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Maryring
2008-07-22, 09:50 AM
Cerare

http://www.lusternia.com/images/races/furrikinRace.gif

SMALL FEY
HD 7d6 (27)
Speed 30 ft. (6 squares); Fly 60 ft. (perfect); Climb 20 ft.
Init: +3
AC 19; touch 19; flat-footed 16
(+1 size, +3 dex, +5 deflection)
BAB +2; Grp -3
Attack Athame +2
(1d4-1, x2)
Full-Attack Athame +2
(1d4-1, x2)
Space 5 ft.; Reach 5 ft.
Special Attacks Deep Friendship, Heart Swap, I'm Never Alone, Spell-Like Abilities
Special Qualities Damage reduction 5/cold iron, Disguise Self, Emotional Awareness, Tongue of Sun and Moon, Unearthly Grace, Wild Empathy +13.
Saves Fort +2 Ref +8 Will +7
Abilities Str 8, Dex 16, Con 10, Int 15, Wis 15, Cha 21
Skills Bluff +7 Craft (painting) +9 Diplomacy +16**, Disguise +12, Handle Animal +14, Heal +11 Perform (Sing) +14, Sense Motive +13**, Tumble +10
Feats Animal Friend*, Nimbus of Light*
Environment Forest, Plains and Urban.
Organization Solitary, Pair, Group (1-2 Cerare + 1-2 Friends)Messengers (1-2 Cerare + 2-4 animals and 1-2 Coure Eladrin) or Gang (1-2 Cerare + 5-25 animals and/or 3-10 fey)
Challenge Rating 5
Treasure No coins, double gems, standard goods.
Alignment Usually Chaotic Good
Advancement 8-13 HD
Level Adjustment -

You never know what it's like
Until you've walked a mile in a man's shoes.
So when you brother asks you to walk with him a mile
Walk two.
And then you can see
What it is like to be him.

Cerare are small fey, usually only 3 feet tall, who appear as a cross between giant, humanoid or monstrous humanoid children and small forest animals such as Skunks, Rabbits or Squirrels. Their bodies are slightly disproportionate, with bigger heads and shorter limbs which lend to their childlike appearance.

Cerare are born when someone sacrifices his or her life for someone else out of an immense love for the other individual. Not every sacrifice creates a Cerare, as only sacrifices made out of the purest love and honest mourning afterwards can create strong enough emotional contrasts for the Fey to be born. Immediately after birth, a Cerare will seek out the one left behind to offer comfort and happiness.

Cerare are highly social creatures who love nothing more than to make new friends and play games with those friends they already have. Their Fey nature give them an initiate playful and mischevious streak, but they will never play a prank that will cause harm.

Cerare naturally speak, read and write Celestial, Eladrin, Sylvan and one more language, usually the main language of the mourner who created him, though thanks to Tongue of Sun and Moon he can communicate with any creature vocally.

Combat
Cerare aren't good fighters and will usually flee from combat if they are alone. If forced to fight, they will call upon the help of others, usually animals, to help them. In battle, they usually move around to create flanks and distractions or heal the wounds of the fighters. If the situation presents itself, a Cerare may attempt to use Heart Swap to prevent bloodshed.

Deep Friendship (Ex): A Cerare who befriends a mortal can forge a deep link between their souls. This requires the Cerare and mortal to remain on friendly terms for a whole year during which the bond is forged. Once created, the bond can never be broken by anything short of divine intervention. When bonded, no magical compulsion can force the friends to harm one another. Any attempt to force such an action will immediately break the spell. In addition, the friends can sense the location of each other. Finally, the Curare can perfectly take the form of his friend. See Disguise Self.

Disguise Self (Su): A Cerare can change his appearance similar to that of the Disguise Self spell with these exceptions. The change is a physical transformation, and not an illusion. In addition, a Cerare can remain in the disguised shape for as long as he wants. Finally, if a Cerare has forged a Deep Friendship with someone, he or she can perfectly transform himself to his friend. The Cerare gains the HD, HP, stats, Class levels and abilities, Feats, Skills, Spells, Ex Su and Sp abilities, Natural Armour and movement types and speeds of the friend. In return, the Cerare loses all his own stats and abilities with the exception of Deep Friendship, Emotional Awareness, Tongue of Sun and Moon and Wild Empathy.

Emotional Awareness (Ex): Cerare have a +2 bonus on Bluff, Diplomacy, Handle Animal, Heal, Perform and Sense Motive checks.

Heart Swap (Su): A Cerare can make two individuals change bodies. If both individuals are within 30 feet of the Cerare and each other, the Cerare can force the souls to change place. This requires a minute of uninterupted concentration, during which the Cerare can do nothing but move and speak. This is not unusual behaviour however and only a DC 40 Sense Motive check will reveal that the Cerare is attempting for two souls to change bodies. During the process, the Cerare has to specify a condition that will allow the two souls to return to their respective bodies. Without one, Heart Swap will simply fail. The affected individuals may attempt a will save DC 17 to stop the swap. If one of them succeeds, the ability fails altogether, though a success doesn't make the target aware that she almost lost her body. A Break Enchantment, Limited Wish, Wish or Miracle spell can reverse Heart Swap.

I'm never alone (Su): A Cerare may split his life energy into several simulacrum. As a standard action, a Cerare can create actual physical copies of himself or Deep Friends, and a Cerare can have as many copies as he has HD, but each copy saps strength from each other. The HD of a copy is 1/X (round up) of the target's original HD where X is the number of copies +1. A Cerare can destroy any copy he has already made as a standard action, or he can create new ones. Each time a copy is made or destroyed, recalculate the HD of the remaining copies. Copies lose hit points when they lose HD, but they do not regain hit points when they regain HD.

Spell-like abilities: At will - Cure Light Wounds, Ray of Hope*, Invisibility, Mirror Image
3/day - Barkskin, Charm Animal, Charm Person, Cure Moderate Wounds, Pass Without Trace
1/day - Animal Growth, Cure Critical Wounds, Refreshment*
1/week - Animal Shapes
1/month - Awaken

Tongue of Sun and Moon (Ex): A Cerare can communicate with all creatures.

Unearthly Grace (Su): A Cerare adds his Charisma bonus to his AC as a deflection bonus.

* From the Book of Exalted Deeds.
** Including the bonus from Nimbus of Light.

DracoDei
2008-07-22, 10:22 AM
First thoughts (before even finishing reading):
I like. Born of Great Love is a good theme... does a Ressurrection etc cast on the original person fail, or cause the Cerare to wink out of existance, or what?

You got the size wrong in the header should be SMALL FEY.

I guess the languages known only matter for reading and writing since they have Tongue of the Sun and the Moon? You should state that fact under "Languages".

Heart Swap doesn't seem like something useful DURING combat because it takes 1 minute to do. Or did you mean they use it before hand to prevent combat?

Do Heart Swapped individuals automatically know the conditions that will cause the reversal? How hard can they be? Which if any of the following would work?

"The two individuals effected lay aside all hostility towards eachother, without guile, trickery, or magical influence."
As above but "become friends, each willing to lay down their life for the other".
"One hundred years pass from the casting of this spell." (only works on if both targets have at least 200 years of natural lifespan left?)
"I ascend to diety status."
"Each target simultaniously baths in a bath full of the others blood while both living." (Technically possible with enough castings of Gentle Repose and maybe some Lesser Restorations to regenerate blood (since major blood loss such as to a Stirge is modeled as CON damage) ).
"I wish it so."


You are missing the footnotes that the *'s and **'s refer to I think.

Debihuman
2008-07-22, 10:29 AM
Although I like it a lot, I think you've given it too many special abilities, especially too many spell-like abilities based on its hit dice. See the Dryad for an example.

If you want to make it that powerful, then you should give it a few more hit dice. I think it should have at least 7 HD. In turn the CR should be about 5.

Deep Friendship is overpowered. Couldn't the mortal sever the bond if he or she wanted to? Bonding should be a mutual decision, not one made solely by the cerare. Wouldn't death of one them also sever the bond between them?

The Heart Swap ability looks like it needs Concentration, which it does not have as a skill.

Debby

DracoDei
2008-07-22, 10:51 AM
Deep Friendship is overpowered.
Which part of it? It provides occasional immunity to enchantments, and many creatures are totally immune to such. The location sensing thing is good, but not THAT good.


Couldn't the mortal sever the bond if he or she wanted to?
That would seem a reasonable way to look at it. OTOH the flavor of having the ties being unbreakable by any means is the stuff a good legend can be built around, both comrades in arms, and reluctant opponents.


Bonding should be a mutual decision, not one made solely by the cerare.
Agreed, although the friendship for a year requirement is already mutual.


Wouldn't death of one them also sever the bond between them?
"Love is stronger than Death" - Proverbs... all the more so in a setting where death is a revolving door.


The Heart Swap ability looks like it needs Concentration, which it does not have as a skill.
Only if someone interupts them... but yes, I agree that unless it is a concious decision any creature with that much spellcasting should have that as a skill.

Maryring
2008-07-22, 11:09 AM
Born of Great Love is a good theme... does a Ressurrection etc cast on the original person fail, or cause the Cerare to wink out of existance, or what?
Nah, it won't have any special effect on spells that causes the dead to return to life. The Cerare is born from said sacrifice, but after that it becomes it's own entity. Or to put it in other words, a child doesn't die because her mother does.


You got the size wrong in the header should be SMALL FEY.
Ouch. Yeah I'll fix that.


I guess the languages known only matter for reading and writing since they have Tongue of the Sun and the Moon? You should state that fact under "Languages".
Okay. Consider it done.


Heart Swap doesn't seem like something useful DURING combat because it takes 1 minute to do. Or did you mean they use it before hand to prevent combat?
Yeah, that's what I meant.


Do Heart Swapped individuals automatically know the conditions that will cause the reversal? How hard can they be? Which if any of the following would work?

Any of them would work, though the Cerare will likely only use the first, possibly the second. It is an ability that the Cerare uses to teach about Empathy after all.


You are missing the footnotes that the *'s and **'s refer to I think.
Have mistake, will fix.


Although I like it a lot, I think you've given it too many special abilities, especially too many spell-like abilities based on its hit dice. See the Dryad for an example.

If you want to make it that powerful, then you should give it a few more hit dice. I think it should have at least 7 HD. In turn the CR should be about 5.
Hmm, yeah I think you have a point. I'll fix that too.


Deep Friendship is overpowered. Couldn't the mortal sever the bond if he or she wanted to? Bonding should be a mutual decision, not one made solely by the cerare. Wouldn't death of one them also sever the bond between them?
Well, I don't think so as it's supposed to be mainly a flavour ability and a limiter for "Disguise Self" and "I'm Never Alone". Deep Friendship is just "eternal friendship" in mechanics. If the mortal would want to break it, it could never be forged in the first place, because the friendship isn't strong enough. Though if you think the immunity to compulsions against each other is too strong, I might be inclined to agree, but as it is, I don't find it horribly powerful.


The Heart Swap ability looks like it needs Concentration, which it does not have as a skill.
Executing the ability requires that the Cerare concentrates yes, but it doesn't have any skill in concentration because it is something that they aren't very good at. Cerare are playful, and of the kind where you'll hear "Hmm I think that to get that kite down from the tree we have to Oh LOOK a butterfly!" Concentrating isn't what they usually do.

Debihuman
2008-07-22, 12:02 PM
I think your skills shlould refer to * from Nimbus of Light and your feats should refer to ** Book of Exalted Deeds. It looks like it is backwards.

Hit points should be 3.5x7 or 24. [Unless they get 3 additional hit points where I missed them].

Debby

Maryring
2008-07-22, 12:15 PM
I used full HP for first HD, and I'll fix the second part.

mistformsquirrl
2008-07-22, 12:23 PM
<^_^> I like! Very interesting.

Is it bad that it makes me want to convince a DM to let me play one? <T,T>

Maryring
2008-07-22, 12:45 PM
Heh, of course not. I really like them myself. Glad you liked it.

ahzreal
2008-07-22, 01:26 PM
Very cool, i've always thought that the Fey were really fun to play. ^_^

DracoDei
2008-07-22, 05:00 PM
I will just point out that it is currently listed as haqving a '-' for LA.

Maryring
2008-07-22, 05:06 PM
Yeah. I'm going to need some help in giving it a LA to make it playable. I'm thinking +4 but... I've never been good at assigning LA.