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Zenos
2008-09-25, 11:07 AM
The Beastkin are human beings with a rare, supernatural gene that allows them to become some kind of animal. They are often mistaken for lycanthropes, but they are not. Their bite does not infect men and women with lycanthropy, they are not vulnerable to silver and they always have
some presence of mind when tranformed, although the first time might be frightening for the unaware. Some believe it to be a curse, other believe it to be a Curse of Awsome, some feel it is a blessing whilst other thinks it is a Blessing of Suck.

Requirements:
-+8 Base attack bonus
-Knowledge: Nature 5
-Feat: Endurance
-Race: Human
-Special: Must have a rare, supernatural recessive gene from both father's side and mother's side. This usually comes from having a shapeshifter ancestor.

Adaptation: You might not like the whole genetics thing, and so change the fluff to include some kind of curse or other magic, you might also want to try non-animal races as the secondary form.

Beastkin
Hit Dice: D8
Skill points per level: 4+INT modifier
Skills: Balance, Climb, Craft, Escape Artist, Handle Animal, Heal, Hide, Intimidate, Jump, Knowledge (nature), Listen, Move Silently, Perform, Profession, Survival, Swim.
{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Special|Manuevers known|Manuevers readied

1st|
+1|
+2|
+2|
+0|Animal shape, strenght of the half-breed, animal empathy|1|0
2nd|
+2|
+3|
+3|
+0|Extraordinary Toughness, Extraordinary Senses|0|1
3rd|
+3|
+3|
+3|
+1|Senses Beyond the Normal, Controlled shape|1|0
4th|
+4|
+4|
+4|
+1|Animal shape extraordinary abilities, Hunting Technique|0|1
5th|
+5|
+4|
+4|
+1|Beastkin maturity, extraordinary form, animal shape (swift action)|1|0[/table]

Proficiencies: The Beastkin gains no proficiencies with weapons or armour, except the natural weapons of the animal form.

Animal form(Ex): The character must, upon taking his first level in this class, choose one medium, small or tiny mammalian or reptilian Animal which cannot have Hit Dice higher than your class level. The character may at will transform into this animal and back to human form. In the animal form the character has the same statistics as his human form and gains the use of any natural attacks of the animal form, a +2 bonus to animal empathy checks (see below) the animal's racial skill bonuses, movement modes and the size of the animal, including any size modifiers.
At first level, the Beastkin has little control over his shapechanging. To change form the character must make a DC 15 will save or fail. If the character takes a wound in animal form he must make a will save (DC 15+damage) or transform to human and vica versa. The character must also take a will save DC of 15 if he is stressed, or near fire in animal form, or any other situation where the DM thinks the PC might lose control. If the animal form is predatory the smell of fresh meat or blood imposes another will save. If the animal form is exposed to a fear effect and fails it's save against it (or it doesn't grant a save) the character will immediately tranform into human form. The tranformation takes a full action and will destroy most kinds of clothes, or make them too large for your animal form. The DM determines how much the clothes get in the way of the transformation. Whilst you are in animal shape, your creature type is animal.
At 3rd level in this class the transformation takes only a move action and the character no longer has to make will saves to transform.
At 4th level the character may make use of the animals (Ex) abilities, like poison and improved grab, due to having practiced on how to use it.
At 5th level the tranformation takes only a swift action, and the character may choose between one of these three special abilities:
Powerful build: You're larger than others of the same species. You can count yourself one size larger for the purposes of grappling, tripping and other opposed checks, +1 to your natural armour as well as your carrying capacity. This applies to both human and animal forms.
Slender build: You are unusually lithe compared to others of the same species, you may count yourself as one size smaller for the purposes of squeezing through gaps and tunnels, gain a +1 bonus to to-hit rolls, a +1 size bonus to AC as well as gaining a +4 bonus to hide and move silently checks. This form applies to both human and animal form.
Hybrid form: You an transform into a third form that is a cross of your human and animal form. You can manipulate items with your hands as if you were human, speak all languages you know, cast spells and use your animal forms (Ex) abilities and natural attacks. This form has the creature type Humanoid [shapeshifter].
Many people believe hybrid form Beastkin to be anthromorphic animals or some kind of rare humanoid species.
Animal empathy: This ability works like the druid wild empathy, except you substitute your character level for druid levels, and it only works on your own kind of animal and animals vaguely related to it (say, you're a wolf, you may commmunicate with dogs).

Combat instincts: If the Beastkin has levels in any Martial Adept class, he gains one more manuever known each odd-numbered level, and one more manuever readied for each even-leveled class level. The manuevers will be from any discipline the adept already knows, or from Tiger Claw. Even if the Beastkin does not have Martial adept levels, he may still recieve manuevers known and readied, but will do so as a non-initiator and be able only to take manuevers from Tiger Claw or any discipline he has from Martial Study.

Strength of the half-breed: Your human and animal forms are innately linked, therefore the character gains the animal forms racial physical ability bonuses added to his ability score. A human with a 14 STR who tranforms into an animal with 16 STR gains a STR 17 score.

Extraordinary toughness: The character's animal form's robustness ingles with the human endurance to make the character tougher than both. The character gainst +2 constitution.

Extraordinary senses: The character can, when in animal form use the form's (Ex) senss, like Scent and Tremorsense.

Hunting technique: You have learned a technique to aid you in self-defense and hunting for food. Choose one of these abilities, if your animal form does not have any extraordinary abilities, choose two:
-Savage charge: The character gains the pounce special attack.
-Sudden strike: The character gains +2d6 damage when attacking a surprised target, like the ninja ability of the same name.
-Dogfighting: When you have grappled your target in animal or hybrid form, you may make a rake attack with your bite or claw attack. For every increment of five you win the opposed grapple test you gain a +1 bonus to hit and damage on this attack.
THIS ONE NEEDS MORE SUGGESTIONS.

Senses beyond the normal: The animals senses is assisted by human colour vision and brain activity, granting the character higher awareness of his surroundings, gain +2 wisdom.

Mature Beastkin: The character has become an adult Beastkin and gains the shapeshifter subtype. He/she also gains a +4 bonus to charisma-based checks involving the opposite gender of his/her human and animal forms.

Zenos
2008-09-25, 03:25 PM
That was the mechanical part then, any constructive commentary?

Sorry for punny title.

Mando Knight
2008-09-25, 10:38 PM
Man, I feel like a wo...

...mbat.


-Special: Must have a recessive gene from both father's side and mother's side. This usually comes from a shapeshifter ancestor.

Wait, what? A recessive gene from each parent? Isn't that about 90% of the human population?

Zenos
2008-09-26, 09:13 AM
Man, I feel like a wo...

...mbat.



Wait, what? A recessive gene from each parent? Isn't that about 90% of the human population?

Sorry, I meant a specific recessive gene. You know about albinism? There's a similar mechanic for who has the Beastkin gene and the actual condition here.

EDIT: Added skills, any ideas for another name for this class? I just think the name is a bit... Clichè.

AstralFire
2008-09-26, 09:23 AM
As far as the average PrC name goes, you're generally forced to be vague, cliché, generic, or some combination thereof. I wouldn't worry about it too much.

I'll try and take a look at this class in a bit. Going for a run now.

Zenos
2008-09-26, 09:27 AM
As far as the average PrC name goes, you're generally forced to be vague, cliché, generic, or some combination thereof. I wouldn't worry about it too much.

I'll try and take a look at this class in a bit. Going for a run now.

At least a name with more flair?

AstralFire
2008-09-26, 09:29 AM
'Flair' usually requires a slightly more intrusive set of flavor that goes with it, like the Dragonmarked PrCs.

Uh, the Twoskin? *shrug*

Zenos
2008-09-26, 10:15 AM
'Flair' usually requires a slightly more intrusive set of flavor that goes with it, like the Dragonmarked PrCs.

Uh, the Twoskin? *shrug*

Yeah, I have to get around to actually writing the fluff *grumbles*.

Xallace
2008-09-26, 10:29 AM
I think Skinwalker might be a fitting name, depending on how you go about the flavor.

I'll get to actually critiquing the mechanics soon. Brain a little fuzzy right now.

AstralFire
2008-09-26, 11:24 AM
Um, wow. I just took a glance and this is a full BAB, low requirement, perfect martial progression, perfect spellcasting progression, two good save class. -With- class features.

This class needs serious amping down. Let's get down to basics of what it's intended to be allowing rp-wise, why is this a spellcaster class?

Zenos
2008-09-26, 11:30 AM
Um, wow. I just took a glance and this is a full BAB, low requirement, perfect martial progression, perfect spellcasting progression, two good save class. -With- class features.

This class needs serious amping down. Let's get down to basics of what it's intended to be allowing rp-wise, why is this a spellcaster class?

Yeah, the spellcasting is a bit out of character, I removed it. Maybe I should reduce BaB, since the character isn't actualy training fighting.

AstralFire
2008-09-26, 11:31 AM
Yeah, the spellcasting is a bit out of character, I removed it. Maybe I should reduce BaB, since the character isn't actualy training fighting.

You also took out two of your levels there...

Zenos
2008-09-26, 11:48 AM
You also took out two of your levels there...

Restored. I also made the requirements higher, any ideas for other requirements?

Xallace
2008-09-26, 11:58 AM
I have a question about Strength of the Half-Breed. I'm not entirely sure what happens there. Is it...

1. I add the racial ability modifiers of the animal to my own ability scores?
2. I add the ability modifiers of the animal's ability scores to my own ability scores? (For example, my animal has 16 Strength, so I add +3 to my Strength)
3. I add the ability to my modifiers of the animal's ability scores to the modifiers of my ability scores? (For example, both my animal and I have 16 strength, so I get a +6 bonus on anything that Strength adds to)

The wording seems vague to me.

AstralFire
2008-09-26, 12:09 PM
Animal Form seems to only force changing out of humanoid form, but then there's that bit about fire. You should clarify.

Don't use 'stats'. Use 'ability scores', that's more specific and clear. Except then that conflicts with most readings of Strength of the Half-Breed.

I'm a little wary of letting people pick from pre-existing monsters. There's no real rules abuse here that I can think of off-hand, it's just that there is no benefit at all for picking an animal without a special attack. I'd use the PHB II druid's wild shape as a base, really.

Zenos
2008-09-26, 12:38 PM
About picking cheesy monsters, the DM should just veto any of the cheesy ones.

AstralFire
2008-09-26, 12:43 PM
About picking cheesy monsters, the DM should just veto any of the cheesy ones.

That is actually the opposite of the issue. The issue is that there's no reason currently to pick a monster that doesn't have a special attack, and some of those are favorites.

Zenos
2008-09-26, 12:48 PM
That is actually the opposite of the issue. The issue is that there's no reason currently to pick a monster that doesn't have a special attack, and some of those are favorites.

Well, the only creatures I had in mind were wolves, dogs, cats and non-giant birds. They're not supposed to be rhineceros and polar bears. They're more supposed to use stuff like scent and skill modifiers for out-of combat stuff, then use their existing martial prowess to fight.

AstralFire
2008-09-26, 12:54 PM
Well, the only creatures I had in mind were wolves, dogs, cats and non-giant birds. They're not supposed to be rhineceros and polar bears.

Most of those don't have special attacks; for example, snakes do.

Darkkwalker
2008-09-26, 01:17 PM
So do you mean it must be a genotype Aa as in A=not albino and a=albino?
So you mean it must have a ressesive Mendelian gene?
Does this gene have to be expressed or can you have the Aa genotype?

Do the traits have to be the same?
or can they be different traits and have a dominant gene expressing itself rather than the ressesive being expressed?

Zenos
2008-09-26, 01:31 PM
So do you mean it must be a genotype Aa as in A=not albino and a=albino?
So you mean it must have a ressesive Mendelian gene?
Does this gene have to be expressed or can you have the Aa genotype?

Do the traits have to be the same?
or can they be different traits and have a dominant gene expressing itself rather than the ressesive being expressed?

Now you're just nitpicking. As long as you have a
Beastkin ancestor on your mother's side and another Beastkin ancestor on your father's side you can be Beastkin.

EDIT: Just go with whatever explanation you want.

Zenos
2008-09-26, 01:34 PM
Most of those don't have special attacks; for example, snakes do.

That was examples. You may of course play snakes, weasels and maybe wolverines. Although I think I might have to add some kind of (Ex) ability you can get instead of being able to use the animal's natural Extraordinary abilities, any ideas?

Zenos
2008-09-27, 09:22 AM
Added a class feature named Hunting Technique.

Rigon
2008-09-27, 10:14 AM
hmm... uhm...
does the transformation give opportunity attacks to the bystanders?

i would say that the 2 build feats (Powerful and Slender) are kinda overpowering. if then can have any size then there is no point in limiting to humans anyway.

also i suggest you do make a list of valid animals.
i mean... flying animals are too powerful (powerful build giant eagle... huge + flying = grappled deathdrop power)

as for the flavour how about (american) indian flavour (animal spirits and stuff).

also i don't get the stuff with the tiger claw stance. let me tell you when you change into an animal because of your bloodline then you don't have to put stances/manuevers on)

Zenos
2008-09-27, 10:28 AM
hmm... uhm...
does the transformation give opportunity attacks to the bystanders?

i would say that the 2 build feats (Powerful and Slender) are kinda overpowering. if then can have any size then there is no point in limiting to humans anyway.

also i suggest you do make a list of valid animals.
i mean... flying animals are too powerful (powerful build giant eagle... huge + flying = grappled deathdrop power)

as for the flavour how about (american) indian flavour (animal spirits and stuff).

also i don't get the stuff with the tiger claw stance. let me tell you when you change into an animal because of your bloodline then you don't have to put stances/manuevers on)

Giant eagle is a magical beast, therefore not a valid option for animal shape. But yeah, maybe there should be some more guidelines for exactly what you can have as your secondary form.

Native american flavour, maybe...

Removed Tiger Claw requirements. However, you still get manuevers as you find some nice tricks you can do with your animal shape.

Rigon
2008-09-27, 10:55 AM
whoops i missed the magical beast part with the giant eagle. sorry.
(my brain translates giant eagle as big flying carnivore animal)

how about instincts instead of manuevers? it's really naming only but it kicks the flavour a bit.

also the hybrid form is kinda uhm... fuzzy to me.
let us say that our (what's its name?) prc's secondary form is wolf.
he changes to hybrid... human stature remains... gets bite and claw attacks.
what about creature type? monstrousus humanoid? magical beast? remains human always? (sorry if missed something)
what about extra limbs in hybrid form (like a monkeys tail)?

so we allow canines (wolf/dog), felines (panter/cat) and brumines (bear... okay i made brumines up)... so mammal predators... what else? only mammals? restrictions for flying? i think these are important.

the rake attack ... how about "when in hybrid form and you successfuly grappled and enemy with your claws/hands/clands then once each you can do a free bite attack with a bonus to attack depending on the grapple check against the grappled target" (this kinda sounds like a wolf stepping on caught prey and then biting its neck)

Zenos
2008-09-27, 12:01 PM
Okay, I have renamed Manuevers known/readied to Combat Instincts.

About the hybrid form: The Beastkin retains his stature, opposable thumbs and bipedal movement (also, the ability to wear human clothes with a few tweaks), but also gains the extraordinary abilities and natural attacks of the animal form and will usualy have the head and possibly feet of his animal form.