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Zoodoflask
2008-10-04, 12:35 AM
ok, first off I'm not extremely familiar with Dungeons and Dragons, But none the less I decided to create a fleshed out race in preparation for joining a table-top RPG club at my school. (Sorry to all those who love them but the basic races available just don't interest me, too much circulation among to many things, I've been desensitized to elves, dwarves and halflings :smallfrown: plus I refuse to be human, and have never liked orcs, half or otherwise...).

so... I have taken it upon myself to create a race for the world that will be made once the club is ready (or at least I'd have a race to add to something else if the club goes bust).

Basically I'm looking for some constructive criticism... Am I on the right track with these guys? are they balanced? are they in need of tweaks? are there things that I have forgotten, or not aware of, that must also be added to their stats?

I did do a bit of internet research, but it very possible I have left something out.

I have left out religion and society based info since I haven't fully finished it, but the racial description and stats are bellow.



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Thykirins:

Physical Description: The Thykirin are a race of humanoid looking spiders. They walk on four legs and have four arms. They have a thin build and are various shades of green in color. They have eight eyes two of which are much larger and face forward on there head, the other six are placed around the upper outside corners of the large eyes. They have a wider field of vision then a human's. A Thykirin's field of vision is 200 degrees vertical and 260 degrees horizontal, giving them partial sight behind them. There skin is more like a semi flexible hard leather then the chitin of a normal arachnid, it also has formed into plates instead of a solid mass (allowing for a greater range of movement then most large insect like creatures). Thykirin have an internal skeleton unlike any other insect like species. They also have coarse black hairs which grow thickly from the top and back of their heads and thinly along the sides of their arms and legs.

+1 Dexterity, +1 Intelligence, –2 Charisma.

Medium: As Medium creatures, Thykirins have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size.

Thykirin base land speed is 30 feet.

Low-Light Vision: A Thykirin can see twice as far as a human in starlight, moonlight, torchlight, and similar conditions of poor illumination. He retains the ability to distinguish color and detail under these conditions.

+2 racial bonus on Move Silently and hide checks.

+2 racial bonus on Search and Spot checks.

Canopy dweller: due to living in the canopies of massive trees and their arachnid heritage, the Thykirins have gained an affinity for jumping and climbing. A Thykirin does not require a running start to jump up to 15 feet (it is assumed that a Thykirin has a natural 15 in jump, any distance over 15 feet must have a running start in scale with their natural 15. so a jump of 30 feet would take only a 15 foot running start). the maximum distance a thykirin can jump is 50 feet. Thykirins can also climb and surface with sufficient foot and hand hold with no penalty (it is assumed that a Thykirin has a natural 15 in climb and any surface below 15 DC is negated). Climbing penalties only come into play unless the surface that would be climbed is 16 DC or higher, in addition Thykirin have the ability to climb some smooth surfaces unclimbed by most other races.

Multiple Limbs: Thykirin have four arms, and may take the Multi-Weapon Fighting feat. They can wield four one-handed weapons, two two-handed weapons, two bows, or two double weapons at a time. This is NOT a bonus feat. Using two bows, two double weapons or two two-handed weapons is the same as fighting with two one handed weapons as a two armed creature. (Wielding multiple two-handed weapons is extremely impractical and cumbersome and will cause -2 to attack roll, AC, reflex and fortitude saving throws). When a Thykirin is equipped with a single projectile weapon they may fire it a twice the normal rate due to having two arms free to set and fire the projectiles. (All feats that would increase the firing rate will scale according to the Thykirins current rate of fire).

Weapon Proficiency: Thykirin’s receive the Martial Weapon Proficiency feats for the longbow (including composite longbow), shortbow (including composite shortbow), kukari, and scimitar as bonus feats.

Favored Class: Ranger, Druid or Cleric. A multiclass Thykirin’s Ranger, Druid or Cleric class does not count when determining whether she takes an experience point penalty for multiclassing.



Maybe stats: (will add if I can, but these stats are extra)


+1 AC (the Thykirin have an exoskeleton like shell instead of normal skin that is tougher then normal skin)

Wood-sense: This ability grants a Thykirin a +2 racial bonus on Search checks to notice shoddy or odd carpentry; such as rotten stairs, trap-doors, new construction (even when built to match the old), decaying rope bridges, or any other wood based construction that seam’s out of place or unsafe. Unnatural wood or something made to look like wood will also catch a Thykirins eye. A Thykirin who merely comes within 10 feet of questionable wooden architecture will make a search check as is they where judging the constructions safety. A Thykirin can use the Search skill to find traps hidden behind wooden walls, floors and ceilings as a rogue can.

Racial Enemy: due to thousands of years of intense struggles the Thykirin people have gained a burning hatred of Centipedes. They gain a +2 to attack roll, reflex, will, fortitude, poison and illusion saving throws when fighting a Centipede of threating size and will attack it on sight.


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to get an idea of what they look like look at my avatar.

that's about it... have fun ripping it apart :smallbiggrin:

The Glyphstone
2008-10-04, 12:52 AM
1) Races never have +1 or -1 stat modifiers. the +2's are there for a reason...mainly, to cut off minimaxing.

2) Multiple Limbs is quite powerful - consider the existing Thri-Keen for a comparison. They're a race from the XPH, and look like this.
http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/ssouth_gallery/84377.jpg

Compared to your Thykrin stats, they have a small Strength boost, a small Dexterity boost, a small Wisdom boost, and a larger Charisma penalty. They also have an affinity for jumping, though in their case, it's just a racial bonus to Jump checks - a very big one. They have more racial natural armor, some weak claw attacks, and a 1/day Poisonous bite with minor effects.

For all of that, the thri-keen has two monstrous humanoid HD and a +2 level adjustment, making him an effective Level 4 character without taking any class levels. The Thykrin are roughly the same in terms of stats, with the only major difference being the lack of natural weapons and poison, and the Thykrin's Woodcunning and bonus to attacks versus..centipedes? Who fights centipedes?:smallsmile: This is so situational as to be almost useless, especially one you get past level 3 or 4...Gargantuan and Colossal Monstrous Centipedes are rarely seen. If this was a racial bonus versus all Vermin-type monsters, it'd be much more useful.

You'd probably want to give them at least a +2 or +3 level adjustment as they currently stand...having multiple arms is a significant ability for any player race. The penalties for wielding extra two-handed weapons aren't really necessary either.


Here's a cleaned up version of your racial summary with a few minor changes:
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Thykirins: [/CENTER]

+2 Dexterity, +2 Intelligence, –2 Charisma. Thykrins are agile and smart, but find it difficult to relate to other creatures.

Medium: As Medium creatures, Thykirins have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size.

Speed: Thykirin base land speed is 30 feet.

Low-Light Vision: A Thykirin can see twice as far as a human in starlight, moonlight, torchlight, and similar conditions of poor illumination. He retains the ability to distinguish color and detail under these conditions.

+1 racial bonus to natural armor. Thykrins have very dense exoskeletal plating.

+2 racial bonus to Hide, Move silently, Search, and Spot.

+2 racial bonus on Search and Spot checks.

Canopy Dweller: due to living in the canopies of massive trees and their arachnid heritage, the Thykirins have gained an affinity for jumping and climbing. Thykrins have a +15 racial bonus to Climb and Jump checks, and can scale surfaces that would be impassable to many other creatures.

Multiple Limbs: Thykirin have four arms, and may take the Multi-Weapon Fighting feat. As long as they are wielding a single ranged weapon and holding nothing else in their other two armors, a Thykrin recieves Rapid Shot as a bonus feat.

Weapon Proficiency: Thykirin’s receive the Martial Weapon Proficiency feats for the longbow (including composite longbow), shortbow (including composite shortbow), kukari, and scimitar as bonus feats.


Favored Class: Ranger, Druid or Cleric. A Thykrin ignores his levels in either Ranger, Druid, or Cleric, whichever is the highest, when calculating penalties for multiclassing.

Woodcunning: This ability grants a Thykirin a +2 racial bonus on Search checks to notice shoddy or odd carpentry; such as rotten stairs, trap-doors, new construction (even when built to match the old), decaying rope bridges, or any other wood based construction that seems out of place or unsafe. Unnatural wood or something made to look like wood will also catch a Thykirins eye. A Thykirin who merely comes within 10 feet of questionable wooden architecture will make a search check as is they where judging the constructions safety. A Thykirin can use the Search skill to find traps hidden behind wooden walls, floors and ceilings as a rogue can.

Vermin Hunters: Due to thousands of years of intense struggles the Thykirin people have gained a burning hatred of centipedes, spiders, and other monstrous vermin. They gain a +2 racial bonus to attack rolls against any creature of the Vermin type, and a +2 racial bonus to saving throws against any special attack by such a creature. When confronted with a creature of the Vermin type, a Thykrin must make a Will save or mindlessly attack the creature.

Level Adjustment: +3.

Zoodoflask
2008-10-04, 01:09 AM
ha ha, ya... the Centipedes I was talking about are roughly 1,000 feet long and regularly raid thykirin town eating dozens to hundreds. they are the main enemy's of the thykirin people and thus, the thykirin hate centipedes (plus I hate centipedes, they are dame creepy bugs).

the two Two-handed weapon penalty's where really put in because thykirin are a human sized race and it seems totally ridiculous to have them be able to wield to claymores at once... not to mention the fact that they would most likely kill themselves just trying to swing the things.

honestly I'd like to eliminate Multiple two-handed weapons all together and allow them to use only small weapons like daggers and short swords (with the exception of the longbow and maybe the spear).

Zoodoflask
2008-10-04, 01:38 AM
I guess I should have added that they live in a jungle where the trees are so tall that the jungle floor is pitch black (that's where the crazy massive centipedes live). because of the threat these colossal insects hold the thykirin live in large community's so they could repel such attacks.

so they very specifically hate centipedes... its and odd hatred but I think it's reasonable.

the wood cunning thing was an afterthought and is totally unnecessary so was the racial hatred. the bonus to Ac isn't really necessary to but it makes more sense.

also can rapid shot be taken twice? because if a creature can hold an arrow while firing another all it takes is some hand eye coordination to keep a fluid movement.
(I didn't want to make it to obvious but the Bow is the weapon of choice for their entire race, multiple eyes to judge distance, long coarse hairs on their head to gather wind speed and direction, long arms to draw the bow back further. standing on 4 legs to keep then stable under just about any situation. their a race that seems designed to use a bow at it peck efficiency.)
the bow is like a holy weapon to them, a symbol of power.
like the sword is to a human. or the axe to a dwarf.

I guess it I truly want to balance them or at least get them down to 1 or 2 level adjustment I'll have to make some sacrifices, but they need to be crazy with the bow.

The Glyphstone
2008-10-04, 11:31 AM
For the Centipedes - it makes cool fluff, but the problem is that Monstrous Centipedes aren't seen very often in games because they're so weak.

As an aside, 1,000-foot long Centipedes is a bit too big to be believable (a Colossal creature is only 64ft - to be 1,000ft. long, that'd be size category Colossal++++...that's bigger than the Tarrasque, and much harder to stop. It'd take near epic-level magic to kill one of those things. Unless the Thykrin have epic mages of their own (or the centipedes, have, say, a weak point to strike FOR MASSIVE DAMAGE:smallsmile:), one of those ubercentipedes would exterminate entire cities. It's your fluff, so do whatever you like, but you've got it at a scale where you give minor bonuses against an enemy who becomes utterly nonthreatening after level 4 or so, and justified by fighting against creatures that would take the magical equivalent of nuclear explosives to damage effectively.

I'd just leave Multiple Arms as-is, too much bother to make it different than all the other races out there with multiple arms - thri-keen, maraliths, girallons, all of them can wield two two-handed weapons without any problem except proficiences.

Rapid Shot can't be taken more than one time, so it'd just eliminate the need to spend a feat slot on it...it'd be a slight downside to a Thykrin Ranger, but meh. It wouldn't be unreasonable for such a character to take a different archery-related feat like Precise Shot instead.

Trimming out Woodcunning and the Racial Hatred wouldn't do a whole lot to lower the LA, because they're so situational - getting rid of both of them would probably drop the LA to +2 or so...as long as they have the ability to wield multiple weapons, they're just too good to get any lower.