What creature(s) do you associate with various attributes?

[rusty_shackleford]

D&D 3e associated the ability scores with creatures as following:

Code: Select all

Bull's Strength	Strength
Cat's Grace	Dexterity
Bear's Endurance	Constitution
Fox's Cunning	Intelligence
Owl's Wisdom	Wisdom
Eagle's Splendor	Charisma

Do you agree with this?
If you were to extend this to other attributes not modeled in D&D(luck, courage, perception, and so on — whatever you can come up with), what creatures would you pick?
Do you think they could have picked more interesting, less mundane creatures for the spells since they're, well, D&D spells?

[Val the Moofia Boss]

I'd associate bears with strength since they stand on their hind legs and swat things, and bulls with endurance since they pull stuff. Or horses since they are ridden for hours at a time.

[Tadeusz]

There's a more extended list of animals for each attribute In The Planes of Conflict book in the chapter about Beastlands:

Planescape_Beastlands_excerpt.PNG

These are possible primal changes - traits that players can get if they spend enough time in the Beastlands. This list is good in my opinion.

[Oyster Sauce]

There's a more extended list of animals for each attribute In The Planes of Conflict book in the chapter about Beastlands:

These are possible primal changes - traits that players can get if they spend enough time in the Beastlands. This list is good in my opinion.

10lb eagles are iconic for their fierce strength

[TKVNC]

I always imagine gorillas with strength

[Acrux]

Bull's Strength makes sense to me, because when I was a teenager and needed to lift or carry heavy things I would always say "Ya, can do - have great strength like ox!" in a bad Russian accent.

[logincrash]

I'd associate bears with strength since they stand on their hind legs and swat things, and bulls with endurance since they pull stuff. Or horses since they are ridden for hours at a time.

While "work like a horse" is more fitting for endurance, like you've mentioned, the "strong as a bull" saying points to strength.

[ArcaneLurker]

[J1M]

List is pretty good.

Mongoose may make more sense for DEX.

Other point would be to either choose all mammals or a different animal family for each attribute (mammal, bird, lizard, amphibian, insect, etc).

[aimlesshealer]

Based on symbolism and common understanding, I'd say...
Strength: Ox or boar
Dexterity: Cat or monkey
Constitution: Horse or bear
Intelligence: Eagle or fox
Wisdom: Owl or fish (in Celtic folklore there's a salmon that ate hazelnuts and became very wise)
Charisma: Serpent. What better represents charm and smooth-talk than the serpent? Maybe a peacock or lion, depending on what you mean by charisma.

[J1M]

Courage - lion obviously, who else would dare to have a dozen wives?

Perception - hawk/eagle

Luck - cat

Technology - crow

Loyalty - dog

Family - wolf

Swimming - otter

Durability - wolverine

[logincrash]

Technology - crow

Why? A beaver would be more fitting.

[TKVNC]

Courage - lion obviously, who else would dare to have a dozen wives?

Perception - hawk/eagle

Luck - cat

Technology - crow

Loyalty - dog

Family - wolf

Swimming - otter

Durability - wolverine

Family - Vin Diesel

[WhiteShark]

Tiger's Strength
Cheetah's Grace
Puma's Endurance
Leopard's Cunning
Jaguar's Wisdom
Lion's Splendor

[J1M]

Technology - crow

Why? A beaver would be more fitting.

Chimp seemed too similar to human, like picking "toddler". Also, crows are very smart and use tools to solve problems. Beavers don't use tools as far as I know.

Construction - beaver

[Oyster Sauce]

Match the following to real world ethnicities. No double dipping.

Strength
Dexterity
Constitution
Intelligence
Wisdom
Charisma

[rusty_shackleford]

Noticing a distinct lack of fantastical creatures.

Why not something like "Dragon's majesty" for charisma?

[rusty_shackleford]

Also forgot about the 2E girdles/gauntlets named after ogres/giants, etc.,

[aimlesshealer]

Match the following to real world ethnicities. No double dipping.

Strength - Ethiopians
Dexterity - Mongolians
Constitution - Nordics (or Chinese, I'm pretty sure Chinese peasants are indestructible)
Intelligence - Romans
Wisdom - Greeks (are Romans and Greeks too similar?)
Charisma - Celts

[J1M]

Noticing a distinct lack of fantastical creatures.

Why not something like "Dragon's majesty" for charisma?

Because dragon can apply to all of them. I guess you could go with "Chimera's strength" or something, but maybe it communicates less because a wyvern/gnoll/kobold is different across major IPs.

[rusty_shackleford]

Noticing a distinct lack of fantastical creatures.

Why not something like "Dragon's majesty" for charisma?

Because dragon can apply to all of them. I guess you could go with "Chimera's strength" or something, but maybe it communicates less because a wyvern/gnoll/kobold is different across major IPs.

Maybe I'm wrong but I could probably think of creatures for all the attributes that seem pretty universal?
I'd associate griffins with intelligence as much as a fox, I suppose.

[logincrash]

Noticing a distinct lack of fantastical creatures.

Why not something like "Dragon's majesty" for charisma?

Because dragon can apply to all of them. I guess you could go with "Chimera's strength" or something, but maybe it communicates less because a wyvern/gnoll/kobold is different across major IPs.

Maybe I'm wrong but I could probably think of creatures for all the attributes that seem pretty universal?
I'd associate griffins with intelligence as much as a fox, I suppose.

How about a sphynx for Wisdom?

[ArcaneLurker]

Match the following to real world ethnicities. No double dipping.

Strength
Dexterity
Constitution
Intelligence
Wisdom
Charisma

Strength - Norse

mya-lesnar-daughter-of-brock-lesnar.webp

Dexterity - English

Orissa Kelly.png

(plus the history of men being taught archery)
Or Mongolian because many still learn horse archery
Constitution - Tibetan

shaolin.png

Intelligence - German
Wisdom - Japanese (because of their application of knowledge in learning from us and becoming an example of high trust modern society)
Charisma - **** (because of hollywood and the success of their ridiculous lies & superficial glib)

[J1M]

Orcish Strength
Halfling Dexterity
Trollish Constitution
Human Intelligence
Dwarven Wisdom
Elven Charisma

Earth - Strength (Blunt Dense Immobile)
Fire - Dexterity (Sharp Subtle Mobile)
Water - Constitution (Blunt Dense Mobile)
Aether - Intelligence (Fifth element proposed by Aristotle)
Wind - Wisdom (Blunt Subtle Mobile)
Light - Charisma (We need 6, sometimes Aether is equated to void, so let's have the opposite of that)

[J1M]

Demonic Strength
Lycanthropic Dexterity
Undead Constitution
Devilish Intelligence
Fey Wisdom
Draconic Charisma

[Manny V]

Match the following to real world ethnicities. No double dipping.

Strength
Dexterity
Constitution
Intelligence
Wisdom
Charisma

Strength - *******
Dexterity - Arabs
Constitution - Slavs
Intelligence - Whitey
Wisdom - Chinaman
Charisma - ****

[wndrbr]

Match the following to real world ethnicities. No double dipping.

Strength
Dexterity
Constitution
Intelligence
Wisdom
Charisma

Strength - Japanese (sumo wrestlers)
Dexterity - Chinese (Jackie Chan)
Constitution - Brazilians (football)
Intelligence - Africans (Yakub)
Wisdom - Mongolians (they don't do anything and just chill, you never hear about them in the news)
Charisma - Germans (Hitler is still the most famous and talked about world leader in world's history, not to mention the famous German sense of humor)

[wndrbr]

D&D 3e associated the ability scores with creatures as following:

Code: Select all

Bull's Strength	Strength
Cat's Grace	Dexterity
Bear's Endurance	Constitution
Fox's Cunning	Intelligence
Owl's Wisdom	Wisdom
Eagle's Splendor	Charisma

Do you agree with this?
If you were to extend this to other attributes not modeled in D&D(luck, courage, perception, and so on — whatever you can come up with), what creatures would you pick?
Do you think they could have picked more interesting, less mundane creatures for the spells since they're, well, D&D spells?

STR - bear
DEX - monkey
CON - elephant
INT - turtle
WIS - owl
CHA - fox

Speed - horse
Endurance - ox
Perception - eagle
Luck - cat
Courage - lion (duh)

[UltraFan123]

The only animal on the OG list that didn't made that much sense to me was the eagle since I seldom associated birds with charisma.

[J1M]

The only animal on the OG list that didn't made that much sense to me was the eagle since I seldom associated birds with charisma.

Tied to the beauty/splendor aspect of charisma plus America. Assume you'd pick something else for "forceful personality".