Fax Celestis
2013-11-08, 08:42 PM
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v216/FaxCelestis/d20v1.png
This is part of the d20 Rebirth project, a collection of rewrites and revamps aimed at extending the lifespan of 3.5e D&D and balancing core mechanics to provide a more functional, more fun, and more intuitive game.
Other items in the d20 Rebirth project can be found under the d20r tag (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/tags.php?tag=d20r), or on my wiki (http://wiki.faxcelestis.net/index.php?title=D20_Rebirth).
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v216/FaxCelestis/divider2.gif
Saisei are humanoid skeletons that have been brought back from the grave through difficult magics. Saisei appear as a skeletal version of the race they had in life. Small points of light glimmer where their eyes once were, ranging through all kinds of colors.
Saisei's bones range in color from bleached white to dark ebony. Many saisei, in lieu of tattoos or piercings and as an identifying characteristic, frequently perform scrimshaw or other ornate carving on their bones.
Saisei speak whatever languages they spoke in life.
Saisei is a racial template that may be applied to living, corporeal creatures with a skeleton. The changes below are applied to an existing race to create new racial abilities and modifiers.
Alter ability scores as follows: Con --, Wis -2, Cha +2
Inherited size: Saisei retain the size of their base race.
Lifelike Undead: Saisei are Constructs with the (Lifelike) and (Undead) subtypes, in addition to any subtypes they may have possessed before becoming a saisei. Saisei have the following type-based traits:
No Constitution score. Saisei use their Charisma modifier for Concentration checks, Fortitude saves, and Hit Point calculations.
Darkvision out to 60 feet and low-light vision.
+4 racial bonus to resist mind-affecting effects (charms, compulsions, phantasms, patterns, and morale effects), poison, sleep effects, paralysis, stunning, disease, death effects, ability damage, ability drain, fatigue, exhaustion, or energy drain. Saisei also receive a +4 racial bonus to resist effects that require a Fortitude save unless the effect also works on objects or is harmless.
25% resistance to critical hits and nonlethal damage.
Vulnerable to effects that specifically target Constructs and Undead (such as command undead).
Speed: Saisei have the same speed as their base race.
Skeletal: Saisei lose all racial features of the base race that are not specifically delineated here.
Resistant Mind: Saisei must attempt to resist all mind-affecting effects, including beneficial morale bonuses that don't typically provide a saving throw. The saving throw DC for an effect that does not typically possess a saving throw is 10 + the originator's Hero Value + the originator's Charisma modifier. You may not voluntarily fail this saving throw.
Natural Weapons: Saisei retain any natural attacks that the base race possessed, but decrease their damage value by one die step.
Damage Reduction: Saisei possess damage reduction equal to their Hero Value. This damage reduction can be overcome by bludgeoning weapons.
Weapon Familiarity: Saisei retain any weapon familiarity provided by their base race.
Retained Knowledge: Saisei retain any racial feature that provides a bonus on an Intelligence- or Wisdom-based skill (such as a gnome's Perceptive and Tinker features). Saisei also retain any bonus feats provided by the base race (such as a human's bonus feat).
Ageless: Saisei do not have age categories or a maximum age. A well-kept and careful saisei can essentially live forever.
Enervated: Saisei take a -1 penalty to Hero Value (to a minimum of 1). Hero Value damage affects a saisei as normal.
Natural Talent: A saisei has a small pool of reserve energy they may tap into daily. A saisei has one charge per three class levels, minimum one. A charge may be spent to activate one of the following abilities as an immediate action or to power a feat with the [Saisei] descriptor:
Moment of Memory: As a move action, a saisei may spend a charge to gain one racial trait from their base race that was not retained per the saisei's racial features (such as a minotaur's Powerful Build or a dwarf's Stability) for one round per Hit Die.
Moment of Undeath: A saisei may spend a charge to end one of the following conditions upon them: any mind-affecting effect, poison, sleep, paralysis, stun, disease, fatigue, or exhaustion. A saisei that is unable to activate this ability due to an effect being removed (such as a paralyzed saisei) may activate this ability as a special full-round action, losing all actions from their next effective turn.
Automatic and Bonus Languages: As base race.
Favored Class: Medium
The Lifelike Subtype
The Lifelike subtype is applied generally to Constructs or Undead creatures to remove some of their type-based traits and make them more like Humanoids, Animals, and other living creatures.
A Lifelike creature has the following traits:
If the base creature has type-based immunities, these are reduced to a resistance. A Lifelike creature does not possess the type-based immunities of its parent type or any subtypes it possesses: instead, it only gains a +4 racial bonus against any effect its parent type or subtypes (as applicable) would possess. If a type- or subtype-based immunity does not offer a save (such as in the case of critical hits), a Lifelike creature only has a 25% resistance to such effects.
Lifelike creatures heal at half normal rate and only receive half benefit from cure spells and other healing provided by magic.
A Lifelike creature is not destroyed at 0 HP or less, and instead functions identically to a living creature for determining point-of-death and resurrection.
A Construct Lifelike creature does not receive bonus Hit Points based on size.
Lifelike creatures only eat, sleep, or breathe if their parent types or subtypes also do so.
Arcane Carving [Saisei]
Prerequisites: Charisma 15+, arcane caster level 1st
Benefit: You gain a deflection bonus to AC equal to your Charisma modifier or your arcane caster level, whichever is lower.
Special: This is a supernatural ability.
Perfect Memory [Saisei]
Prerequisites: Character level 6th
Benefit: You gain any Natural Talent, Inborn Psionics, Natural Magic, or similar charge-based feature from your base race. Use your pool of Natural Talent charges provided from your saisei racial template to power its features, and when utilizing those abilities treat your character level as if it were three levels lower when determining those abilities' power.
Normal: You may only use your Natural Talent ability to power your saisei Natural Talent features.
Powerful Memory [Saisei]
Prerequisites: Character level 3rd
Benefit: Choose one racial feature (excepting Natural Talent, Inborn Psionics, Natural Magic, or similar charge-based features) from your base race not granted to you by the saisei racial template: you now gain that ability. For instance a minotaur saisei could use this feat to gain Powerful Build, an elven saisei could use this feat to gain the Everwaking ability, or a dwarven saisei could use this feat to gain the ability to move at full speed while heavily armored.
Stone Bones [Investing, Saisei]
Prerequisites: Character level 3rd
Benefit: Your damage reduction improves so that it can only be overcome by a magic bludgeoning weapon.
Investing: If you invest at least 8 prowess in this feat, you increase your damage reduction value by 2. If you invest at least 13 prowess in this feat, increase your damage reduction value by an additional 2, and it becomes only overcome by adamantine magic bludgeoning weapons. If you invest at least 18 prowess in this feat, increase your damage reduction value by an additional 2.
This is part of the d20 Rebirth project, a collection of rewrites and revamps aimed at extending the lifespan of 3.5e D&D and balancing core mechanics to provide a more functional, more fun, and more intuitive game.
Other items in the d20 Rebirth project can be found under the d20r tag (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/tags.php?tag=d20r), or on my wiki (http://wiki.faxcelestis.net/index.php?title=D20_Rebirth).
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v216/FaxCelestis/divider2.gif
Saisei are humanoid skeletons that have been brought back from the grave through difficult magics. Saisei appear as a skeletal version of the race they had in life. Small points of light glimmer where their eyes once were, ranging through all kinds of colors.
Saisei's bones range in color from bleached white to dark ebony. Many saisei, in lieu of tattoos or piercings and as an identifying characteristic, frequently perform scrimshaw or other ornate carving on their bones.
Saisei speak whatever languages they spoke in life.
Saisei is a racial template that may be applied to living, corporeal creatures with a skeleton. The changes below are applied to an existing race to create new racial abilities and modifiers.
Alter ability scores as follows: Con --, Wis -2, Cha +2
Inherited size: Saisei retain the size of their base race.
Lifelike Undead: Saisei are Constructs with the (Lifelike) and (Undead) subtypes, in addition to any subtypes they may have possessed before becoming a saisei. Saisei have the following type-based traits:
No Constitution score. Saisei use their Charisma modifier for Concentration checks, Fortitude saves, and Hit Point calculations.
Darkvision out to 60 feet and low-light vision.
+4 racial bonus to resist mind-affecting effects (charms, compulsions, phantasms, patterns, and morale effects), poison, sleep effects, paralysis, stunning, disease, death effects, ability damage, ability drain, fatigue, exhaustion, or energy drain. Saisei also receive a +4 racial bonus to resist effects that require a Fortitude save unless the effect also works on objects or is harmless.
25% resistance to critical hits and nonlethal damage.
Vulnerable to effects that specifically target Constructs and Undead (such as command undead).
Speed: Saisei have the same speed as their base race.
Skeletal: Saisei lose all racial features of the base race that are not specifically delineated here.
Resistant Mind: Saisei must attempt to resist all mind-affecting effects, including beneficial morale bonuses that don't typically provide a saving throw. The saving throw DC for an effect that does not typically possess a saving throw is 10 + the originator's Hero Value + the originator's Charisma modifier. You may not voluntarily fail this saving throw.
Natural Weapons: Saisei retain any natural attacks that the base race possessed, but decrease their damage value by one die step.
Damage Reduction: Saisei possess damage reduction equal to their Hero Value. This damage reduction can be overcome by bludgeoning weapons.
Weapon Familiarity: Saisei retain any weapon familiarity provided by their base race.
Retained Knowledge: Saisei retain any racial feature that provides a bonus on an Intelligence- or Wisdom-based skill (such as a gnome's Perceptive and Tinker features). Saisei also retain any bonus feats provided by the base race (such as a human's bonus feat).
Ageless: Saisei do not have age categories or a maximum age. A well-kept and careful saisei can essentially live forever.
Enervated: Saisei take a -1 penalty to Hero Value (to a minimum of 1). Hero Value damage affects a saisei as normal.
Natural Talent: A saisei has a small pool of reserve energy they may tap into daily. A saisei has one charge per three class levels, minimum one. A charge may be spent to activate one of the following abilities as an immediate action or to power a feat with the [Saisei] descriptor:
Moment of Memory: As a move action, a saisei may spend a charge to gain one racial trait from their base race that was not retained per the saisei's racial features (such as a minotaur's Powerful Build or a dwarf's Stability) for one round per Hit Die.
Moment of Undeath: A saisei may spend a charge to end one of the following conditions upon them: any mind-affecting effect, poison, sleep, paralysis, stun, disease, fatigue, or exhaustion. A saisei that is unable to activate this ability due to an effect being removed (such as a paralyzed saisei) may activate this ability as a special full-round action, losing all actions from their next effective turn.
Automatic and Bonus Languages: As base race.
Favored Class: Medium
The Lifelike Subtype
The Lifelike subtype is applied generally to Constructs or Undead creatures to remove some of their type-based traits and make them more like Humanoids, Animals, and other living creatures.
A Lifelike creature has the following traits:
If the base creature has type-based immunities, these are reduced to a resistance. A Lifelike creature does not possess the type-based immunities of its parent type or any subtypes it possesses: instead, it only gains a +4 racial bonus against any effect its parent type or subtypes (as applicable) would possess. If a type- or subtype-based immunity does not offer a save (such as in the case of critical hits), a Lifelike creature only has a 25% resistance to such effects.
Lifelike creatures heal at half normal rate and only receive half benefit from cure spells and other healing provided by magic.
A Lifelike creature is not destroyed at 0 HP or less, and instead functions identically to a living creature for determining point-of-death and resurrection.
A Construct Lifelike creature does not receive bonus Hit Points based on size.
Lifelike creatures only eat, sleep, or breathe if their parent types or subtypes also do so.
Arcane Carving [Saisei]
Prerequisites: Charisma 15+, arcane caster level 1st
Benefit: You gain a deflection bonus to AC equal to your Charisma modifier or your arcane caster level, whichever is lower.
Special: This is a supernatural ability.
Perfect Memory [Saisei]
Prerequisites: Character level 6th
Benefit: You gain any Natural Talent, Inborn Psionics, Natural Magic, or similar charge-based feature from your base race. Use your pool of Natural Talent charges provided from your saisei racial template to power its features, and when utilizing those abilities treat your character level as if it were three levels lower when determining those abilities' power.
Normal: You may only use your Natural Talent ability to power your saisei Natural Talent features.
Powerful Memory [Saisei]
Prerequisites: Character level 3rd
Benefit: Choose one racial feature (excepting Natural Talent, Inborn Psionics, Natural Magic, or similar charge-based features) from your base race not granted to you by the saisei racial template: you now gain that ability. For instance a minotaur saisei could use this feat to gain Powerful Build, an elven saisei could use this feat to gain the Everwaking ability, or a dwarven saisei could use this feat to gain the ability to move at full speed while heavily armored.
Stone Bones [Investing, Saisei]
Prerequisites: Character level 3rd
Benefit: Your damage reduction improves so that it can only be overcome by a magic bludgeoning weapon.
Investing: If you invest at least 8 prowess in this feat, you increase your damage reduction value by 2. If you invest at least 13 prowess in this feat, increase your damage reduction value by an additional 2, and it becomes only overcome by adamantine magic bludgeoning weapons. If you invest at least 18 prowess in this feat, increase your damage reduction value by an additional 2.