Wildruner Template [MitP Creature]

[LordOfNarf]

Wildruner Template

Occasionally a person is born, often on the fringes of the jungle that is exceptionally small and deformed for their race. These are usually cast into the wilderness by disgusted parents. Scholars debate over whether this is caused by specific gene combinations, or if its is due to the toxic environments on the fringe of the jungles, where many plants with unknown effects grow. While most die, a few survive, and some find others of their kind and create tribes. They usually have a despotic society ruled by the strongest, as defined by combat. They are considered "savages" by many civilized societies, but they can actually be quite noble. If they make a friend, they consider them a part of their tribe. They will defend them with their life if necessary, and expect their friend to do the same for them. If two Wildruner creatures mate, they breed true. Wildruners often create high canopy villages on branches that would break under others weight, or they sleep in cliff caves, where their skill at climbing lets them reach places where others may not be able to get to.

A Wildruner looks like a small version of their base creature; they often have childlike heads in proportion to their bodies. Their skin is often paler than the base creature, but they dye their skin in patterns to camouflage in the jungle. Different tribes have different cultures, so there is no overreaching society. Due to the genetics that created them, Wildruners usually have what is considered recessive genetic traits (in humans: blonde hair, blue eyes, etc). Tribes are usually 50-300 members, and are usually all of one base race, but integrated tribes are known to occur.

Wildruners are rarely interested in the worship of gods, but often have a strong animist belief that is led by a tribal shaman (usually a mid-level druid). Wildruners have some fighters among their race, but barbarians are far, far more common. Some Wildruners become rogues, but they are more likely to learn survival oriented skills than dungeon crawling skills. Wildruner wizards are almost unheard of, since so many cannot read, but Wildruner sorcerers are some of the most feared people in their tribes. They hold a position as high, if not higher than the shaman, since they are believed to have exceptionally strong spirits.


Creating a Wildruner Creature

Wildruner is an inherited template that can be added to any corporeal fey, giant, humanoid or monstrous humanoid.

Size and Type: Type remains unchanged, add augmented subtype. The size is unchanged, but has special rules, see below.

Speed: A Wildruner has all speeds reduced to 2/3 the base creatures movement speed in all types, rounded to the nearest 5 ft. This cannot bring any speed below 10 ft in any circumstances. The pygmy also gains a climb speed equal to their base land speed.

Armor Class: A Wildruner gains a size bonus to AC as if they were one size category smaller.

Special Attacks: A Wildruner gains Poison use (as the Assassin class feature) due to their skill in using the multitude of poisons in their native jungles.

Special Qualities: A Wildruner creature gains Diminutive Build (see below)

Saves: As base creature, but the Wildruner gains a +4 racial bonus to saves against poison

Abilities: -2 Str +2 Dex +2 Con -4 Int +2 Wis Wildruners are quicker and hardier, and have sharp perception, but are physically weak and uneducated.

Skills: A Wildruner creature gets a +2 racial bonus to Climb, Spot, Listen, Hide, Move silently, and Craft (poison making) due to the rigors of their home jungles. A [name] can also choose to use her strength or dexterity on climb checks, whichever is higher.
Skills: A Wildruner creature has a +8 racial bonus on Climb checks and can always choose to take 10 on Climb checks, even if rushed or threatened.

CR: As base creature + 1

LA: As base creature +1

Diminutive Build (ex) A Wildruner creature is smaller than normal for the race creature. This makes them be able to act in may ways as a creature of one size category lower. A Wildruner creature gains the AC and attack bonuses for a creature one size category below them. They use the grapple, trip, disarm, and other size modifiers in a way that is most advantageous to them. They gain a bonus to hide checks based on the smaller size category. Wildruner creatures can choose to use a weapon of their size category or the one smaller than them, based on their choice.

[hr]

I designed this since powerful build gets an extraordinary amount of milage from peple grabbing at the power, so I wanted that, but in reverse, all the benifits of a smaller size, but not the penalties.

this has been submitted to Monsters in the Playground (http://www.giantitp.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?board=homebrew;action=display;num=11557461 87)

[ShipWrecked]

very nice lord, i like the idea. just a few things need to be fixed but its good

[fangthane]

You missed a couple of things on the copy/paste :)

Skills - what's a Choker? :)
The text should read "Due to their climb speed, pygmies can always take 10 on a climb check even if rushed or threatened"

I have to wonder what would be the result of a pygmy ogre getting it on with a halfling... :)
Looks fairly balanced though, overall - no net stat gain except in terms of minmaxing, and close to a level's worth of skills and bonus capability.

MitP Vote: Yes (provided the mis-paste is corrected)

[Winged One]

MitP vote: yes.

[LordOfNarf]

I was coping the text off the SRD since I wanted the exact wording, and picked the first creature with a climb speed i saw, I must have forgot to change it to pygmy.

fixed now

[Lord Iames Osari]

MitP Vote: Yes.

[Umbral_Arcanist]

hmmm, i guess yes, it's interesting, though i think actually reducing size and adding powerful build would accomplish the same but "shrug" it's good

[Eighth_Seraph]

Good stuff, just thinking about the reaction of the female halfling rogue when she finds out that her party leader is really a human. Ooh. That is completely applicable to my camapaign. I like. MitP vore: yes.

[DMgrinder]

I homebrewed a pygmy race a while back. I alway loved them, and you've added more flexibility to them, now.

If I could vote, I would. I'm still working on a monster that will make even D1 and VT look at my new... thing.

[asromta]

I really like the idea of a smaller version of a race. They could be usefull in my own campaign world.

MitP Vote: Yes

[LordOfNarf]

Widdended out the fluffy, and added a little to the crunchy, since it seems fair that they should get to use their dex on climb, instead of a weaker strength.

[Leperflesh]

I hate to be a killjoy... and I realize most likely very few D&D players are Pygmies. But:

There is some inherent racism to this template that I can't quite swallow. "Pygmy" is a real-world term describing real-world human beings. These people
-are not deformed individuals of normally-taller humans
-are not inherently prone to violence or cannibalism
There are other reinforcements of stereotype in the stats, as well, such as poison use bonuses, illiteracy, and jungle-dwelling bonuses. It all adds up to a thinly-veiled parody of real-world humans.

Now, I'm pretty sure nothing untoward was intended. But I have to vote against this entry. I'll reverse my vote if you change the name, and also make revisions to carefully avoid potential offense. Again: no hard feelings, I'm not personally offended, and I truly believe this is just an oversight. But I think this is potentially problematic and shouldn't be in our published book, as it stands.

--edited--: objectionable material has been removed. No vote at the moment.

-Lep

[Eighth_Seraph]

...

This is true. I'm not sure if 'pygmy' is what the people call themselves or merely a nickname given by Europeans, but pygmies are a race of people in mid-western Africa, aren't they? Completely forgot about that. Upon that reminder, I have to agree that the whole 'digusted parents...violent lives...often practicing cannibalism and ritualistic sacrifice' thing would indeed be stereotypical. However, when describing a culture in the space of two paragraphs, stereotyping will be done, Lep. Changing the name would help a good long way, I admit, to stave off the potential, if unlikely, lawsuit; as well as retaining moral fibre. However, there's no denying that despite the late 18th century-esque generalizations here, the description of the culture is a good representation of what seperates the [name to be redecided later] from the rest of their race, as they are a template here, as well as their methods of hunting. Jungle tribes are (stereotypically) notorious for the use of poison darts, especially sleeping poisons; though that just may be the amazons I'm thinking about.

Now in critique of the game mechanics, the stats seem fair, though the +8 to Climb and a climb speed seem like a bit much for anything humanoid without a prehensile tail. The +2 that was already mentioned alongside Spot, Move Silently, etc. should do.

Lep's argument also brought up another good point, pygmies are not product of a genetic defect, but a full-blown race of humans, so unless things are different in your campaign world, a template wouldn't be the most fitting thing for these.

[LordOfNarf]

Ok, I am truly sorry if anyone was offended, I did not mean it that way. I would Gladly change the name and flavor, but i have no Idea waht to call them, since I want to keep the Idea of outcast genetic mutants. I will change their violence if you feel I should, but I kinda wanted the concept of a brutal, underestimated jungle people. The canabalism seems unnesesary in retospect, I'l change that, but I need a new name, anybody have any ideas?

And they have a climb speed, so the +8 is the standard fodder that every creature with a Climb speed has, so I didn't control that, Wizards did it.

edit: I cleaned up the flavor text a bit, they are still more violent than say, elves, but about on par with many monstorous humanoids in terms of society.

[Leperflesh]

I think it's fine for them to be violent, and even cannibalistic, as long as they aren't associated with real, living human cultures.

If you're interested, The Wikipedia page about Pygmies (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pygmy) might be fruitful.

As for jungle-dwelling, short vicious human mutants? I suggest:
-don't give them darker skin. In fact, maybe specify something specifically un-Pygmy-like: perhaps green skin, or stringy white hair, or even red eyes.
-call them something evocative. Hmm. Maybe "Wildbloods" or "Snake-Eaters" or "Bugmen" or "Children of the Dark". Or maybe "Gnomes" (haha, little joke there).
-Develop their culture in a non-Pygmy direction. Put something unique and interesting in there. Maybe (Snake Eaters) they have a reputation for cultivating and playing with poisonous vipers, using them in a totemic fashion, and splitting their tongues in ritualistic mutilation practices designed to make them more fearsome. Or maybe that's just false rumor.

I hate being the straightlaced PC-guy, really. It just rang alarm-bells in my head when I looked at it, and I figured it'd be a good idea to speak up.

-Lep

[LordOfNarf]

I picked a new name, Wildruner sound like a good concept name. I didn't include cultures, since these are smaller, savage humanoids, but it will invariable differ between village and base race. (Wildruner orcs may be more violent than wildruner elves, who might be more interested in music, just becaue they are more vicious, dosn't mean the base race goes away)

I filled out the physical description, and i do not belive I ever made them darker skinned, but now, due to the same efects that made them deformed in the first place, they often have recesive traits(so, blonde hair, blue ayes, as appropriate by race) and are distanced from real world small people.

[Leperflesh]

Nicely done.
MitP Vote: Yes

-Lep

[Tormsskull]

I think this is very cool! Wildrunners will likely show up IMC. I'm sure this doesn't need to be said, but you'll need to do a spell check and clean up a run-on sentence in the description before it actually goes in the book. Other than that, very nice work!

MitP vote: Yes

[LordOfNarf]

Ok, I ran it trough Word's spelcheck, but grammar has never been my forte, could someone proofread the fluffy to make sure its good?

At this rate, our books going to be better edited than any official WotC book, some of their errors are glaringly obvious...

[Tormsskull]

Ok, here's somewhat of a revision. The problem with English is that a lot of this stuff is subjective. I bolded the parts that I changed and tried to say why I changed them. You may not agree with all of the changes, and if not, don't use them. The main ones were minor spelling mistakes and the few run-on sentences. Anyhow, hope this helps.

Occasionally a person is born, often on the fringes of a jungle, that is exceptionally small and deformed for their race. These are usually cast into the wilderness by disgusted parents. Scholars debate over whether this is caused by specific gene combinations, or if its is due to the toxic environments on the fringe of the jungles where many plants with unknown effects grow. While most die, a few survive, and some find others of their kind and create tribes. They usually have a despotic society ruled by the strongest,( added the word as) as defined by combat. They are considered "savages" (deleted the word and)by many civilized societies, but they can actually be quite noble. (deleted the word and)If they make a friend, they consider them a part of their tribe. (deleted the word and, added the word they)They will defend them with their life if necessary, and expect their friend to do the same for them. If two Wildrunner creatures mate, they breed true. Wildrunners often create high canopy villages(deleted comma) on branches that would break under others weight, or they sleep in cliff caves. (deleted the words where & their, added A Wildrunner's) A Wildrunner's skill at climbing lets them reach places where others may not be able to get to.

A Wildruner looks like a small version of their base creature; they often have childlike heads in proportion to their bodies. Their skin is often paler than the base creature, but they dye their skin in patterns to camouflage in the jungle. Different tribes have different cultures, so there is no overreaching society. Due to the (uncapitalized the g)genetics that created them, Wildruners usually have what is considered recessive genetic traits (in humans: blonde hair, blue eyes, etc). Tribes are usually 50-300 members, and are usually all of one base race, but integrated tribes are known to occur.

Wildruners are rarely interested in the worship of gods, but often have a strong animistic belief (deleted comma, added that is) that is led by a tribal shaman (usually a mid-level druid). Wildruners have some fighters among their race, but barbarians are far, far more common. Some Wildruners become rogues(changed spelling), but they are more likely to learn survival oriented skills than dungeon crawling skills. Wildruner wizards are almost unheard of, since so many cannot read, but Wildruner sorcerers are some of the most feared people in their tribes. (deleted the word and, added they) They hold a position as high, if not a higher than the shaman, since they are believed to have exceptionally strong spirits.

Edit: Also, now that I think of it, was it supposed to be Wildrunner or Wildruner? I hadn't noticed that till a moment after I submitted the post.

[LordOfNarf]

Thanks for proofeading, one might think after all these years of DnD, I could spell rogue, but oh well...

Also, animist is correct, as is animistic, and i like the way the first one sounds better.

It was supposed to be 1 n, I jsut got sloppy.

[mikoto]

They are still called pygmies in your article in some cases

[Delcan]

Y'know what... you don't see nearly as many savage wilderness races as you should. And one that is designed to become SMALLER than its usual size, rather than larger, is a great step in the opposite direction.

It's a little white-bread as far as the crunchy stuff goes, but that makes it more solid than a farfetched template might be, and is only a minor meh as far as my tastes go. :)

MitP Vote: Yes.