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TabletopNuke
2009-11-10, 06:01 PM
Here's something I'm working on for my Breakdown setting. I've playtested this race a bit, but I've done some tweaking since then. I ran this version through RaceCalc already, but I'd like to see what you guys think of it. I'm eager to hear any new ideas.

Edit 01/12: I reformatted and updated the thought eater bloodline. I think the last feature was powerful enough without the damage reduction. Oh, and I finally decided on languages.

Here's a picture of my destroyer PC, Forty-Nine:
http://th02.deviantart.net/fs51/300W/i/2009/297/e/f/You__re_Gonna_Go_Far__Kid_by_Pencil_of_Sketching.p ng

Destroyers are genetically engineered creatures created to serve as psychic soldiers. While mostly human, their psychic abilities come from their other ancestor; though eaters (more on those further down). This strange and normally incompatible marriage of physical being and incorporeal entity resulted in a race gifted with destructive psychic powers and rampant insanity.

Destroyer:
-2 Strength, +2 Dexterity, -2 Constitution, +2 Intelligence, -2 Wisdom, +2 Charisma. Destroyers are quite agile, but their small, lean frames possess little strength or durability. Destroyers are self-confident and sharp of mind, but have poor judgment and a strong predisposition towards mental disorders.
• Medium Aberration (Psionic) Destroyers are not subject to spells or effects that affect humanoids only, such as charm person.
• Base Land Speed: 30 feet.
• Unlike most aberrations, destroyers do not have darkvision.
• +1 Natural Armor Bonus: Destroyers have surprisingly tough skin.
• Major Thought Eater Bloodline: All destroyers have major thought eater bloodlines. Destroyers manifest more and more of their otherworldy heritage as they grow in power.
• Hypermobility (Ex): +8 racial bonus on Escape Artist checks. Destroyers can always take 10 on Escape Artist checks. A quirk of their unnatural genetics, destroyers have very loose joints with an abnormally large range of motion.
• Naturally Psionic: Destroyer gain 2 bonus power points at 1st level. This benefit does not grant them the ability to manifest powers unless they gain that ability through another source, such as levels in a psionic class.
• Preprogrammed Knowledge (Ex): Destroyers receive most of their education during incubation, through cybernetic implants. They are always literate.
• Quick Learner (Ex): 4 extra skill points at 1st level and 1 extra skill point at each additional level. Like human, destroyers are highly adaptable and quick to take to new skills.
• Rapid Metabolism (Ex): +2 racial bonus on saves against poison and disease. Destroyers have such rapid metabolisms that they often work toxins through their bodies to quickly too take any harm from them. This accelerated metabolism also results in a very high body temperature that makes for an inhospitable environment for pathogens.
However, this rapid metabolism means that destroyers require a much more food than most similarly sized creatures. Destroyers require three times as much food as other medium-sized humanoids.
• Uncultured (Ex): -2 Penalty on Diplomacy, Gather Information, and Sense Motive checks. Raised in laboratories with minimal outside contact, destroyers have very little understanding, and even less experience, in social interaction.
• Heat Tolerance: +2 racial bonus on Fortitude saves made to resist the effects of hot weather. Destroyers have high body temperatures and very little body fat, making them surprisingly heat-tolerant.
• Cold Vulnerability: -4 racial penalty on Fortitude saves made to resist the effects of cold weather. The same traits that make destroyers resistant to high temperatures also make them very sensitive to cold weather.
• +2 racial bonus on Spot checks in dim light. Destroyers can see in the dark better than humans can.
• Automatic Languages: English (Common in standard campaigns), Bonus Languages: None. Incubating destroyers are instructed in in their native tongue though their cybernetic implants. Most destroyers develop telepathy shortly after reaching adulthood, rendering further language instruction redundant.
• Favored Class: Mindscourge (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=131476)
• Level Adjustment: +0

The Uncultured racial trait isn't really meant to balance anything. It's mostly for flavor. I haven't included languages in this because I'm still deciding the language selection for Breakdown

Thought Eater Bloodline (If you're unfamiliar with these, the rules can be found here: http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/races/bloodlines.htm)
1st - +2 on Bluff Checks
2nd - Bonus Madness Feat (1)
3rd - Intelligence +1
4th - Telepathy (Su) (2)
5th - Thought Eater Affinity +2 (3)
6th - Bonus Madness Feat (1)
7th - +2 on Intimidate Checks
8th - Mindsight (Su) (4)
9th - Charisma +1
10th - Mental Sustinance (Su) (5)
11th - Thought Eater Affinity +4 (3)
12th - Blindsense (Su) (6)
13th - +2 on Concentration Checks
14th - Bonus Madness Feat (1)
15th - Dexterity +1
16th - Blindsight (Su) (7)
17th - Thought Eater Affinity +6 (3)
18th - Bonus Madness Feat (1)
19th - +2 on Use Psionic Device Checks
20th - Extradimensional Transformation (Ex)
The footnotes are under the spoiler tag.
(1) At the indicated levels, you may select any madness feat for which you meet the prerequisites as a bonus feat. Madness Feats can be found here: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=129960

(2) You gain the supernatural ability telepathy from page 316 of the Monster Manual. You can communicate telepathically with any other creature that has a language within 5 feet per character level. You can address multiple creatures at once telepathically, although maintaining telepathic conversation with more than one creature at a time is just as difficult as simultaneously speaking and listening to multiple people at the same time. This is a mind-affecting affect.

(3) You gain the indicated bonus on all Bluff, Diplomacy, Gather Information, Intimidate, and Perform Checks to interact with thought eaters.

(4) You gain Mindsight as a bonus feat (Found in Lords of Madness, allows the user to detect sentient creatures within range of telepathy)

(5) Your physiology becomes more like that of your thought eater ancestors. You develop the ability to feed off thought. When a creature susceptible to your telepathy spends at least one continuous minute within range of it, you do not need to eat or sleep for the next 24 hours. You still need 8 hours of rest to prepare spells, ect.

(6) You gain the ability blindsense, from page 306 of the Monster Manual. The ability has a range of 5 feet per 2 character levels. This ability is negated by any effects that negate psionics.

(7) You gain the ability blindsight, from page 306 of the Monster Manual. The ability has a range of 5 feet per 2 character levels. This ability is negated by any effects that negate psionics.

(8) You become even more like a thought eater. You cease to age, though you still retain any aging penalties already acquired. In addition, each time that you fulfill the requirement for your mental sustenance ability, you do not need to breathe for the next 24 hours.

Destroyer Feats and Racial Substitution Levels

Sample Destroyer Mindscourge

Aging:
Destroyers age erratically. Some individuals age at an accelerated pace, wasting away to nothing within a few decades. Others retain their vitality much longer than humans, living for well over a century. Most destroyers alternate between periods of relatively slow aging, changing very little for several years at a time, and bouts of rabid maturation that last for a similar span of time.

Starting Age:
{table=head]Adulthood|Simple|Intermediate|Complex


2 Years|
+2d4 Months|
+4d4 Months|
+6d4 Months[/table]

Age Categories
{table=head]Middle Age|Old|Venerable|Maximum Age


+4d10 Years|
+4d10 Years|
+4d10 Years|
+4d10 Years[/table]
To determine when a particular destroyer reaches a specific age category, roll the indicated dice and add the resulting number to the beginning age of the previous category. The resulting number is the age at which the destroyer advances to the next category.

Height and Weight:
{table=head]Race and Sex|Base Height|Height Mod|Base Weight|Weight Mod

Destroyer, M|
4'5"|
+1d8"|
80 lb.|
x(1d3)

Destroyer, F|
4'5"|
+1d8"|
80 lb.|
x(1d3)[/table]

Here's the fluff (I'll be adding more):
Physical Description:
In comparison to humans, destroyers are quite short and lanky in build, typically standing a few inches shy of five feet, and weighing about 90 pounds. They have less muscle mass than similarly-sized humans do, and burn energy to quickly to efficiently build fat stores. Many destroyers appear to be underweight, even emaciated.

Destroyers vary little in individual appearance. All destroyers, female and male alike, have delicate, androgynous features, large eyes, and lean forms with little in the way of curves or muscle. Determining a destroyer's gender at a glance is virtually impossible. Other than their short eyelashes and the thick, fairly straight hair on their scalps, destroyers lack any kind of body hair, including eyebrows. The combination of all these traits gives them a rather childlike appearance, which many people find disconcerting.

Destroyers generally have unusual coloration. Their skin is within human norms, ranging the gamut from extremely pale to near black, but is always characterized by a subtle purple or bluish tint. This is most noticeable in the mucus membranes and on the bottoms of the hands and feet, which are slightly darker than is typical for humans. Their hair is monochromatic, although it can be any tone from blue-black to yellow-white. A destroyer’s nails, which are a bit thicker than those of a human, are the same color as their hair.

Destroyers have striking eyes, bearing yellow-white pupils, purple- or blue-black irises, and no white to speak of. Their pupils appear to reflect light, and seem to glow in the dark.

Psychology:
A product of human and something utterly alien, destroyers live with constant internal conflict, both physical and mental. Neither the human body nor the human mind was meant to handle powers that infuse a destroyer’s being. While their bodies work in erratic and often dysfunctional ways, their minds are arguably even worse.

Madness is the birthright of every destroyer. Some display mental instability from childhood, while others develop it later in life. This insanity can manifest in a wide variety of ways, including hallucinations, delusions, paranoia, and memory dysfunction, among many others. There is one main constant in destroyer mental disorders: as a destroyer grows more powerful, so does the madness.

The main source of this racial insanity is the inherent psychic power that destroyers were created for. Destroyers possess a portion of the clairsentience ability and telepathy of their thought eater forbearers. However destroyers do not have the ability to smoothly process all of the psychic information they receive. As a result, they are often struck by flashes of past, present, and future, and stray thoughts from other creatures. Most destroyers have difficulty distinguishing these psychic visions from their ordinary hallucinations (if such a thing could be considered “ordinary”).

As a destroyer’s psychic senses grow more sensitive, the visions increase in frequency, length, and intensity. Some of the most powerful destroyers, usually the worst afflicted, have trouble telling others’ thoughts from their own, and can no longer perceive time in sequence. Such destroyers have a tendency to confuse tenses and pronouns in speech, often referring to others as “Me” or speaking of future events in the present tense.

Physiology:
Destroyers are a highly neotenic species, never reaching the degree of physical maturity that humans do at adulthood. Destroyers reach “adulthood” 23 to 28 months years after activation, adulthood being defined as the point at which destroyers have ceased their physical growth and begun to develop their psychic powers. An “adult” destroyer is the physical equivalent of a human adolescent between 12 and 16 years of age.

While technically a distinct species, destroyers cannot truly be considered true breeding. While both sexes possess normal human reproductive organs, the fact that destroyers stop growing at early to mid adolescence means that their bodies never mature.

Male destroyers are usually fertile, although less so then human males, due to lower testosterone levels. However, female destroyers are incapable of reproducing naturally, as their bodies are immature. While it is possible to impregnate a female destroyer through supernatural or technological meddling, the pregnancy and birth is very difficult and potentially fatal for the mother and child alike. Destroyers are not built for childbearing.

Destroyers as a species display a few other physical oddities as a result of their unnatural genetics. Arguably the most noticeable of these is their hypermobility. Destroyers are exceptionally loose-jointed and incredibly flexible, capable of contorting into seemingly impossible positions with ease. However, as a side effect, their joints are also fairly delicate and more easily dislocated than a humans’. While this type of injury is considerably less damaging and painful for destroyers than it is for humans, it limits the amount of force their bodies can exert.

Another odd feature of destroyer physiology is their teeth. A destroyer has a full set permanent teeth by the time they are “born”. However, destroyers sporadically grow new teeth, which replace the old ones in the same fashion as a human child’s permanent teeth replace their baby teeth. A destroyer typically grows a new tooth every two to three years.

A destroyer’s skin is no thicker or less flexible than an ordinary human’s, but it is abnormally tough and resistant to damage. This tough skin helps to support and protect the destroyer’s fragile joints.

Destroyers have much higher metabolisms than humans. During their brief childhoods, destroyers grow drastically, gaining ten to sixteen inches and thirty to forty pounds within less than two years. To fuel this extreme growth, young destroyers require four times as much food as a similarly sized human. In order to consume the necessary amount of nutrients, growing destroyers often eat the equivalent of a full meal every two to three hours.

Once destroyers reach their full size, their metabolic rate barely decreases. Their nutritional needs are only double those of a human, but their caloric needs are triple. Mature destroyers need a great deal of energy to fuel the psychic power that suffuses their bodies and minds.

Despite their relatively frail bodies, destroyers are remarkably resistant to toxins and chemicals. Destroyers often metabolize such things so quickly that they take very little harm from them. They are also surprisingly resistant to disease. Their unnatural physiologies are too alien to Earth’s microbes. Additionally, destroyers have much higher body temperatures than humans, a result of their rapid metabolisms. A healthy destroyer’s temperature is usually 103.4°F. This fever-like temperature is inhospitable to many disease-causing microbes, and gives destroyers further resistance to illness.

The high body temperature of destroyers, coupled with their slim builds and absence of body fat, makes them particularly sensitive to cold climates. The traits that give destroyers such difficulty maintaining their body temperature in the cold also make them surprisingly tolerant of hot weather.

Like many animals, destroyers have tapetum lucidum, a reflective layer behind the retina, which makes their pupils appear luminous in dim light. However, destroyers lack the optical adaptations necessary to use the reflected light effectively, and as a result, only see marginally better than humans in darkness.

Destroyers have a sharp, chemical smell, similar to chlorine or bleach. This is no stronger than a human’s natural scent, but tends to be more noticeable and unpleasant due to its unfamiliarity. This strange odor is a natural product of their physiology, but can be masked by the application of other scents.

Life Cycle:Destroyers have no place in nature, and no means of reproducing naturally. They are exclusively a laboratory-created species.

Destroyers begin life as fertilized human eggs specially selected for compatibility with the thought eater genetic material that will trigger the development of psychic powers. The introduction of this alien material kills about 95% of the eggs within an hour. The few survivors are placed in individual test tubes and left to grow for three weeks. After their first 21 days, the destroyer embryos are moved to incubation tanks. The destroyers spend the rest of their prenatal period in these large, cylindrical tanks. Only 30% of the eggs live to the end of this stage, but after this critical period, survival to activation is almost certain.

During the 700 days (give or take a week) spent in incubation, destroyers mature at a breakneck pace, transitioning from embryo to late childhood in less than two years.

During this period, the developing destroyers are fed their basic education via a cybernetic connection to a computer console. The receptors and transmitters mounted along the destroyers’ skulls and spines also monitor vital signs and physiological development.

The standard “curriculum” for incubating destroyers includes lessons in subjects such calculation, speech, and writing ability, along with basic life skills, such as walking, eating, and personal hygiene. The cybernetic implants control the destroyers’ motor functions, enabling the incubating psychics to exercise their developing muscles and develop coordination.

Once fully developed, a destroyer’s incubation tank is drained and opened. The cybernetic link activates the destroyer’s body functions as the tank’s life-support system begins to shut down. The new destroyer is carefully removed from its tank, its vital signs closely monitored all the while.

A destroyer is generally capable of coherent speech and unassisted mobility within five minutes of activation, though it may be rather clumsy in both words and actions for it’s first day. Once the destroyer’s ability to speak and walk is confirmed, the cybernetic conduits are removed, along with the nutrient, air, and waste tubes embedded in the incubating destroyer’s back. The coin-sized, puckered scars left by these implants are the “tank born” equivalent of a naturally born creature’s navel.

After reaching adulthood, destroyers age erratically. Some individuals age at an accelerated pace, wasting away to nothing within a few decades. Others retain their vitality much longer than humans, living for well over a century. Most destroyers alternate between periods of relatively slow aging, changing very little for several years at a time, and bouts of rabid maturation that last for a similar span of time.

Destroyers that have developed an enormous amount of power undergo a strange transformation, breaching the gap between a physical entity and one of pure thought. Able to derive all sustenance from the thoughts of other creatures, such a destroyer enters a kind of physiological stasis, no longer needing food, air, or sleep. The destroyer ceases to age altogether, thought their cells continue to replicate and renew themselves.
History:
(I'm still working on it)
Alignment:Destroyers often behave erratically and irrationally, driven by madness more than reason. Due to their broken perceptions of reality, they have great difficulty understanding the concepts of ownership and authority. These traits make destroyers almost uniformly chaotic.

While their keepers try their best to instill young destroyers with a sense of morality and empathy, most of the genetically engineered psychics mature into self-serving creatures. Destroyers often have trouble sorting out other people’s thoughts from their own, which means they have a hard enough time pursuing their own ends without taking other people’s desires into consideration. Out of necessity, destroyers learn to look out for their own needs, and not to concern themselves with others. This attitude generally lends itself to neutrality.

Some destroyers become overwhelmed by the ever-present bombardment of psychic feedback. They lash out at the world in retaliation, seeking to share their pain with everyone and everything around them. Succumbing to madness and developing evil tendencies generally leads to a self-destructive cycle of rage and hate. These destroyers are tormented by the pain and terror resulting havoc they wreak, which drives them even further into violence and madness. Eventually, the destructive actions of these rogue destroyers draws the attention of someone with the power and authority to eliminate them.
Religion:Destroyers are not taught religion by their creators or caregivers. Their inability to understand authority generally makes the idea of devoting themselves to a deity alien to them.

Destroyers do understand power and fear, though, and they will obey those who wield such forces over them. While religious group could use such methods to coerce a destroyer into serving a deity, this is not true religious faith. Destroyers despise such treatment, and would seek to escape their oppressors as soon as possible, and possibly eliminate them if given the chance.

However, destroyers might devote themselves to causes they found worthy. Not creatures to do things in half-measures, such destroyers would throw themselves into such causes with astounding fervor. The difficult part would be finding a cause that a destroyer would be willing to serve. Generally self-serving creatures, destroyers typically do not seek to change the world or aid others, and helping themselves rarely requires measures as extensive as those used by religious groups. The exception to this trend is the Last Pyre*.

Beings created for the sole purpose of war, destroyers can understand the Last Pyre in a way like few others. Leading tormented existences, exposed to the very worst that conflict can bring, afflicted by madness, constantly bombarded by uncontrollable visions and psychic feedback, it’s understandable why destroyers might seek oblivion.

*The Last Pyre is an extremist group in Breakdown that seeks to end the suffering of the world by destroying all of existence.
NamesDestroyers are numbered in the order they were created. They generally see little significance in names, and rarely take initiative in choosing one. However, destroyers that have escaped their creators are sometimes taken in by other people. Such destroyers may be given more typical names by their new companions.
Thought Eaters:
Though eaters are extradimensional beings lacking any sort of physical form. Essentially self-aware thought, they feed on the mental energy of other creatures. Merely contacting the mind of a creature using its formidable psychic ability is all that is necessary for a thought eater to consume the creature's spent thoughts. This means that feeding is a passive activity for though eaters, and harmless to the hosts.

*I'm still working on statting thought eaters, but I'm open to suggestions.

Golden-Esque
2009-11-10, 06:53 PM
You should probably add the rules about Destroyers being unaffected by spells that only affect humanoids (since they're aberrations).

Karma Guard
2009-11-10, 07:47 PM
Real quick: The weight.

90 pounds is underweight at 5'0 (17 point something when below 18.5 is underweight). I know you mean lanky, but 90 pounds is hitting 'ill and sick' skinny.

Yeah, yeah, they're not humans, but 90lbs is beyond just 'lanky' to human eyes.

TabletopNuke
2009-11-10, 10:46 PM
You should probably add the rules about Destroyers being unaffected by spells that only affect humanoids (since they're aberrations).

I'll go fix that.


90 pounds is underweight at 5'0 (17 point something when below 18.5 is underweight). I know you mean lanky, but 90 pounds is hitting 'ill and sick' skinny. Yeah, yeah, they're not humans, but 90lbs is beyond just 'lanky' to human eyes.

Believe it or not, I calculated the weight very carefully, and the dip into "way too skinny" zone was absolutely intentional. Destroyers don't have nearly as much muscle mass as humans of the same size do. This is one of the main contributors to their Strength penalty (the other being that they have hypermobile joints, which weak and are easily dislocated).

In addition, destroyers can't build up fat stores easily because they burn so much energy. They do look underweight. Some of them look just a little too thin, others look like they're on the brink of starvation. I'll go clarify that in the fluff.

The Tygre
2009-11-11, 12:23 AM
This is awesome. Would you recommend naming by rolling dice? If so, how many?

TabletopNuke
2009-11-11, 02:37 AM
Thanks a lot.

Destroyers are numbered in the order they are made. Unfortunately, the destroyer laboratory was obliterated by an unexplained explosion before the destroyers became particularly numerous. Only 90 of them were ever made (Limited edition! Collect them all!). Therefore, I'd say roll 10d10-10, and you've got you're destroyer's name.

Many of the destroyers died in the explosion (along with all the laboratory staff), but some of them escaped. These free destroyers wandering the world are formidable psychics with zero life experience and a tenuous grip on reality, at best.

Destroyers were created in units of 10. Each destroyer embryo had to grow in an incubation tank for 2 years, a process that consumes a considerable amount of resources. The destroyer laboratory usually divided their energy and manpower by making 1 new unit a year, which means that the batch which was started the previous year was about half way finished, and the batch the year before that was ready to be activated. Once the destroyers were activated, they received two to three years of training before they were considered ready for active duty.

TabletopNuke
2010-01-12, 06:11 PM
Destroyer Racial Feats
(More Comming)

Destroyer Academic [Racial]
You took in the information from your cybernetic linkup during incubation particularly well. Your intensive education gave you a knack for just about any task you might attempt.
Prerequisites: Destroyer, Int 15
Benefit: You can use all skills untrained (even trained only ones). In addition, you gain a +1 racial bonus on untrained skill checks. This bonus stacks with any preexisting racial bonuses.
Special: This feat may only be taken at 1st level.

Improved Vision [Racial]
Your sensitive eyes are able to use even the scantest amount of illumination.
Prerequisites: Destroyer, Con 13
Benefit: You lose the destroyer racial bonus on Spot checks in dim light, instead gaining low-light vision.
Special: This feat may only be taken at 1st level.

Destroyer Racial Substitution Levels

Destroyer Mindscourge (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=7318333#post7318333):
An artificial hybrid of human and psionic entity of pure thought, destroyers were, quite literally, made to be mindscourges. While far from the most reasonable of beings, destroyers at least have the sense to take advantage of their natural gifts, and can be surprisingly creative in doing so. They also receive extensive training in the use of their power.

Hit Dice: D6
Requirements: To take a destroyer mindscourge substitution level, a character must be a destroyer about to take her 1st, 4th or 12th level of mindscourge.
Class Skills:[/B ]Destroyer mindscourge racial substitution levels have the same class skills as the standard mindscourge class, minus Profession.

{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Special|Anomalies Known

1st|
+0|
+0|
+0|
+2|Anomaly (least), fraying sanity, lash focus,psychokinetic lash 1d6|
1

4th|
+3|
+1|
+1|
+4|Rapid focus|
3

12th|
+9/+4|
+4|
+4|
+8|Psychic affinity|
7 [/table]

[B]Class Features:

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Mindscourges are proficient with simple light weapons. They are not proficient any armor.

Fraying Sanity: The human mind was not made to endure the energies channeled by destroyer mindscourges. As a result, such psychics lose touch with reality even faster then others of their kind. At 1st level, a destroyer mindscourge may select any madness feat (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=7214298#post7214298)for which she meets the prerequisites as a bonus feat.

This benefit replaces the standard mindscourge’s Wild Talent bonus feat.

Lash Focus: Destroyer mindscourges eschew heavy weaponry, preferring to take advantage of their natural agility and potent psychic powers. At 1st level, a destroyer mindscourge receives Weapon Focus (psychokinetic lash) as bonus feat.

This feature replaces the standard mindscourge proficiency with one-handed and two-handed simple weapons.

Mind over Body (Su): One of the first tricks a destroyer mindscourge learns is how to toughen her body with her psychic energy. A destroyer mindscourge’s natural armor bonus increases by 1.
This benefit replaces the standard mindscourge’s light armor proficiency.

Rapid Focus (Su): Naturally adept at channeling psychic energy, destroyer mindscourges hone this talent further. At 4th level, a destroyer mindscourge gains Psionic Meditation (EPH 50) as a bonus feat, even if she doesn’t meet the normal prerequisites.

This feature replaces the standard mindscourge feature Subjugate Item.

Psychic Affinity (Su): Destroyers were created for inborn psionic ability. As such, their psychic powers are exceptionally difficult to resist. At 12th level, a destroyer mindscourge’s save DC’s for anomalies increase by 2.
This feature replaces the standard mindscourge feature Instill Power.

TabletopNuke
2010-01-12, 06:12 PM
EL 1
Forty-Nine is a very young destroyer, barely 2 years old. While her age would make her a toddler in human terms, she is a quick learner and has taken to psionics training very well. Even by destroyer standards, Forty-Nine has proven particularly clever and insane. Playful and easygoing, Forty-Nine's childlike nature and appearance make her madness all the more unsettling.

A creature of the moment, Forty-Nine can easily become completely absorbed in whatever catches her interest at the time. Despite her considerable intellect, the destroyer can't comprehend the severity and possible repercussions of a given situation terribly well, a trait exacerbated by her impulsiveness. Forty-Nine also suffers from occasional hallucinations, a fact that she unable to fully understand. After all, if she can see and hear it, doesn't that make it real?

Forty-Nine
CR 1Female Destroyer (Major Thought Eater Bloodline) Mindscourge 1
CN Medium Aberration (Psionic)
Init +5, Senses Listen -8, Spot -8 (-6 in dim light)
Languages English
AC 16, touch 13, flat-footed 13, (+3 Dex, + 2 Natural, +1 Shield) (ranged attacks have 20% miss chance)
HP 6 (1d6)
Immune Compulsion
Fort +1, Ref +5, Will +2
(+3 Against Disease, Hot Weather, Poison, -3 Against Cold Weather)
Speed 30 ft (6 Squares)
Melee dagger -2 (1d4-2/19-20)
Ranged psychokinetic lash +4 touch (1d6)
Base Atk +0; Grp -2
Combat Gear Arm guards (treat as mwk buckler), dagger
Mindscourge Anomalies Known (ML 1st)
Least - obstruction field (already manifested)
Abilities Str 6, Dex 16, Con 12, Int 17, Wis 6, Cha 15
SQ Madness Score 3, cannot be tracked, Rapid Metabolism
Flaws: Frail, Inattentive
Feats: Destroyer Academic, Reckless (M,B), Insane Confidence (M,B), No One's Puppet (M,B), Weapon Focus (Psychokinetic Lash) (B)
Skills Autohypnosis -4, Bluff +8, Concentration +5, Diplomacy +1 (-2 to influence sane creature), Escape Artist +12, Gather Information +1 (-2 to influence sane creature), Heal -4, Intimidate +3 (+6 to influence sane creatures), Knowledge (Psionics) +7, Listen -8, Profession (any) -4, Psicraft +7, Sense Motive -6, Spot -8 (-6 in dim light), Survival -4, Tumble +7 , Use Psionic Device +6
*+1 racial bonus on unlisted skills, can use any skill untrained
Hook "Hi! I haven't seen you before."

A human child of indeterminate gender and perhaps 12 years of age examines a closed switchblade with rapt fascination. Despite the loose, light gray laboratory uniform, the child's lean, boney build is readily apparent. The strange child's unusual coloration, dark tan skin and a shock of buzz-cut white hair, fades in comparison to it's large, slanted eyes, blue-black orbs featureless save for luminous yellow pupils. The child moves like a jumping spider, stock-still one moment, then darting forward in a motion nearly too fast to see.

Mulletmanalive
2010-01-12, 08:00 PM
I suppose I have a few comments:

One, artistic comment, the jumper doesn't look very baggy and for someone that malnourished looking based on their basic weight, the face looks rather full. Perhaps adding some additional shadows around the face www.mulletmanalive.deviantart.com[/url].]

Two: these have got to be the worst government super soldiers of all time to have a +0. I know they have a bloodline but they suffer a little from warforged syndrome in that they can't actually look after themselves, despite reputedly being really powerful.

Bloodlines get confusing from the get go because they have advancements at every level. I'd suggest including a table to include the points where they skip class HD like the Drow racial class in [I]Drow of the Underdark.

Three: A fast metabolism would actually have the opposite effect to the one you've listed unless they already had superior defences. A faster heart-rate is going to make poisons take hold significantly faster. I'd suggest just giving them a description like "Inhospitible," given that one [and only one] thing about a fast metabolism would make them more resilient to disease and that's a higher core temperature.

Four: on language use. You've made reference to the lab being "decimated." It sounds alright but gets really odd when you actually know what the term means [killing every tenth man]. I'd suggest annihilated, obliterated or compromised, should you be looking for something less extreme sounding.

As i'm feeling generous, here's a copy-pasta for the table. You might consider including the bonus skill points and stuff if the mood takes you:

{table=head]Character Level|Class Level|Granted Abilities
1st |
1st |+2 on Bluff Checks
2nd |
2nd |Bonus Madness Feat (1)
3rd |
2nd |Intelligence +1
4th |
3rd |Telepathy (Su) (2)
5th |
4th |Thought Eater Affinity +2 (3)
6th |
4th |Bonus Madness Feat (1)
7th |
5th |+2 on Intimidate Checks
8th |
6th |Mindsight (Su) (4)
9th |
7th |Charisma +1
10th |
8th |Mental Sustinance (Su) (5)
11th |
9th |Thought Eater Affinity +4 (3)
12th |
9th |Blindsense (Su) (6)
13th |
10th |+2 on Concentration Checks
14th |
11th | Bonus Madness Feat (1)
15th |
12th |Dexterity +1
16th |
13th | Blindsight (Su) (7)
17th |
14th |Thought Eater Affinity +6 (3)
18th |
15th |Bonus Madness Feat (1)
19th |
16th| +2 on Use Psionic Device Checks
20th |
17th| Extradimensional Transformation (Ex)[/table]

TabletopNuke
2010-01-12, 10:06 PM
I suppose I have a few comments:

One, artistic comment, the jumper doesn't look very baggy and for someone that malnourished looking based on their basic weight, the face looks rather full. Perhaps adding some additional shadows around the face www.mulletmanalive.deviantart.com[/url].]

Two: these have got to be the worst government super soldiers of all time to have a +0. I know they have a bloodline but they suffer a little from warforged syndrome in that they can't actually look after themselves, despite reputedly being really powerful.

Bloodlines get confusing from the get go because they have advancements at every level. I'd suggest including a table to include the points where they skip class HD like the Drow racial class in [I]Drow of the Underdark.

Three: A fast metabolism would actually have the opposite effect to the one you've listed unless they already had superior defences. A faster heart-rate is going to make poisons take hold significantly faster. I'd suggest just giving them a description like "Inhospitible," given that one [and only one] thing about a fast metabolism would make them more resilient to disease and that's a higher core temperature.

Four: on language use. You've made reference to the lab being "decimated." It sounds alright but gets really odd when you actually know what the term means [killing every tenth man]. I'd suggest annihilated, obliterated or compromised, should you be looking for something less extreme sounding.

As i'm feeling generous, here's a copy-pasta for the table. You might consider including the bonus skill points and stuff if the mood takes you:

{table=head]Character Level|Class Level|Granted Abilities
1st |
1st |+2 on Bluff Checks
2nd |
2nd |Bonus Madness Feat (1)
3rd |
2nd |Intelligence +1
4th |
3rd |Telepathy (Su) (2)
5th |
4th |Thought Eater Affinity +2 (3)
6th |
4th |Bonus Madness Feat (1)
7th |
5th |+2 on Intimidate Checks
8th |
6th |Mindsight (Su) (4)
9th |
7th |Charisma +1
10th |
8th |Mental Sustinance (Su) (5)
11th |
9th |Thought Eater Affinity +4 (3)
12th |
9th |Blindsense (Su) (6)
13th |
10th |+2 on Concentration Checks
14th |
11th | Bonus Madness Feat (1)
15th |
12th |Dexterity +1
16th |
13th | Blindsight (Su) (7)
17th |
14th |Thought Eater Affinity +6 (3)
18th |
15th |Bonus Madness Feat (1)
19th |
16th| +2 on Use Psionic Device Checks
20th |
17th| Extradimensional Transformation (Ex)[/table]

Thank you very much for all the help!

I had no idea you were such an artist. I will give your DA account a much more in-depth examination after I finish this page.

One: Yeah, that picture is kinda old. There is some stuff I'm not terribly pleased with, but you live and learn. I've got some prior commitments before I do a new picture of Forty-Nine.

Two: The destroyers were the first phase of the experiment. No one on Earth had ever been able to genetically engineer psychic powers before. The main goal of the destroyer project was to develop a fairly reliable means of accomplishing this goal with consistent results. Once they figured that out, then they were going to try for something more powerful. Except that the laboratory got blown up first. Along with almost everyone inside. Except some of the psychics who could teleport. Lucky.

The scientists never intended for the destroyers to be able to care for themselves. The scientists wanted their creations to stay dependent on them. They conditioned the destroyers to view the laboratory staff as parental figures and caretakers.

One of the themes of the destroyer fluff is that being smart and powerful is not the same as being reasonable and self-capable. Just because someone has an I.Q. of 150 doesn't mean they have sound judgment. Likewise, just because somebody is capable of crushing your head with their mind doesn't mean they can hold a steady job.

As for the bloodline, thank you very, very much for the table (I HATE coding tables). I'm not sure if the bloodline levels work the same as level adjustments, though. I was under the impression that a bloodline level cost the same XP as the next level, but didn't increase your ECL, so the next actual level cost the same amount. I could be wrong, though.

Three: I could change rapid metabolism to "abnormal physiology". Destroyers have really weird physiology. I'm sure there's a reason in there somewhere for toxin resistance.

Four: Thanks. I'll go fix it.

Mulletmanalive
2010-01-13, 09:34 AM
Live most things in UA, Bloodlines were written back in 3.0 and weren't very well worded [one of the things that led to 3.5 being penned]. This way is just simpler. The way that bloodlines stack is a bit off as far as i can see [yet again favouring casters] so using them like this will at least suppress some possible confusion. That aside, i'm pretty sure these abilities add up to more than a +3 race by the end of the run so it's probably best not to worry about complications.

Adding "+1 Manifester level" to the skip levels would bring this about equal to the original bloodline powers.

TabletopNuke
2010-01-13, 04:32 PM
Live most things in UA, Bloodlines were written back in 3.0 and weren't very well worded [one of the things that led to 3.5 being penned]. This way is just simpler. The way that bloodlines stack is a bit off as far as i can see [yet again favouring casters] so using them like this will at least suppress some possible confusion. That aside, i'm pretty sure these abilities add up to more than a +3 race by the end of the run so it's probably best not to worry about complications.

Adding "+1 Manifester level" to the skip levels would bring this about equal to the original bloodline powers.

Books from 2003 to 2004 are really hard to place in the 3.0 to 3.5 spectrum (I'm looking at you, Fiend Folio). Some of them lack the 3.0 skills such as Scry and Wilderness Lore, but aren't quite in 3.5, either. I always considered Unearthed Arcana to be a 3.5 book, but I found that even (especially) the internet has a mixed consensus.

I don't think the bloodlines are worth a +3 level adjustment. Compare the major red dragon bloodline with a half-red dragon template. They both provide immunity to fire, and a 6d8 breath weapon. But the differences are still vast.
Red Dragon Bloodline
+1 Str, +1 Con, +1 Cha
+3 Natural Armor
+2 on Appraise, Bluff, Intimidate and Jump
2 Bonus Feats
Locate object 1/day
Red Dragon Affinity +6

Half-Red Dragon Template
+8 Str, +2 Con,+2 Int, +2 Cha
+4 Natural Armor
Bite attack and 2 Claw attacks
Possible Wings
Darkvision, Low-Light Vision
+2 on Intimidate and Spot (If you use Races of the Dragon)

As you can see, a major bloodline doesn't match up with a +3 LA template. I felt that one of the appeals of bloodlines was that you could gain an array of monstrous abilities without the debilitating caster level/BAB/skill point/ect penalty of a level adjustment.

While the bloodline level system does indeed favor casters over melee characters, I think those wizards kinda deserve a treat after braving the earlier levels. We've all been there, starting off your adventuring career with 5 hit points and a handful of cantrips while Stabby McFreudianblade gets 20 AC and a +3 melee attack with a bastard sword.

Why yes, I stand on the "Casters deserve to be Batman at 20th level" side of the argument. How could you tell?

I will be reunited with my full D&D collection within the next few days, I could try writing up a clarified version of the bloodline rules. I plan to make them fairly common in Breakdown.

Mulletmanalive
2010-01-13, 05:34 PM
I'll pass on the caster superiority discussion. I like stories and challenges, things i don't get and can't run with casters as they are, hence why i lost interest in them. A class more or less capable of undoing anything with it's abilities just isn't interesting to me.

TabletopNuke
2010-01-13, 06:26 PM
Ha ha. You are a wise man.

Forgive my rant. I just felt the need to vent years of pent-up rage resulting from feeble attempts at getting my casters to survive level 1 and level up.

I generally feel that any DM who is having trouble with game-breaking casters just needs to be more creative the hurdles they throw at the players. No class is mightier than any other in the hands of a sadistic. Throw a mutant magic-resistant strain of blinding sickness at the troublesome 18th-level wizard! Good luck reading your spellbooks now, buddy! Cheesy druid giving you problems? That necromancer he killed left him a dying curse. Now Mr. Druid's touch creates a blight effect. You gonna cast a spell to get rid of it? Oh, your divine focus just withered away, too bad.

I also think that tier arguments and such things get in the way of the storyline and character development. My personal view of D&D mechanics is that they serve as a vehicle for plot and a means of measuring relative power of various characters and challenges to ensure that you don't wind up with a godmode protagonist or weakness only when it's plot-convenient.

I added some new things (racial feats, racial substitution level, sample destroyer). Would you take a look and tell me how they sound?

Mulletmanalive
2010-01-14, 05:02 AM
The trouble with "dealing with them" [a favourite up-yours of mine being flaming arrows to the belt pouch. Hello null-space, mr spellbook collection] is that it either cripples the other characters or leaves me questioning why the game got like that in the first place.

My big comment is that I like stories and i've never read a decent story where the man-in-a-dress character just instantly kill-plans the final villain. Boring. That and players have often complained that "there shouldn't be anything i haven't thought of, I'm Int 27!"

Anyway.

Mind over Body should probably be deflection. I know that there are Mindscourge anomalies that deal with flesh-shaping but i prefer not to see genre bleed.

The Improved Sight feat just doesn't seem right somehow. These aren't well made designer babies and Thought Eaters are actually blind in normal terms. I'd say that they treat Intelligent life as Candles for Spot purposes with other manifesters counting as Torches.

No extra vision per se, but much better intelligent target detection.

The untrained skills thing...In my kind of games, a worthwhile investment. In those games where it's considered rude to force a player to roll a skill he hasn't mazed, utterly pointless. Not sure what kind of game you're running, tbh.

TabletopNuke
2010-01-14, 09:37 PM
That flaming arrow trick cracks me up!

If your players complain that they're so smart that they must have thought of everthing, pit them against something even smarter than they are. >:D Or have them fight death/white/black slaadi. There's no way they can reliably predict the actions of the living incarnation of chaos.

Don't like genre bleed?! You must hate Eberron.

The "mind over body" and the Improved Sight feat weren't actually meant to be a throwback to the thought eaters (that's what the telepathy/midsight/blindsight/blindsense is for). Destroyers have all kinds of weird anotomical quirks, such as unusually tough skin and tapetum lucidum (that reflctive layer in the eye that makes dogs see better at night and look demonic in photographs). Do I need to clarify that further in the fluff? And if so, how should I go about doing that?

By the way, that thought eater fluff is spot on! I hadn't thought of wording it like that. It reminds me of the Lifesight feat in Libris Mortis. Mind if I use it in the th ought eater description?I figure that thought eaters can persive visual stimuli by psionically tapping into other creatures minds. But on their own, I suppose they have to rely on telepathic senses.

I guess I could make the Mind Over Body a deflection bonus, but that seems a little powerful, compared to a natual armor bonus (it replaces the light armor proficiency). On the other hand, I could leave the natual armor bonus and rename/refluff it, removing the psionic aspect, and making it a purely biological improvement.

While all destroyers have better nightvision then humans (at least untill the Wisdom and Madness Score modifiers get added in), the Improved Sight feat just represents a destroyer with unususally well-developed eyes.

Storyline and setting is really important to my games. That's why I include traits for flavor, even if they don't work from an optimization standpoint. That's why I spend hours upon hours writing creature fluff that looks like it belongs in a biology textbook. (I realize how nerdy that is. I'm not ashamed of it.) If your characters finds themselves in circumstances that call for untrained skill check, then by God you roll those dice!

In other words, I ask my players to make untrained skill rolls as the plot calls for. I won't go out of my way to make the sorcerer make Swim checks (unless I'm feeling really evil). But if they get bull rushed over a ship's railing, I'm not gonna tell them that a friendly bronze dragon shows up to rescue them.

I do reward clever playing quite hansomly, though. (But if you use the same old cheese over and over I will take you down.)

imp_fireball
2010-01-18, 07:58 PM
You should probably add the rules about Destroyers being unaffected by spells that only affect humanoids (since they're aberrations).

That should go without saying.

Mikka
2010-01-18, 08:18 PM
Overpowered for an LA 0 race, natural armor +1 skill point +2 ability scores total already makes them a +1.

Siosilvar
2010-01-18, 09:41 PM
Overpowered for an LA 0 race, natural armor +1 skill point +2 ability scores total already makes them a +1.
You have a very weird understanding of LA +1... Did you even look at ANYTHING else besides the bonuses?

NA +1: Worth little.
+2 ability score total: Uh, what? -6+6 = 0.
Skill point: Again, worth little.

And for everything you didn't look at:

Major Thought Eater Bloodline: Bonuses are made up for by 3 lost levels.
+8 Escape Artist & take 10: Not half bad, except it applies to only Escape Artist.
Naturally Psionic: Not particularly powerful.
Preprogrammed Knowledge: Flavor. Only affects Barbarians, anyway.
Rapid Metabolism: +2 saves v. poison and disease? Made up for by tripled food requirements. At higher levels when you can get around food, it really doesn't matter.
Uncultured: -2 to most social skills. The effect of this pretty much depends on your DM.
Heat Tolerance: +2 saves v. heat. Again, depends on DM. Not all that useful anyway, the saves are pretty low and avoiding 1d4 nonlethal damage an hour isn't something to write home about.
Cold Vulnerability: -4 saves v. cold. Probably comes into play more than Heat Tolerance.
+2 Spot in dim light: Not technically required by RAW. Removes the circumstance penalty some DMs will give, and makes hiding slightly more difficult. Eh overall.

Overall? Maybe high end LA0. The bloodline makes you lose 3 class levels by 12th anyway, so LA would be superfluous and pretty much destroy (ironic, no?) any chance of being played.

Mulletmanalive
2010-01-19, 06:39 AM
That flaming arrow trick cracks me up!

If your players complain that they're so smart that they must have thought of everthing, pit them against something even smarter than they are. >:D Or have them fight death/white/black slaadi. There's no way they can reliably predict the actions of the living incarnation of chaos.

Don't like genre bleed?! You must hate Eberron.

By the way, that thought eater fluff is spot on! I hadn't thought of wording it like that. It reminds me of the Lifesight feat in Libris Mortis. Mind if I use it in the th ought eater description?I figure that thought eaters can persive visual stimuli by psionically tapping into other creatures minds. But on their own, I suppose they have to rely on telepathic senses.

I do reward clever playing quite hansomly, though. (But if you use the same old cheese over and over I will take you down.)

In all honesty, the type of player that makes those complaints have tended to be asked to leave anyway. No need to be arrogant about it, but I was basically on a waiting-list for one of my ongoing games a while back so I'm not all that bothered about holding onto gamist players who just want to win and trample on my hard written story...

By genre bleed, i mean in spells. I think each should do different things. It's ironic that you mention Eberron, because the actual published materials tend to keep the three pools of power doing distinct things, unlike splatbooks...hence, i bloody love Eberron, nevermind the fact that i created a very similar setting about 3 weeks before it was released.

The Thought-Eater thing was based on the incorrect assumption that you were using, y'know, Thought-Eaters, the skeletal seahorses from the ethereal plane. Lucky guess i suppose; the text is based on something i came up with for my Fraal creatures [albeit far weaker]. Feel free to use the text.

Never be ashamed of flavour. I just wish that i could make mine interesting because i have to verbally explain my setting's history because i can never write them down without them seeming boring or confused.

Clever play in character is usually very different from clever play rules wise. I too like to reward, shall we say sensible/sane creativity, but i've never seen a killplan that's not been recycled within a couple of hours of gameplay...

TabletopNuke
2010-01-20, 09:01 PM
Thanks for doing a full look-over of all the racial features, Siosilvar!



The Thought-Eater thing was based on the incorrect assumption that you were using, y'know, Thought-Eaters, the skeletal seahorses from the ethereal plane. Lucky guess i suppose; the text is based on something i came up with for my Fraal creatures [albeit far weaker]. Feel free to use the text.
I made the thought eaters about a year or two before I started D&D. I didn't even get the EPH until two or three years after I started D&D (sad, I know). When I saw the WotC thought eater, I was concerned about confusion between the two. However, now that Breakdown is (somewhat) more defined as a setting, I have a better idea of the inhabitants. A lot of the standard D&D creatures have no part in it. I'm still working out exactly what is in it.

Here's a picture from SeaSlugForum.net of a blue sea slug. It's pretty close to what I envision thought eaters to look like (to people who can see incorporeal beings, anyway). (I don't have a finished drawing of one yet.)
http://www.seaslugforum.net/images/033871.jpg
After all the years, I've become rather attached to the name and design of my thought eaters, and I'm hesitant to change it. But I suppose that would be helpful for forum purposes at least. I could just specify them as this particular variant, but "Breakdown thought eaters" doesn't have a great ring. The working name I've got for their dimension is "Thoughtspace", and "Thoughtspace thought eater" doesn't sound much better. Suggestions?

Never be ashamed of flavour. I just wish that i could make mine interesting because i have to verbally explain my setting's history because i can never write them down without them seeming boring or confused.
I assume you're referring to your MV setting. I didn't see a full write-up on DA. Do you have the setting fluff up on the forum? I'd love to take a look at it.

I too like to reward, shall we say sensible/sane creativity, but i've never seen a killplan that's not been recycled within a couple of hours of gameplay...
Recycling old ideas isn't clever or creative, and therefore does not warrant a reward from the DM (Try telling that to my old group).

Mulletmanalive
2010-01-21, 05:48 AM
The logical response would be that the creature is known as a "Thought-eater" but not actually called that.

For "Thoughtscape" type names, lets see...
Pseudo-Latin - Sententia-Regnum [Thought Realm], Sententia-Mundus [Thought world], Phasmaregnum [Ghost-realm]
German - Denkenstatt [thought-place], Geistbereichs [Mind-realm]

Plus we have such standbys as "the bleed" [Damn you, Warren Ellis!], the Umbra and the Astral plane [this being an idea from spiritualism where human consciousness mingles]. If you're not using D&D cosmology, the astral is what you make of it.

Thus, a "Thought Eater" may just be the common name for a Denkenstatt Ethershark or a Phasmaregnum Polyp. Whatever science may know them as, it sure as hell isn't going to be "Thoughteater." Too literal and at the same time, not literal enough...

On the settings thing, It should have read "My settings' histories." At present, I've been party to the creation of four:

Mecha Victoriana, Victorian sci-fi with aliens.
Heart's End, Mage-punk. e10 before the term was invented.
Doctor Dear, a post apocalyptic hospitalocracy. Probably the best explained of the bunch.
Arcadia, a microcosm Star Wars saga setting. 4 star systems, 12 defined planets and its own built in campaign. I was co-writer on this one.

MV is mostly finished but, as i said, trying to write it up without it looking like a bad textbook or horribly garbled is proving impossibly difficult. That and I have little interest in posting it here; being told that carefully considered design decisions are stupid by people who don't have the entire picture isn't really what i need right now...:smallamused:

TabletopNuke
2010-01-21, 10:39 PM
As far as naming extradimensional/extraterrestrial life-forms goes, I'm assuming that most sentient species have some term for their own kind. If it's something that can be pronounced by English-speaking humans, then that's the name going in the stats. If it's something incomprehensible to humans/the creatures have no name for themselves, I'll use whatever term the humans gave them. If the humans gave them a name even though they have one for themselves, I'll include the English name in a note in the description.

Thought eater is the human name for the creatures. Thought eaters have no language, just telepathy. If they have a name for themselves, it's got no equivalent in any human language. I might use one of your ideas for the scientific name, though.

Breakdown's got it's own cosmology (which I've barely started writing down). I'm happy with the name "Thoughtspace". Once again, if the locals have a name for it, it's utterly incomprehensible to humans.

Too bad I can't see your setting. I'd seen a lot of the MV stuff on DA, but had little context to put it in. That Doctor Dear one really piques my interest, too.

But I can understand wanting to protect your work from the uncaring depths of the internet. Posting unfinished work is sure to invite the harshness. That's one reason I waited until I was an adult to post any of my stuff (Gotta be sure it's up to par).

What is e10?

imp_fireball
2010-01-24, 10:26 PM
One, artistic comment, the jumper doesn't look very baggy and for someone that malnourished looking based on their basic weight, the face looks rather full. Perhaps adding some additional shadows around the face [In return, feel free to tear my stuff apart www.mulletmanalive.deviantart.com.]

Scientific Speculation: Since human heads lose more body heat than any other part of the body, it could be that the face is generally where most of any left over fat has gone to. And facial fat doesn't weigh very much anyway, I don't think (it's just puffy) - probably less then a pound.

Mulletmanalive
2010-01-24, 11:22 PM
e10 is Epic level 10. You'll have probably seen e6 around [Epic 6]. The idea is that you stop advancing normally at level 6 or 10 and after that point, you can spend xp to buy feats. Skill points come off the Open Minded feat.

Heart's End actually had its own system but was originally derived from 2eAD&D, long ago in the mists of time.

You're welcome to the currently hacked apart MV book[s]. Your choice of the espionage or military books for a PM with an email address in it.

@Imp: from an artistic POV, what you may know about facial fat for hear retention doesn't really matter. I didn't know and I'm pretty well versed in biology, so you can bet that the average person won't pause to think about it. First impression is what counts, hard as that is to do.

TabletopNuke
2010-01-25, 05:29 PM
Never heard of E6 either.

As far as the debate on my drawing goes, it's kinda old and I'd just started using the program and that's all there is too it. Between how long I spend on my pictures and how much I learn drawing each one, there's a noticeable inconsistency in quality. It's kind of annoying to find all these little flaws in your picture by the time you're finished. But if I stopped to fix all of those, I'd only find more, and never get anything finished.:smallamused: