Template: Princess

[Gnudro]

Recently my girlfriend and I were talking about rats, and the topic of the generic fantasy princess came up. We both decided that we needed to make a princess template, so here it is.

The Princess
This template can be applied to any character of the female gender, or to an individual of a genderless type that identifies as female. (Such as female personality warforged) With dm approval it can also be added to a male character who identifies as female.
+1 CR, +2 LA

Grace:The Princess adds her charisma modifier as a deflection bonus to her armor class.

Fear of Rodents: Whenever the Princess discovers a rodent of any type (besides the talking mouse familiar, see below) she must make a will save of 10 + the rodent's hit dice or become shaken.

Known to Dragons: All dragons within 50 miles automaticly know where the princess is currently located.

Hero: All princeses have a single, unnattatched male cohort, of appropriate level according to the Dungeon Master's Guide Leadership rules. (Assume for this purpose that the Princess has the Leadership feat, but can gain no followers. If the Princess also has the leadership feat, she gains an additional cohort and followers) At the beggining of the game, the princess does not know her cohort, but he will appear to rescue her the first time she is captured.

Cute Familiar:

A wizard, sorcerer, adept or other familiar owning princess can also gain familiars from the following list, in addition to their normal familiar lists.

Kitten: +3 Diplomacy
Turtle: +3 Fortitude Saves
Mouse*: +3 Hide
Puppy: +3 Bluff
Sparrow*: +3 Spot
Toad#: No apparent benefit
Dwarf%: Can carry the Princesses equitment

*The Mouse, Sparrow, and Dwarf are able to speak a single language of their owners choice, that must be chosen from the Princess's known language list.

#This seems like a normal toad, and doesn't give any supernatural benefit, it does however gain abilities as a familiar normally does. At DM's option however, the Toad may be a handsome prince trapped in toad form by an evil witch.

%The Dwarf is a standard dwarf with a single level of humanoid. It rarely seaks coherently, and seeks to do whatever the Princess wishes it to do. Despite being a dwarf and giving no supernatural benefit, it is in all other ways like a normal familiar. The Dwarf is always male, yet never will express any romantic interest in the princess.

If the Princess does not normally have a familiar, she instead gains a mundane version of one of the creatures on the familiar list. The mouse is still capable of speach, and will never frighten the Princess.

[Amiria]

CR and LA both seem a bit to high, well unless her Prince cohort is always around.

But nice idea, cute familiar, yeah. I actually had one for the character behind my main identify (click the link in my sig) some years ago.

Hmm, I could need a balanced LA+0 Princess template.

[Ravyn]

You forgot something.

Heart of Music: Singing is in the Princess's blood, and she delights in expressing it. The Princess must roll a Will save with a difficulty equal to ten plus her own Charisma in order to not burst into song at the slightest excuse, but on the plus side, she gains a +2 racial bonus to all Performance rolls involving song and/or dance.

[Thomas]

Definitely funny, but the CR adjustment is too high. Try +0. Even if the cohort were always around, he's going to be of a CR two lower than the princess, and wouldn't contribute a full +1 EL to the encounter if their separate CRs were used.

[Gnudro]

I was thinking LA +2 because grace is extremely powerful. Make a Paladin or Bard Princess, or even worse a Princess Marshall. And I do like the singing flaw idea, but that seems to stray a bit too much from the Disny princess's I was thinking about, while it does fit later ones, I don't remember Snow White singing all that much. Perhaps a later template "Musical, or Operatic" could be added, that wouldn't be princess specific. Then if you want, you could have a musical Princess.

[Thomas]

LA +2 is about right, sure. Both the extra cohort and the grace are powerful abilities.

CR +2 is just way too high. Neither of those abilities is going to make an NPC that much more challenging.

[Ravyn]

Not too much? I remember her having at least two numbers; the main reason she didn't have more was that that was still back when the supporting cast got as many shots at the music as the protagonist....

Edit: Thanks. I was operating off ten years since I saw the movie.

[Shhalahr Windrider]

And I do like the singing flaw idea, but that seems to stray a bit too much from the Disny princess's I was thinking about, while it does fit later ones, I don't remember Snow White singing all that much.
If we're talking about the Disney Snow White, I count 4 out of 9 songs on the Wikipedia list of songs from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow_White_and_the_Seven_Dwarfs_%281937_film%29#So ngs_in_film). That's just shy of half the songs in the film.

[Gnudro]

Ahh, my mistake then, I still think the singing should be a different template, make the whole thing more flexible.

And CR +1 or CR +0 does sound better.

[Behold_the_Void]

One would think that the cohort should be ruled to be HIGHER level than the princess, since if she herself is getting captured I'd hope the prince was high enough level to actually save her.

[Jarl]

I would rather think that the Prince thing would be a kind of charm/dominate ability that railroads the nearest young male of good alignment to come rescue her.

-Or maybe more like that quest spell thing, but at a distance, or something.

[I_Got_This_Name]

The prince would be equal in level to the Princess, because she has a +2 LA.

Perhaps we can put more limitations on use of the Prince (the first time, it's a Geas/Quest type thing, then, once he's gained, she can summon him when in danger occasionally), and bump him up to 1 ECL down?

Also, the Prince should have to be a warrior type. Maybe a rogue or bard. Definitely not a primary caster. Probably not a monk either. Perhaps require that at least half of the Prince's levels be in a 1/1 BAB class, that the prince have proficiency in the Longsword (although it need not be his primary weapon), and that the Prince not have any levels in a 1/2 BAB class, or one that grants more than 4 levels of divine spells?

Also, Warforged Princess. That's just brilliant.

[Gnudro]

I don't want to be too limiting on what the Prince can be, really, I don't even care if he is a prince, some of the best Heroes aren't nobles at all, or are otherwise unqualified. Maybe should rename the ability to "Hero"

As far as balance, I think right now CR +1, LA +2 works pretty well. Even if the Prince ability were weakened, I definatly think Grace is worth more than +1 LA.

[I_Got_This_Name]

The reason I'd say no primary casters is because you never hear of the brave prince who came, cast a spell, and blew up the dragon to save her. He always uses a sword. Sometimes they used cunning and outwitted it, but they were the stand-in-the-front-with-a-sword type first.

I'm not talking about messing with the Princess's level adjustment for the Hero; I'm suggesting that the Hero to a 4th level princess (ECL 6) be 5th level (ECL 5) rather than 4th (equal to her, ECL 4)