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Squash Monster
2008-06-06, 01:35 AM
I've been posting racial homebrews at 4chan's /tg/ forum roughly once per day, and I've decided that I'd rather have some slightly more thoughtful criticism.

For starters, a Myconid homebrew. I'm a bit worried that this one could be a touch overpowered, what do you think?


Myconid
Ability Scores: +2 Constitution , +2 Wisdom
Size: Medium
Speed: 5 squares
Vision: Darkvision

Languages: none (mute, any languages learned can be understood but not spoken)
Skill Bonuses: +2 Dungeoneering, +2 Nature
Plant Traits: You are considered a plant for the purpose of any effect related to creature type.
Telepathy Spores: You may use telepathy spores as an at-will power.
Pacification Spores: You may use stun spores as an encounter power.

Telepathy Spores - Myconid Racial Power
By spreading telepathically linked spores, you can communicate with others.
At Will
Free Action - Melee touch
Target: One creature
Effect: You can communicate telepathically with the target for one hour. Telepathic communication is silent, works in both directions, and you and the target do not need to share a language to understand each other. The maximum range for telepathic communication is 20 squares. If you have used telepathy spores on more than one target, your telepathic "speech" goes to all of them at once, but theirs goes only to you.

Stun Spores - Myconid Racial Power
You spread a cloud of pacifying spores to calm aggressors.
Encounter ~ Sleep
Minor Action - Close Blast 3
Targets:All creatures in area
Attack: Constitution vs Will, Dexterity vs Will, or Wisdom vs Will
Hit: The target is slowed (save ends). If the target fails its first saving throw against this power, the target becomes stunned (save ends).
Special: When you create your character, choose Constitution, Dexterity, or Wisdom as the ability score you use when making attack rolls with this power. This choice remains throughout your character's life and does not change the power's other effects.

Next up, a catfolk homebrew. I think this one is just fine, but I haven't seen any really thoughtful criticism on it so I can't be sure.



Catfolk
Ability Scores: +2 Dexterity, +2 Charisma.
Size: Medium.
Speed: 6 squares.
Vision: Low-light

Languages: Common, choice of one other.
Skill Bonuses: +2 athletics, +2 stealth.
Grace: Falling does not cause you to land prone, and you take half damage from falling.
Wild Step: You ignore difficult terrain when you shift, even if you shift multiple squares.
Fleet of Foot: You may use fleet of foot as an at-will power.

Fleet of Foot - Catfolk Racial Power
You can always find the energy for a sudden boost of speed when you need to.
At Will
Standard action - Personal
Effect: Shift 3 squares.


And finally, a pretty strange one. This is what happens when you take suggestions from 4chan. It's a lot of fun, but there might be some horrendously broken combination with the Amorphous Form ability, so tell me if you can pick one out.



Half Ooze
Ability Scores: +2 Dexterity, +2 Constitution
Size: Medium
Speed: 6 squares
Vision: Normal

Languages: Common
Skill Bonuses: +2 Stealth, +2 Acrobatics
Amorphous Form: When using magic items, you may substitute one body slot for another amongst the following slots: arms, feet, hands, head, neck, and waist. You may only make one such substitution at a given time.
Discorporation: You may use the discorporation power as an encounter power.

Discorporation - Half Ooze Racial Power
Your form sinks to the ground as your body dissolves feet-first into a puddle.
Encounter
Minor Action - Personal
Effect: Until the end of your next turn, you gain resistance against all damage equal to 10+your level, your speed drops to 1 square, and you are not effected by difficult terrain. In this form you cannot perform actions other than movement. You may freely move into spaces occupied by other characters, and fit through cracks as small as 2 inches in width. If the square where you end discorporation does not have room for your normal form, you take 1d8 damage and move to the nearest open space (your choice).
Special: You may end this effect early as a minor action.

Squash Monster
2008-06-09, 03:42 PM
No commentary?

Moff Chumley
2008-06-09, 05:46 PM
Looks interesting, but how does a half ooze work? :smallconfused:

I'm not great at ballance, so I'll allow someone else to get to that. You have Chumley's permission. :smallwink:

spamoo
2008-06-09, 11:18 PM
I love seeing the Catfolk here, and the blob is, well..., interesting. If I could make one suggestion, I would make the Catfolk's power an encounter power, not at-will. That just seems unbalanced when compared with other powers.

Ceiling009
2008-06-10, 12:13 AM
Hmmm... About the Catfolk fleet of foot... I think it be better if if you could make it shift as a minor action. A full standard action to shift 3 squares? Even at at will, the kobold's shifty power is still better, cause on a double move and minor, you can get 13 squares of movement. Or that you can do lot more, even if it is one square, you can, then move, attack, and then shift away. Maybe make it an encounter at either free or minor action, and make it almost 6 squares, so that catfolk become really mobile. Kinda like Cheetahs.

Squash Monster
2008-06-11, 04:08 AM
Moff Chumley - I think physiologically, a half-ooze is most similar to the ooze parent, but their preferred form comes from the human parent. So they have the ability to reduce to a puddle and such, but it's very uncomfortable for them and they only can do it occasionally; they'd much prefer to stick with their human forum.

Spamoo - Note that wasting your standard action shifting means no attack most of the time.

Ceiling009 - I think you're right in that it is underpowered, though I like the idea of being able to shift farther as a standard action. What if I increased it up to 6 squares? That way, if you're in a situation where you'd want to use your standard action as a move action, you could make that whole move a shift.

Fri
2008-06-11, 08:13 AM
How does someone become a half ooze? *shivers*

AKA_Bait
2008-06-11, 11:13 AM
Some thoughts:

Myconid: Way too much stuff here to be playable at level 1 ime.

I'd take out the Racial bonuses and the skill bonuses. Make the telepethy an encounter power with a sustain minor. Make the sleep spores a daily (the equivalent wizard spell is a daily).

Catfolk seem ok, since it's a standard action.

Ooze: I would make discorporation a standard action. The shifting body slots thing... does this mean that I could, for example, wear two cloaks? I'm not so sure about balance if that is the case, if not you should make that clearer. I feel like that is going to be overpowered at higher levels. I'd at least remove the neck slot...

Squash Monster
2008-06-11, 01:37 PM
Fri - Let's just pretend a wizard did it.

AKA_Bait -
Myconid - They can't speak, the changes you'd make to telepathy would make them have an awful lot of trouble speaking with the party. The spores cause stun, not unconsciousness, which is a much less serious condition. Additionally, they do not have any effect on miss, have a smaller radius, and have no range. I'm willing to accept other ideas on how to turn it down, but it'd be very underpowered as a daily.

Ooze - What if I made if I made it so bonuses from the same type of slot don't stack?

AKA_Bait
2008-06-11, 02:13 PM
AKA_Bait -
Myconid - They can't speak, the changes you'd make to telepathy would make them have an awful lot of trouble speaking with the party.

Humm. Didn't realize they can't speak. You might be better adding it as a racial feature rather than a power in that case. Something like:

Telepathy Spores: A Myconid can communicate telepathically with any creature upon which it has placed a Telepathy Spore. Telepathic communication is silent, works in both directions, and you and the target do not need to share a language to understand each other. The maximum range for telepathic communication is 20 squares. If you have used telepathy spores on more than one target, your telepathic "speech" goes to all of them at once, but theirs goes only to you. Myconids can have a total of 10 telepathy spores active at any one time. If a myconid creates an additional spore beyond 10, a previous spore of the myconid's choice becomes permanantly inactive and is rendered useless.



The spores cause stun, not unconsciousness, which is a much less serious condition. Additionally, they do not have any effect on miss, have a smaller radius, and have no range. I'm willing to accept other ideas on how to turn it down, but it'd be very underpowered as a daily.

Ah, ok. Should be ok then as an encounter power.



Ooze - What if I made if I made it so bonuses from the same type of slot don't stack?

I'm not sure how that would work. If they are a bonus to the same kind of thing, they wouldn't stack anyway (bonuses of the same kind don't stack normally and all items grant an 'item' bonus in 4e). It's more that each slot only seems to grant specific kinds of abilities and the protective abilities of the neck slot seem to allow for, if not for the slot restriction, pretty good bonuses without much overlap.

Squash Monster
2008-06-11, 02:23 PM
I had the telepathy spores phrased as a racial feature before. Somebody suggested I tried phrasing it as a power, and it was easier to understand that way so I did. Powers are just a feature of notation, so I don't know any reason not to use the easier to understand one.

As for the oozes... well, I haven't found a broken combination yet, but I haven't looked too hard. I'll change it as soon as somebody finds one though.