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Tectorman
2008-04-25, 09:34 AM
My first ever homebrew for this forum. I hope this goes over better than the last time.

Alyans

Long ago, the gods of the elves and the orcs, Corellon Larethian and Gruumsh, respectively, warred against each other in a great and epic battle. Towards the end, Gruumsh lost his eye to Corellon Larethian and was forced to withdraw. Typically, the story depicts the eye as being destroyed in the fight. That is not what happened.

Much, much later, a human nation called Alya was founded near the site of that epic battle. Shortly thereafter, citizens of that nation found Gruumsh’s lost eye, intact and retaining much of its godly power. The king of Alya, being a very ambitious man, put forth the question to his people. “Should we deny this gift, left for us to find, or should we find a way to take this gift and make it our own?” The people of Alya, being equally ambitious, said “Yes.” And so, after much toil, and delving far into the recesses of magic, the nation of Alya found a way to disseminate the eye of Gruumsh, and all its godly power, into the entire population.

Needless to say, when Gruumsh found out, angry and humiliated, his wrath was terrible. He never struck down the nation for their hubris and their theft, being held at bay by the other gods, but still he gained a measure of revenge. The orc race, his own creation, couldn’t go into the light, but this race of upstart humans dare to steal his eye? Gruumsh afflicted the nation of Alya with a curse, that their godly sensitive eyes would become too sensitive to tolerate the light of day. Of course, the nation being founded on a part of the world where the sun shines brightly didn’t help matters much. Eventually, the outflow of citizens due to the now-overbrightness of the sun forced the nation to be abandoned until all that remains today are ruins. The alyans, as they came to call themselves, now pass themselves off as humans, lest anyone find out about their past and condemn them for it.

Personality: Alyans run the gamut of personalities, being about as flexible and adaptable as their human ancestors. Their ambition, being their curse, will fluctuate wildly between humility for the crimes of their past and outright greed for yet more power to take. However, all alyans know that consequences, foreseen or otherwise, always follow one’s actions, and so are more likely to look before they leap, to plan before they act. Otherwise, their personalities vary widely.

Physical Description: Alyans typically stand from 5 feet to a little over 6 feet tall and weigh from 125 to 250 pounds, with men noticeably taller and heavier than women. Roughly the same as humans, alyans are very diverse physically. Alyans are more likely to be of fair skin, simply because of their preference for low illumination habitats. The most noticeable attribute is their eyes. Always of a pale, bright color, they almost seem to glow except for the pupils; when stared into, the centers of an alyan’s eyes look as deep and black as the night sky. Being highly visual creatures, alyans tend to dress either flamboyantly (to show off their style and tastes) or moderately (knowing that the most miniscule of details can still make all the difference, at least to the discerning eye). Alyans typically age and live like their human ancestors.

Relations: Alyans, when passing themselves off as human, generally relate to others on those terms. People who know an alyan as an alyan (and know the past history of the alyan race) instead relate to alyans depending on their religious views. Binders and psionics would generally not have a problem, but clerics and paladins are another story. Furthermore, due to the crimes inflicted on their god, orcs generally hate alyans. Drow, on the other hand, don’t know what to make of them. Alyans have godly power that they took for themselves, whereas drow were created that way by a goddess; such ambition fits rather well in drow society, if only the whole “took power from a god” thing wouldn’t muddy it up.

Alignment: Alyans tend toward no particular alignment, not even neutrality. The best and the worst are found amongst them. If anything, an alyan who has committed himself towards a particular outlook tends to follow that commitment rather strongly, but this is dependent on the alyan making a commitment in the first place.

Alyan Lands: The expanse of their nation now lost to time, alyans are found throughout human lands. However, due to the conflict of their anatomy (their intolerance of light combined with their diurnal lifestyle), they can just as often be found in the settlements of creatures who, like them, prefer the dark to the light.

Religion: Alyans typically have a dual outlook on worshipping gods. Some make endless supplications, hoping desperately for forgiveness for the misdeeds of their ancestors. Others have nothing to do with the gods, realizing that nothing, not mortal nor divine, is without end or vulnerability. In any event, it’s more of a question of finding a god who’ll have them.

Language: Alyans speak Common. They typically learn the languages of creatures who spend their lives in the dark. Though the drow invented sign language, no one has made better use of it than the alyans, sneaking up on their foes, conversing in total silence and darkness, and gaining the advantage before there was any to be had.

Names: Alyan names vary greatly, and an alyan’s name is often simply a human name, especially those born in human lands. Alyans living in the lands of dark-thriving creatures, such as drow, likewise would take on those names.

Adventurers: Alyans adventure for a variety of reasons. Their daring and ambition are rivaled only by humans. Such alyans tend to venture out in pursuit of more power. Alyans that know the history of their past and the reason for their being shunned from the light typically try any and all means to temper this ambition. Instead, they adventure to make a positive difference in the world, to seek forgiveness, or to distinguish themselves from their past.



Alyan Racial Traits
• Alyan base land speed is 30 feet.
• Medium: As Medium creatures, alyans have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size.
• Humanoid (Human): Alyans are of human descent and are affected by spells and the like as if they were purely human.
• Darkvision (Ex): Alyans can see in the dark up to 90 feet. Darkvision is black and white only, but it is otherwise like normal sight, and alyans can function just fine with no light at all.
• See in Darkness (Su): An alyan can see perfectly in darkness of any kind out to 90 feet.
• Perfect Sight (Su): An alyan can see ethereal and invisible creatures and objects as easily as she sees material creatures and objects out to 90 feet. An alyan can easily distinguish between ethereal, invisible, and material creatures and objects because ethereal and invisible ones appear indistinct and translucent, respectively.
• Talented Eyes: Spot is always a class skill for an alyan.
• Light Sensitivity (Ex): Alyans are dazzled in bright sunlight or within the area of a daylight spell or similar effect.
• Automatic Languages: Common. Bonus Languages: Draconic, Drow Sign Language, Dwarven, Goblin, Orc, Undercommon.
• Favored Class: Shadowcaster, Spellthief, or Wizard. A player with an alyan character picks one of these three classes to be his or her specific alyan character’s favored class the first time he or she takes a level in any one of these classes and may not change this choice later.
• Level adjustment: +1.



The idea was to create a race that could innately have True Seeing. I had originally come up with the idea for a pseudo-sci fi story, but then I wanted to translate it to D&D terms. The name "Alyan" comes from this; they were originally aliens from the planet Alia which would make them Alian aliens. Poor play on words (and I think that name being in the title scared a lot of people off) but I kept it. A preview thread for this indicated that there was literally no way to balance True Seeing off of an LA of +1, so instead I made the rest into a Paragon class (a la Unearthed Arcana).

Alyan Paragon

Alignment: Any.
Hit Die: d6.

Class Skills
The alyan paragon’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Bluff (Cha), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Decipher Script (Int), Hide (Dex), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (all skills, taken individually) (Int), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Profession (Wis), Search (Int), Spellcraft (Int), and Spot (Wis).

Skill Points at Each Level: 4 + Int modifier.



Base
Attack Fort Ref Will Mysteries/
Level Bonus Save Save Save Special Spellcasting
1st +0 +0 +0 +2 See Through Illusions -
2nd +1 +0 +0 +3 See Transformed +1 level of existing mystery- or arcane-casting class
3rd +2 +1 +1 +3 Ability boost (Int or Cha +2) -


Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Alyan paragons are proficient with all simple weapons and with light armor.

See Through Illusions (Su): A 1st-level alyan paragon can see through illusions in a manner similar to the true seeing spell. The alyan paragon has a chance to automatically see through any illusion in this manner so long as the illusion is of an effective spell level equal to the alyan paragon’s total hit die divided by two rounded up (i.e., up to 3rd level illusions at 5 HD, up to 6th level illusions at 11 HD). The percentage chance is equal to (the effective spell level of the illusion subtracted from ten) times ten (i.e., an alyan paragon has a 60% chance of automatically seeing through a 4th-level illusion effect, so long as the alyan paragon has 7 or more HD). An alyan paragon that fails to automatically see through an illusion in this manner would still interact with it as normal (including Will saves to disbelieve or otherwise “see through” the effect).

Mysteries/Spellcasting: At 2nd level, you gain new mysteries or arcane spells per day and an increase in caster level (and mysteries or arcane spells known, if applicable) as if you had also attained a level in a casting class to which you belonged before adding the paragon class. You do not, however, gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained, such as bonus feats for mystery paths known, or improved familiar for wizard or sorcerer. If you had more than one casting class before becoming an alyan paragon, you must decide which class to add this level for the purpose of determining mysteries or spells per day, caster level, and mysteries or spells known.

See Transformed (Su): A 2nd level alyan paragon has the ability to see the true form of polymorphed, changed, or transmuted things in a manner similar to the true seeing spell. Activating this ability is a free action that does not provoke an attack of opportunity and will last until the end of the round. It is usable a number of rounds equal to the alyan paragon’s HD (these rounds need not be consecutive).

Ability Boost (Ex): At 3rd level, an alyan paragon increases either his Intelligence score or his Charisma score by 2 points.

Please critique.

Lappy9000
2008-04-25, 09:45 AM
This is.....really good! The fluff is nice, and it's an original idea too.

I don't see anything that's blantaltly wrong, but if you're allowing Eberron feats, every Alyan player is gonna take the Daylight Adaption feat which basically eliminates light sensitivity.

Devigod
2008-04-25, 12:59 PM
Looks good to me, but I would caution you before letting your players play it; it's good, balanced and does what you intended (trueseeing), however, it can be dangerous in the hands of players.
Although they have to invest some levels, trueseeing and illusionkill is amazing. If you do a combat heavy game, this could be less important, but this really just pulls away some plot hooks and tricks you could use.

Just to sum it up: Caution around players.

Anyways, that's just my 2 cp.

Obscurejones
2008-04-25, 02:23 PM
Thank you THANK YOU for including a racial paragon class.:biggrin:

black dragoon
2008-04-25, 09:20 PM
Wow, that's fluffed up! Awesome man even if I get tired of all the dang human variants.

lord of kobolds
2008-04-27, 11:04 AM
Fluffy!!!!!
i would also add undercommon as an automatic language, since they live underground

Tectorman
2008-04-29, 03:14 PM
@Lord of Kobolds: But they don't. The ones that do live underground would, but by and large, a member of this race is just as likely to be found passing himself off as a human in a human settlement (aboveground) as in a drow underground city.

Soooo, watch out for Eberron feats (besides Oriental Adventures (and I'm not even sure that would count) I don't own anything campaign setting specific), and all of these vision enhancements may serve to reduce a plot-driven campaign. Anything else?

I'm surprised this went over so well so quickly...

lord of kobolds
2008-04-30, 06:33 PM
sorry, ddn't have time to read the whole thing,:smallredface: