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Okay, so one of my monsters is a dinosaur called a Giganto, a Gigantosaurus mutated by Chaos Energy (more on that here). Like all my monsters, Gigantos have an Enchantment granted to whatever kills them, which they naturally hold themselves. In this case, the enchantment is Gigantis.

Gigantis basically defies the square-cube law for a Giganto, allowing for the strength of its muscles and bones to increase enough with size to bear its increased weight as it scales up, and keeping speed the same as it grows (so it moves at the same speed as it did as a spry little hatchling even as a big, sorta chunky adult). My question is simple: How Beneficial is Gigantis for a Giganto?

Clarifications:

  1. The strength and durability of a Giganto's bodily materials (bone, flesh, muscle) are twice that necessary to deal with their increased size as they grow. However, I have been unable to figure out A) how big a Giganotosaurus adult is compared to a hatchling, and B) where exactly Giganotosaurus live. As for hatchling size, Giganotosaurus and T.Rex are similar enough that you can use the size of a T.rex hatchling and go from there.

  2. The movement speed and agility of a Giganto remains the same as it grows, so it will run just as fast as an adult as it did as a hatchling (after it became capable of running of course). This should make a Giganto far faster and more maneuverable than it should be given its size, and according to livescience.com, Regular Giganotosaurus were probably "fairly" fast and agile, with a top speed of 31.3 mph and they may have great balance and the ability to make tight turns. I am uncertain how impactful a Giganoto's increased speed and agility will be, however.

  3. The Gigantis Enchantment also makes it so a Giganto, despite its greater speed and strength, has the same metabolic needs as a regular Giganotosaurus of its size, because it draws off ambient magic to power that increased strength and speed. However, the efficiency of digestion, circulation, respiration and even thermoregulation scale up linearly alongside strength and durability with size, allowing Gigantos to potentially grow even larger than a regular Giganotosaurus.

  4. "How beneficial is this enchantment" translates to "How much will this enchantment aid a Giganoto in A) surviving and B) preying on other animals?"

EDIT: I now understand this answer is highly dependent on the environment, but after due and diligent search, I haven't been able to determine if a Giganotosaurus' environment was the swamps and wetlands of South America or the plains and woodlands of South America. Whichever one it is shouldn't matter, as my world is based on Europe and Europe has both in abundance.

EDIT 2: There is only one species of Giganotosaurus, which is Giganotosaurus carolinii.

Specifications For Best Answer:

  1. The best answer will determine or estimate how strong, tough, and agile an adult Giganoto will be compared to a regular Giganotosaurus, using the information above.

  2. The best answer will also take into account the two possible habitats for this creature; the swamps and wetlands of Europe or the plains and woodlands of Europe.

  3. The best answer will then determine how lethal a Giganoto will be; how hard it will be to escape, hurt, or take a hit from, both for its animal prey (in either of the two environments above) and humans (which I do not count as animals). As a frame of reference, creatures it may prey on include minivan-sized Plop, Gluttons, and
    Engulfers, with some prehistoric inclusions like Titanoboa, Carbonemys, and maybe even Sarcosuchus for the swamp and Macrauchenia, entelodonts like Daeodon, chalicotheres like Moropus, Toxodon, maybe even rhinos like Paraceratherium for the grasslands.

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  • $\begingroup$ Just to clarify: does the gigantis affects/mitigates the effects of the animal's metabolism? Cause another problem related to the square cube law is that if we were to scale up a rat to the size of an elephant, it likely wouldn't have to worry about having strong enough muscles...because it would probably die in a few minutes. $\endgroup$ Commented Apr 29, 2021 at 1:24
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    $\begingroup$ @ProjectApex: I put another point under Clarification to address that, thank you! $\endgroup$
    – Alendyias
    Commented Apr 29, 2021 at 1:27
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    $\begingroup$ Beneficial seems like a highly subjective assessment. Certainly highly dependent upon the environment a creature finds itself in. $\endgroup$
    – sphennings
    Commented Apr 29, 2021 at 13:16
  • $\begingroup$ Theres just way too much going on here for me to try to tackle it. $\endgroup$
    – TCAT117
    Commented Apr 29, 2021 at 14:39
  • $\begingroup$ You fail to specify how a Giganto differs from Gigantosaurus. What is "bigger"? Mass? Height? Length? Further, your clarification point (1) is missing subpart (C). Third, you may want to review your post for spelling; I believe you have conflated your species' name (Giganoto) with that of the dinosaur genus (Gigantosaurus) in a few places. Finally, you may not be able to define average size for Gigantosaurus because Gigantosaurus is a genus, not a species. $\endgroup$
    – Frostfyre
    Commented Apr 29, 2021 at 15:52

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Incredibly strong

The whole build is unbelievably strong, regardless of many other factors. Imagine making a human twice as big with this enchantment. You'll effectively double her/his running speed. All for the same amount of effort. But this goes much, much further. There is a reason bigger objects tend to move slower, at least visually. If you make an arc with your hands in a second and do the same when it's twice as big, you'll have much more power than just two times right there. The speed or the arm at the end has increased, as well as the weight and surface area. All for the economical price of being normal size. To give a better perspective with a human as an example: you'll have the strength between an orangutan and a gorilla, with better reach, less food, more durable, higher speed and higer stamina. Not impressed? It's like being Hafþór Björnsson (the Mountain in Game of Thrones), who in many ways can be considered the strongest man in the world, but with no effort or the insane diet.

The Gigantosaurus is much worse. Thanks to the square cube law their strength will go up by insane amounts, relatively more than a human, while their food intake and movements remain the same. Every percentage that it grows thanks to the enchantment is a boon for his hunting abilities. Stronger bite and tail swipe, as well as higher speeds, while not collapsing from encumbrance, heart failure or insufficient food.

The brain would also increase with unknown consequences. Adding more brain cells can in one way be seen as a logarithmic increase of power, but many other factors are at play. The way it's build and possibly electrical noise after a certain size can make the brain not function noticeably better or even worse than before. It might also skyrocket the intelligence into the Stratosphere. As one of the most energy consuming body parts, it would be very welcome to have the same metabolism.

The T-Rex is quite close in the gene pool if I recall correctly. A hatchling T-Rex would be about a meter, while they can grow to be more than 12. At very conservative estimates of a growth of 5 times larger than a hatchling for the gigantosaurus you already have an interesting creature. Quick on the feet like a 2.4m tall creature and requiring the same amount of food, while being a 12m tall fast powerhouse able to ravage anything it comes across. Most creatures wouldn't feel too threatened however, as it doesn't need to hunt often for it's size, nor hunt huge game. If it kills an antelope it could feed for days.

This enchantment is simply over the top dangerous and useful.

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  • $\begingroup$ Thank you for your thorough and thoughtful answer! I understand this would be useful, but not how useful it would be. However, I have to ask how tough the Gigantis would become, if its body's ability to handle its weight scales linearly with size, so I can understand how difficult it will be for humans in my world to take down. $\endgroup$
    – Alendyias
    Commented May 1, 2021 at 20:17
  • $\begingroup$ @Alendyas Since you didn't impose a size cap you could have a giganto the size of a mountain that needs exactly the same amount of nutrients of one the size of an adult gigantosaurus, and which would be for a tarrasque what a snapping turtle would be for a T-rex. Unless your humans have a magic equivalent of the tsar bomba, I don't think they'd be able to beat these things after a certain point. Are you sure you don't want to let your humans use magic to reach at least 1st industrial revolution level tech in a world filled with monsters that could wipe out soldiers with modern personal gear? $\endgroup$ Commented May 1, 2021 at 22:31

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