7

SQ hold breath, powerful bite

SPECIAL ABILITIES

Gnaw (Ex)

A dire beaver’s bite attack ignores hardness when dealing damage to wooden items. 

Powerful Bite (Ex)

A dire beaver adds 1-1/2 times its Strength bonus to its bite damage.   

ECOLOGY

Environment rivers/lakes, temperate forests, temperate swamps/marshes

Organization solitary, pair, lodge (2 adults and 1-4 kits)

Treasure none

This giant beaver measures six-to-seven feet long and weighs in at 200 to 275 pounds.  Its huge teeth are strong enough to gnaw through thick trees, felling them to create its huge lodges and dams.  Abandoned dire beaver lodges are large enough to comfortably shelter a small group of humans.  Their dams can create gigantic artificial lakes that completely change the local landscape, flooding acres of forest and providing habitat for other aquatic creatures.  Like their smaller cousins, dire beavers are hunted for their fur and scent glands.  A dire beaver pelt in good condition can fetch 25 gold pieces, and their scent glands can sell for an additional 10 gold pieces.  

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Wikimedia has collection of examples of beavers in heraldry which I thought was fun to look through.  Plenty of cities (including New York) have beavers in their civic seals, but the beaver seems to have been in at least limited use among European families gaining heraldic representation in the early modern period, at least as far back as the 17th century.  One 17th century herald had this to say of the beaver:

The Bever is like an Otter and both of them are like slie dissembling companions, who to make their profit, and feed their owne bellies, will closely keepe a good quarter with contrarie sides, in affection to neither, but onely for their owne behoofe: therefore I could wish they had one other property of the bever, which is to geld himselfe, that so he might escape from his pursuers, who hunt him for his testicles, which are much used in Physicke. This Bever hath only his taile fish, and therfore keepes that part most in the water: he hath his hinder legges like a Swanne, and his former like a Dogge, and so swimmeth with the one whiles hee preieth with the other.

-your slie d20 despot

Okay, one more beaver Fun Fact: If you are Catholic, you may be aware that eating meat is forbidden on Fridays and during Lent.  On those days, Catholics generally eat fish instead.  But good news!  Beavers, along with other semiaquatic rodents like muskrats and capybaras, are officially classified as 'fish' by the Catholic church.  So this Friday, feel free to tuck in to a nice plate of roast beaver.