Greywander
2020-09-23, 10:00 PM
I'm tinkering with my undead race once again, and was looking to do something with the skeleton subrace. Despite the fact that they were kind of the "first" subrace, I'm not really happy with the traits I've given them. They just seem like generic skeleton traits with no real identity of their own. But I think I might have found something I can work with to give them a unique flair.
So, one skeleton looks pretty much the same as another, so I already have it as part of my lore that they wear colorful clothing and paint marking on themselves, something akin to Calaveras (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calavera). This gives them a uniquely identifiable appearance, a "face" of sorts. Until recently, these markings were pure fluff, but then I remembered that magical tattoos are a thing, and these markings are kind of like tattoos, right? But the magic tattoos vary wildly in power, and I don't think that would be suitable as a racial trait, so instead I decided that the markings give the same benefit as a common magic item of your choice, and don't use up an attunement slot (if applicable).
I could make the markings permanent, and that's something I might consider, but at the moment it doesn't really make sense to me that they couldn't clean them off and paint on new ones. This allows them to get a new "face", but also to change the magic item benefit they get. Right now, it costs 1 gp in cleaning agents and 1 hour to remove markings, and 10 gp in magical dyes and an 8 hour ritual to apply new ones (this means it takes a total of 11 gp and 9 hours to swap markings). This makes them semipermanent just because changing them takes so long (on the other hand, you don't need to sleep, so you could do it while everyone else is doing a long rest). If I wanted to make swapping markings more accessible, I might reduce the removal time to 10 minutes and let you apply new markings over a short rest (in which case, I might let you remove the old markings as part of the same short rest). Part of the reason to allow removal of the markings without replacing them is so that you can make yourself look like a normal skeleton if you want to without needing something like Disguise Self.
Alternatively, I could make the markings permanent, but also allow them to "dismiss" the markings. This would let them look like a normal skeleton, but they'd lose the benefits of the markings until they "summon" them again. Would probably be an action to both remove and recall the markings. Lore-wise, a ritual might exist that can change your markings (probably the same ritual that gave you them in the first place), but that wouldn't be a "player option", and it would be up to the DM to allow it.
Anyway, I'm curious what people think, especially with waiving attunement. Since it's just common magic items, there shouldn't be anything you could get that would be too strong, and there would be a lot of flavorful options to choose from. Should swapping be allowed, or should it be permanent? What are some common magic items you'd be interested in taking as a racial trait? How should this work for magic items like, say, the Cloak of Billowing, where the magic affects the item itself?
So, one skeleton looks pretty much the same as another, so I already have it as part of my lore that they wear colorful clothing and paint marking on themselves, something akin to Calaveras (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calavera). This gives them a uniquely identifiable appearance, a "face" of sorts. Until recently, these markings were pure fluff, but then I remembered that magical tattoos are a thing, and these markings are kind of like tattoos, right? But the magic tattoos vary wildly in power, and I don't think that would be suitable as a racial trait, so instead I decided that the markings give the same benefit as a common magic item of your choice, and don't use up an attunement slot (if applicable).
I could make the markings permanent, and that's something I might consider, but at the moment it doesn't really make sense to me that they couldn't clean them off and paint on new ones. This allows them to get a new "face", but also to change the magic item benefit they get. Right now, it costs 1 gp in cleaning agents and 1 hour to remove markings, and 10 gp in magical dyes and an 8 hour ritual to apply new ones (this means it takes a total of 11 gp and 9 hours to swap markings). This makes them semipermanent just because changing them takes so long (on the other hand, you don't need to sleep, so you could do it while everyone else is doing a long rest). If I wanted to make swapping markings more accessible, I might reduce the removal time to 10 minutes and let you apply new markings over a short rest (in which case, I might let you remove the old markings as part of the same short rest). Part of the reason to allow removal of the markings without replacing them is so that you can make yourself look like a normal skeleton if you want to without needing something like Disguise Self.
Alternatively, I could make the markings permanent, but also allow them to "dismiss" the markings. This would let them look like a normal skeleton, but they'd lose the benefits of the markings until they "summon" them again. Would probably be an action to both remove and recall the markings. Lore-wise, a ritual might exist that can change your markings (probably the same ritual that gave you them in the first place), but that wouldn't be a "player option", and it would be up to the DM to allow it.
Anyway, I'm curious what people think, especially with waiving attunement. Since it's just common magic items, there shouldn't be anything you could get that would be too strong, and there would be a lot of flavorful options to choose from. Should swapping be allowed, or should it be permanent? What are some common magic items you'd be interested in taking as a racial trait? How should this work for magic items like, say, the Cloak of Billowing, where the magic affects the item itself?