Buomman Race

[Kuzimu]

Hey Playground, I was wondering what your thoughts were on the Buomman race or if any of you have ever played it before!

I don't know, but looking at it, it seems underpowered. It doesn't really have any outstanding abilities, and it isn't allowed to talk...

[Yora]

I think they have a +2 to Wisdom. But unless they can cast spells without needing the Silent Spell feat, that's not worth much.

[Prime32]

Become a dragonborn. You keep the Wisdom bonus and lose the vow of silence.

[Yora]

And you're no longer a boumman but a customized dragonborn.

[Psyren]

I think they have a +2 to Wisdom. But unless they can cast spells without needing the Silent Spell feat, that's not worth much.

Use Nonverbal Spell instead. Then you're not adjusting all your spells upwards. You also gain the benefit of preventing your verbal components from being recognizable (i.e. if you cannot be seen, you cannot be counterspelled.)

But you're forgetting psionics too - they don't need to speak for that and make great Ardents, Psywars and Tashalatoras (FC: Monk.) Since they're native to the Astral Plane like Gith are, psionic abilities are easily explained.

[LOTRfan]

Use Nonverbal Spell instead. Then you're not adjusting all your spells upwards. You also gain the benefit of preventing your verbal components from being recognizable (i.e. if you cannot be seen, you cannot be counterspelled.)

But they still make sounds when casting spells like that. Wouldn't that break the Vow of Silence (I'm away from my books until Monday, so I haven't a clue). :smallconfused:

[The Rabbler]

But they still make sounds when casting spells like that. Wouldn't that break the Vow of Silence (I'm away from my books until Monday, so I haven't a clue). :smallconfused:

Logically, yes, but the Nonverbal Spell feat was designed specifically so that the Buomman could cast spells and is mentioned explicitly in the Vow of Silence description.

[Khatoblepas]

But they still make sounds when casting spells like that. Wouldn't that break the Vow of Silence (I'm away from my books until Monday, so I haven't a clue). :smallconfused:

Boumann have a vow of silence so they don't speak. They can, however, sing.

And they do it all the time.

[LOTRfan]

Boumann have a vow of silence so they don't speak. They can, however, sing.

And they do it all the time.

Yikes, that must be hard fun to roleplay... :smalleek:

[subject42]

Yikes, that must be hard fun to roleplay... :smalleek:

We had a guy play a Buomman once. It was great right up until he had to start serving as the party scout.

"Tell us what you saw."

"BUUOOOOOOOOM"

"..."

"BUUUOOOOOOOM"

"Alright, who's got the scrying mirror?"

[Zaq]

I take Buommi as a language known on every character who could conceivably have a reason to do so. I think I've had three or four like that so far. Perhaps my favorite time was when we had the all-Bard party and we all took Buommi as a language known. We then had a secret language we could use to talk privately. What makes this different from any other "hey, let's all take [obscure language X] next level" schemes, you ask? If anyone heard us speaking Buommi and got suspicious, we could plausibly say that we were just practicing our singing. Bards, after all.

[dextercorvia]

So, does a Buomman Bard even need the Nonverbal Spell thing? BTW, where are they from?

[LOTRfan]

... Planar Handbook, I think?

[Psyren]

But they still make sounds when casting spells like that. Wouldn't that break the Vow of Silence (I'm away from my books until Monday, so I haven't a clue). :smallconfused:

No, the feat was specifically put in the same book to make Buomman casters possible.


So, does a Buomman Bard even need the Nonverbal Spell thing? BTW, where are they from?

Yes, they do, because even if though bards sing their verbal components, they are still singing specific words/phrases. Buomman take penalties for doing this, so nonverbal spell lets them sing nondescript snatches instead.

[stainboy]

"BUUOOOOOOOOM"


This word is the entire Buommi language. Differences in key and tempo allow it to convey an variety of meanings, such as "hello," "goodbye," and "my DM banned githyanki."

[Psyren]

This word is the entire Buommi language. Differences in key and tempo allow it to convey an variety of meanings, such as "hello," "goodbye," and "my DM banned githyanki."

As funny as that was, I'd play a Buomman over a Githyanki any day of the week. LA sucks.

[stainboy]

That book you hate (http://www.rpg-resource.org.uk/images/articles/1964/complete-psionic.jpg) has stats for LA 0 githyanki. Well, sort of. To get decent racials you have to talk the DM into letting you out of the quasi-racial-class at 2nd level. I can't tell if that's not legal or just not intended.

[T.G. Oskar]

As funny as that was, I'd play a Buomman over a Githyanki any day of the week. LA sucks.

It sucks if you can't have LA buy-off...oh, wait, I thought it was Githzerai. Moving on...

Buomman are pretty funny, though. They are geared to make a strong Wis-based character because they're one of the few races that grant a bonus to Wisdom while being LA 0; however, they have a feat tax with spellcasting classes, and they make slightly poor Clerics (feat tax AND your Charisma is low, meaning one less use of Turn Undead in case you're powering up Divine Metamagic with it). Druids have TWO feat taxes (Natural Spell and Nonverbal Spell to cast spells while wildshaped). They could make nice Monks, but they have nothing that provides more benefit to the class other than +2 to Wisdom and...that's it (not even low-light vision). They do make good Psychic Warriors (more PP, easier to reach 6th level powers, Charisma is a dump stat) or Ardents (ditto), and as mentioned they make wonderful Tashalatora (either Monk/PsyWar, Monk/Ardent or even just Ardent and/or PsyWar) and nice Swordsage. They also have a slight racial modifier to Listen and...oh, they are vulnerable to Dismiss or Banishment. Now that's a pretty funny one: they have no level adjustment but they could be upgraded to a much nicer race for Monks/Swordsages/PsyWars/Ardents.

But yeah; generally Githzerai > Buomman > Githyanki if going with a Wis-based class (though, Githyanki Rogues are nice...)

[Psyren]

That book you hate (http://www.rpg-resource.org.uk/images/articles/1964/complete-psionic.jpg) has stats for LA 0 githyanki. Well, sort of. To get decent racials you have to talk the DM into letting you out of the quasi-racial-class at 2nd level. I can't tell if that's not legal or just not intended.

I don't hate CPsi! Just the Divine Mind and most of the PrCs. Even the Lurk can be salvaged... somewhat.

As for Nonverbal Spell, sure it's a feat tax, but at least it has benefits beyond just "now you can cast spells." Not MANY benefits, but still.

[dgnslyr]

Boumann have a vow of silence so they don't speak. They can, however, sing.

And they do it all the time.

Quick, to the character-mobile! Somebody needs to make a Buomann bard, and roleplay by speaking exclusively in song.

[Dusk Eclipse]

It sucks if you can't have LA buy-off...oh, wait, I thought it was Githzerai. Moving on...

Buomman are pretty funny, though. They are geared to make a strong Wis-based character because they're one of the few races that grant a bonus to Wisdom while being LA 0; however, they have a feat tax with spellcasting classes, and they make slightly poor Clerics (feat tax AND your Charisma is low, meaning one less use of Turn Undead in case you're powering up Divine Metamagic with it). Druids have TWO feat taxes (Natural Spell and Nonverbal Spell to cast spells while wildshaped). They could make nice Monks, but they have nothing that provides more benefit to the class other than +2 to Wisdom and...that's it (not even low-light vision). They do make good Psychic Warriors (more PP, easier to reach 6th level powers, Charisma is a dump stat) or Ardents (ditto), and as mentioned they make wonderful Tashalatora (either Monk/PsyWar, Monk/Ardent or even just Ardent and/or PsyWar) and nice Swordsage. They also have a slight racial modifier to Listen and...oh, they are vulnerable to Dismiss or Banishment. Now that's a pretty funny one: they have no level adjustment but they could be upgraded to a much nicer race for Monks/Swordsages/PsyWars/Ardents.

But yeah; generally Githzerai > Buomman > Githyanki if going with a Wis-based class (though, Githyanki Rogues are nice...)

Wouldn't by the wording of natural spell, bypass the need for non-verbal spell as long as you are on wildshape all the time? Besides you only need natural spell to be an effective druid, you could burn all your other feats on toughness and the like and you still would be an overpowered character. So I don't see how non-verbal spell would be a Feat tax for a Buoman druid who started at level 6 or higher (and if you start on lower levels, your Animal companion can take care of the fights).

...hmmm I think that a Buoman druid who wholly focuses on wildshape and animal companion is a nice idea.

[T.G. Oskar]

Wouldn't by the wording of natural spell, bypass the need for non-verbal spell as long as you are on wildshape all the time? Besides you only need natural spell to be an effective druid, you could burn all your other feats on toughness and the like and you still would be an overpowered character. So I don't see how non-verbal spell would be a Feat tax for a Buoman druid who started at level 6 or higher (and if you start on lower levels, your Animal companion can take care of the fights).

The problem with that line of thought is that you have to expect your character to be 6th level or higher in order to save a feat. That precludes any attempt to make a Buomman until you can make 6th level characters, or eat Nonverbal Spell and Natural Spell.

Also: the idea of the Druid is that they start to be good from 1st level, not 6th level. The idea of taking a Buomman Druid is to take advantage of that Wisdom bonus without taking LA. If you're gonna have 5 levels with a character that does nothing...

Finally: you can't always assume you'll be in animal shape. Ideally, you'll be on wild shape during battle, but you would then become weak to any polymorph spell (or a spell that unmakes shapechanging), which would leave you without spells and without your form for at least 1 round, which you'd then waste trying to morph back. While not usual to have an enemy with Baleful Polymorph so early, or even an anti-shapechanger spell, but it's an option, and one your DM might use as a curve ball challenge.

Finally, Nonverbal Spell is roughly better than Natural Spell in that you can use the spell while polymorphed into something else, although you might need something to manipulate somatic and material components. Natural Spell has the wildshape limitation, which means you need to take care of not being shifted back to human(oid) form or else you'll be weakened.

So it's a feat tax to prevent something that could turn your Druid from tier 1 to tier 3 because of the limitations. The only way that the trick works would be to make a regular Druid, retire him whenever you can make characters of around 6th level, and finally introduce a Buomman, which is definitely bad taste but perfectly legal; even then, you'll probably have to get the feat in case you get enemies that unmake your transformative abilities.