Editing Cat (section)

==The Killer Housecat==
In ''[[3rd Edition Dungeons and Dragons]]'', house cats have stats that make them incredibly deadly combatants for their apparent harmlessness and low [[Challenge Rating]]. Thanks to a tiny size and high dexterity, a cat has an armor class that makes it as hard to hit as a man in a chain shirt. The cat is actually ''harder'' to hit, since that AC is all touch AC, so splash weapons and energy rays '''will not save you'''. They are also very stealthy and win initiative, so they can ambush easily.

A cat has three natural attacks, all doing 1 damage each; statistically, a cat will virtually always kill a level one [[Commoner]] one on one, and possibly even a level one [[Wizard]] if there's no familiar helping them fight back, making them more dangerous than bandits and marauders to a human city since they are everywhere. Even if he can get casting off (which is already a resource expenditure far in excess of its supposed CR), the few first level Wizard spells available aren't that likely to work on the monster thanks to low damage that is likely halved (and if it's a ''familiar'' attacking you, outright avoided) by the cat's high reflex save. More meaty classes fare better, but still need disproportionate effort to kill it.

''[[Pathfinder]]'' nerfs them slightly, but only through a minor, easily overlooked system wide change: Damage reduced to less than one by damage penalties does one ''non-lethal'' damage (in 3E this was still lethal damage). This means a victim has a chance of being rescued after being KOed, but before the cat finishes them off. This does raise the question of how cats can actually kill rats without first KOing them; then again, that's not unrealistic to RL cats, who usually try to cripple their prey before going in for the killstroke (because the killstroke generally leaves the cat vulnerable, so making sure their prey can't fight back is important).

The "killer housecat" phenomenon is well known enough that it's referenced regularly in 3e forums and its derivatives as a standard deadly "monster" for its CR and to emphasize how squishy low level Wizards are, as well as other games and media in or near the /tg/-sphere.