Corgiarians (3.5 Race!) (P.E.A.C.H)

[Pika...]

Fluff:

A proud, yet adorable race of savage barbarians. The Corgiarians cherish bloodshed and honor among all else, well, except maybe a good scratch behind the ears...

~Walenier of the Wild Elf Tribe Tarkis

Sample Corgiarian:
Size/Type: Small Magical Beast
Hit Dice: 1d12+2 (12 hp)
Initiative: +3
Speed: 40 ft. / 10 ft. (If on two legs)
Armor Class: 16 (+1 size, +3 Dex, +2 natural), touch 14, flat-footed 13
Base Attack/Grapple: +1/-1
Attack: Bite +3 melee (1d4+2), or Greataxe +3 melee (1d10+2/x3)
Full Attack: Bite -3 melee (1d4+1) and Greataxe +3 melee (1d10+2/x3)
Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks: Rage
Special Qualities: Low-light vision, scent, prehensile paws
Saves: Fort +4, Ref +3, Will -2
Abilities: Str 14, Dex 17, Con 15, Int 10, Wis 6, Cha 14
Skills: Jump +7, Listen +5, Spot +5, Survival +4*
Feats: Toughness, TrackB, DiehardB
Environment: Temperate plains
Organization: Pack (5-12)
Challenge Rating: 1/2
Treasure: Their weapon
Alignment: Usually NN
Advancement: By Character Class
Level Adjustment: +0

Corgiarians are a sentient race of dogs who's origins baffle even the sages of the Elven Libraries. Savage and unpredictable, yet cute beyond words, one can not help but go "awww" as one runs towards you. Well, until you notice the sharp pointy axe it's wielding at least...

Their races' only true allies are the nomadic Wild Elf tribes. Trade is common between the two races, the Corgiarians trading meats and furs harvested from their preys in exchange for small-sized blades of any kind. It is Common for Corgiarians to appear out of seemingly nowhere to defend a Wild Elf in danger, although it is as much an excuse to savagely fight as it is loyalty to their pointy-eared allies.


Combat
Corgiarians generally hunt in packs, madly charging prey with teeth and blades alike until either it or they are dead.

When in combat Corgiarians can either stand on three legs and wield a one-handed weapon in their fourth paw, or (albeit adorably) balance on their rear two legs and wield a two-handed weapon in their front paws or duel-wield two weapons in their front paws. When balancing on two legs a Corgiarian's speed is reduced to 10 ft., and it suffers a -4 penalty versus trip attacks.


Skills
Corgiarians have a +4 racial bonus on Jump checks, and a +4 bonus to Charisma related checks when dealing with dog loving humanoids, apes, and the occasional lonely magical beast. *Corgiarians have a +6 racial bonus on Survival checks when tracking by scent.




Corgiarian Traits (Ex)

Corgiarians possess the following racial traits.

+2 Dexterity, -4 Wisdom, +2 Charisma.
* Small size. +1 bonus to Armor Class, +1 bonus on attack rolls, +4 bonus
on Hide checks, -4 penalty on grapple checks, lifting and carrying limits ¾
those of Medium characters.
* Quadruped: When on four legs Quadrupeds can carry heavier loads than
most characters can. Multiply the value corresponding to the creature’s
Strength score from Table: Carrying Capacity by Small ×1.5.
* A Corgiarian’s base land speed is 40 feet (On four legs), or 10 feet (when
balancing on two legs)
* When in combat Corgiarians can either stand on three legs and wield a
one-handed weapon in their fourth paw, or (albeit adorably) balance on
their rear two legs and wield a two-handed weapon in their front paws or
duel-wield two weapons in their front paws. When balancing on two
legs a Corgiarian's speed is reduced to 10 ft., and it suffers a -4 penalty
versus trip attacks.
* Low-light vision.
* Scent.
* Prehensile Paws: Corgiarian front paws look like that of any normal dog,
but are able to bend and flex to have the manual dexterity of a
demi-human. However, they still do not have thumbs, so suffer a -6
penalty versus Disarm attempts.
* Bite Attack for 1d4 damage.
* Corgiarians have a +4 racial bonus on Jump checks, and a +4 bonus to
Charisma related checks when dealing with dog loving humanoids, apes,
and the occasional lonely magical beast. *Corgiarians have a +6 racial
bonus on Survival checks when tracking by scent.
* Corgiarians receive Track and Diehard as bonus feats.
* Automatic Languages: K9, Elven. Bonus Languages: Common.
* Favored Class: Barbarian.

[Debihuman]

All sentient Animals should be Magical Beasts. This is exactly the same as if they had been Awakened.

Debby

[Pika...]

All sentient Animals should be Magical Beasts. This is exactly the same as if they had been Awakened.

Debby

Thank you kindly Debby!

Magical Beasts they have become!


However, I did not want to make them awakened due to the extra hit dice. I wanted them to be LA+0ish. They would be fun in my campaign world, and I can see a player or two playing them eventually in my group. LoL.

Can you help me with making it balanced for LA+0 without the awakened hit dice and such please?

Also, I tweaked it a bit. Less Wisdom (for obvious reasons. LoL), an extra Natural Armor since I figured they'd be tougher than the average dog, boosted up the strength by one, the bonus to Charisma since Corgies are just cute, and such. Please let me know your thoughts Debby. I LOVE it when you help me on this forum!

[Omnicrat]

Your picture is much too large.

[Pika...]

Your picture is much too large.

My apologies.

Fixed it.

[Pesimismrocks]

Having two feats is pretty powerful for a LA 0 race. I'd remove diehard and the jump and charisma checks. At the moment it seems a little too powerful compared to a Halfling or gnome.

[Bhu]

[Pika...]

This alone, from the GREAT Bhu, is an honor.

Having two feats is pretty powerful for a LA 0 race. I'd remove diehard and the jump and charisma checks. At the moment it seems a little too powerful compared to a Halfling or gnome.

That makes me sad.

What do you all think would be better: Strip it down a bit and remove some of the uniqueness I wanted, or just make it a LA +1?


Many Pikas for all your helps so far!

[darklink_shadow]

Quadruped bonus to carry only functions while standing on four legs. You've stated previously that the can stand on two.

Also it says x 1, I believe it should be 1.5.

It shouldn't get Diehard. If you want LA+0, you can't hand out two feats. Either that or give it worse penalties.

Like it wields weapons of size decreased by one, due to difficulty in holding things in dog-esq paws. They still don't have thumbs. That or suffer -6 when being disarmed. Thumbs help a lot for that kind of stuff.

Or double the wisdom penalty.

Maybe something else. It'd be easy to just not hand our free diehard... it doesn't even make sense. In what way are Corgi's so fortuitous that you would have to kill them to put them down? My friend's pet corgi ran into a wall and took enough dmage to lose consciousness. That wasn't even close to lethal amounts of bludgeoning anyways. Nor do they have superior clotting abilities to end bleeding.

Giving them diehard is dumb, imo.

[sournote103]

YES. I SUPPORT THIS.

[Pika...]

Quadruped bonus to carry only functions while standing on four legs. You've stated previously that the can stand on two.

Also it says x 1, I believe it should be 1.5.

It shouldn't get Diehard. If you want LA+0, you can't hand out two feats. Either that or give it worse penalties.

Like it wields weapons of size decreased by one, due to difficulty in holding things in dog-esq paws. They still don't have thumbs. That or suffer -6 when being disarmed. Thumbs help a lot for that kind of stuff.

Or double the wisdom penalty.

Maybe something else. It'd be easy to just not hand our free diehard... it doesn't even make sense. In what way are Corgi's so fortuitous that you would have to kill them to put them down? My friend's pet corgi ran into a wall and took enough dmage to lose consciousness. That wasn't even close to lethal amounts of bludgeoning anyways. Nor do they have superior clotting abilities to end bleeding.

Giving them diehard is dumb, imo.

You have some great ideas darklink. Thank you so much for taking the time to tell me them!

I will update the Quadruped entry to say only when it is on four legs. I kinda intended it to only really be on two legs in combat, and when trying to act adorably cute (aka Charisma Checks). Normally they will just be carrying their (usually) one big weapon in their mouths when walking anyways.

I will check on the Quadruped entry to make sure it is correct to boot.

I will definitely add the -6 versus Disarm attempts, and I will double the Wisdom penalty. I feel a worse Wisdom penalty should have been there from the beginning to anyways.

I feel bad that I LOL'd in real life quite hard upon reading the story of your friend's dog. But in a way that is the crazy cuteness of Corgis I want to express through this homebrew. As for the Diehard, I don't know why, but I just see it in my mind them acting that way. Also, it just seems like it would add to the humor/laughs of the whole thing to me.

[darklink_shadow]

Ok, with a lower wisdom, give them a bigger bonus to survival while tracking. (+3 more?)

Then everything *should* be fairly balanced.