3.5 Wizard of Oz party

[jagadaishio]

In an upcoming game in which I may be playing, I plan to play a Tin Man character. I would be playing a soulmech from Dragonstar (think warforged inhabited by a dead human instead of an artificial mind). The soulmech would have had all of its servos detached and left to stand for a century as punishment for a crime, eventually rescued by the Oz party.

Dorothy would be a sorcerer or wizard with a canine familiar (maybe a blink dog with improved familiar) and a pair of red shoes able to greater teleport and plane shift. The Lion would be a litorian from Arcana Evolved. He would be physically powerful but cowardly and self-serving, likely a rogue. He would be a true coward, though, not just the type to avoid combat, but also the type to kick someone when they're down and to bully those weaker than him.

What I'm having a block on is what the Scarecrow's race would be. I think that he would be some kind of ignorant tactician with low self-confidence (think Marshal with illiteracy, as few mental skills as possible, and a high int score).

Any suggestions, GitP?

[Starscream]

I know one of the Ravenloft books (not sure which one, probably one of the Monster books) features a construct that is basically an animated scarecrow.

Like many constructs they are mindless, but you could always Awaken one. Or, y'know, leave it that way for the "If I only had a brain" aspect.

But I'd personally just homebrew or re-fluff something. Scarecrows aren't exactly made of the sternest stuff, so making one a playable character shouldn't be too hard.

At the moment I'm playing a character with the Woodling template from MM3. "Made of wood" and "Made of wood and straw" aren't too far apart, so maybe you could adapt that. You get DR/slashing, which makes sense. You also get vulnerability to fire, which should pretty much be mandatory for such a character.

[Kornaki]

Rough draft scarecrow template:
Double damage from slashing weapons. You cut him open and all his straw falls out

Half damage from blunt weapons. All the straw makes nice padding

Scare Crows (Ex): Twice per day, you can wave your arms up and down. This has exactly the same effect as the Fear spell on all birds within a 50 ft radius (DC Charisma based)
Weight: A creature with the scarecrow template applied to it only weighs 1/4 as much as it originally did
Immunity to poison, paralysis, disease

Cannot heal damage on its own. Instead, can be healed by a Craft(Tailoring check) with a DC of 16 for 1hp, plus 1hp for each point the attempt beats the DC by. This can only be attempted once per day, and takes a half hour to perform

Immunity to any effect that requires a Fortitude save (unless the effect also works on objects, or is harmless).

Not at risk of death from massive damage. Immediately destroyed when reduced to 0 hit points or less.

Does not eat or breathe (Does he sleep? Probably)

-2 strength (he's got no muscles, he's weak)
+4 constitution (tough to kill a scarecrow, plus he needs help with the lack of magical healing)
-2 dexterity (no finger joints....)

[Tempest Fennac]

What are the stats for Litorians? I've never heard of them before.

[jagadaishio]

What are the stats for Litorians? I've never heard of them before.

Litorian Racial Traits

• Litorians are strong, fast, and tough, enjoying a +2 racial bonus to Dexterity but a –2 racial penalty to Wisdom.

• Litorian base speed is 30 feet.

• Medium: As Medium creatures, litorians have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size.

• Low-Light Vision: Litorians can see twice as far as humans in starlight, moonlight, torchlight, and similar conditions of poor illumination. They also retain the ability to distinguish color and detail under these conditions.

• Automatic Languages: Common and Litorian.

• Bonus Languages: Any.

• Litorians gain a +2 racial bonus on Intimidate, Listen,
Search, Spot, and Survival checks.

• Litorians always gain Knowledge (litorians) as a class skill.

[KillianHawkeye]

Double damage from slashing weapons. You cut him open and all his straw falls out

Half damage from blunt weapons. All the straw makes nice padding

Better to go with the DR mechanic as Starscream suggested. Half/Double damage by certain weapon types is a relic of older editions.

The rest looks all right, though.

[Fitz10019]

The scarecrow is a Bard that performs with Dance or Tumble. Make him a grappler/disarmer who 'accidently' stumbles into enemies with a string of apologies, "ohpardonmemylegoryourswasthatyourmacehowsillyofme."

If the 'crow grapples the lion will get his sneaks in.

[RTGoodman]

For the Cowardly Lion, what about (instead of a Rogue) a Sneak Attack Fighter (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/variantCharacterClasses.htm#fighter) from Unearthed Arcane or the SRD. Gives him the combat ability (full BAB), but gives some sneak attack ability.

[BlueWizard]

This sound cool. :smallcool:

[Salt_Crow]

How about making Scarecrow a Warforged with Ironwood body feat? Except, of course, his body would look like they're made of straws and rags. This is a character I played a while ago too XD

[SilverClawShift]

My group actually did this (with a warforged axe swinging barbarian for the tin man, a ranger catfolk for the lion, a marshal/dragon shaman for dorothy). We had trouble figuring out what Scarecrow would be too.

We went with a Raggamoffyn Construct wizard. (Scarecrow was smarter than he gave himself credit for!)