There are no wolves in Fenris
Magnus gestured towards a wolf loping alongside the column, its powerful muscles driving it uphill through the heat without pause. “I can look past the flesh and muscle of that beast, paring back the bone into the heart of its marrow to read every scar and twist in its genetic code. I can unravel the millennia of change back to the logos of its origins,” said Magnus. Ahriman was surprised to hear sadness in his voice, as though he had seen things he would rather not have seen. “The thing it is, what it wished to be, and all the stages of that long evolutionary road.” The wolf stopped beside Magnus and he nodded towards it. An unspoken discourse seemed to pass between them. Ahriman caught a knowing glance from Ohthere Wyrdmake. Despite his reservations, he felt the urge to nurture the nascent kinship between them.
“Away with you!” shouted Phosis T’kar, shooing it. “Damned wolves.”
Magnus smiled. “I told you, there are no wolves on Fenris.”
A Thousand Sons - Grahan McNeil
The excerpt above surfaced in my timeline a while ago. To those of you unfamiliar with Warhammer 40k or this particular segment of the lore: It regards Fenris, an extremely deadly world that consists of sheer cold wastelands where basically nothing manages to survive, but is home to a species of giant wolf that not only can thrive in there, but seem comfortable while traveling to vastly different worlds. What Magnus the Red alludes to in the excerpt, is that the first settlers of Fenris tried to bio-engineer creatures that could survive the harsh atmosphere and now after thousands of years of their creations running around and evolving on their own, the end result is these massive, quasi-sentient monstrosities that although look like a wolf, couldn't be further from one.
That got me thinking about beast encounters in RPGs: Generally, we have them behave in unnatural ways to have an actual encounter in the game because in real life most animals will just run away from humans unless given extremely good reasons not to. Most times we just brush it off as part of the game and keep going, but some cases exist where a material makes very clear how odd the creature in question is (Lorn Song of the Bachelor comes to mind, that thing is very much not a crocodile).
With that I set to imagine, what can I can do from the concept that the dangerous animals you run into while adventuring aren't actually what they look? In the realm of fantasy we have all kinds of excuses for that: sorcerers experimenting, divine beings, cursed spirits, etc. The sky is the limit.
Below are a couple examples I cooked.
Northern Hound
9 HP, 15 BODY, bite (d10+d10)
- A wolf-like creature the size of a bull, born from ancient spells. Dwell in cold regions but can traverse other climates without trouble.
- Aggressive but wickedly smart, convincing one to hunt as your ally is possible but improbable, and the price of failure is deadly.
- The hound can hunt for days without the need to stop and rest, chasing its prey no matter how far it runs.
Forest Guardian
12 HP, 18 BODY, 8 MIND, claws and bite (d12+d10)
- A tall furred creature that resembles a bear with elongated limbs. Said to be a cursed soul caged to an animal's body.
- A ferocious creature, it decapitates its victims into dozens of pieces but never devours them. The Guardian roams through forests like a restless torment, simply attacking intruders without apparent reason.
- The guardian possesses uncannily sharp senses, being able to feel the presence of other beings from miles away, even when it seems impossible for any trace to be detected.
Black Hart
9 HP, 15 BODY, horns (d12, pierces armor)
- A large and muscular deer-thing with bladed horns adorned with the skulls of past victims, like trophies. Its darkened skin smells and looks decomposed.
- The living will of Mother Nature to turn what was game, into the hunter.
- It preys on men with the cruelness of a dozen seasoned hunters. It knows where they are, how to hunt them, kill them, and devour them. Its horns never run out of space for more of their skulls.