Great Cat

Few hunters match the great cats for efficiency. Nearly all share one signature move: if both front paws connect in a round, the cat rakes with its rear claws for extra damage, listed for each type below.

Lean and medium-sized, the cheetah has sandy fur with dark spots and, unlike other cats, claws that never retract. Its camouflage imposes -3 on victims' surprise rolls. For three rounds it can run at triple speed, a blistering 45 feet each round, then needs 3 turns of rest before sprinting again, and it can jump 10 feet up or 20 feet ahead. Its rear rake deals 1-2 per claw. Defending cubs, it gains +2 to hit and damage and fights to the death.

Cheetahs roam warm grasslands and plains, often alongside lions, favoring antelope and seldom attacking people. Territorial, they may live alone, in pairs, or in groups. A mother raises 2-4 cubs by herself, and the young, who stay up to 2 years, can be fully tamed. Cheetah numbers track those of their prey.

Deep-chested and muscular, the jaguar is pale yellow to reddish brown with dark spots. It attacks anything it sees as a threat, creeping close and often dropping from above, and can leap 30 feet. Its rake deals 1d4+1 per claw. A superb climber, swimmer, and stalker, it spends much of its time high in jungle trees. Loners that defend their ground, jaguars come together just to mate; a lair has a 75% chance of 1-3 cubs that cannot fight. Their power and savagery make them among the jungle's most dreaded hunters.

Long-bodied and short-legged, the graceful leopard is buff to tawny with rosette spots. It ambushes by leaping, imposing -3 on surprise, and can spring 20 feet up or 25 feet ahead; its rake deals 1-4 per claw. Solitary, it lives in warm deserts, forests, plains, and mountains, hunting day or night for prey up to large antelope, and often hauls kills into trees to eat undisturbed or lounges there in the sun. A female has 1-3 cubs and keeps them up to two years; there is a 25% chance of cubs in a lair, and they cannot fight. Where people hunt it, the leopard turns nocturnal.

Lions are among the biggest and strongest cats, yellow to golden brown, the males crowned with flowing manes. Both sexes fight fiercely. Keen senses leave them surprised only on a roll of 1, and all can leap 30 feet. Males are AC 5 in front and AC 6 behind; females are AC 6 all over. The rake deals 2-7 per claw.

A pride, typically 1-10 lionesses with 1-3 males, holds fierce territories in warm deserts, jungles, grasslands, and swamps, with the lionesses doing most hunting, herding prey into ambushes. They kill animals as big as zebras or giraffes and may take livestock, but almost never people. A lair holds 1-10 cubs, 30%-60% grown and unable to fight. Lions climb badly, avoid swimming, need plentiful game, and draw human hunters with their size and strength.

Lankier than true lions, this brownish cat shows little difference between the sexes except size. It is warier and less aggressive than its bigger kin, attacking people only when threatened. It can spring 15 feet up or 20 ahead to strike or flee, and its rake deals 1-4 per claw. Solitary, with separate male and female territories, it ranges over plains, swamps, forests, and mountains in warm or temperate climates and prefers deer. A mother raises 2-4 cubs that stay 1-2 years. Elusive and adaptable, it survives well at the edges of settled lands.

A big, ferocious, dappled lion native to Pleistocene plains and rarely found anywhere else.

Tufted ears and cheeks, a stubby tail, dappled fur, heavy legs, and huge paws mark the giant lynx, the cleverest great cat. Hiding, it escapes notice 90% of the time; it can leap 15 feet, imposes -6 on its prey's surprise rolls, and detects traps 75% of the time. Its rake deals 1-3 per claw. Lynxes share a language among themselves, a real survival edge, and it almost never attacks people. A nocturnal stalker of cold conifer and scrub forests, it hunts rodents, grouse, young deer, and similar game. Cubs stay with their mother 6 months.

The biggest great cat and the one people dread most, the tiger wears reddish-orange fur with dark vertical stripes. Only a 1 surprises it; it stalks expertly and often hunts in pairs or groups. It can leap 10 feet up and 30 to 50 feet ahead, and its rake deals 2d4 per claw.

Tigers range from subarctic to tropical lands in wooded or sheltered terrain. Nocturnal, solitary, graceful in trees and water, and capable of sustained speed, they seldom fight each other but guard territory fiercely, and they are the most unpredictable great cats, quite willing to attack people. Favored prey includes deer, wild pigs, and cattle. Females raise 1-3 cubs alone for several years, with a 25% chance of cubs in a lair. Men fear and hunt them, and logging shrinks their range, but in true wilderness the tiger rules.

Not truly a cat though very like one, the sabre-toothed smilodon carries 6-inch fangs that inflict terrible wounds and give it +2 to hit. Otherwise it resembles a normal tiger, but it is found only in the Pleistocene.