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View Full Version : [d20 future/modern race] The Predator (lower LA version)



Altair_the_Vexed
2009-10-06, 09:57 AM
Here's my adaptation of the excellent work done by Michael Tresca, in his Predator: Cazador de Trofeos (http://michael.tresca.net/predator.html).
The iconic Predator race, the Yautja, is given as a LA 5 race in Michael's work. This is my attempt to bring it down, while retaining the spirit of the movies and comics. I've taken some of the features from the race as published, and made them into feats, available only to Yautja.

The signature equipment doesn't feature in this adaptation.

Yautja - the Predator

+4 Strength, +4 Constitution, +2 Dexterity, -2 Wisdom, -4 Charisma: The Yautja are much stronger and faster than an average human. They've been known to climb sheer walls, and throw a fullgrown human 5 meters with one hand. They possess lightning quick reflexes and their dexterity surpasses that of humans. The Yautja are relatively impulsive and excitable, and have a rigidly heirarchical society. Reputation is vital for a Yautja to influence others.

+2 racial bonus to Listen checks: Yautja can hear a whisper up to 50 feet away.
+4 racial bonus to Jump checks: Yautja can jump very high and far.

Atmospheric Intolerance: Yautja breathe a different gas mix to humans. They can adapt to earth's natural gasses, but it could only last for 1 week at the most. For every 10 minutes for which a Yautja breathes without using a breather, their physical attributes reduce by 1. Spending 10 rounds on a breather will return 1 point lost from each of the physical attributes.

Automatic Languages: Yautja, sign language. Bonus Languages: Up to 5 additional languages. The Yautja have a verbal language of clicks and chirps and are capable of mimicking other verbal languages to a degree. They do pick up languages quickly, however, without formally studying the language as a secondary skill (new languages cost only 1 skill point).

Native Outsider: A Yautja does not count as a 'person' for the purposes of certain spells and psionic effects. Yautja can hold their breath for twice as long as normal. Energy resistance 5 to fire, electrical, acid, and radiation damage.

Medium size: Yautja are on the upper edge of medium size. They average between seven and eight feet tall. They weigh in excess of 300 lbs. Females are slightly larger than males.

Darkvision (Ex): Yautja can only see in one spectrum of light, infrared. Yautja can see in the dark up to 120 feet. Darkvision is black and white only, but it is otherwise like normal sight, and yautja can function just fine with no light at all. Without visual aids, the yautja cannot see further than 120 feet.

Light Sensitivity (Ex): Yautja are dazzled in bright sunlight or within the radius of a daylight spell.

No Wealth: Yautja have no concept of wealth. Their superior technology is earned, not bought. Therefore, for purposes of purchasing equipment, Yautja add ½ their class Wealth bonus to their Reputation bonus. This combined number determines what a Yautja can earn in equipment. Among non-yautja, this wealth bonus is not effective. However, see "non-yautja are prey", below.

Non-Yautja Are Prey: The yautja see all non-yautja as prey. They cannot overcome this stigmatism and don’t socially deal well with other races, so they have a –5 penalty to all diplomacy checks.

LA: 2.

FEATS
Tough Skin (yautja)
Requirement: Yautja, CON 15+
+2 natural Defense bonus. The yautja has a tough skin, which affords them some protection to attacks.

Hunter's Leap (yautja)
Requirements: Yautja, STR 15+
The Yautja's racial bonus to jump checks increases to +8, and he gains the ability to reduce falling damage.Yautja can jump down up to ten times their height (rounded down) and land on their feet, taking no damage, on a successful jump skill check. The result of the jump check indicates how much damage is taken off the falling damage:

{table]check|result
<15|normal damage
15|-1d6
17|-1d6
20|-1d6
each +4|additional -1d6[/table]

With a successful Reflex save (DC15), they can even twist around during an unexpected fall to attempt to land safely.
Example: An 8ft tall predator falls 60ft. He makes a Reflex save check of 17, entitling him to attempt to land safely. He makes a jump check of 24, which reduces the damage by -3d6 (for exceeding 20) -1d6, or -4d6. If he jumped down from this height, he would only have to make the Jump check.

Waargh!
2009-10-07, 05:24 AM
I believe they need a bigger bonus on Listen checks if they are going to hear a whisper from 50ft away. The get +2, -1 for low WIS, so they just have +1 bonus compared to humans. A +4 seems more like it.
Have no idea about the race, but the +4 on CON is not justified from the above description. Having a bonus on CON is understandable without explanation, but why that bonus is bigger than the DEX? From the description I would imagine a +4 on DEX and a +2 (or none) bonus on CON.

hamishspence
2009-10-07, 09:53 AM
a height of 7-8 ft and weight of 300 lb could be:

Large (Half-ogre- D&D MM, Sasquatch- D20 modern)

Medium with Powerful Build (Goliath-D&D Races of Stone, Half-Giant- D&D Expanded Psionics Handbook)

Medium (Gnoll- D&D MM, Varag- MMIV)

I would say though, that for a being as big as a Predator, Powerful Build should be in there, at minimum.

Altair_the_Vexed
2009-10-18, 03:57 AM
(Bit late replying, as I've been offline for the fortnight.)

Thanks for the advice. I wasn't sure about the size - the original that I was working from says one thing and applies the rules for another thing. I decided to compromise based only on the size of minis I've found... :smallwink:

For the CON bonus, I reckoned that the Predator in the movies and other works is a tough, tough hombre, able to cope with being shot a couple of times, taking a bite of claw from a xenomorph and all that.
Thinking about the way they act in the movies, though, it could be that DEX is higher. If I swap the two bonuses, they'll be hit 5% less often, but have 1 HP per level less...

What I'm most concerned about is whether the LA I've assigned is about right. I'm not very experienced in making LA races or templates - any advice would be very helpful.

bytbyt
2010-03-25, 02:49 AM
You should add in the weapony as well

Geiger Counter
2010-03-25, 03:47 AM
I never really thought the whole fluff surrounding predators made a lot of sense. Pretend you are an relatively smart deer and two legged things with shiny metal sticks keep coming and killing you relatives. You just assume that all these two legged creatures do is kill deer.

imp_fireball
2010-03-27, 02:56 PM
I never really thought the whole fluff surrounding predators made a lot of sense. Pretend you are an relatively smart deer and two legged things with shiny metal sticks keep coming and killing you relatives. You just assume that all these two legged creatures do is kill deer.

The same applies to every other 'always chaotic evil' creature.

Also, the fluff is based entirely on what the humans in the story witnessed, so I think it makes perfect sense.


For the CON bonus, I reckoned that the Predator in the movies and other works is a tough, tough hombre, able to cope with being shot a couple of times, taking a bite of claw from a xenomorph and all that.
Thinking about the way they act in the movies, though, it could be that DEX is higher. If I swap the two bonuses, they'll be hit 5% less often, but have 1 HP per level less...

Um... not really. In predator 1, their blood glows in the dark and when the predator was wounded it had to stop to heal itself (it had technology that allowed it to heal very quickly). It also jumped from tree to tree.

Also, 1 hp per level less is no change compared to the damage a heavy machine gun is supposed to do.

Altair_the_Vexed
2010-03-30, 06:37 AM
You should add in the weapony as well

The weapons and other kit are dealt with in the linked original document.

So - my attempt to make a more accessible version of the race: good or bad?

bytbyt
2011-09-25, 06:13 AM
The weapons and other kit are dealt with in the linked original document.

So - my attempt to make a more accessible version of the race: good or bad?

Apparently that link no longer exists unless I clicked the wrong link

DarkSunLord1
2011-10-01, 11:16 PM
I'm not sure if this is "canon", but I have read somewhere (Wikipedia?) that the Yautja have life spans of thousands of human years.

I do know that if a human consumes the flesh of an Yautja, the human will live longer, beyond what is possible for a human. One of the Alien Vs Predator comics chronicle a man, (a con artist originally) who not only reaped the technology of a downed Yautja ship, but also used the meat of the dead passenger(s) to extend his life by hundreds of years.

Also, apparently a samurai once consumed a Yautja's heart and lived to be over 200 years old.