Dire Animal

Dire animals are normal animals on steroids. They're vaguely based off of animals from the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene epochs.

They were introduced in 3.5, presumably as a way to add some higher level animals to help make the abilities of druids and rangers matter.

The following were introduced in the first Monster Manual, but there was a shitton of them added on in virtually ever book. Dire Ape Dire Badger Dire Bat Dire Bear Dire Boar Dire Lion Dire Rat Dire Shark Dire Tiger Dire Weasel Dire Wolf Dire Wolverine