How do i describe a manticore without using real animals as a reference?

How do i describe a manticore without using real animals as a reference?

A lithe four limbed monstrosity with a mane of matted yellow hair. Its maw is filled with razor teeth, it's from legs longer and more powerful than its back giving it a sloping gate. It's tail falls away to a segmented horrible sting, acrid venom dripping from the tip. It's from limbs end in clawed paws while its back are pincered feet.

It hungers.

Mostly by describing its body parts.

Just call the tail "chitinous".

The problem you're going to run into is that lots of fantasy creatures are literally described in their original folklore as amalgams of animals. Especially the manticore. Why are you trying to do this?

Tailpussy.

Perhaps to stop metagaming?
Perhaps the animals aren't native to the world the manticore is from, or where the player characters are from.

Vaguely describing animals to prevent metagaming is great. Elephants and Crocodiles can be terrifying if the players don't know what they're fighting.

The only part of the manticore that demands to be described in relation to other animals is the face, because it must be obvious that it is weirdly human like. Otherwise

It's a heavy but slender looking beast that walks on four paws, it's both going from a golden thick fur in the front to thick dark scales on the back and then to something black and smooth like a carapace. It snarls at you and you can see sharp, ten-inch long fangs. However what really makes shivers run down your spine is the sharp looking, twelve inch long needle at the very tip of its segmented tail. You watch as a drop of thin green liquid drips from It into the ground, causing It to hiss and steam as a sour smell assaults your nostrils.

Roll for initiative

going off of the image you used specifically;

>The creature before you is an abomination of beast and insect. Bearing deadly fangs wrapped in a mane of fur and strong legs ended with wicked claws on it's front half, while it's back half is covered in barbs and chitinous exoskeletal armor. The creatures tail measures more then the length of it's whole body, and ends with a large and deadly stinger.

I probably should've mentioned that, in my setting, manticores are terrifying, powerful creatures, but they're also associated with kings and the king of the gods, so they get some regal characteristics. Using your suggestions:

"The golden beast’s front legs end in powerful paws tipped with flesh-rending claws the length of swords, while its arachnoid rear legs conclud with sharp, pincered feet, and its thickly furred front gives way to a segmented, chitinous tail which curls broadly and ends in a deadly, bulbous stinger. From its shoulders sprout glorious wings of fire, and from its neck grows a regal, flowing red mane which look like the rising sun. Its ferocious visage is bestial, but also carries with it some semblance of humanity and feral wisdom."

>How do i describe a manticore without using real animals as a reference?

The Manticore is a large to medium sized creature covered either in red, purple, or kind of a blood-salmon pink (though it can also have spots) fur, with four muscular legs, each ending in large paws possessing retractable claws. The body of the Manticore is 'baggy', with prominant shoulders, and ending in either a long tail with a flat clubbed end all lined with quills OR (in some species) a segmented, flexing, chitin covered tail ending in a sleek, barbless, stinger.
The Manticores most striking feature, though, is it's particular face which is bald and flat, but can open way too widely and reveal way too many teeth. The rest of the Manticore's face, though, is quite normal: one nose, two eyes, and two furred, pointed, ears.

The monster in front of you has an XP value of 975 and a Treasure Code of E.

Roll for Initiative.

Wow, someone who draw it?

You need to roll 10 successes to HIT THE MONSTER REEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAALLLL GOOD.

>It eats dudes, wants very badly to impress you, and isn't a dragon.

>Vaguely describing animals to prevent metagaming is great. Elephants and Crocodiles can be terrifying if the players don't know what they're fighting.
I don’t know whether to be disappointed in you for being unable to get your players to stop metagaming, or disappointed in your players for not realizing when someone’s describing a fucking elephant (something elementary school kids would understand).

honestly the trick is too not give to much detail. unless the nail a roll specifically one perception, it's all flashes of a limb and head and then it's on top of them it's combat time. If they are playing slow and smart they get more info. to be prepared, because they took the time to be prepared, the metagaming is a reward then.

For some reason I never heard of manticore's having human faces and bat wings until a long time after I learnt about them, and I've never been able to make the change. I almost always just have them as lions with scorpion tails.

It's historical to describe poorly.

Here are some drawings of elephants done by somebody in Europe based on descriptions only.

this please. it does sound like a cool idea.

honestly, not terribly off

> I like elephants, and God likes elephants. Here's a realistic elephant. It's done with interpolation with vectors. Sometimes it works. It's kind of uh, limited.

This is the correct answer. Describe its features.

You got me at "It hungers"

It makes a good writing and GMing exercise. Even if you can introduce it by referencing animals, or by just saying, "a vicious Manticore appears before you!" it's very useful to describe aspects of it as things progress.
Shake up the scenario: pretend Xenomorphs didn't exist and you came up with one. How would you describe it?

This makes me realize I want an entire monster manual described like this.

So you counter their metagaming with metanarratives. Gotta write that down.

You feel a malignant presence, but can't quite pin down where it's coming from.

Then you hear the light tapping of its bony clawed feet from behind you.

It's body was a gnarled, blasphemy of a human form. Covered in a black, bony shell of chitin, glistening with a noxious liquid, it stops moving as it senses your regard and stands on its elongated hind legs, like a hunter showing himself to prey. Its arms - if they could be called arms - end in talons the length of knives, and surely even sharper. Behind it, was a spiny tail that ended in a sharp, corrosive stinger. Its elongated head not having anything that resembles eyes, a nose, or anything that sane creatures from a sane world would have.

It only has a mouth, dripping with poisonous fluids, lined with sharp fangs.

It hungers.

>those horses know something is off

>How do i describe a manticore without using real animals as a reference?
"It has the tawny head of a chimera, the body of a sphinx, and the tail of a manscorpion."

i like how the horses look at it like "what in the in fuck"

>How do i describe a manticore without using real animals as a reference?

Half unicorn, half fairy, half mermaid, half cthuluh

Brilliant description

Tail pussy.

the same as you do Chimera

>Tawny flesh and powerful limbs sheathed alternatively in banded fur and chitin terminate in dreadful iron claws
>Slender fangs bristle from a snarling maw that dominates features that contort into an almost human hatred
>Curving from the beasts hindquarters arcs an armoured tail and the barbed ,hateful shape of venom-oozing stinger
>The beast stares at you, unmoving. It's eyes pinpricks of feverish rage. Dispite yourself you shiver. This beast is intelligent, you can sense the dull sadism and its desire to taste manflesh

I myself am used to lions with scorpion tails but also bat wings, because Heroes of Might and Magic 3 was my very first encounter with Manticores that I remember.

Poor descriptions should only be used as in-setting descriptions, like in a book or picture or from a drunk guy at the tavern. If you're describing something the characters are actually seeing, it should be accurate, clear, and physically descriptive rather than comparative. Plenty of people have posted good ones like that above.

>How do i describe a manticore without using real animals as a reference?
Describe real animals using a manticore as a reference.