My attempt at an Awakened Housecat's stats <3.5> (Race) PEACH

[Machiavellian]

Housecats. Often the hidden evil geniuses. But what if one were great enough to be an adventurer?

Awakened Housecat Racial Traits

An Awakened Housecat appears like any other house cat, usually between 1'1" long and peaking at 2' long and weighing between 5 and 15 pounds. Their eyes now sparkle with a newfound intellect, often yellow or green in color with slitted irises. Their fur can be from stark white to black and many shades in between. Some housecats even lack fur entirely. They tend to have sly and playful personalities. They tend to spend a lot of their time around humanoids, mostly Elves and Humans, though sometimes a Halfling village will adopt what they percieve as a "stray," only to discover the secret behind its ruse.

- Magical Beast: An Awakened Housecat is treated as a magical beast, and thus is immune to spells like Hold Person. Unlike Magical Beasts however, Awakened Housecats only gain Hit Dice through class levels and act similarly to Humanoids

- Size: Tiny: An Awakened Housecat recieves a +2 to AC and to hit as well as a +2 to hide checks, but cannot wield weapons intended for creatures larger than they are and can carry 1/4 the weight as a Medium creature

- An Awakened Housecats have a base land speed of 20 feet

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

- -10 Strength +10 Dexterity -2 Constitution +2 Intelligence +2 Charisma: While extremely weak and frail, Awakened Housecats are nimble, smart, and tend to use their adorable looks to get what they want

- Paws: Because an Awakened Housecat still has the anatomy of a normal Housecat, they cannot wield weapons or wands in the traditional way. However, an Awakened Housecat may, if it so chooses, carry a wand or light small weapon in their mouth. However, if they do, they cannot cast spells that require a Verbal Componet

- Natural Weapons: An Awakened Housecat has a pair of retractable claws and a powerful (for its size) bite, which it can use to fight with. The claws deal 1d2 and the Bite deals 1d4-1.

- Aura of "Awww": Intelligent creatures who attempt an attack towards an Awakened Housecat must make a DC 10+Awakened Housecat's CHA modifier+1/2 the Awakened Housecat's Class Level (rounded down) or be so enthralled by the Awakened Housecat's cuteness that they change target. This ability does not effect creatures without an INT score or are a Fiendish/Celestial/Pseudonatural/ect. animal of predatory nature, of whom would see the Awakened Housecat as little more than their next meal.

- Awakened Housecats recieve the Scent ability. Follow Monster Manual for rules on Scent.

- Awakened Housecats recieve a +2 to Spot, Search, Listen, Climb, Jump, and Move Silently checks: Awakened Housecats have sharp senses, strong muscles (respective for their size), and soft pads on their feet.

- Automatic Languages: Common, Feline, and Sylvan: Since they were housecats, they understood Common before their enlightenment, as well as being able to speak the languages of cats and the fey
- Bonus Languages: Elven, Gnome, Halfling, Orc, and Undercommon

- Favored Class: Rogue

-Level Adjustment: +0

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please comment...

[Mystic Muse]

This might be good for your character but I can't see it being much good at anything else. Plus, I can't tell where you got the stats from and the aura of aww just shouldn't be there.

Natural weapons also bonuses and penalties to their damage equal to their strength score. The weapons should say this instead of having a static modifier.

Also, the -10 strength modifier is a bit extreme. Assuming you start with a 12 in strength your maximum load is 10 pounds. Granted you shouldn't be carrying much but if you do decide to you can maybe carry a wand or two without collapsing from the weight.

[Siosilvar]

... Here. Straight out of the MM housecat with the Awaken spell slapped on it.


Awakened housecat characters possess the following racial traits.

Strength -8, Dexterity +4, Wisdom +2, Charisma -2.
Tiny size: +2 bonus to Armor Class, +2 bonus on attack rolls, +8 bonus on Hide checks, -8 penalty on grapple checks, lifting and carrying limits ½ those of Medium characters. As a tiny creature, an awakened housecat takes up a smaller space than other creatures and has no natural reach.
An awakened houscat’s base land speed is 30 feet.
Low-light vision.
Darkvision out to 60 feet.
Scent.
Weapon Finesse as a bonus feat.
+4 racial bonus on Hide and Move Silently checks. In areas of tall grass or heavy undergrowth, the racial bonus on Hide rises to +8.
+4 racial bonus on Climb checks and +8 racial bonus on Jump checks. An awakened housecat may use their Dexterity modifier in place of their Strength modifier when making Climb and Jump checks.
+8 racial bonus on Balance checks.
An awakened housecat has three natural weapons, two claws and a bite. Their claws are their primary weapons and deal 1d2 piercing and slashing damage. Their bite deals 1d3 damage of all types.
Racial Hit Dice: An awakened housecat begins with two levels of magical beast, which provide 2d8 Hit Dice, a base attack bonus of +1, and base saving throw bonuses of Fort +3, Ref +3, and Will +0.
Racial Skills: An awakened housecat’s magical beast levels give it skill points equal to 5 × (2 + Int modifier). Its class skills are Balance, Climb, Hide , Jump, Listen, Move Silently, and Spot.
Racial Feats: An awakened housecat’s magical beast levels give it one feat.
Automatic Languages: Common. Bonus Languages: Any (except secret languages, such as Druidic).

[Peregrine]

Making a few reasonable assumptions (like "3d6 Int" = "+0 racial bonus", and available bonus languages), the core rules would give us the following racial traits for an awakened cat: -8 Strength*, +4 Dexterity, +2 Wisdom, -2 Charisma. Magical beast: Awakened cats are not subject to spells or effects that affect humanoids only, such as charm person or dominate person. Tiny size: +2 bonus to Armor Class and attack rolls, -8 penalty on grapple checks, +8 bonus on Hide checks, lifting and carrying capacities half those of Medium characters. Space/Reach: 2½ ft./0 ft. An awakened cat cannot flank and must enter its target's space in order to make a melee attack. An awakened cat's base land speed is 30 ft. Darkvision out to 60 ft. Low-light vision: An awakened cat can see twice as far as a human in starlight, moonlight, torchlight, and similar conditions of poor illumination. It retains the ability to distinguish color and detail under these conditions. Scent: An awakened cat can detect opponents by sense of smell, generally within 30 feet. If the opponent is upwind, the range is 60 feet. If it is downwind, the range is 15 feet. Strong scents, such as smoke or rotting garbage, can be detected at twice the ranges noted above. Overpowering scents, such as skunk musk or troglodyte stench, can be detected at three times these ranges. Racial Hit Dice: An awakened cat begins with two levels of magical beast (augmented animal), which provide 2d8 hit points, a base attack bonus of +1, and base saving throw bonuses of Fort +3, Ref +3, Will +0. Racial Skills: An awakened cat's magical beast (augmented animal) levels give it skill points equal to 5 × (2 + Int modifier). Its class skills are Balance, Climb, Hide, Jump, Listen, Move Silently and Spot. Awakened cats have a +4 bonus on Climb and Move Silently checks, and a +8 racial bonus on Jump and Balance checks. They have a +4 racial bonus on Hide checks, rising to +8 in areas of tall grass or heavy undergrowth. Awakened cats use the better of their Strength or Dexterity modifiers on Climb and Jump checks. Racial Feats: An awakened cat's magical beast (augmented animal) levels give it one feat. Awakened cats also have Weapon Finesse as a bonus feat. Natural Weapons: 2 claws (1d2) and bite (1d3). An awakened cat's claws are its primary natural attack. Automatic Languages: Common. Bonus Languages: Draconic, Elven, Giant, Gnome, Goblin, Sylvan. Favored Class: Rogue. Level Adjustment: +0?

* Doesn't really work like a straight -8; see the table on p.173 of the DMG.

EDIT: So totally and utterly ninja'd, not that I'm surprised. :smalltongue: Of course there are a few points where I believe my stats are correct over Siosilvar's. For example, awaken makes the cat an augmented animal, which means it still gets animal hit points for its racial Hit Dice (d8 instead of d10). Also the extended racial skills, the special note on Strength, and the note on type. On the other hand, Siosilvar was right to explicitly mention which natural attacks are primary.

Languages, favoured class, and level adjustment are all judgement calls. I picked languages that seemed likely for druids (since awakened animals get their languages from the druid who cast awaken), but "any" is certainly defensible on these same grounds.

[Siosilvar]

You were ninjaswordsage'd.

However... that does remind me to look at the Augmented subtype and see what it says. Back in a few.

EDIT: Traits of new type, features of old type. Which is... d8 hit dice, +1 BAB, and Darkvision.

EDIT2: My class skills are based on the only skills that had skill points put into them. All the rest are straight ability score + racial + size bonus.

[Peregrine]

EDIT: Traits of new type, features of old type. Which is... d8 hit dice, +1 BAB, and Darkvision.

And saves and skill points, though animals and magical beasts are matched there. You're right on the darkvision, I forgot to check for that.

Edited to answer edit:

EDIT2: My class skills are based on the only skills that had skill points put into them. All the rest are straight ability score + racial + size bonus.

Yes, but when advancing monsters, the rules say... errm... actually I can't find where they say it, but I'm positive they say to count "skills listed in the monster entry" as class skills. That would suggest doing so even if they're only listed because of a racial (or a synergy) bonus.

I shall continue to hunt for where I've seen this rule.

[Siosilvar]

Just so it's clear: My posting of the stats ninja'd Peregrine's stats. His edit ninja'd my edit of my second post. My second edit of my second post ninja'd his last post.


Also, the languages could really be "Automatic Language: Any one. Bonus Languages: Any (except secret languages, such as Druidic) or Druidic."

Unnecessarily complicated languages section, yes. But truthful to the text of the spell.

EDIT: And yet more answers via edit!



Yes, but when advancing monsters, the rules say... errm... actually I can't find where they say it, but I'm positive they say to count "skills listed in the monster entry" as class skills. That would suggest doing so even if they're only listed because of a racial (or a synergy) bonus.

I shall continue to hunt for where I've seen this rule.
I thought I saw something like that, but I wasn't sure, so I just took the ones that had points in them.

Actually, Hide and Move Silently don't have points in them, I missed the Stealthy feat. It's just 2 ranks in Listen and 2 ranks in Spot.

[Peregrine]

Just so it's clear: My posting of the stats ninja'd Peregrine's stats. His edit ninja'd my edit of my second post. His last post ninja'd my second edit of my second post.

Yes, crystal clear. :smalltongue:


Also, the languages could really be "Automatic Language: Any one. Bonus Languages: Any (except secret languages, such as Druidic) or Druidic."

Unnecessarily complicated languages section, yes. But truthful to the text of the spell.

I think it's safe to assume that giving an awakened cat the Druidic language counts as "teach this language to nondruids", which is forbidden. Doesn't mean they could [i]never have done so, but it'd be the same as taking Druidic through Speak Language "because the party druid taught me", i.e. not allowed by RAW and thus up to the DM.

[Siosilvar]

I think it's safe to assume that giving an awakened cat the Druidic language counts as "teach this language to nondruids", which is forbidden. Doesn't mean they could [i]never have done so, but it'd be the same as taking Druidic through Speak Language "because the party druid taught me", i.e. not allowed by RAW and thus up to the DM.


An awakened tree or animal can speak one language that you know, plus one additional language that you know per point of Intelligence bonus (if any).
Yeah, probably, but the text of the spell says "one language that you know." So... it could go either way. I would probably agree with you if I were running it.

EDIT: Yeah, you'd lose Druid features if you taught the awakened animal Druidic. Unless it was fluffed as taking imprinted knowledge or somesuch...

[Peregrine]

I thought I saw something like that, but I wasn't sure, so I just took the ones that had points in them.

Got it. DMG, p.172.


Monster characters treat skills mentioned in their Monster Manual entry as class skills.

(I think I've seen it somewhere else, but one reference is good enough.)

[Siosilvar]

Got it. DMG, p.172.



(I think I've seen it somewhere else, but one reference is good enough.)
And there it is.

Good enough for me. Second paragraph, second column?

[Peregrine]

And there it is.

Good enough for me. Second paragraph, second column?

That's the one.

And now for something vaguely different. Here's a suggested mechanic for making quadrupeds more playable.

Limbshaping
Transmutation
Level: Sorcerer/Wizard 5 Feels too much like "messing with the natural order" to give it to druids.
Components: V, S, M, XP
Casting Time: 1 hour
Range: Touch
Target: One willing quadrupedal creature
Duration: Permanent
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: Yes

The subject's limbs and digits are twisted and reshaped into the semblance of a humanoid's members. Once the spell is complete, the subject is able to employ its forepaws like hands (handling weapons, wearing rings or gloves, and so on), and walk upon its hindlimbs as easily as a native biped. It may also use its natural quadrupedal gait, in which case it is effectively disguised as an ordinary member of its species, gaining a +4 bonus to its Disguise check.

The criteria for a "willing" subject of limbshaping are somewhat more stringent than normal. The subject must possess an Intelligence score of at least 3 to consent to this spell.

Material Component
Animal bones, soaked in alchemical reagents until they soften. The reagents cost 250 gp.

XP Cost
50 XP.

[Bhu]

Awaken also increases Charisma

[Siosilvar]

Awaken also increases Charisma

By +2 on average. Housecat's Charisma is 7 (which would be a -4). Awakened = 9, or -2.

[Bhu]

true but if i were permannetly being awakened id hope they maximized i thereby giving me a +0 :smallbiggrin:

[Siosilvar]

true but if i were permannetly being awakened id hope they maximized i thereby giving me a +0 :smallbiggrin:

And an 18 intelligence. Yeah, no.

Plus, that's not a variable, numeric effect of the spell. It's a variable, numeric effect of being turned into a magical beast.