War Rhinos
From the Marvel Comics universe, and of course the new Black Panther movie
Disclaimer & Foreword
I will try and keep this as spoiler light as possible in terms of the movie’s plot, etc.; however, I do not know what your — the reader’s — spoiler tolerance is. As such, this is your official spoiler warning. I also am not claiming to be a Black Panther comic expert by any means, but I am a fan of Marvel Comics and the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) moreso. I also have my opinions on the movie (hint: I loved it), so take that with what you will.
Also, I know this may a tangent from what I intend this series of posts to be, but I loved the movie, the concept of these creatures, and — in a movie that celebrates African culture with a wonderful medley of tribes and cultures’ traditions — I think we’re not too far off from the core purpose of this series.
If you’re ready, willing, and able, read on!
Disney and Marvel’s latest entry into the MCU is Black Panther — a bildungsroman and Shakespearean-esque action movie, with the light surface layer of a superhero movie (#opinion). The movie follows T’Challa and his traditional inheritance of becoming King of Wakanda, which also includes the supernatural powers of panther-god Bast’s avatar, Black Panther.
There is a great scene in the movie where the audience witnesses W’Kabi — leader of the tribe that protects the border and T’Challa’s best friend — pull out a war horn. Black Panther pleads for him not to alert whomever responds to it. When I watched, I had a moments of, “WTF is that going to be? Who’s going to come? Riders from the border patrol?” The scene cuts to a hill, the Lion King-esque sounds of a stampede come over the movie theater speakers, and what sort of horde crests over the hill?
Armored.
War.
Rhinos.
We saw a scene earlier in the movie that W’Kabi takes care of these large beasts. We were unsure what they were for until now. Even then as the creatures burst into the scene, they looked like just a deadly stampede. The film cuts again back to W’Kabi, standing on the boulder he was on previously. A painted, armored rhino storms to his side, and — with practiced finesse and ferocity — W’Kabi leaps onto and saddles onto his battle companion.
I think this is such a badass concept.
Building War Rhinos
In D&D 5e, a Rhinoceros stat block is available, and that’s fine and all, but if we wanted an enormous, armored, trained beast, what would that look like? I also imagine that vibranium — which is not just a metal, but a material that is woven into Wakadan garbs and tech — is incorporated into the paint and armor of the rhinos, much like how W’Kabi’s tribe has the phalanx-shield-manifesting-capes. How do we translate vibranium into 5e?
To make it easy, vibranium can essentially be a magical material of the same name, or other name, with the same properties. The core idea of Wakanda being a secluded society that safeguards this material is a great adventure hook as well!
If you have a character that may be a rider of such a creature, the mount can be specialized with some feats. Mounted combat is a separate rule set in 5e, but a character with the Mounted Combatant (PH) feat will help against a majority of creatures the PC and rhino will face (advantage on attacks against creatures smaller than the player character’s (PC) mount, and the War Rhino is Large). Depending on how much you’ll allow your players to customize their mount, some good feat options for the rhino mount are: Tough, the specific armor proficiency (perhaps required if they go beyond the painted runes), and Durable. Perhaps allow a player to pick one (or randomly decide which feat the beast comes with!) upon acquiring the war rhino as a mount.
The war rhino is ferocious in battle. As expected by a large, horned beast, it’s an enormous force to be reckoned with. Contrary to this, in the movie W’Kabi has a gentle moment with his beasts, as T’Challa is visiting him at his base camp along the border. He raises them, and they are loyal. The rhinos also know to respond to the sound of the war horn and stampede when summoned.
The rhinos in the movie were painted in stylized Wakandan runes and patterns. We can take this to be similar to a Barbarian’s animal totem powers, or simply magical writings much like the words on a spell scroll. The armor itself for the beast can be martial, but if you want to upgrade to magical armor, I can see some sort of element or energy resistant armor or perhaps armor forged from elven-like material in order to not hinder the running speed of the rhino (who is already not a very dextrous animal).
Aside from resistance, some other enchantments I can suggest for the painted runes are: a natural +1 to AC (this would be for a very powerful rhino), a persistent shield or blade ward spell, or activatable protection from good/evil, sanctuary, or expeditious retreat spells (activated by a situational case or by the rider). These same spells can go for the armor as well for a higher-ranked rhino, but for a more general war rhino, just pick an armor type from the Player’s Handbook (PH, Chapter 5), use that armor base like you would a PC, and add the rhino’s Dexterity (this may be negative, and if you want to give them some umph just don’t subtract) and Natural Armor +1 (or +2 if you add magic from painted runes).
A trained rhino mount would just have some slightly better numbers in its Intelligence (maybe from a 2 to a 6), Wisdom, or Charisma stats, and maybe an extra skill proficiency or two. They are not awakened by default, but I can also see perhaps a general’s war rhino having magical armor or special runes to give it a higher level of intelligence in order to make it more of a familiar. In fact, in the movie, W’Kabi’s rhino recognizes Okoye (“his love”) and the creature stops in its tracks when charging Nakia, so these rhinos can be as well trained and smart as any trained, domesticated dog. Some proficient skills I would recommend are: Athletics (though not for grappling), Perception, and Survival. Intimidation can also be a good skill for perhaps a “named” war rhino your characters may encounter a few times to give it some personality.
Some War Rhino Offerings
With all of the above, I’ve made 2 stat blocks for some war rhinos: a “basic” mount and a higher ranked one. They are more challenging than the basic rhinoceros’s CR 2 rating. Feel free to modify as you will to fit your play setting!
Wanna talk about this or Black Panther? Hit me up on Twitter @clineamb or drop a comment!
