Let’s Play D&D With ‘Jurassic World’s Velociraptors
Every Dungeons & Dragons party needs a clever girl, but maybe your party needs one in the form of a velociraptor.
A while back I invited you all to Jurassic Park to play some D&D. I made dear ol’ grandpa John Hammond as the main monster of a dinosaur heavy adventure. He’s not exactly a good guy and D&D has had dinosaurs as monsters since its inception. But this week we’re taking the whole thing in a different direction. The more recent Jurassic Park movie have taken the velociraptors from the single scariest thing you could encounter to man’s best friend. So let’s follow that path a little and play D&D with
A Velociraptor
Unless you have a DM that’s willing to make a really specific homebrew race for you, there aren’t a lot of ready-to-play raptor options. After looking between a couple of different lizardy options I decided on Kobold primarily for their pack tactics. Raptors work in a pack and work best when they can work together to herd their target, so it was important to me that our D&D raptor had pack tactics, too.
Kobolds are also teeny tiny, which might sound wrong if you’re thinking of the velociraptors that Jurassic Park popularized and not what they actually looked like. Which was closer to the size of a large chicken or a small turkey. I’ve been chased by a turkey and that’s still no joke, but it’s much closer to kobold proportions than the human sized dinos we’ve seen on the big screen.
From The Encyclopedia Britannica
Velociraptors are, at their core, hunters so I made them Rangers with a Hunter conclave. Two-Weapon fighting as well as their daggers and sickles represents their pairs of hooked claws. For their basic stats, a raptor has to be a “clever girl,” so I made sure the intelligence was high. Dex and Strength have to be too, and everything else can fall where it does.
Rangers also get spellcasting, which your average dinosaur doesn’t have, but our velociraptor is special. I leaned into spells that felt animal and hunter specific. Hunters Mark is because they always catch their prey once they get your scent. Jump because we all saw how they jumped straight up onto the counters in that kitchen scene.
Finally, the raptor needs to be a little faster than your average adventurers, even at their short stature. So I gave this dino the Mobile feet for an additional 10 ft of movement and a few other helpful boons as well. Between that and Jump few things will stand in their way and few will be safe from their terrifying claw. In in this case, their collection of daggers and sickles.
How would you make a velociraptor for a D&D setting? Would you rather play against a raptor as a monster or play with a raptor as a player character and a friend? What show, comic, movie, or game would you like to see us make sheets from next time? Let us know in the comments!
Happy Adventuring!
