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boomwolf
2011-05-20, 05:48 AM
I have never liked the oriental adventures Nezumi...
They have pitiful flavor, and crunch that makes no sense neither in consideration to the flavor, nor the fact they are rats.
Combine the "shadowlands" trait when most people don't have shadowlands, and you see they become quite a troublesome race, both by fluff and crunch.

Rats are born to be a mass. they are born to cooperate, nothing in oriental adventures reminds of that.
Furthermore, rats are small, dexterous and rather tricky, not healthy. (altough quite resistant to poison and sickness is true)

So this is a work of a new Nezumi race, featuring some good old scavenger rat awesomeness (and adding a little bit of Skaven madness in form of plague-based weapons), because they have so much potential to be a fun and flavorful race on their own, if you dare make them less human then oriental adventures have.


Nezumi

http://www.wizards.com/magic/images/mtgcom/fcpics/features/235_NezumiGuy.jpg

Personality: The Nezumi are natural schemer, always looking of a way to gain advantage over others. they lurk around, always looking for an opportunity to promote themselves, and more often then not lack tact or politeness, mostly due to not understanding them. the Nezumi natural lifestyle offers little space for courtly behavior, and they tend to speak their mind, and act as they see fit, regardless of what others might think of it.
The Nezumi, as a whole, have an innate social need and as such are highly loyal to whoever they consider their "pack" (whether by blood or not), a natural Nezumi pack has a social hierarchy, yet non is dominant over the other, but more of a cycle of individuals, each generally listens to some, and some listens to him.

Physical Description: Nezumi look like large bipedal rat, while they are not very small while fully erect (averaging about 4 feet tall and 70 pounds) they have a relatively bent shape that forbids them from standing firm.
Nezumi have long snouts, pink ears, and pronounced incisors, like ordinary rodents. Their bodies are covered with rough fur, ranging in shade from white through gray and brown to black, sometimes solid and sometimes patterned. Fur patterns tend to run in families, their eyes are mostly red or yellow, with rare occasions of black or white coloration.
The nezumi have five-fingered hands, opposable thumbs, and claw-like hands, Their long tails are mostly hairless and have the same pink coloration as their ears and palms. Their legs are bent like those of rats and have only four toes.
As natural scavengers Nezumi often make clothing jewelery and even weapons and armor of what most would consider random junk, making them often appear awkward in the eyes of others.

Relations: Nezumi as a whole avoid direct relations with other cultures, however they tend to dwell inside major settelments of other races as a great source of treasure (or junk, depending on perspective)
The innate scavenging nature of Nezumi often leads them to bad terms with high sense of property, as Nezumi often see nothing wrong with going through garbage and even taking from the dead ("they don't need it any more")
The reseblence of Nezumi to wererats naturally does not help them be more welcomed, as many connect the evil of the lycanthropes to the Nezumi.

Alignment: Nezumi are scattered though all alignments, the ones with strong family ties tend to be slightly more lawful though, and ones without families (or worthy replacement) often descend into chaotic behavior.

Nezumi Lands: Nezumi are scavenger nomads, and as such they have nothing you can call "Nezumi Lands", a given pack might settle in any place it finds comfort and supplies, and will leave when they begin to run out, usually the place of comfort is inside the city of others, and they leave when the locals get too upset of their presence.

Religion: While most Nezumi are not very religious they tend to honor mostly Fharlanghn and Olidammara, evil Nezumi tend to follow Nerull instead though.

Language: The native nezumi language is a chittering combination of barks, squeaks, and clicks, bearing a strong resemblance to the noises of common rodents. It has its own script, but it is rarely used except to leave warnings or directions for other packs. Nezumi usually learn to speak Common, though they punctuate it with clicks and squeaks and a peculiar stuttering repetition.

Names: A Nezumi is born with no name, he earns it though his life by either unique appearance traits, rare behavior, or notable actions and decisions he made. the name is usually given by the pack, in similar fashion to nicknames of most species, rarely a Nezumi names himself.
For example: a black eyed Nezumi who has sworn loyalty to a human may be called "Ink eyes the manservant", while a white-fur diviner can be called "White Seer".

Adventurers: The Nezumi are natural to adventuring, being both nomadic and scavenging its almost a logical step to take for them. they average Nezumi adventurer is led by either a desire to experience as much as possible, or plain greed driven by his scavenging instincts.

Nezumi Racial Traits

# +2 Dexterity, -2 Strength. Nezumi are nimble, but lack physical strength.
# Small: As a Small creature, a Nezumi gains a +1 size bonus to Armor Class, a +1 size bonus on attack rolls, and a +4 size bonus on Hide checks, but she uses smaller weapons than humans use, and her lifting and carrying limits are three-quarters of those of a Medium character.
# Nezumi base land speed is 30 feet.
# Low-light Vision : Nezumi 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 .
#Bite: a Nezumi has a bite attack dealing 1d6 damage with a 20/x2 critical.
#Great Ally (Ex): Nezumi excel at teamwork. When successfully aided on a skill check or attack roll by an ally, or when aiding another, a Nezumi applies or gains a +3 bonus on its check or attack roll (instead of the normal +2 bonus). Furthermore, a Nezumi gains a +4 bonus on attack rolls against an opponent flanked by an ally (instead of the normal +2 bonus).
# Improvisation (Ex) Nezumi are adapted to use various items not in their intended ways, as such they take only half the penalties for non-proficiency or using improvised tools, rounded up.
# +2 racial bonus on saving throws against poison and disease: Nezumi are resistant to illness and toxins.
#Automatic Languages: Nezumi, Common
#Favored Class: Rouge

boomwolf
2011-05-20, 05:51 AM
Nezumi Paragon
The Nezumi paragon is all that is a Nezumi and so much more, he is a sly plague-infested bastered, and he takes it as a compliment.

These troublemakers are experts in survival in the corridor of the sewage, they are nimble, resistant and can see well down below, where light is nearly non-existent.

The true potential of the Nezumi Paragon however, lies not in his ability to resist the dangers of the sewage, but in turning them into weapons.

Nezumi Paragon HD:1d8
{table="head"]Level|BAB|Fort|Ref|Will|Special

1st|+0|+2|+2|+0|Darkvision 60 ft.

2nd|+1|+3|+3|+0|Plague Carrier

3rd|+2|+3|+3|+1|Ability boost (Dex +2)

[/table]


Darkvision 60 ft.
A Nezumi Paragon can see in complete darkness out to 60 ft.

Plague Carrier
Whenever a second level Nezumi Paragon successfully save against being infected by disease he not only become aware of it, but may choose to become a carrier, he can carry only a single disease at a time, and if he chooses to carry a new one the one the old is lost.
Carrying a disease lasts as long as that disease's normal incubation period, during that time the Nezumi's bite attack delivers the disease he carries.

Ability boost (Dex +2)
At 3rd level, a Nezumi Paragon's Dexterity score increases by 2 points.

Class Skills:
Appraise, Balance, Climb, Escape Artist, Heal, Hide, Listen, Search, Sleight of Hands, Spot, Swim and Tumble
Skill Points at Each Level: 4 + Int modifier



Racial feats and Nezumi "tech" to be added at the future

DoomHat
2011-05-20, 05:54 AM
Cutting out their lack of long term memory and immunity to the taint? Or are these strictly non-Rokugoni?

boomwolf
2011-05-20, 06:04 AM
Yes. mostly because "taint immunity" as a major feature, considering most people don't USE taint, is kina silly.

Besides I wanted to focus more on they co-operative side of rats, and later take example from warhammer's Skaven and give them toxin-plague weapons (they are rather immune...it can be lethal in their hands...)

The idea behind it is that the Nezumi presented at Oriental Adventures are very, very poor. they are nearly nothing rat-like, despite being the "rat race"

Cieyrin
2011-05-20, 10:30 AM
I'm not entirely sure I like this remix, as now they're like some mix of halflings, whisper gnomes and gulley dwarves, stat-wise. At the very least, I'd draw on the fact that they are fast and up their speed to 30' and give them some limited form of scent.

I had no issue with them being hearty, either, as that is one of the rat's strong points, being able to survive anywhere and subsist on what's on hand. If that doesn't warrant a Con boost, at the very least I'd give all Nezumi the Strong Stomach feat (Cityscape p. 64) to help illustrate that feature. With some of that in place, they give the race some mechanical flavor to differentiate them and more strongly lock them firmly with their fluff, at least in my mind.

NineThePuma
2011-05-20, 11:59 AM
Subscribe'd. Will PEACH later.

Zaydos
2011-05-20, 05:20 PM
They remind me of small hobgoblins (I tend to give hobgoblins bonuses to saves against poison/disease, reduced non-proficiency penalties, and improved aid another).

With improvisation: are there rules for improvised armor? Also this means that they're better at using a broken bottle than a shortsword unless they have martial weapon proficiency. If they're a wizard they're better at using a broken bottle than a light mace.

boomwolf
2011-05-20, 06:55 PM
A-I think you can "improvise" with "real" weapons too. not sure about that.
Maybe I should just note that it cuts non-proficiency penalty by half?

B-I'm not sure there are any for armor, but it will be amusing to use improvised armor, and it SHOULD grant you a bonus to put some random metal scraps on you, don't you think?

Jude_H
2011-05-20, 07:38 PM
Honestly, I'm not a big fan.

The original race was one of the better 3e races. They had some neat fluff with their 'uncorruptable refugees' shtick, and very enticing mechanics.

The goal behind these changes seems to be making the Nezumi more ratlike, but I'm not seeing it. The cooperation thing isn't what I'd call stereotypically ratlike. The rats I have in the lab are generally absolutely miserable to each other. I mean, there've been a couple studies showing rats aren't always completely terrible to one another, but it's not something I've ever seen in fiction, and I really don't think it would be the first thing to come to anyone's mind along the idea of a rat.

I don't disagree with making Nezumi smaller. It's kind of arbitrary if they're ratmen anyway, but it works. I do disagree with making them so slow. One of the big draws to the original race was its speed. One of the things you're going to swear to yourself about when chasing a rat is its speed. 20ft is just too little.

The improvised weapons and armor thing would make for more of a raggedy rat image, but even with half-penalties, improvised weapons are still going to suck to use. It might be worth giving Nezumi free improvised weapon/armor use, minus all penalties, just so they have an incentive to use them, from time to time.

The "Great Ally" ability tells me you're familiar wit Kenku. That race is a pretty good measuring stick for racial balance. The Nezumi you present here has most of the same framework (same abilities, size, great ally, low-light vision, a gimmicky flavor ability), but it has its circumstantial +2 Fortitude bonus to compare to the Kenku's +2 Hide/Move Silently, +10 ft speed & 2 natural weapons. It just doesn't stack up favorably.

Revisiting the Kenku, it's a lot closer to what I was going to suggest than I'm comfortable with, but I think you should consider giving the race a secondary bite attack and a speed boost, as well as completely removing the penalties on improvised weapons.

boomwolf
2011-05-21, 08:47 AM
As I AM familiar with the kenku, i never liked them. they feel weird to me. avian with nothing resembling flight is silly...as I need proper playable Nezumi anyway (for a game I'm running), I decided to make a nezumi-flavored kenku-hybrid...

The speed is a typo...it should have been 40 ft..

Bite attack can be helpful...and I can add a disease bite for the planned paragon, it will be an awesome ability.

As for improvisation...I think I'll give them instead half reduction to all non-proficiency penalties...its a cute ability, and helpful many times...

Cieyrin
2011-05-21, 11:03 AM
On the improvised armor thing, off the top of my head the old Complete Fighter's Handbook in 2nd Ed had a fairly decent improvised armor rules set that you could adapt and update. I don't have access to my copy at the moment, as otherwise I'd give more detail.

NineThePuma
2011-05-23, 12:36 AM
Nezumi Racial Traits
# +2 Dexterity, -2 Strength. Nezumi are nimble, but lack physical strength.
# Small: As a Small creature, a Nezumi gains a +1 size bonus to Armor Class, a +1 size bonus on attack rolls, and a +4 size bonus on Hide checks, but she uses smaller weapons than humans use, and her lifting and carrying limits are three-quarters of those of a Medium character.
# Nezumi base land speed is 40 feet.
# Low-light Vision : Nezumi 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 .
Wow there. This all adds up to make a KILLER skirmisher type. Small size, high speed, and good dex translates this into a fierce guerrilla. Personally, I think you should drop the speed to 30, to match Kobolds.


#Bite: a Nezumi has a bite attack dealing 1d6 damage with a 20/x2 critical.It bites as hard as a baby tarrasque! That's gotta earn some points!


#Great Ally (Ex): Nezumi excel at teamwork. When successfully aided on a skill check or attack roll by an ally, or when aiding another, a Nezumi applies or gains a +3 bonus on its check or attack roll (instead of the normal +2 bonus). Furthermore, a Nezumi gains a +4 bonus on attack rolls against an opponent flanked by an ally (instead of the normal +2 bonus).
# Improvisation (Ex) Nezumi are adapted to use various items not in their intended ways, as such they take only half non-proficiency penalties, rounded up. I like Improvisation, as it gives them a really interesting ability. Unfortunately, they're very situational, and I can't think of many spots where it works.

# +2 racial bonus on saving throws against poison and disease: Nezumi are resistant to illness and toxins.
#Automatic Languages: Nezumi, Common
#Favored Class: RougeLooks good. But, what sort of bonus languages can a Nezumi get?

Savannah
2011-05-27, 06:28 PM
The goal behind these changes seems to be making the Nezumi more ratlike, but I'm not seeing it. The cooperation thing isn't what I'd call stereotypically ratlike. The rats I have in the lab are generally absolutely miserable to each other. I mean, there've been a couple studies showing rats aren't always completely terrible to one another, but it's not something I've ever seen in fiction, and I really don't think it would be the first thing to come to anyone's mind along the idea of a rat.

That would probably be because you're looking at lab rats. Pet rats are absolutely miserable if they aren't with others of their kind (sure, you can substitute humans to some extent, but how many humans are going to be up for snuggling ~18 hours a day and wrestling at 3am?). They may squabble occasionally, but the vast majority of their time is spent in one, big, furry ball.

I don't really have that much to say for the race, sorry.

boomwolf
2011-06-11, 11:02 AM
Now with 100% more Paragon class and a few fixes to the race (such as speed reduced to 30 from 40)

NineThePuma
2011-06-11, 12:04 PM
I like the diseased bite, though I'll admit it seems less useful on a player than an NPC. Looks pretty nifty though. =D

Cieyrin
2011-06-11, 01:33 PM
The Paragon Class feels kinda weak, to be honest. All the other paragons that gain or improve darkvision do so in combination with some other benefit. Plus, as Nine has mentioned, being a Plague bearer is more of an NPC schtick than a PC and may need additional features. Perhaps upgrade the move speed to 40' here would be in order, showing the speed of a true Nezumi. Maybe grant Weapon Finesse or Swarmfighting as a bonus feat? Grant Skirmish? These all seem in line with what a Nezumi should be if the cream of the gene pool.

Also, i just noticed you misspelled Rogue in the favored class. :smallfrown:

boomwolf
2011-06-11, 01:37 PM
If the DM uses disease from time to time it will can work.

Also, in a long-running game where time is actually a modifier landing a disease on a recurring villain might be quite handy as a tool to weaken him for future encounters, or to make any hit-and-run opponents face unexpected delayed effect attack.

Long-running PvP games can also make use of it

Besides, the REAL danger comes when you combine it with the Nezumi-tech I'm working on, with concentrated disease vials (choose today's disease), plague grenades and other biological warefare devices and diseases...

Cieyrin
2011-06-12, 01:02 PM
If the DM uses disease from time to time it will can work.

Also, in a long-running game where time is actually a modifier landing a disease on a recurring villain might be quite handy as a tool to weaken him for future encounters, or to make any hit-and-run opponents face unexpected delayed effect attack.

Long-running PvP games can also make use of it

Besides, the REAL danger comes when you combine it with the Nezumi-tech I'm working on, with concentrated disease vials (choose today's disease), plague grenades and other biological warefare devices and diseases...

Exotic Weapon Proficiency for free, then?