Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer Creatures
Frozen Sick
D&D Beyond Basic Rules
Basic Rules (2014)
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Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer CreaturesFrozen SickD&D Beyond Basic RulesBasic Rules (2014)Sign in to view your library & saved favorites.
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Justice for the giant scorpion, add a burrow speed to the monster manual. Has David Attenborough taught you nothing.
Fully agreed! Justice for the giant scorpion!
One, not all scorpions are fossorial. Two, even if they are, that doesn't necessarily equate to having the ability to excavate tunnels fast enough to work on a D&D combat round- scorpions don't exactly have the digging tools of moles.
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I had to Google Fossorial and have learned my one thing for the day 😂
To the OP, if you feel strongly enough about it, you could always homebrew a Giant Scorpion and give it a Burrow Speed 🦂
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Another possibility—giant scorpions can't burrow because they're giant and scale/size becomes an issue. It's easier to dig through dirt particulate when you're an inch or two long vs several feet
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Any creature with limbs and/or sufficient strength can dig, but not any creature can dig 10+ feet into the earth in only 6 seconds. I don't think Giant Scorpions are in any particular need of a burrow speed. Could make fighting them much more interesting, though.
Because of size? Purple Worm? Tarrasque? I think it's just because the writers didn't think of it or desire it. I mean none of the spiders can burrow either. 🤔
The tarrasque and purple worm at least are built for large scale excavation; the tarrasque spends most of its time hibernating underground and consuming any organic material underground anyway, and the worm is self explanatory.
Although, checking again, both the giant and normal scorpion lack a burrow speed.
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Dwarves also don't have a Burrow speed...
;)
Many species of rat also dig burrows, but the Giant Rat doesn’t have a Burrow speed either.
I do feel that the Scorpion and its Giant variant are missing Tremorsense. Because Blindsight is blocked by Total Cover, they couldn’t lay under cover and still be able to detect approaching prey as many scorpions are wont to do. But I don’t think they need a Burrow speed just to bury themselves under sand or other loose media.