PDA

View Full Version : Three New Races! Plus a Sorceror Variant!



Baron Corm
2007-04-25, 04:39 PM
Hod


The hod are a race of humanoids who live in underground caves. They make their homes in the subterranean lakes there. A hod city is actually contained within multiple lakes with river-tunnels connecting them. Hod frequently visit the civilized races aboveground, and it is not uncommon to see one in a city.

Hod are extremly adept at traversing difficult terrain. Their everyday lives involve a lot of climbing cave walls, tunnelling to expand their cities, and scouting their surroundings so that they are not surprised by encroaching beholders or other nasties. Their bodies have adapted to fit this lifestyle. Hod have long and slender hands which are nonetheless quite powerful and good at gripping. Their feet are similarly elongated, which aids in their swimming. Their eyes are covered by a transparent membrane when swimming or aboveground (to protect them from the light). A hod's senses are impeccable; their eyes and ears are slightly enlarged as a result. A hod's pupils are vertical like a cat's. Other than these differences, hod look and act almost identical to humans.


- Medium: As Medium creatures, hod have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size.
- Hod base land speed is 30 feet.
- A hod has a swim speed of 20 feet.
- A hod has a climb speed of 15 feet.
- Hod can move through any difficult terrain without reducing their speed and without taking damage or suffering any other impairment. This does not allow a hod to move normally through an area that has been magically manipulated to impede motion. If the hod receives a class feature such as flawless stride or woodland stride, his base land speed, swim speed, and climb speed increase by 5 ft.
- Darkvision: Hod can see in the dark up to 60 feet. Darkvision is black and white only, but it is otherwise like normal sight, and hod can function just fine with no light at all.
- +2 racial bonus on Listen, Search, and Spot checks. A hod who merely passes within 5 feet of a secret or concealed door is entitled to a Search check to notice it as if he were actively looking for it.
- Scent.
- Amphibious: A hod can breathe both water and air.
- Favored Class: Scout. A multiclass hod's scout class does not count when determining whether he takes an experience point penalty for multiclassing.
- Automatic Languages: Undercommon and Common. Bonus Languages: Aquan, Terran, Dwarven, Elven, Halfling, Gnome

Level Adjustment: +0


New Feat - Hod Tunneler

Certain members of hod society make a living burrowing tunnels between cities. Others simply take advantage of their hand's structure to aid them in their scouting and other endeavors.

Prerequisites: Hod, Str 13

Benefits: This feat grants a burrow speed of 10 ft.


Kroton


Krotons are alien in appearance, with green skin and large, glowing eyes which change colors every few seconds. They also have fins all along their heads, backs, limbs, and tails. Their bodies are squishy and fragile, and their movements tend to be stiff. A kroton’s voice has a forceful buzz to it, making it sound almost electronic.

Krotons are creatures with an innate magical ability and a strong force of personality. They are also rather perceptive. One might think that a kroton is totally naive until he makes a scathingly true comment about you. The goals of the kroton race are unknown to most of the other races, as krotons generally don't speak to any non-kroton that they do not have business with. Every major town generally has one or two krotons in it which report back to their homeland every so often with news.

Krotons live in futuristic underwater cities; although, despite their aquatic appearance, they do not breathe water and aren't even very good swimmers. Their cities are protected by magical barriers which keep out the surrounding seawater as well as any creatures who would invade. In fact, the only way to enter a kroton city is by teleportation. For this reason, many krotons make their living by becoming wayfarer guides. Any creature with hostile intentions finds himself unable to teleport into a kroton city unless he magically masks those intentions.


- -2 Dexterity, -2 Constitution, +2 Wisdom, +2 Charisma
- Aberration: Krotons are not subject to spells or effects that affect humanoids only, such as charm person or dominate person.
- Medium: As Medium creatures, krotons have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size.
- Kroton base land speed is 30 feet.
- Darkvision: Krotons can see in the dark up to 60 feet. Darkvision is black and white only, but it is otherwise like normal sight, and krotons can function just fine with no light at all.
- +2 racial bonus on Intimidate checks.
- Magic Eyes (Su): A kroton can detect magic and read magic as the spells at will. A kroton with 5 HD has arcane sight as the spell. A kroton with 15 HD has greater arcane sight as the spell.
- Favored Class: Sorceror. A multiclass kroton's sorceror class does not count when determining whether he takes an experience point penalty for multiclassing.
- Automatic Languages: Kroton. Bonus Languages: Aquan, Undercommon, Common, Draconic

Level Adjustment: +0



Rasa


Rasae are a race of contemplative, individualistic humanoids. A rasa village might be taken for a ghost town if one does not look hard enough. If one does, he will find rasae training their bodies and minds, and ignoring him completely. Rasae typically survive on the minimal amount of food and other material belongings necessary. Those rasae that are not training to become monks are the designated hunters, food distributors, and medicine men. Rasa monks frequently go on spiritual quests to find enlightenment; rasae see the value in experiencing what the world has to offer. Other races will sometimes journey to rasa villages to benefit from the great wisdom stored within rasa elders.

Rasae are slightly smaller than humans on average, though the largest can be much larger. Rasae appear as humans except that they all have two or more animal-like features such as scaly skin or a long rat's tail. The features they have are unique to that particular rasa. The rasa believe that they are this way because the original rasae were the spirits of different animals given humanoid bodies, which then interbred.


- +2 Wisdom, -2 Charisma
- Medium: As Medium creatures, rasae have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size.
- Low-Light Vision: A rasa can see twice as far as a human in starlight, moonlight, torchlight, and similar conditions of poor illumination. He retains the ability to distinguish color and detail under these conditions.
- Rasa base land speed is 30 feet.
- Rasae can make knowledge checks as if they had a 1/2 point in each knowledge skill, as they have been exposed to a variety of subjects as children
- +2 racial bonus on three different skill checks, depending on the rasa's animal bloodline. The rasa may replace any of these bonuses to skill checks with a +5 ft. increase to his base land speed (once only) or the scent ability.

Examples: Jorge has the tail of a chimp, granting him a +2 bonus on sleight of hand and balance checks. He has the legs of a cheetah, granting him a +5 ft. increase to his base land speed.

Mordred has the ears of a dog, granting him a +2 bonus on listen checks. He has the arms of a gorilla, granting him a +5 ft. increase to his base land speed. He has the tongue of a snake, granting him scent.

Bruce has the ears of a rabbit, the eyes of a hawk, the toes of an ostrich, and the spine of an alligator, granting him a +5 increase to his base land speed. He has the skin of a frog, granting him a +2 bonus on escape artist and hide checks.

Some rasae appear quite normal. Saul, for instance, has the fangs of a bat and the infrared sensory pits of a snake, granting him a +2 bonus on spot, intimidate, and survival checks.

The animal features of a rasa are not full-blown animal features, and thus the infrared sensory pits of a snake grant a bonus on spot checks instead of allowing the rasa to see infrared light, and the tail of a chimpanzee grants a bonus on balance checks instead of giving the rasa an additional hand.

- Favored Class: Monk. A multiclass rasa's monk class does not count when determining whether he takes an experience point penalty for multiclassing.
- Automatic Languages: Common and Rasa. Bonus Languages: Any (other than secret languages, such as Druidic).

Quellian-dyrae
2007-04-25, 05:21 PM
The races look cool, but I think they need Level Adjustments. The sorcerer variant seems viable for the most part. I'd suggest boosting magical avoidance to a higher level to prevent a one-level dip for it, though.

I think Learn Spell might be too powerful. Although Erudites (Complete Psionic) possess a somewhat similar method of acquiring new spells, their limited number of unique spells per day helps to balance it. If you apply a limit on the maximum spells learned by spell level (say, no more than equal to the spells they get by virtue of level) it would probably be more balanced.

EDIT: Must have missed Arcane Fortitude. The one spell per day without XP cost makes Learn Spell even more unbalanced. You could just get your wizard friend (or pay a wizard) to cast one spell you want to learn each day until you have every spell you want. And, eh, one way or another I suppose you probably ought to specify that the sorcerer can only learn Sor/Wiz spells in that manner, otherwise you have sorcs going around unleashing fireballs with one hand and heal spells with the other.

Baron Corm
2007-04-25, 05:49 PM
well mon ami, paladins get divine grace at level 2 which is equal to magical avoidance. paladins also benefit a dipper with d10 hd, full bab, and some other stuffs. i'm not that worried about it.

wizards can learn an unlimited number of spells by scribing them into their spellbook, unless i'm having a mental relapse... my sorceror can do the same with some restrictions. note that the DC to learn a level 9 spell is 34. i'm gonna wait to see what some other people think about all this (and the level adjustments).

Kellus
2007-04-25, 06:36 PM
Except that the wizard's casting is much more limited than the sorceror's. The wizard casts fewer spells, and needs to prepare them beforehand. Normally the sorceror makes up the difference through sheer volume. With your adaptation, there would be no need for wizards, since sorcerors with that feat could learn an infinite number of spells, as long as they can witness them. This adaptation invalidates the wizard and totally overpowers the sorceror.

Baron Corm
2007-04-25, 06:43 PM
alright, a needed change was made. i think that should balance it.

about the races: yeah, i think they might be overpowered too, but no more than the low end of LA +1. what kinds of minor things do you think i could tone down?

ShneekeyTheLost
2007-04-25, 07:27 PM
Learn Spell is just too broken. The Sorcerer's main limitation is the small number of spells known. Letting them learn that many is just too powerful. Likewise, magic avoidance is also very broken in a primary spellcaster class. A one level dip is bad enough, it saves you from having to do a two level dip in Paladin, which gives you a higher caster level in a Gish build, and it has amazing synergy with the primary casting stat. That's just too powerful.

My suggestions:

Detect magic and Read Magic as spell like abilities at will at 2nd level.

Instead of Learn Spell, why don't you try something like this:

Arcane Versitility: At 3rd level, a sorcerer learns how to adapt his innate magical abilities on the fly. He no longer increases the time spent on casting metamagic spontaniously from his sorcerer spell list.

Baron Corm
2007-04-25, 07:35 PM
"The spell must be on the sorceror spell list, and it must affect him directly. He could learn a fireball spell if he was damaged by it, but not if he had Improved Evasion and made his save."

true he could increase his potential spells known by only learning utility spells at each level, but then the DM should and would likely focus NPC spellcaster spells on other party members and have melee monsters attack him out of anticheese spite.

also i made arcane avoidance only function on reflex saves, that makes much more sense anyway.

Quellian-dyrae
2007-04-25, 07:40 PM
I'm not a master at guessing LA's, but I'll take a stab here...

The Rasa looks like a solid LA +1. 40' speed, a nice versatile skill boost, and superior ability scores should make it a viable LA +1 contender, especially in a point-buy system. If you want to tone it down to LA +0, take out the four +1 bonuses and...maybe give them low-light vision, since I think all animals have it (and scent, for that matter, but scent is probably too powerful an ability for LA +0).

The Krotan I'd estimate to be in the high end of +1 or the low end of +2. There's one LA right off the bat from their bonus sorcerer casting level (it's not nearly as helpful to a non-sorcerer, but I figure when determining LA you should consider the ideal build). I'd estimate that the scaling detection abilities, immune to humanoid-affecting spells, and ability scores that a sorcerer would be quite happy to have might push it to +2, but the physical score penalties may keep it down at +1. In any case, a quick way to drop it would be to lessen the naturally magical ability, say to granting an extra 1st-level spell slot (in a single chosen casting class, to make it useful to more classes).

As for the Hod...probably +2. I'm pretty sure that if you have scent your LA is going to be at least +1. I've seen LA +0 races with climb or swim speeds, but not climb, swim, and burrow. Add those to amphibious, darkvision, scent, elven secret door detection, and a grapple bonus, and I'd imagine you're looking at a +2. To bring them down to +0...maybe do +2 Spot, Listen, Search, Climb, Swim; Secret Door Detection; Stonecunning (just to get another ability in there); and Darkvision.

And I'll grant, those may sound weak...but in my opinion, LA 0 races are.

Baron Corm
2007-04-25, 08:28 PM
hmm well i don't believe scent is as good as you think it is, but i did decrease the rasa's speed, in a way. low-light vision was a good idea. it's solidly LA +0 now, at any rate!

simple, logical fix for the kroton, a +1 level adjustment only if they take levels in sorceror.

turned burrow speed into a feat. as i said, i'm not sure why you think scent is that good. i think all the races (and the sorceror) are good now! thanks for helpin everybody.

ShneekeyTheLost
2007-04-25, 08:28 PM
"The spell must be on the sorceror spell list, and it must affect him directly. He could learn a fireball spell if he was damaged by it, but not if he had Improved Evasion and made his save."

true he could increase his potential spells known by only learning utility spells at each level, but then the DM should and would likely focus NPC spellcaster spells on other party members and have melee monsters attack him out of anticheese spite.

also i made arcane avoidance only function on reflex saves, that makes much more sense anyway.

It's still a crapton of spells. You want cheeze? How's bout this... the Sorcerer wants a spell known. The Wizard gets it, then casts it on the Sorcerer. Done. This is too much like the old Blue Mage homebrew, which was broken for the same reason.

How about making Arcane Avoidance only work on spells that allow SR? Being better at avoiding magic wouldn't help you much dodging a trap, which also has a reflex save.

Also, either give a race a +2 or don't give them a bonus to a stat.

Krotans are BROKEN. +4 Charisma and a FREE level of Sorcerer? CRACK. This thing is worth at LEAST a +4 LA, probably more. Physical stats are dump stats for a caster anyways.

The Rasa are completely broken. The only stat they don't get a bonus to is Charisma, which is a dump stat for everyone who isn't a Sorcerer, Paladin, and MAYBE Cleric.

jindra34
2007-04-25, 08:46 PM
The Rasa are completely broken. The only stat they don't get a bonus to is Charisma, which is a dump stat for everyone who isn't a Sorcerer, Paladin, and MAYBE Cleric.

WAIT! bards use Charisma as a dump Stat?!?

ShneekeyTheLost
2007-04-25, 09:22 PM
WAIT! bards use Charisma as a dump Stat?!?

WAIT! People actually play bards?

Doesn't matter what stat Bards dump... it still won't keep them from sucking.

ArmorArmadillo
2007-04-25, 09:47 PM
hmm well i don't believe scent is as good as you think it is, but i did decrease the rasa's speed, in a way. low-light vision was a good idea. it's solidly LA +0 now, at any rate!

simple, logical fix for the kroton, a +1 level adjustment only if they take levels in sorceror.

turned burrow speed into a feat. as i said, i'm not sure why you think scent is that good. i think all the races (and the sorceror) are good now! thanks for helpin everybody.
Krotons are ridiculously broken, they're minmaxing on a stick.

Tone down the Charisma and add a serious LA

GoufCustom
2007-04-25, 11:27 PM
CHA = yay.
WIS is my dump stat of choice!

Caelestion
2007-04-26, 09:29 AM
Krotons are definitely LA +1.

Rasa should have even ability modifiers, not odd ones. Having mismatched ability modifiers is also cause for a level adjustment. Do not compare new races to the Elf or Dwarf (and certainly not to the Warforged).

Baron Corm
2007-04-26, 10:30 AM
fair enough. how do i represent all rasae being slightly stronger, more agile, tougher, and more learned than your run-of-the-mill guys, because they grew up in a sparta-like community? keeping in mind that i strongly desire a +0 LA.

DamnedIrishman
2007-04-26, 11:12 AM
fair enough. how do i represent all rasae being slightly stronger, more agile, tougher, and more learned than your run-of-the-mill guys, because they grew up in a sparta-like community? keeping in mind that i strongly desire a +0 LA.

Errr... tough is probably all the answer you'll get, as them being all-round better than the average is going to increase LA.

But if you want them to be body-and-mind purists, how about you make any Rasae unable to take ANY LEVELS IN ANYTHING if they use any weapons, armour, have possessions over a combined value of 500gp or equivalent, and unable to use any form of currency. Diehard aesthetes, to be precise.

Interesting to play... although it would mean that your fellows would end up just 'lending' everything you need to you.

Ultimately, having a race which is generally better at everything is going to be a powerplayers dream, and for that reason be twisted to the nth degree.

Caelestion
2007-04-27, 12:32 PM
fair enough. how do i represent all rasae being slightly stronger, more agile, tougher, and more learned than your run-of-the-mill guys, because they grew up in a sparta-like community? keeping in mind that i strongly desire a +0 LA.
Remove the mismatched ability requirements and simply play a Rasae with high Str, Dex, Con and Int.