Tanuki Tales
2010-12-16, 01:06 PM
Alright, here's my second stab at homebrewing! Just want to say up front that this template was made using mostly Pathfinder rules in mind.
Toon
Find a place that intersects between the Plane of Shadow and the Far Realm, a nexus point of deceptive reflections and pure insanity, a collision of what may be real and what never should exist in the first place. At such a crossing nearly anything could be the door that you truly don’t want to find; maybe it’s a long neglected sock draw, maybe a cabinet full of moth eaten theater dressings or even possibly a forgotten fun house mirror. Any of these could be the entrance to a place that was not intended to ever spill out from its own contained reality, the realm of immortal jesters of dangerous humors, Toon Town. Toons are effectively immortal denizens of an existence where the laws of causality and physics are even more hazy and mutable than nearly any other. Nearly anything, from cats to dogs, frying pans to cars, storm clouds to the undead, can be found as a sapient member of this dimension’s populace. Toons spend every day at constant odds with one another, playing into their personas and personalities to feed their impulses and lusts as they pursue nothing short but the utter humiliation if not total annihilation of their fellow Toons. If you ask a Toon, and the heavens forbid if your poor luck ever brings you into this occurring, why they follow these routines of hedonism and extreme violence on one another day in and day out they will simply reply “Because we love to make people laugh!”
Few creatures in all of the Great Wheel are more loathed or feared than a Toon. The great courts of the Fey do not entertain them, their stomachs even turned by the sheer sadism and torture Toons unleash in their pursuit of laughter. The Blood War will pause to ensure that a Toon is expelled from the battle field. Even the most psychotic of killers and twisted of insane cultists will shun or flee from a Toon, their brand of insanity and cruelty far too much to be put up with.
Creating a Toon
"Toon" is an acquired template that can be added to any creature or object. (Use the appropriate Animated Object stat block as the base creature in the case of an object)
A Toon uses all the the base creature's statistics and special abilities except as noted here.
Size and Type: The base creature's type remains unchanged and it gains the Toon subtype. Creatures with the Aquatic subtype also gain the Amphibious subtype. The base creature's size remains unchanged.
HD: If the base creature has only a fractional racial Hit Dice increase it to 1 racial Hit Dice.
Shape: If the base creature has wings or a tail, these appendages adjust to fit the Toon. Of its other limbs, two become legs and all others become arms. Any creature that does not have enough limbs of the appropriate kind to form at least two legs and two arms (wings being incorporated into arms in the case of birds and similar creatures) simply grows the necessary limbs.
Speed: If the creature has a land speed slower than 10 feet (or no land speed at all), its land speed becomes 10 feet. If the base creature is quadrupedal and has a land speed faster than 30 feet, the Toon’s land speed is decreased by 10 feet while it walks bipedally (a Toon that was formally a quadruped and hasn’t lost the appendages that allowed its movement, i.e. a horse, can choose to move quadrupedally and uses its original base speed). If the base creature has wings as a means of flight and it increases in size then its fly speed is halved and drops one maneuverability category (minimum poor). If it decreases in size then its fly speed increases by 50% and it improves by one maneuverability category (maximum perfect).
Armor Class: Same as the base creature.
Attack: The Toon retains all the base creature’s attacks except those that depend on limbs that have turned into legs. Any other natural attacks it has retain the same primary or secondary status they had for the base creature.
Damage: Same as the base creature.
Special Attacks: A Toon retains all of the base creature’s special attacks except those that rely on limbs that it no longer possesses and gains those described here.
Ain't I a Stinker?: (Ex) A Toon knows several Martial Maneuvers and Stances (Initiator level 1/4th HD; as Swordsage). They recover spent Maneuvers by either resting and meditating for 5 minutes. A Toon can recharge a spent maneuver by successfully having an amount of beings fail against its Gag Reflex ability equal to the level of the maneuver being recharged. A Toon can not use the same instance of its Gag Reflex to recharge more than one spent maneuver.
Special Qualities: A Toon retains all of the base creature’s special qualities and gains those described here.
Toon Durability (Ex): The base creature loses the regeneration and fast healing special qualities if it had them and instead gains Toon Durability. Track the creature’s damage as normal; when the Toon’s hit points reach the normal point of death for the creature it instead falls prone and is immobile and helpless. It remains in this state for 10d6 rounds, arising when this time elapses with one quarter of its total HP restored to fight again. Nothing can suppress this ability, even a death effect or disintegration. If a Toon is slain by a method other than HP damage it still rises 10d6 rounds later.
Hammer Space (Su): A Toon has access to an extra-dimensional space that is outside the usual multiverse of extra-dimensional spaces. Objects in the extra-dimensional space are hidden, beyond the reach of spells (including divinations), unless those spells work across planes. A Toon can put in or pull out an item that is no more than its heavy load and treats this action the same as drawing a sheathed weapon. This ability is suppressed when in an area that the existence or usage of an extra-dimensional would result in disastrous results.
Humorous Youth (Ex): As long as a Toon makes other sentient beings laugh and feel joy or amusement they are immortal and cannot die from natural causes. Every year that they fail to make a grouping of at least 5 people laugh for over one minute they physically age that year. A Toon who reaches their maximum age does not die as other things do, they instead cease to exist, forgotten by those who used to find pleasure in their antics. A Toon can reverse the aging process by bringing mirth to 10 groups of 5 people per year that they’ve aged in the span of that current year (thus a 10 year old Toon would need to make 500 people laugh in the span of one year to reverse from age 10 to age 9 and would need to make 450 laugh the next year to reverse from 9 to 8). A Toon uses the age categories of a human for this purpose but do not revert to an adolescent or younger state unless the base creature was originally as such prior to aging.
Gravitational Ignorance (Ex): A Toon lacks the natural proclivity to notice when it should be subject to the forces of gravity. A Toon treats thin air, water or similar surfaces as solid ground if they started their current move action on solid ground and their move speed permitted them to continue moving. At the end of the move action and at the beginning of the next turn they must make a DC 10 Perception check. If they pass they notice that they are not actually on solid ground and treat the surface they are on as it normally is treated. A Toon can not voluntarily fail this check. Even if the Toon fails the second Perception check they are treated as having passed the save if they attempt any action that is not a swift or immediate action.
Type Casted (Ex): Toons are eternal victims of their own unique personas. A Toon takes 50% more damage from sources that run counter to their own alignment (Thus a Chaotic Evil Toon would take 100% extra damage from a weapon that is both Lawful and Good). Toons with Neutral leaning alignments only take 25% more from the aligments counter to their own (Thus a True Neutral Toon would take 50% more damage from a weapon that is both Lawful and Good just as it would from a weapon that is both Chaotic and Evil). A Toon must also make a Will save (DC equal to 10+ ½ HD) any time it attempts to do an action that runs counter to its alignment. If it passes it may do that action but takes a cumulative -1 penalty to the save for every subsequent action it attempts that runs counter to its alignment. These penalties continue until the Toon commit the same amount of actions in-line with their alignment. A Toon that fails the save does not complete the action, instead doing something more in-line with its alignment.
Gag Reflex (Ex): A Toon may make a Perform (Comedy) skill check as part of any action of its choosing once per round (such as making an attack or casting a spell). All sapient creatures (those with an Intelligence score of 3 or higher) who are in line of sight of the Toon's action must make a Will save (DC = 10+1/2 Toon's HD+Toon's positive Cha modifier or negative Wis modifier, which ever is higher ) or be subject to an effect similar to a [i]Hideous Laughter spell (though this effect does not render the affected creatures prone, it never fails to translate and it affects those normally immune to mind-affecting effects and/or charms and compulsion affects). This effect has a Caster level equal to the Toon's HD and counts towards its Humorous Youth special quality. If a Toon uses this ability in conjunction with a maneuver from the Falling Anvil Discipline they receive a +1 circumstance bonus to the save DC and a +2 circumstance bonus to the Perform check. A Toon also gains a +1 bonus to the save DC and is treated as one level higher for every 5 points that it exceeds a result of 10 on the Perform check.
Abilities: If the creatures Intelligence, Wisdom or Charisma is -, 1, or 2, it changes to 10. +4 Con, -4 Wis, +2 Cha
Skills: Same as the base creature.
Feats: Same as the base creature.
Environment: Any, usually same as base creature.
Organization: Same as the base creature.
Challenge Rating: Base creature +2
Treasure: Double Standard
Alignment: Any. (Though Toons tend towards Chaotic or Lawful on order and Neutral on morality. Toons tend to be very selfish individuals and this selfishness comes before even their expected roles of hero and villain in all but the most decided individuals, i.e. those who are actually good or evil.)
Advancement: By Character Class.
Level Adjustment: +3
Toon Subtype
A Toon has the following features.
- Immunity to Insanity and Insanity effects.
- Not subject to Constitution Drain and cannot die from Constitution Damage. Constitution is restored to 1 when Toon Durability special quality activates.
- Proficient with Improvised weapons, Simple weapons and any weapons mentioned in its entry.
- Proficient with whatever type of armor (light, medium, or heavy) it is described as wearing, as well as all lighter types. Toons not indicated as wearing armor are not proficient with armor. Toons are proficient with shields if they are proficient with any form of armor.
- Toons may treat the Falling Anvil (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=122824) discipline as one of its classes’ known disciplines if it has levels in an Initiator class. Toons also use their total HD as their Initiator level.
- Toons need to eat, sleep and breathe (even if they would normally not be required to do so) but do not die from starvation or suffocation.
- Death for a Toon is quite a permanent status. Spells such as Raise Dead, Reincarnate and Resurrection do not return a Toon to life since a Toon’s body dissolves upon death, leaving behind no physical remains. Even the most potent of spells such as Limited Wish, Wish, Miracle and True Resurrection fail to restore a Toon. Only a Deity of Divine Rank 20 or higher may restore a slain Toon by sacrificing one of its Divine Ranks.
The Dip
Remember how they always thought there wasn't a way to kill a toon? Well, Doom found a way. Turpentine, acetone, benzene. He calls it "The Dip."
“The Dip” (known in modern times as Paint Thinner) is a substance pure anathema to Toons, capable of killing what many view as the truly eternal. While harmless to nearly all other things, “Dip” clings to a Toon, dealing 2d6 damage each round of contact, 20d6 per round of total immersion. “Dip” continues dealing damage for 1d3 rounds after exposure before becoming inert, but only deals half of the original damage (1d6 and 10d6 respectively). A Toon must also pass a DC 20 Will save when exposed to “Dip” as it causes them excruciating wracking pains. Passing the save means that they take a -4 on attack rolls, skill checks and ability checks for 1 hour after exposure, this lessening to -2 until the damage is fully healed. Failing the save means that the Toon falls unconscious and prone, helpless to resists the corrosive properties of “Dip”. Damage inflicted by “Dip” must be healed naturally and is subtracted from the HP restored by a Toon’s Toon Durability until it is completely healed.
Bureaucratitis
Type disease, contact Save Fortitude DC 20
Onset 1d6 days Frequency 1/day
Effect See Text Cure -
Bureaucratitis, more commonly known as “Boring”, is the one thing that brings more fear to a Toon’s heart than “Dip”. The origins of this horrific and highly infectious disease are unknown and outbreaks of it are rare and occur at seemingly random. A Toon who is a victim of Boring finds themselves unable to feel joy, mirth, pleasure, etc. and loses the benefits of their Humorous Youth special quality. Every day a sufferer of Boring ages an entire year until they eventually reach the end of their time, fading away into nothingness. This alone makes the disease tragic but it goes farther than that. A Toon with Boring becomes a mindless thing, seeking out other Toons to subdue and infect in the amount of time it has left. If not caught early and dealt with swiftly an epidemic can occur, resulting in massive drops in the Toon population. This disease can only be contracted by Toons.
Toon
Find a place that intersects between the Plane of Shadow and the Far Realm, a nexus point of deceptive reflections and pure insanity, a collision of what may be real and what never should exist in the first place. At such a crossing nearly anything could be the door that you truly don’t want to find; maybe it’s a long neglected sock draw, maybe a cabinet full of moth eaten theater dressings or even possibly a forgotten fun house mirror. Any of these could be the entrance to a place that was not intended to ever spill out from its own contained reality, the realm of immortal jesters of dangerous humors, Toon Town. Toons are effectively immortal denizens of an existence where the laws of causality and physics are even more hazy and mutable than nearly any other. Nearly anything, from cats to dogs, frying pans to cars, storm clouds to the undead, can be found as a sapient member of this dimension’s populace. Toons spend every day at constant odds with one another, playing into their personas and personalities to feed their impulses and lusts as they pursue nothing short but the utter humiliation if not total annihilation of their fellow Toons. If you ask a Toon, and the heavens forbid if your poor luck ever brings you into this occurring, why they follow these routines of hedonism and extreme violence on one another day in and day out they will simply reply “Because we love to make people laugh!”
Few creatures in all of the Great Wheel are more loathed or feared than a Toon. The great courts of the Fey do not entertain them, their stomachs even turned by the sheer sadism and torture Toons unleash in their pursuit of laughter. The Blood War will pause to ensure that a Toon is expelled from the battle field. Even the most psychotic of killers and twisted of insane cultists will shun or flee from a Toon, their brand of insanity and cruelty far too much to be put up with.
Creating a Toon
"Toon" is an acquired template that can be added to any creature or object. (Use the appropriate Animated Object stat block as the base creature in the case of an object)
A Toon uses all the the base creature's statistics and special abilities except as noted here.
Size and Type: The base creature's type remains unchanged and it gains the Toon subtype. Creatures with the Aquatic subtype also gain the Amphibious subtype. The base creature's size remains unchanged.
HD: If the base creature has only a fractional racial Hit Dice increase it to 1 racial Hit Dice.
Shape: If the base creature has wings or a tail, these appendages adjust to fit the Toon. Of its other limbs, two become legs and all others become arms. Any creature that does not have enough limbs of the appropriate kind to form at least two legs and two arms (wings being incorporated into arms in the case of birds and similar creatures) simply grows the necessary limbs.
Speed: If the creature has a land speed slower than 10 feet (or no land speed at all), its land speed becomes 10 feet. If the base creature is quadrupedal and has a land speed faster than 30 feet, the Toon’s land speed is decreased by 10 feet while it walks bipedally (a Toon that was formally a quadruped and hasn’t lost the appendages that allowed its movement, i.e. a horse, can choose to move quadrupedally and uses its original base speed). If the base creature has wings as a means of flight and it increases in size then its fly speed is halved and drops one maneuverability category (minimum poor). If it decreases in size then its fly speed increases by 50% and it improves by one maneuverability category (maximum perfect).
Armor Class: Same as the base creature.
Attack: The Toon retains all the base creature’s attacks except those that depend on limbs that have turned into legs. Any other natural attacks it has retain the same primary or secondary status they had for the base creature.
Damage: Same as the base creature.
Special Attacks: A Toon retains all of the base creature’s special attacks except those that rely on limbs that it no longer possesses and gains those described here.
Ain't I a Stinker?: (Ex) A Toon knows several Martial Maneuvers and Stances (Initiator level 1/4th HD; as Swordsage). They recover spent Maneuvers by either resting and meditating for 5 minutes. A Toon can recharge a spent maneuver by successfully having an amount of beings fail against its Gag Reflex ability equal to the level of the maneuver being recharged. A Toon can not use the same instance of its Gag Reflex to recharge more than one spent maneuver.
Special Qualities: A Toon retains all of the base creature’s special qualities and gains those described here.
Toon Durability (Ex): The base creature loses the regeneration and fast healing special qualities if it had them and instead gains Toon Durability. Track the creature’s damage as normal; when the Toon’s hit points reach the normal point of death for the creature it instead falls prone and is immobile and helpless. It remains in this state for 10d6 rounds, arising when this time elapses with one quarter of its total HP restored to fight again. Nothing can suppress this ability, even a death effect or disintegration. If a Toon is slain by a method other than HP damage it still rises 10d6 rounds later.
Hammer Space (Su): A Toon has access to an extra-dimensional space that is outside the usual multiverse of extra-dimensional spaces. Objects in the extra-dimensional space are hidden, beyond the reach of spells (including divinations), unless those spells work across planes. A Toon can put in or pull out an item that is no more than its heavy load and treats this action the same as drawing a sheathed weapon. This ability is suppressed when in an area that the existence or usage of an extra-dimensional would result in disastrous results.
Humorous Youth (Ex): As long as a Toon makes other sentient beings laugh and feel joy or amusement they are immortal and cannot die from natural causes. Every year that they fail to make a grouping of at least 5 people laugh for over one minute they physically age that year. A Toon who reaches their maximum age does not die as other things do, they instead cease to exist, forgotten by those who used to find pleasure in their antics. A Toon can reverse the aging process by bringing mirth to 10 groups of 5 people per year that they’ve aged in the span of that current year (thus a 10 year old Toon would need to make 500 people laugh in the span of one year to reverse from age 10 to age 9 and would need to make 450 laugh the next year to reverse from 9 to 8). A Toon uses the age categories of a human for this purpose but do not revert to an adolescent or younger state unless the base creature was originally as such prior to aging.
Gravitational Ignorance (Ex): A Toon lacks the natural proclivity to notice when it should be subject to the forces of gravity. A Toon treats thin air, water or similar surfaces as solid ground if they started their current move action on solid ground and their move speed permitted them to continue moving. At the end of the move action and at the beginning of the next turn they must make a DC 10 Perception check. If they pass they notice that they are not actually on solid ground and treat the surface they are on as it normally is treated. A Toon can not voluntarily fail this check. Even if the Toon fails the second Perception check they are treated as having passed the save if they attempt any action that is not a swift or immediate action.
Type Casted (Ex): Toons are eternal victims of their own unique personas. A Toon takes 50% more damage from sources that run counter to their own alignment (Thus a Chaotic Evil Toon would take 100% extra damage from a weapon that is both Lawful and Good). Toons with Neutral leaning alignments only take 25% more from the aligments counter to their own (Thus a True Neutral Toon would take 50% more damage from a weapon that is both Lawful and Good just as it would from a weapon that is both Chaotic and Evil). A Toon must also make a Will save (DC equal to 10+ ½ HD) any time it attempts to do an action that runs counter to its alignment. If it passes it may do that action but takes a cumulative -1 penalty to the save for every subsequent action it attempts that runs counter to its alignment. These penalties continue until the Toon commit the same amount of actions in-line with their alignment. A Toon that fails the save does not complete the action, instead doing something more in-line with its alignment.
Gag Reflex (Ex): A Toon may make a Perform (Comedy) skill check as part of any action of its choosing once per round (such as making an attack or casting a spell). All sapient creatures (those with an Intelligence score of 3 or higher) who are in line of sight of the Toon's action must make a Will save (DC = 10+1/2 Toon's HD+Toon's positive Cha modifier or negative Wis modifier, which ever is higher ) or be subject to an effect similar to a [i]Hideous Laughter spell (though this effect does not render the affected creatures prone, it never fails to translate and it affects those normally immune to mind-affecting effects and/or charms and compulsion affects). This effect has a Caster level equal to the Toon's HD and counts towards its Humorous Youth special quality. If a Toon uses this ability in conjunction with a maneuver from the Falling Anvil Discipline they receive a +1 circumstance bonus to the save DC and a +2 circumstance bonus to the Perform check. A Toon also gains a +1 bonus to the save DC and is treated as one level higher for every 5 points that it exceeds a result of 10 on the Perform check.
Abilities: If the creatures Intelligence, Wisdom or Charisma is -, 1, or 2, it changes to 10. +4 Con, -4 Wis, +2 Cha
Skills: Same as the base creature.
Feats: Same as the base creature.
Environment: Any, usually same as base creature.
Organization: Same as the base creature.
Challenge Rating: Base creature +2
Treasure: Double Standard
Alignment: Any. (Though Toons tend towards Chaotic or Lawful on order and Neutral on morality. Toons tend to be very selfish individuals and this selfishness comes before even their expected roles of hero and villain in all but the most decided individuals, i.e. those who are actually good or evil.)
Advancement: By Character Class.
Level Adjustment: +3
Toon Subtype
A Toon has the following features.
- Immunity to Insanity and Insanity effects.
- Not subject to Constitution Drain and cannot die from Constitution Damage. Constitution is restored to 1 when Toon Durability special quality activates.
- Proficient with Improvised weapons, Simple weapons and any weapons mentioned in its entry.
- Proficient with whatever type of armor (light, medium, or heavy) it is described as wearing, as well as all lighter types. Toons not indicated as wearing armor are not proficient with armor. Toons are proficient with shields if they are proficient with any form of armor.
- Toons may treat the Falling Anvil (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=122824) discipline as one of its classes’ known disciplines if it has levels in an Initiator class. Toons also use their total HD as their Initiator level.
- Toons need to eat, sleep and breathe (even if they would normally not be required to do so) but do not die from starvation or suffocation.
- Death for a Toon is quite a permanent status. Spells such as Raise Dead, Reincarnate and Resurrection do not return a Toon to life since a Toon’s body dissolves upon death, leaving behind no physical remains. Even the most potent of spells such as Limited Wish, Wish, Miracle and True Resurrection fail to restore a Toon. Only a Deity of Divine Rank 20 or higher may restore a slain Toon by sacrificing one of its Divine Ranks.
The Dip
Remember how they always thought there wasn't a way to kill a toon? Well, Doom found a way. Turpentine, acetone, benzene. He calls it "The Dip."
“The Dip” (known in modern times as Paint Thinner) is a substance pure anathema to Toons, capable of killing what many view as the truly eternal. While harmless to nearly all other things, “Dip” clings to a Toon, dealing 2d6 damage each round of contact, 20d6 per round of total immersion. “Dip” continues dealing damage for 1d3 rounds after exposure before becoming inert, but only deals half of the original damage (1d6 and 10d6 respectively). A Toon must also pass a DC 20 Will save when exposed to “Dip” as it causes them excruciating wracking pains. Passing the save means that they take a -4 on attack rolls, skill checks and ability checks for 1 hour after exposure, this lessening to -2 until the damage is fully healed. Failing the save means that the Toon falls unconscious and prone, helpless to resists the corrosive properties of “Dip”. Damage inflicted by “Dip” must be healed naturally and is subtracted from the HP restored by a Toon’s Toon Durability until it is completely healed.
Bureaucratitis
Type disease, contact Save Fortitude DC 20
Onset 1d6 days Frequency 1/day
Effect See Text Cure -
Bureaucratitis, more commonly known as “Boring”, is the one thing that brings more fear to a Toon’s heart than “Dip”. The origins of this horrific and highly infectious disease are unknown and outbreaks of it are rare and occur at seemingly random. A Toon who is a victim of Boring finds themselves unable to feel joy, mirth, pleasure, etc. and loses the benefits of their Humorous Youth special quality. Every day a sufferer of Boring ages an entire year until they eventually reach the end of their time, fading away into nothingness. This alone makes the disease tragic but it goes farther than that. A Toon with Boring becomes a mindless thing, seeking out other Toons to subdue and infect in the amount of time it has left. If not caught early and dealt with swiftly an epidemic can occur, resulting in massive drops in the Toon population. This disease can only be contracted by Toons.