Keinnicht
2012-01-26, 03:35 PM
So, I'm working on a campaign setting, and have a couple ideas for races that have been bouncing around in my head for awhile. Here's what I'm trying to make, along with vague ideas for them:
1. A race of playable giants. Possibly two. "Playable" in this instance means "no racial hit dice, no more than +2 LA. Ideally +0." If anyone has a link to a balanced +0 la giant race, it'd be awesome.
2. Smart kobolds. I don't know why, but I've always liked kobolds. So I thought I might make some variant kobolds that are also descended from dragons - but kept draconic intellects. I have some vague fluff and crunch for them:
-For stat adjustments, +6 int, -2 wis, -2 cha, -2 str. Basically they're incredibly smart, but sort of abrasive, absent-minded professor types. -2 strength because they're small. And also nerds.
-20' land speed
-small size
-No natural armor bonus
-Yes, they're more powerful than regular kobolds. Making kobolds that are playable requires making them more powerful
-Very small population, mainly concentrated in one city. Not welcoming of outsiders at all. At all.
-Said city contains some of the (if not the) best libraries, laboratories, etc. in the multiverse. Naturally they almost never share.
-Generally evil, but not in a "for the evulz" or a "right thing, wrong reasons" way. More of a "Use the souls of sentient beings to power a lawn mower? ALRIGHT, LET'S SEE IF IT WORKS!" kind of way.
One way to put it, if this makes sense, is that their evil springs more from an overabundance of curiosity and a deficit of ethics, rather than a concerted effort to be evil.
They generally consider themselves to be good or neutral (Most of them are honest, don't worship evil gods, don't steal, don't murder without justification, etc.) but are prone to extreme lapses stemming from their poor judgment ("Huh. I suppose I am depriving that soul of his eternal reward by using him to power my lawn mower. I never thought about it like that.")
-Comparatively high level of technology, sort of a magi-tech kind of thing. Since they're not very open, the technology won't be pervasive or damage the general sword-and-sorcery aspect of the game. I just figure being able to throw in a three foot tall, insane lizard piloting a giant magical Exalted-style mech (or whatever) will be amusing.
-I may add warforged to this setting, with them being created by these guys as slaves. I want to give the impression that what they were trying to make was something that resembled a Roomba, but then one of them said "Hey! Let's make them sentient!" and everyone went along with it without thinking about the possible ethical issues this raised.
-PCs of this race could be on missions to find new information and knowledge to add to the libraries, could be exiles, could be searching for new materials, etc.
-Favored class: Either wizard, or I may rework on some homebrew rules I came up with awhile ago for a inventor class. It was sort of like a spellcasting class, but with technological inventions.
As for the giant race, I'm not sure. The thing is, Wizards seems to consider being large by itself to merit +1 LA, which I'm honestly not sure I agree with, given that the penalties for being large aren't really that great.
1. A race of playable giants. Possibly two. "Playable" in this instance means "no racial hit dice, no more than +2 LA. Ideally +0." If anyone has a link to a balanced +0 la giant race, it'd be awesome.
2. Smart kobolds. I don't know why, but I've always liked kobolds. So I thought I might make some variant kobolds that are also descended from dragons - but kept draconic intellects. I have some vague fluff and crunch for them:
-For stat adjustments, +6 int, -2 wis, -2 cha, -2 str. Basically they're incredibly smart, but sort of abrasive, absent-minded professor types. -2 strength because they're small. And also nerds.
-20' land speed
-small size
-No natural armor bonus
-Yes, they're more powerful than regular kobolds. Making kobolds that are playable requires making them more powerful
-Very small population, mainly concentrated in one city. Not welcoming of outsiders at all. At all.
-Said city contains some of the (if not the) best libraries, laboratories, etc. in the multiverse. Naturally they almost never share.
-Generally evil, but not in a "for the evulz" or a "right thing, wrong reasons" way. More of a "Use the souls of sentient beings to power a lawn mower? ALRIGHT, LET'S SEE IF IT WORKS!" kind of way.
One way to put it, if this makes sense, is that their evil springs more from an overabundance of curiosity and a deficit of ethics, rather than a concerted effort to be evil.
They generally consider themselves to be good or neutral (Most of them are honest, don't worship evil gods, don't steal, don't murder without justification, etc.) but are prone to extreme lapses stemming from their poor judgment ("Huh. I suppose I am depriving that soul of his eternal reward by using him to power my lawn mower. I never thought about it like that.")
-Comparatively high level of technology, sort of a magi-tech kind of thing. Since they're not very open, the technology won't be pervasive or damage the general sword-and-sorcery aspect of the game. I just figure being able to throw in a three foot tall, insane lizard piloting a giant magical Exalted-style mech (or whatever) will be amusing.
-I may add warforged to this setting, with them being created by these guys as slaves. I want to give the impression that what they were trying to make was something that resembled a Roomba, but then one of them said "Hey! Let's make them sentient!" and everyone went along with it without thinking about the possible ethical issues this raised.
-PCs of this race could be on missions to find new information and knowledge to add to the libraries, could be exiles, could be searching for new materials, etc.
-Favored class: Either wizard, or I may rework on some homebrew rules I came up with awhile ago for a inventor class. It was sort of like a spellcasting class, but with technological inventions.
As for the giant race, I'm not sure. The thing is, Wizards seems to consider being large by itself to merit +1 LA, which I'm honestly not sure I agree with, given that the penalties for being large aren't really that great.