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Pyromancer999
2012-07-28, 10:12 AM
So, I've been thinking for a while: How do I make Welknair's Bloodlines (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=208703&page=1) a race? And then it came to me when I was half-awake, slowly coming out of a dream of Dragonborn, Bears, and a vicious donut war: Maybe I could make a racial template, like the Dragonborn, except perhaps a little more balanced. So, I did.

Heritor

Many individuals carry the marks and abilities of bloodlines. However, some are born to unlock the abilities of their heritage more easily and readily than the rest of their kin. These creatures, almost born to unlock the full potential of their bloodline, are called Heritors.

Creating a Heritor
The Heritor template may be applied to any living creature that is capable of producing offspring, henceforth referred to as the base creature.

Type: The base creature keeps its original type and subtypes, except in the case of Animal type creatures, in which case their type changes to Magical Beast[Augmented Animal].

Size: The base creature retains its original size, and if it has the Powerful Build trait, retains that trait.

Speed: The base creature retains all of its movement speeds, but loses any racial traits related to movement(such as that of a dwarf's movement in medium and heavy armor)

Special Qualities: The base creature gains all of the special qualities listed below:

Blood Override: A Heritor is more defined by the blood flowing through their veins than their actual race. The base creature loses all racial traits, except for those noted elsewhere in the template and their ability modifiers.

Blood Inheritance: Choose one bloodline. The base creature gains the full benefits of a Minor bloodline of that type, as though they were a 20th level character.

Also, should the base creature decide to take levels in the bloodline chosen for this template, they must choose the Intermediate or Major version of the bloodline. They treat this bloodline as being one level less strong(Major is treated as Intermediate, and Intermediate as Minor) for the purposes of taking bloodline levels. This may also be used for the Mudblood (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=11257934) bloodline, provided the bloodline selected for this template is one of the component bloodlines, treating the bloodline selected for this template as being one level less strong. Bloodlines affected this way progress normally(Ex. a Major/Intermediate combo Mudblood would be treated as having the Intermediate/Intermediate combo, although the Major component would progress as normal(throughout the 20 levels except for the exception below), and the Intermediate bloodline would progress every even level as normal).

Lastly, Heritors that take the Intermediate or Major bloodline for the bloodline selected for this template do not start gaining the template's benefits until after the level where they would finish gaining the bloodline benefits granted by the Minor version of the bloodline(Starting at 12th for Intermediate, and 6th for Major bloodlines).

Abilities: The base creature retains its ability modifiers granted by its racial traits.

CR: +0

LA: +0

Alright, that should do it. Please PEACH and comment.

Pyromancer999
2012-07-29, 11:13 PM
Okay, so since no one has commented on it, but also has a fair number of views, I'm going to assume I did something wrong/unbalanced here. Would anyone mind telling me what that is? PEACHing often helps improve stuff, so any and all PEACHing and comments would be appreciated.

Ashtagon
2012-07-30, 12:23 AM
In terms of role in a campaign, I don't see where this fits. You've made a solution for a need which doesn't appear to exist. A bloodline is already, by definition, intended to be an example of your base race (race X) with traits of race Y. This provides changed mechanics; this doesn't create a new campaign role.

In terms of mechanics, it complicates things, because to have a major or intermediate bloodline, you now need to apply two different rules subsets.

Welknair
2012-07-30, 12:36 AM
I've found that a lack of comments just as often stems from not knowing what to say, or not have the knowledge to back up any critiques one may give. Even after all of my bloodlines, not everyone knows about them.

For the most part, I like it. It allows the use of my bloodlines without mucking about with bloodline levels. But as Ashtagon points out, that is sort of peculiar under normal circumstances. I'd still call it defensible, if only for the purpose of making my work more accessible, though.

The exact mechanics for having a bloodline and being a Heritor are kind of complicated, though I cannot for the life of me think of a better way to handle it.

Balance-wise, my first thought is of the +2/-2 limitation. Specifically how that could unbalance something like a +4 to Str offsetting a -2 Int or something like that. All of a sudden you lose your +2 for no apparent reason. I think you meant this to counterbalance races who had most of their benefits in the form of stat boosts, but I've seen scarce few of those. Just things to consider.

Pyromancer999
2012-07-30, 04:56 PM
I've found that a lack of comments just as often stems from not knowing what to say, or not have the knowledge to back up any critiques one may give. Even after all of my bloodlines, not everyone knows about them.

Granted, I linked to the main thread for those above, but that's true. Maybe I should specify Welknair's Bloodlines?


For the most part, I like it. It allows the use of my bloodlines without mucking about with bloodline levels. But as Ashtagon points out, that is sort of peculiar under normal circumstances. I'd still call it defensible, if only for the purpose of making my work more accessible, though.

True. This is a bit peculiar under normal circumstances(unless a character really wants to emphasis their heritage at 1st level or something, which can be done other ways), but it's more of a want than a need. It's not an absolute necessity, just another way of making use of bloodlines if you want to use it. One of the reasons why I decided to make this template was because I gave one character in the group I DMed for a bloodline, and with a possible new campaign coming up in the fall, a lot of my players want to try out a bloodline, but aren't sure about it. Since they don't use much of their racial features anyways, I figured this would be a good way for them to try it out. Also because I think it's cool, but that's just me. :smallbiggrin:




The exact mechanics for having a bloodline and being a Heritor are kind of complicated, though I cannot for the life of me think of a better way to handle it.


True. Wish there was an easier way to handle it, but it works.



Balance-wise, my first thought is of the +2/-2 limitation. Specifically how that could unbalance something like a +4 to Str offsetting a -2 Int or something like that. All of a sudden you lose your +2 for no apparent reason. I think you meant this to counterbalance races who had most of their benefits in the form of stat boosts, but I've seen scarce few of those. Just things to consider.

Hmmmm....hadn't consider the +4/-2 example when thinking of this. I'll change that.