Early Access
A common rat is no threat to a typical adult, but some rats—perhaps due to magic, mutation, tampering by mad scientists, or throwbacks to a megafauna era—grow to be much larger. No longer on the bottom of the food chain, these creatures are vicious and wily. A typical giant rat is about the size of a medium dog, 3 feet (1 m) long including its tail and weighing about 50 pounds (23 kg). A few get as big and tough as an attack dog, with an even worse temperament.
Some giant rats are the lone matriarchs of a pack of common rats; if this leader is slain, a new one grows larger and takes her place. Other packs consist only of giant rats. A few colonies, exposed to magical runoff in sewers, chaos magic, or severe inbreeding, create utter monsters—rats with bat-like wings instead of forelimbs, rats with atrophied limbs that only eat and birth more rats, rats with elephant-like thick skin, and so on.
Like their smaller cousins, giant rats are known for harboring virulent disease.
Small humanoids such as goblins sometimes tame giant rats, using them as guard animals and (for the largest ones) mounts. Wererats are lycanthropes whose animal form is indistinguishable from a giant rat and who surround themselves with these creatures, training them as lookouts and thieves.
Motive: Defense, reproduction
Environment: Anywhere in ruins or sewers, in groups of one to seven
Health: 6
Damage Inflicted: Minor wound
Movement: Short; short when climbing; long when jumping
Modifications: Perception as level 3; overcoming obstacles and puzzles as level 4
Combat: A giant rat bites and scratches as one attack, inflicting a minor wound. A creature hit must succeed at a Might defense roll or be inflicted with rat fever.
Rat fever (level 5): Within twelve hours of infection, the creature’s lymph glands swell, creating visible bumps (buboes) on the neck, armpits, and groin. Every twelve hours thereafter, the creature must succeed on a Might defense roll or take a moderate wound (ignores armor).
Common rat: level 0, dodge as level 2 due to size and quickness; can’t effectively wound a human-sized creature but might carry disease Ten or so common rats can swarm together and fight as a single unit.
Common rat swarm: level 1, dodge as level 2 due to size and quickness; pack inflicts a minor wound plus rat fever
Biggest giant rat: level 3, perception as level 4, overcoming obstacles and puzzles as level 5; health 10; bite inflicts a moderate wound plus rat fever
Interaction: Giant rats stubbornly pursue prey, but they flee if that prey proves to be too strong.
Use: A contact of the PCs dies of plague before they can deliver an important message. The PCs will have to backtrack the contact’s movements to discover what they wanted to say, which leads to a giant rat colony.
GM Intrusion: The alarmed squeaking of the giant rat calls reinforcements—additional giant rats and common rat swarms.