Building a New D&D Setting
- Thread starter Lord Raine
- Start date
They're based off a dumbed down version of the Centaur. My reason for the adjustment is that the Centaur has even higher racial bonuses to it's stats, plus special load rules and a land-speed of 50, and it's only a +2.
But apes don't, and this is supposed to be what amounts to a sentient ape.
Yo:
It would be munchkin'y if they could bypass all chaos and law restricts. They can only do it for Monk and Barbarian. And having Monk/Barbarians is kind of the point.
It's not overpowering by comparison. Humans can multiclass freely as much as they want with no penalties, Elves can attempt any skill check even if they're untrained, and Dwarves can racially ignore up to 50% Spell Failure due to armor restrictions.
Plus, the three main PC races (Elves, Dwarves, Humans) all have what amounts to a standard Bloodline progression, in that they accrue bonuses and advanced racial abilities as they increase their Character Level.
However, the Beringi don't have this luxuary, as they aren't a main race. Thus, in the long run, a Beringi won't be as powerful as one of the main races.
Of course, there's another solution I've been considering, but it would be a lot of work. A lot. It's probably the best option, though. In a sentence, just make a Bloodline for every race, including the Beringi.
If done properly, that would smooth over all the issues, as it spreads the racial attributes out across many levels. Some races, like the Beringi, might have a stronger start, but have a weaker long-term progression. Others, like the Humans, may have a weaker start, but pick up consistent and solid returns throughout their entire level development.
But apes don't, and this is supposed to be what amounts to a sentient ape.
Yo:
It would be munchkin'y if they could bypass all chaos and law restricts. They can only do it for Monk and Barbarian. And having Monk/Barbarians is kind of the point.
It's not overpowering by comparison. Humans can multiclass freely as much as they want with no penalties, Elves can attempt any skill check even if they're untrained, and Dwarves can racially ignore up to 50% Spell Failure due to armor restrictions.
Plus, the three main PC races (Elves, Dwarves, Humans) all have what amounts to a standard Bloodline progression, in that they accrue bonuses and advanced racial abilities as they increase their Character Level.
However, the Beringi don't have this luxuary, as they aren't a main race. Thus, in the long run, a Beringi won't be as powerful as one of the main races.
Of course, there's another solution I've been considering, but it would be a lot of work. A lot. It's probably the best option, though. In a sentence, just make a Bloodline for every race, including the Beringi.
If done properly, that would smooth over all the issues, as it spreads the racial attributes out across many levels. Some races, like the Beringi, might have a stronger start, but have a weaker long-term progression. Others, like the Humans, may have a weaker start, but pick up consistent and solid returns throughout their entire level development.
Yeah, but beyond the crazy stat modifiers (which are a +16 compared to your +14, so it's relatively equal) the only real thing the centaur has going for it is the +3 natural armor bonus, and the fact that it's speed is slightly higher than normal for a Large creature. Everything else is due to its natural Hit Dice.
The beringi, on the other hand, has not only the crazy stat modifiers, but also the other movement mode of comparable speed and scent, on top of racial skill bonuses, low-light vision, and powerful build.
Wouldn't it be better to just have them be Humanoids, then? I'm really not seeing the "monstrous" part of this if they're just talking monkeys.
I admit I overlooked that detail, but that's still fairly munchkin-y in that you're putting together two classes that are not only philosophically opposite, but that the designers deliberately tried to separate (and there's not a big difference between this and also allowing them to ignore the law/chaos restrictions for, bards, druids, and paladins). I'll admit that exception-based rules are the basis for a lot of 3.5, but allowing monk/barbarians is like allowing paladin/assassins...it just seems like something a power-gamer would want.
It really is, let's take a look.
By "no penalties" do you mean they never take that -20% XP for multiclassing that's not within 1 level of their classes...or do you mean they have no restrictions on any classes ever? Because the former is not enough, whereas the latter is too much.
A power that's roughly the equivalent of one feat (Jack of All Trades), and not a very good one at that, since they won't achieve comparatively high rolls on untrained skill checks.
This has a built-in limit in that it's only good for levels of sorcerer and wizard, and hence won't lead to particularly broken combinations like barbarian/monks, for which the only restriction is that they won't be able to access the higher-level features for both classes at once.
I assume you're using the Unearthed Arcana bloodline rules? If that's the case, then I'm guessing you're using the standard bloodline variant, which basically makes you give up a level by 6th level, and another by 12th, or you take multiclassing penalties (apparently unless the character is human)...though I suspect that you'll waive that restriction.
That said, it's not that you're giving the other races a boost that's the problem, it's that the beringi is still more powerful (that is, needs a higher LA) than you're estimating.
That would be a mad ton of work, considering you'd be making minor, intermediate, and major bloodline progressions for damn near every race.
That said, while trying to pump-up the base races to even out the disparity in power isn't a bad idea per se, there will be balance issues - as it stands now, some of your races are more equal than others in terms of the powers you've given them.
Maybe it'd be better to just give out some free levels in racial paragon classes for the major races, or use Bloodline Levels (and the sequel book, Monstrous Bloodlines) instead of adopting UA's rather cumbersome bloodline mechanics?
The beringi, on the other hand, has not only the crazy stat modifiers, but also the other movement mode of comparable speed and scent, on top of racial skill bonuses, low-light vision, and powerful build.
Wouldn't it be better to just have them be Humanoids, then? I'm really not seeing the "monstrous" part of this if they're just talking monkeys.
I admit I overlooked that detail, but that's still fairly munchkin-y in that you're putting together two classes that are not only philosophically opposite, but that the designers deliberately tried to separate (and there's not a big difference between this and also allowing them to ignore the law/chaos restrictions for, bards, druids, and paladins). I'll admit that exception-based rules are the basis for a lot of 3.5, but allowing monk/barbarians is like allowing paladin/assassins...it just seems like something a power-gamer would want.
It really is, let's take a look.
By "no penalties" do you mean they never take that -20% XP for multiclassing that's not within 1 level of their classes...or do you mean they have no restrictions on any classes ever? Because the former is not enough, whereas the latter is too much.
A power that's roughly the equivalent of one feat (Jack of All Trades), and not a very good one at that, since they won't achieve comparatively high rolls on untrained skill checks.
This has a built-in limit in that it's only good for levels of sorcerer and wizard, and hence won't lead to particularly broken combinations like barbarian/monks, for which the only restriction is that they won't be able to access the higher-level features for both classes at once.
I assume you're using the Unearthed Arcana bloodline rules? If that's the case, then I'm guessing you're using the standard bloodline variant, which basically makes you give up a level by 6th level, and another by 12th, or you take multiclassing penalties (apparently unless the character is human)...though I suspect that you'll waive that restriction.
That said, it's not that you're giving the other races a boost that's the problem, it's that the beringi is still more powerful (that is, needs a higher LA) than you're estimating.
That would be a mad ton of work, considering you'd be making minor, intermediate, and major bloodline progressions for damn near every race.
That said, while trying to pump-up the base races to even out the disparity in power isn't a bad idea per se, there will be balance issues - as it stands now, some of your races are more equal than others in terms of the powers you've given them.
Maybe it'd be better to just give out some free levels in racial paragon classes for the major races, or use Bloodline Levels (and the sequel book, Monstrous Bloodlines) instead of adopting UA's rather cumbersome bloodline mechanics?
I feel the need to further explain why I gave the Beringi what I did. It's not a random collection of powers.
The original idea I had was simple. Sentient apes. I'll just take the Ape out of the Monster Manuel, drag its Int out of the gutter, and make it a Monstrous Humanoid instead of an Animal. Easy. Unfortunately. . . it wasn't.
See, Apes are apparently badass. For starters, Apes are Large. I thought they were Medium, but no, they're Large. Then I ran the numbers, and it got worse. Using the standard mechanic of subtracting 10 to get the modifiers, an Ape has: +11 Strength, +5 Dexterity, +4 Constitution, -8 Intelligence, +2 Wisdom, -3 Charisma
That's insane. Then, to top it all off, they have a Climb speed equal to their land speed, Racial bonuses +14 Climb, +6 Listen, +6 Spot, Low-Light Vision, Scent, Alertness, and Toughness, plus claw and bite attacks, and the 10ft reach that comes with being Large.
It became obvious REAL fast that I couldn't play the idea completely straight. They would be horrifically overpowered unless I gave them a massive Level adjustment, which I didn't want to do. I didn't want to give any of the races I was making more than a +2, as that's about the limit for what you can casually play without issue.
So I looked for another race that was similar. I found it in the Centaur. Centaurs have +8 Str, +4 Dex, +4 Con, -2 Int, +2 Wis. This struck me as very similar to what an Ape has, though it obviously has massively reduced Strength.
I figured that I could use this as a baseline. So I knocked the Strength down further to +6.
I ruled that this would be a Medium species, not a Large, so I gave them the Powerful Build racial feature. That gives them most of the benefits of being large, but not the most broken one (the 10ft reach).
I nerfed the Apes Racial skills down to a more manageable +2 Listen +2 Spot, and ruled that the race should only have the required bonus for possessing a Climb speed (+8), instead of the Ape's +14.
I dropped the natural bite and claw attacks, ruling that being civilized beings, the Beringi would not have either.
And finally, I dropped both the Alertness and Toughness, figuring that the PC could pick those Feats up if they wanted them, though I did give them the Ape's Scent and Low-Light Vision.
But. . . you do have a point. So here's what I'm thinking. How about, instead of giving the Beringi Powerful Build as a Racial ability, I create a Beringi-only Feat that gives them Powerful Build if the Feat is taken? That way, the Beringi wouldn't start out with it, but could get it later if they wanted. I may also drop the +2 Listen and +2 Spot.
Do you think that would be enough to knock it down to a +2?
I object to that comparison, on the grounds that a Paladin-Assassin is completely viable. Assassin's aren't Evil because they focus on being really good at killing things. If that alone was enough to warrant being evil, then pretty much everyone who was in a Class would be Evil by default.
The reason Assassins are considered evil is because they're mercenaries. They kill for money.
The idea of an assassin who kills for something other than money, like their god, is perfectly viable. And it could easily overlap with the Paladin to create a specific prestige class.
Plus, I had kinda planned on a Paladin-Assassin hybrid prestige class for this setting anyway. They would be part of a secret knighthood that jointly serves Heironeous and Corellon Latherian.
This. They also have access to a number of Elven prestige classes like Bladesinger, due to the alliances between Humans and Elves.
Actually, I was just going to rule that every major race was automatically a Major/Intermediate bloodline, and hand out bonuses every few levels accordingly.
Wait, there's a better way than the UA one?
*goes off to read*
The original idea I had was simple. Sentient apes. I'll just take the Ape out of the Monster Manuel, drag its Int out of the gutter, and make it a Monstrous Humanoid instead of an Animal. Easy. Unfortunately. . . it wasn't.
See, Apes are apparently badass. For starters, Apes are Large. I thought they were Medium, but no, they're Large. Then I ran the numbers, and it got worse. Using the standard mechanic of subtracting 10 to get the modifiers, an Ape has: +11 Strength, +5 Dexterity, +4 Constitution, -8 Intelligence, +2 Wisdom, -3 Charisma
That's insane. Then, to top it all off, they have a Climb speed equal to their land speed, Racial bonuses +14 Climb, +6 Listen, +6 Spot, Low-Light Vision, Scent, Alertness, and Toughness, plus claw and bite attacks, and the 10ft reach that comes with being Large.
It became obvious REAL fast that I couldn't play the idea completely straight. They would be horrifically overpowered unless I gave them a massive Level adjustment, which I didn't want to do. I didn't want to give any of the races I was making more than a +2, as that's about the limit for what you can casually play without issue.
So I looked for another race that was similar. I found it in the Centaur. Centaurs have +8 Str, +4 Dex, +4 Con, -2 Int, +2 Wis. This struck me as very similar to what an Ape has, though it obviously has massively reduced Strength.
I figured that I could use this as a baseline. So I knocked the Strength down further to +6.
I ruled that this would be a Medium species, not a Large, so I gave them the Powerful Build racial feature. That gives them most of the benefits of being large, but not the most broken one (the 10ft reach).
I nerfed the Apes Racial skills down to a more manageable +2 Listen +2 Spot, and ruled that the race should only have the required bonus for possessing a Climb speed (+8), instead of the Ape's +14.
I dropped the natural bite and claw attacks, ruling that being civilized beings, the Beringi would not have either.
And finally, I dropped both the Alertness and Toughness, figuring that the PC could pick those Feats up if they wanted them, though I did give them the Ape's Scent and Low-Light Vision.
But. . . you do have a point. So here's what I'm thinking. How about, instead of giving the Beringi Powerful Build as a Racial ability, I create a Beringi-only Feat that gives them Powerful Build if the Feat is taken? That way, the Beringi wouldn't start out with it, but could get it later if they wanted. I may also drop the +2 Listen and +2 Spot.
Do you think that would be enough to knock it down to a +2?
I object to that comparison, on the grounds that a Paladin-Assassin is completely viable. Assassin's aren't Evil because they focus on being really good at killing things. If that alone was enough to warrant being evil, then pretty much everyone who was in a Class would be Evil by default.
The reason Assassins are considered evil is because they're mercenaries. They kill for money.
The idea of an assassin who kills for something other than money, like their god, is perfectly viable. And it could easily overlap with the Paladin to create a specific prestige class.
Plus, I had kinda planned on a Paladin-Assassin hybrid prestige class for this setting anyway. They would be part of a secret knighthood that jointly serves Heironeous and Corellon Latherian.
This. They also have access to a number of Elven prestige classes like Bladesinger, due to the alliances between Humans and Elves.
Actually, I was just going to rule that every major race was automatically a Major/Intermediate bloodline, and hand out bonuses every few levels accordingly.
Wait, there's a better way than the UA one?
*goes off to read*
Okay, all of a sudden it's much easier to understand where you were coming from. I can see how that'd be a headache to reverse-engineer into a viable PC race (and, in fact, the difficulty in doing so is one of the major problems with monsters-as-characters).
Let's go over this point by point.
Nitpick here: The standard is actually subtracting 10 or 11, whatever gives you an even-numbered result. Racial ability adjustments (and, in fact, ability score modifiers of any kind) should always be even numbers. So it's actually +10 Strength, +4 Dexterity, +4 Constitution, -8 Intelligence, +2 Wisdom, -4 Charisma.
Also, regarding their size, this is one of those situations where a creature's size category is bumped up strictly due to its mass. Apes are described as being between 5-1/2 to 6 feet tall, and weighing 300 to 400 lbs. Height alone makes them Medium, but their weight pushed that up to Large.
But yeah, this is already presenting some problems for a PC race.
It's worth noting that you erred here, though it doesn't change much.
Apes have natural 4 Hit Dice. This grants them things like skill points and feats, which you seem to have counted as racial bonuses. They get Alertness and Toughness because every character gets to choose a feat at their 1st and 3rd Hit Dice/levels. And as an Animal with 4 Hit Dice and an Int of 2, they have 7 skill points to spend, which means that their skill bonuses listed break down like so:
Climb +14 = 1 skill point, +5 Str, +8 racial
Listen +6 = 3 skill points, +1 Wis, +2 Alertness
Spot +6 = 3 skill points, +1 Wis, +2 Alertness
I couldn't agree with you more on that one. Heck, even at +2 such a character is working with a handicap, for the most part.
Another unfortunate aspects of level adjustments is that they're an art, and not a science. I'd personally say that any race that has a +6 to their Strength will gain a +1 level adjustment from that alone unless they have some fairly steep penalties to other ability scores (and not just Charisma, which is not equal to Strength).
Yeah, that works okay, though honestly I don't think it's needed - while I do admire your dedication in trying to keep the beringi close to the statistics for apes, they don't have to be quite as close as you're making them.
See above.
As a fluff issue, you could say this applies for why they don't necessarily have a lot of the characteristics animal apes have, since they've presumably gone through a long period of evolution themselves. For instance, they may be much lighter than animal apes, and as such not be Large nor have powerful build.
See above about the feats.
Savage Species, from WotC, tagged Scent as a +1 LA modifier on its own, something I'm not sure I totally agree with, but generally do. Low-light vision isn't an issue.
It's not powerful build that's the problem. It's the heavy ability bonuses more than anything else. I really think that anything over +4 in an ability score is too much for a (standard) PC race.
Were I writing the race, I'd probably give them something along the lines of +4 Strength, -2 Dexterity, +2 Constitution, -2 Intelligence. That's roughly even with a slight nod towards Strength - there's plenty of ways to justify that in-game, as you can say that as the beringi became more civilized, they spent less time having to hunt-gather, and so quickly lost some muscle mass, though they're still much stronger and more hearty than humans. However, their evolution has left them without the grace their ancestors had (a result of being in the middle of an evolutionary shift from huge and dumb to weaker but smarter), and they're still not as smart as other humanoid races.
I'd also lower their climb speed to 20 ft., so it's more attractive to a PC to walk rather than climb all the time.
And again, I'd make them Humanoids.
Beyond that, if you want to add in more abilities and powers, I do think you're on the right track with making powerful build a racial feat. But I wouldn't stop there - a combination of racial feats and a racial class (about three levels or so) would be the ideal way to go about it. Bloodline Levels should have already showed you a bunch of racial classes, but really the best examples you'll find of a race that can be made stronger with this racial feat/class combination can be found among the Emerging Forms line, such as the Euqsam I linked to a few posts back.
Having said all of that, if you want to make them have a +2 LA of abilities so that they're equal to the major races (which have bloodlines), then I'd just jack up those ability bonuses, probably to something along the lines of +6 Strength, +2 Dex, +4 Constitution, and +4 Wisdom, or so. Though I'd also keep the Climb speed at 20 ft. and make them Humanoids still...but that's just an off-the-cuff estimation.
Finally, there are some third-party products that have sentient apes in them, such as Betabunny Publishing's Apes of Nature, Myth, & the Imagination. They have sentient apes, chimps, and orangutans made for being PCs...though I'm disheartened to note that the sapient gorilla race is basically just a slightly less-powerful ape.
We're talking about different things here. You're discussing the philosophical reasons why such as character isn't viable, whereas I was talking about why it's a bad match mechanically. Using a smite evil on top of a death attack with a poisoned weapon is a bit too much.
Or rather, because they kill for evil reasons - murder for hire is evil, and paladins are, you know, good.
Only if killing for a good reason. Morality and alignment are absolutes in D&D.
For example, even the Gray Guard prestige class (from Complete Scoundrel) - a prestige class whose concept is "a paladin who can get his hands dirty" - is still required to be Lawful Good and follow a code that prevents evil acts.
A holy slayer class isn't a thematic problem - giving a class an ability that grants a massive to-hit bonus, along with a feature that lets them kill in one blow, however, is a mechanical problem.
Which? You quoted both of the things I asked.
Cool.
Yeah, that'd basically give them a +2 or +3 LA worth of power, depending on which progression you use, essentially raising the bar on how powerful the base races are. There's nothing wrong with that - it's your campaign after all.
You'd be amazed how often a third-party does an idea better than WotC's version.
That site, The Grand OGL Wiki, is a great place for how much is reposted there, free and legally.
Let's go over this point by point.
Nitpick here: The standard is actually subtracting 10 or 11, whatever gives you an even-numbered result. Racial ability adjustments (and, in fact, ability score modifiers of any kind) should always be even numbers. So it's actually +10 Strength, +4 Dexterity, +4 Constitution, -8 Intelligence, +2 Wisdom, -4 Charisma.
Also, regarding their size, this is one of those situations where a creature's size category is bumped up strictly due to its mass. Apes are described as being between 5-1/2 to 6 feet tall, and weighing 300 to 400 lbs. Height alone makes them Medium, but their weight pushed that up to Large.
But yeah, this is already presenting some problems for a PC race.
It's worth noting that you erred here, though it doesn't change much.
Apes have natural 4 Hit Dice. This grants them things like skill points and feats, which you seem to have counted as racial bonuses. They get Alertness and Toughness because every character gets to choose a feat at their 1st and 3rd Hit Dice/levels. And as an Animal with 4 Hit Dice and an Int of 2, they have 7 skill points to spend, which means that their skill bonuses listed break down like so:
Climb +14 = 1 skill point, +5 Str, +8 racial
Listen +6 = 3 skill points, +1 Wis, +2 Alertness
Spot +6 = 3 skill points, +1 Wis, +2 Alertness
I couldn't agree with you more on that one. Heck, even at +2 such a character is working with a handicap, for the most part.
Another unfortunate aspects of level adjustments is that they're an art, and not a science. I'd personally say that any race that has a +6 to their Strength will gain a +1 level adjustment from that alone unless they have some fairly steep penalties to other ability scores (and not just Charisma, which is not equal to Strength).
Yeah, that works okay, though honestly I don't think it's needed - while I do admire your dedication in trying to keep the beringi close to the statistics for apes, they don't have to be quite as close as you're making them.
See above.
As a fluff issue, you could say this applies for why they don't necessarily have a lot of the characteristics animal apes have, since they've presumably gone through a long period of evolution themselves. For instance, they may be much lighter than animal apes, and as such not be Large nor have powerful build.
See above about the feats.
Savage Species, from WotC, tagged Scent as a +1 LA modifier on its own, something I'm not sure I totally agree with, but generally do. Low-light vision isn't an issue.
It's not powerful build that's the problem. It's the heavy ability bonuses more than anything else. I really think that anything over +4 in an ability score is too much for a (standard) PC race.
Were I writing the race, I'd probably give them something along the lines of +4 Strength, -2 Dexterity, +2 Constitution, -2 Intelligence. That's roughly even with a slight nod towards Strength - there's plenty of ways to justify that in-game, as you can say that as the beringi became more civilized, they spent less time having to hunt-gather, and so quickly lost some muscle mass, though they're still much stronger and more hearty than humans. However, their evolution has left them without the grace their ancestors had (a result of being in the middle of an evolutionary shift from huge and dumb to weaker but smarter), and they're still not as smart as other humanoid races.
I'd also lower their climb speed to 20 ft., so it's more attractive to a PC to walk rather than climb all the time.
And again, I'd make them Humanoids.
Beyond that, if you want to add in more abilities and powers, I do think you're on the right track with making powerful build a racial feat. But I wouldn't stop there - a combination of racial feats and a racial class (about three levels or so) would be the ideal way to go about it. Bloodline Levels should have already showed you a bunch of racial classes, but really the best examples you'll find of a race that can be made stronger with this racial feat/class combination can be found among the Emerging Forms line, such as the Euqsam I linked to a few posts back.
Having said all of that, if you want to make them have a +2 LA of abilities so that they're equal to the major races (which have bloodlines), then I'd just jack up those ability bonuses, probably to something along the lines of +6 Strength, +2 Dex, +4 Constitution, and +4 Wisdom, or so. Though I'd also keep the Climb speed at 20 ft. and make them Humanoids still...but that's just an off-the-cuff estimation.
Finally, there are some third-party products that have sentient apes in them, such as Betabunny Publishing's Apes of Nature, Myth, & the Imagination. They have sentient apes, chimps, and orangutans made for being PCs...though I'm disheartened to note that the sapient gorilla race is basically just a slightly less-powerful ape.
We're talking about different things here. You're discussing the philosophical reasons why such as character isn't viable, whereas I was talking about why it's a bad match mechanically. Using a smite evil on top of a death attack with a poisoned weapon is a bit too much.
Or rather, because they kill for evil reasons - murder for hire is evil, and paladins are, you know, good.
Only if killing for a good reason. Morality and alignment are absolutes in D&D.
For example, even the Gray Guard prestige class (from Complete Scoundrel) - a prestige class whose concept is "a paladin who can get his hands dirty" - is still required to be Lawful Good and follow a code that prevents evil acts.
A holy slayer class isn't a thematic problem - giving a class an ability that grants a massive to-hit bonus, along with a feature that lets them kill in one blow, however, is a mechanical problem.
Which? You quoted both of the things I asked.
Cool.
Yeah, that'd basically give them a +2 or +3 LA worth of power, depending on which progression you use, essentially raising the bar on how powerful the base races are. There's nothing wrong with that - it's your campaign after all.
You'd be amazed how often a third-party does an idea better than WotC's version.
That site, The Grand OGL Wiki, is a great place for how much is reposted there, free and legally.
I actually forgot about that. I haven't read the BoED in awhile.
A race of Monks with a penalty to Dex? What's next, a race of Sorcerers with a penalty to Cha?
In all seriousness, one of the core ideas for the race is that they have a boost to Strength and Dexterity. A penalty to Dex just isn't going to fly, because if you're going to go that route, then you should just play an Ork or Half-Ork, and save yourself the trouble.
At the very bare minimum, I see the Beringi as having +4 Str, +2 Dex, -2 Int. And I would fight tooth and nail to get either the +2 Con or the +2 Wis in there as well.
Alright. Alright. How about this. See if this seems better balanced. (And read the whole thing, please. I've tweaked some subtle things that might be missed.)
Beringi
Does that seem more like a +2 race?
Good Guys? don't use poison. The worst they would ever do is stack a Smite with a Sneak Attack, and they can only Smite so many times per day. Sneak Attack would be their bread and butter. Sneak-Smite is what they save for their marks, and possibly one or two especially nasty opponents along the way.
A race of Monks with a penalty to Dex? What's next, a race of Sorcerers with a penalty to Cha?
In all seriousness, one of the core ideas for the race is that they have a boost to Strength and Dexterity. A penalty to Dex just isn't going to fly, because if you're going to go that route, then you should just play an Ork or Half-Ork, and save yourself the trouble.
At the very bare minimum, I see the Beringi as having +4 Str, +2 Dex, -2 Int. And I would fight tooth and nail to get either the +2 Con or the +2 Wis in there as well.
Alright. Alright. How about this. See if this seems better balanced. (And read the whole thing, please. I've tweaked some subtle things that might be missed.)
Beringi
- +4 Strength, +4 Dexterity, -2 Intelligence, +2 Wisdom: Beringi possess incredibly powerful and agile builds, and are well-versed in the lore of nature, but place less emphasis on abstract pursuits, and lack formal centers of learning.
- Movement: Beringi base land speed is 30 feet, and they possess a climb speed of 30.
- Medium: As Medium creatures, Beringi have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size.
- Monstrous Humanoid: As monstrous humanoids, Beringi are proficient with all simple weapons, but they have no proficiency with any armor or shield.
- Low-Light Vision: A Beringi can see twice as far as a human in starlight, moonlight, torchlight, and similar conditions of poor illumination. They retain the ability to distinguish color and detail under such conditions.
- Scent: Beringi possess the Scent special ability.
- +2 Listen: Survival in the jungle requires unusually sharp hearing, which the Beringi have developed over time.
- +2 Spot: Beringi possess a keen sense of sight, honed through generations in their treacherous jungle homeland.
- +8 Climb checks: Thanks to their climb speed, Beringi possess a +8 racial bonus on Climb checks and can always choose to take 10 on Climb checks, even if rushed or threatened.
- Automatic Languages: Common and Sylvan. Bonus Languages: Giant, Dwarven, Goblin, Ork, Undercommon. Beringi know the languages of their allies, and find it prudent to understand the languages of their enemies.
- Favored Classes: Barbarian, Monk. The harsh life in the jungle is a constant contest of chaos and law, and the Beringi have learned that both savagery and discipline are invaluable assets to their survival. A multiclass Beringi's Monk and Barbarian class does not count when determining whether they take an experience point penalty.
- Level Adjustment: +2
Does that seem more like a +2 race?
Good Guys? don't use poison. The worst they would ever do is stack a Smite with a Sneak Attack, and they can only Smite so many times per day. Sneak Attack would be their bread and butter. Sneak-Smite is what they save for their marks, and possibly one or two especially nasty opponents along the way.
Indeed it does! Nicely done! The only suggestion I'd want to make at this point is that you could probably squeeze in the +2 Constitution bonus, but should drop the Climb speed to 20 ft. if you do so.
And I still advocate making them humanoids. ^_^
Level adjustment doesn't scale according to natural Hit Dice. The racial abilities for the beringi are at a place where they're worth a +2 LA, no matter if they have one natural Hit Die or twenty.
Strictly speaking, paladins - not good guys per se - don't use poison, as that prohibition is in their class's code of conduct, rather than it being an alignment restriction.
That said, forgive my error there. Since you're waiving their alignment restrictions for entry I thought you'd let that particular detail slide too.
No, the worst he could do would be to smite evil while making a death attack (presuming that you let the latter count as "one normal melee attack"), since the to-hit bonus increases the chances that the death attack will land.
And I still advocate making them humanoids. ^_^
Level adjustment doesn't scale according to natural Hit Dice. The racial abilities for the beringi are at a place where they're worth a +2 LA, no matter if they have one natural Hit Die or twenty.
Strictly speaking, paladins - not good guys per se - don't use poison, as that prohibition is in their class's code of conduct, rather than it being an alignment restriction.
That said, forgive my error there. Since you're waiving their alignment restrictions for entry I thought you'd let that particular detail slide too.
No, the worst he could do would be to smite evil while making a death attack (presuming that you let the latter count as "one normal melee attack"), since the to-hit bonus increases the chances that the death attack will land.
I'm working on the next race to post, but I thought I'd throw out two last important bits.
1.) The Beringi have one last Racial trait I forgot to mention. They treat Beringi War Gauntlets as Martial Weapons, instead of Exotic Weapons. Beringi War Gauntlets are pretty much exactly what they sound like. They're articulated gauntlets designed to augment the user's lethality in hand-to-hand combat without encumbering or restricting finger movement. (This is different from standard gauntlets, which are designed to protect the forearm, and have the added bonus of making your punches hurt a lot more. These are designed to make your punches hurt a lot more.)
Beringi War Gauntlets are considered Exotic Weapons, but being their inventors, Beringi have a racial weapons affinity for them, so they are considered Martial Weapons for Beringi.
2.) As pseudo-fluff, the Beringi make use of bronze far more than iron, because the jungle they live in has many deposits of copper and tin, but few deposits of iron. They also prefer bronze because it doesn't rust, which is important in their extremely humid home climate.
This matters, because bronze actually has different stats from iron. It's softer, which means it's easier to work with and easier to make intricate things with. In-game (according to the DMG), this translates into a lower hardness and hit points than standard iron, but also means it's easier to work with, which translates into a lower DC for crafting Masterwork items from it.
Also, the next race is going to be fun. I would really love to keep this one under +3 as well, but it's going to be difficult.
The reason should be obvious.
At least I know Powerful Build is totally justified for this one. :/
Lessee. Powerful Build is a given, so there's that. I'm thinking +6 Strength, as +4 seems too small. However, I do see an obvious Dex penalty, so either a -2 or a -4 there. +Con is a given, so let's go with +2 for now. I intend them to be machinists and craftsmen, so I don't see an obvious -Int happening, and I'd say they have standard Wis.
Soo. Just off the top of my head: +6 Strength, -2 Dex, +2 Con. Possibly a -4 if we need to nerf them a bit.
The Beringi may have arguably been Humanoids, but I don't see much room for arguing that the Delfah are Monstrous Humanoids. So there's that to take into consideration as well.
Also. . . I usually don't like making secondary races Large, but there very well may be justification for it here. I'm just hesitant to give them the 10ft reach, which is one of the reason's I'd prefer to just give them a built-in Powerful Build.
It's logical that a civilized race would have taboos against bite attacks, even if they had teeth that could, but there's no getting around the natural claw attacks.
And that's about all I can think of just off the top of my head, at least for now. Thoughts? And do keep in mind that I'm trying really hard to keep this a +2 at most.
1.) The Beringi have one last Racial trait I forgot to mention. They treat Beringi War Gauntlets as Martial Weapons, instead of Exotic Weapons. Beringi War Gauntlets are pretty much exactly what they sound like. They're articulated gauntlets designed to augment the user's lethality in hand-to-hand combat without encumbering or restricting finger movement. (This is different from standard gauntlets, which are designed to protect the forearm, and have the added bonus of making your punches hurt a lot more. These are designed to make your punches hurt a lot more.)
Beringi War Gauntlets are considered Exotic Weapons, but being their inventors, Beringi have a racial weapons affinity for them, so they are considered Martial Weapons for Beringi.
2.) As pseudo-fluff, the Beringi make use of bronze far more than iron, because the jungle they live in has many deposits of copper and tin, but few deposits of iron. They also prefer bronze because it doesn't rust, which is important in their extremely humid home climate.
This matters, because bronze actually has different stats from iron. It's softer, which means it's easier to work with and easier to make intricate things with. In-game (according to the DMG), this translates into a lower hardness and hit points than standard iron, but also means it's easier to work with, which translates into a lower DC for crafting Masterwork items from it.
Also, the next race is going to be fun. I would really love to keep this one under +3 as well, but it's going to be difficult.
The reason should be obvious.
At least I know Powerful Build is totally justified for this one. :/
Lessee. Powerful Build is a given, so there's that. I'm thinking +6 Strength, as +4 seems too small. However, I do see an obvious Dex penalty, so either a -2 or a -4 there. +Con is a given, so let's go with +2 for now. I intend them to be machinists and craftsmen, so I don't see an obvious -Int happening, and I'd say they have standard Wis.
Soo. Just off the top of my head: +6 Strength, -2 Dex, +2 Con. Possibly a -4 if we need to nerf them a bit.
The Beringi may have arguably been Humanoids, but I don't see much room for arguing that the Delfah are Monstrous Humanoids. So there's that to take into consideration as well.
Also. . . I usually don't like making secondary races Large, but there very well may be justification for it here. I'm just hesitant to give them the 10ft reach, which is one of the reason's I'd prefer to just give them a built-in Powerful Build.
It's logical that a civilized race would have taboos against bite attacks, even if they had teeth that could, but there's no getting around the natural claw attacks.
And that's about all I can think of just off the top of my head, at least for now. Thoughts? And do keep in mind that I'm trying really hard to keep this a +2 at most.
How are these supposed to be different from standard spiked guantlets?
Beyond that, this won't have any appreciable effect on their LA.
It's not, as you noted, a racial thing, so there's no worry there.
On another note, I know I've been harping on the beringi being humanoids rather than monstrous humanoids, but I think I've done a bad job explaining why.
Monstrous humanoids are described as "Monstrous humanoids are similar to humanoids, but with monstrous or animalistic features. They often have magical abilities as well." Now, the "animalistic features" thing may sound like carte blanche to make any creature with animal-like abilities a monstrous humanoid. But consider that things like lizardfolk, merfolk, troglodytes, locathahs, etc. are humanoids, clearly that's not a hard and fast rule.
Monstrous humanoids are things that (giants notwithstanding) have a basic humanoid shape, but are very clearly not natural beings in either their overall body design or their abilities. Things like centaurs, gargoyles, doppelgangers, and medusas are monstrous humanoids. A race of sentient apes doesn't seem to quite fit in with this category.
From a mechanical standpoint, monstrous humanoids also have darkvision, which the beringi racial information doesn't mention. This doesn't mean you have to give them darkvision, but you at least need to mention that they're an exception to their type otherwise. Moreover, being a monstrous humanoid is also a defense against a handful of lower-level spells such as charm person or hold person that only target humanoids.
That's my take on it, anyway. I'll shut up about it now.
Maybe not as difficult as you'd think...
The reason should be obvious.
You know, it took me a moment to notice the bear-man in the back, since I was too busy ogling the half-naked woman in front of him (yay for bikini-armor!) and even then, my first thought was "it's a race of bear-people who can morph into hot chicks!"
I notice that you've left the mental ability scores alone. You mentioned why for Intelligence and Wisdom, but what about Charisma? A penalty there is somewhat tricky, since it's the obvious dump stat for everyone who isn't a bard or sorcerer (and maybe a paladin), so it'd probably have to be at least -4, but it might be worth exploring.
You have a somewhat stronger case for that creature type here, but remember what I said above.
When trying to determine if something should be a monstrous humanoid, ask yourself if the creature is either A) basically humanoid in shape with some major bodily alterations (e.g. centaur, harpy, gargoyle, yuan-ti) or B ) has innate supernatural powers (e.g. hag, doppelganger, derro, medusa).
If the delfah are just bear-people, then monstrous humanoid is still an iffy choice.
That makes sense, and I agree with you on this one.
The thing about the bite attacks is trying to place a fluff limit on crunch, which never works. If your race has a natural bite attack, with a note that they don't use it since they're civilized, I can assure you that a player won't care about that - they'll want every combat advantage they can, and will just toss out a fluff rationale like "my character doesn't care about breaking that social taboo, he's a rebel" or something like that.
If you give them natural bite attacks, be prepared for them to be used when players have the opportunity to do so. Otherwise, don't give it to them at all.
That said, it's worth noting that while powerful build does allow a character to use weapons one size larger, it doesn't increase the damage of unarmed strikes and natural weapons. So, any claw attacks you give them (which are usually 1d4 for Medium creatures) won't be improved by that quality.
Actually, when you break this down, there's comparatively few special abilities here. The Dexterity and Constitution modifiers negate each other, with the potential for a greater Dexterity penalty and/or a Charisma penalty, so the Strength bonus isn't all that much. Powerful build isn't too advantageous, and wouldn't stack with two natural weapons (particularly since hands holding a weapon can't make claw attacks). Finally, if you use it, the monstrous humanoid type only grants very minor benefits over the humanoid type if there's no natural Hit Dice involved.
My current read on the delfah places them at +1 LA.
Beyond that, this won't have any appreciable effect on their LA.
It's not, as you noted, a racial thing, so there's no worry there.
On another note, I know I've been harping on the beringi being humanoids rather than monstrous humanoids, but I think I've done a bad job explaining why.
Monstrous humanoids are described as "Monstrous humanoids are similar to humanoids, but with monstrous or animalistic features. They often have magical abilities as well." Now, the "animalistic features" thing may sound like carte blanche to make any creature with animal-like abilities a monstrous humanoid. But consider that things like lizardfolk, merfolk, troglodytes, locathahs, etc. are humanoids, clearly that's not a hard and fast rule.
Monstrous humanoids are things that (giants notwithstanding) have a basic humanoid shape, but are very clearly not natural beings in either their overall body design or their abilities. Things like centaurs, gargoyles, doppelgangers, and medusas are monstrous humanoids. A race of sentient apes doesn't seem to quite fit in with this category.
From a mechanical standpoint, monstrous humanoids also have darkvision, which the beringi racial information doesn't mention. This doesn't mean you have to give them darkvision, but you at least need to mention that they're an exception to their type otherwise. Moreover, being a monstrous humanoid is also a defense against a handful of lower-level spells such as charm person or hold person that only target humanoids.
That's my take on it, anyway. I'll shut up about it now.
Maybe not as difficult as you'd think...
The reason should be obvious.
I notice that you've left the mental ability scores alone. You mentioned why for Intelligence and Wisdom, but what about Charisma? A penalty there is somewhat tricky, since it's the obvious dump stat for everyone who isn't a bard or sorcerer (and maybe a paladin), so it'd probably have to be at least -4, but it might be worth exploring.
You have a somewhat stronger case for that creature type here, but remember what I said above.
When trying to determine if something should be a monstrous humanoid, ask yourself if the creature is either A) basically humanoid in shape with some major bodily alterations (e.g. centaur, harpy, gargoyle, yuan-ti) or B ) has innate supernatural powers (e.g. hag, doppelganger, derro, medusa).
If the delfah are just bear-people, then monstrous humanoid is still an iffy choice.
That makes sense, and I agree with you on this one.
The thing about the bite attacks is trying to place a fluff limit on crunch, which never works. If your race has a natural bite attack, with a note that they don't use it since they're civilized, I can assure you that a player won't care about that - they'll want every combat advantage they can, and will just toss out a fluff rationale like "my character doesn't care about breaking that social taboo, he's a rebel" or something like that.
If you give them natural bite attacks, be prepared for them to be used when players have the opportunity to do so. Otherwise, don't give it to them at all.
That said, it's worth noting that while powerful build does allow a character to use weapons one size larger, it doesn't increase the damage of unarmed strikes and natural weapons. So, any claw attacks you give them (which are usually 1d4 for Medium creatures) won't be improved by that quality.
Actually, when you break this down, there's comparatively few special abilities here. The Dexterity and Constitution modifiers negate each other, with the potential for a greater Dexterity penalty and/or a Charisma penalty, so the Strength bonus isn't all that much. Powerful build isn't too advantageous, and wouldn't stack with two natural weapons (particularly since hands holding a weapon can't make claw attacks). Finally, if you use it, the monstrous humanoid type only grants very minor benefits over the humanoid type if there's no natural Hit Dice involved.
My current read on the delfah places them at +1 LA.
The damage they deal stacks with the damage that would normally occur from an unarmed strike, instead of replacing it.
To compensate for this, they are Exotic Weapons instead of Martial Weapons, and they deal slightly less damage by themselves than a standard spiked gauntlet.
Fluff-wise, they're designed to augment and work together with the user's natural blows, as opposed to replacing them with a metallic battering ram.
I didn't think they would, but I wanted to point it out anyway, as they should have a Racial Weapon Affinity line in their text, but I forgot to put it in. That was my fault for overlooking it.
I should have been more clear. I'm using their civilized nature to justify them not having a bite attack, even though they probably should. As in "they don't have one at all."
That's. . . actually not a bad idea. A race of people who can freely turn from bears to humans. The only issue I'd have with it is that that's basically what a werebear is, so they'd be a race of what amounts to werebears, but aren't werebears.
I'm seeing a -2 Cha, on account of a racial predisposition towards gruffness, and a social climate that doesn't place much weight on being well-spoken.
Thanks for the clarification. It's just that I was going by the definitions in the back of the Monster Manual, and this is their definition of Monstrous Humanoid:
My main reason for going with Monstrous Humanoid is the "often have magical abilities," which means they don't always, and the "use this type for just about anything that combines elements of human and animal or monster anatomy."
That's just my interpretation of it, though.
Really? Any idea what I could give them that could raise them to a +2? Part of the theme I'm going for is that all of the beastial races are +2 level adjustment, no more and no less.
Some of the things I've been considering:
~ Allow them to maintain their land speed even when wearing Medium and Heavy Armor, and when carrying a Medium or Heavy load.
~ Racial bonus to Appraise and/or Craft checks.
~ They can select either Craft Arms And Armor or Craft Wondrous Item as a bonus feat at first level.
~ Some Racial bonus to represent their toughness, either mental or physical, such as a bonus to Will against enchantments, or a bonus to resist poisons.
[EDIT]
I'd like to clarify that the Delfah aren't a race of smiths like the Dwarves, though they do smith quite a bit. They're more of a race of engineers and architects than anything else, which is why Craft Wondrous Item is up there. And because of the architecture thing, they might also have something to reflect that, like a bonus to spotting traps or hidden doors.
[DOUBLE EDIT]
I just had a thought related to the above. I've never actually put something like this into a race before, so I'm not sure how well it would work, but what if the Delfah had an innate racial ability to disarm traps like a Rouge? The fluff behind it works, but I'm not sure if it would be a good idea or not. Mostly because the ability to disarm traps is one of the reasons Rouges are so important, and also because I don't ever recall seeing a race that had the built-in ability to do that. I've seen everything from Shapeshifting to Smiting to summoning, but never trap disarming.
My instinct tells me it would be a bad idea, though, as it would halfway make one of the core Classes obsolete.
I'm not as thoroughly well versed in the rules as some, but is there a way to make natural weapons not-suck besides taking levels in Monk or applying Weapon Focus to them?
I ask because I think realistically, a Delfah's claws would probably be their secondary weapon of choice (first Large Warhammer, then claws), if not their main one, but I can't think of any mechanic in D&D that would make their claw attacks relevant in the long run (even though they most certainly would be IRL).
I mean, you could give them a racial weapon that overlays their claws with metal, and. . . that's about it. I can't think of much else. And they would need something else, because just giving their claws the properties of a metal or a weapon (like adamantium clawed gauntlets, or somesuch) would only work for so long, because eventually, the game will progress past the point where 1d8+X is relevant.
Basically, what I'm asking is if there's a way to increase the size and number of die used for attacks with natural weapons. Because from what I understand, there's no direct way to do this.
To compensate for this, they are Exotic Weapons instead of Martial Weapons, and they deal slightly less damage by themselves than a standard spiked gauntlet.
Fluff-wise, they're designed to augment and work together with the user's natural blows, as opposed to replacing them with a metallic battering ram.
I didn't think they would, but I wanted to point it out anyway, as they should have a Racial Weapon Affinity line in their text, but I forgot to put it in. That was my fault for overlooking it.
I should have been more clear. I'm using their civilized nature to justify them not having a bite attack, even though they probably should. As in "they don't have one at all."
That's. . . actually not a bad idea. A race of people who can freely turn from bears to humans. The only issue I'd have with it is that that's basically what a werebear is, so they'd be a race of what amounts to werebears, but aren't werebears.
I'm seeing a -2 Cha, on account of a racial predisposition towards gruffness, and a social climate that doesn't place much weight on being well-spoken.
Thanks for the clarification. It's just that I was going by the definitions in the back of the Monster Manual, and this is their definition of Monstrous Humanoid:
My main reason for going with Monstrous Humanoid is the "often have magical abilities," which means they don't always, and the "use this type for just about anything that combines elements of human and animal or monster anatomy."
That's just my interpretation of it, though.
Really? Any idea what I could give them that could raise them to a +2? Part of the theme I'm going for is that all of the beastial races are +2 level adjustment, no more and no less.
Some of the things I've been considering:
~ Allow them to maintain their land speed even when wearing Medium and Heavy Armor, and when carrying a Medium or Heavy load.
~ Racial bonus to Appraise and/or Craft checks.
~ They can select either Craft Arms And Armor or Craft Wondrous Item as a bonus feat at first level.
~ Some Racial bonus to represent their toughness, either mental or physical, such as a bonus to Will against enchantments, or a bonus to resist poisons.
[EDIT]
I'd like to clarify that the Delfah aren't a race of smiths like the Dwarves, though they do smith quite a bit. They're more of a race of engineers and architects than anything else, which is why Craft Wondrous Item is up there. And because of the architecture thing, they might also have something to reflect that, like a bonus to spotting traps or hidden doors.
[DOUBLE EDIT]
I just had a thought related to the above. I've never actually put something like this into a race before, so I'm not sure how well it would work, but what if the Delfah had an innate racial ability to disarm traps like a Rouge? The fluff behind it works, but I'm not sure if it would be a good idea or not. Mostly because the ability to disarm traps is one of the reasons Rouges are so important, and also because I don't ever recall seeing a race that had the built-in ability to do that. I've seen everything from Shapeshifting to Smiting to summoning, but never trap disarming.
My instinct tells me it would be a bad idea, though, as it would halfway make one of the core Classes obsolete.
I'm not as thoroughly well versed in the rules as some, but is there a way to make natural weapons not-suck besides taking levels in Monk or applying Weapon Focus to them?
I ask because I think realistically, a Delfah's claws would probably be their secondary weapon of choice (first Large Warhammer, then claws), if not their main one, but I can't think of any mechanic in D&D that would make their claw attacks relevant in the long run (even though they most certainly would be IRL).
I mean, you could give them a racial weapon that overlays their claws with metal, and. . . that's about it. I can't think of much else. And they would need something else, because just giving their claws the properties of a metal or a weapon (like adamantium clawed gauntlets, or somesuch) would only work for so long, because eventually, the game will progress past the point where 1d8+X is relevant.
Basically, what I'm asking is if there's a way to increase the size and number of die used for attacks with natural weapons. Because from what I understand, there's no direct way to do this.
How about this:
Natural Artifacer: Delfah are naturally gifted in the creation of magical equipment. No matter the class, a Delfah counts as having a caster level equal to their hit dice for the purposes of creating magical items. They count as having the spells and class abilities required to create the item. They must still have the required feats and any other creation requirements.
If that makes sense. It could probably use polishing.
As to the natural weapon damage, maybe give them something like psyblades?
Natural Artifacer: Delfah are naturally gifted in the creation of magical equipment. No matter the class, a Delfah counts as having a caster level equal to their hit dice for the purposes of creating magical items. They count as having the spells and class abilities required to create the item. They must still have the required feats and any other creation requirements.
If that makes sense. It could probably use polishing.
As to the natural weapon damage, maybe give them something like psyblades?
So you roll damage dice for both your unarmed strike, and for these weapons? I foresee some problems with that, such as confusion over whether the gauntlet damage is also multiplied on a critical hit - not to mention that adding in damage dice will make the overall damage quite a bit greater than you may think.
For example, you mentioned that these do "slightly less" damage than normal spiked gauntlets. Let's assume that's 1d3, which is also what an unarmed strike does - hence, a strike while wearing these gauntlets does 2d3 damage. Since the average roll on a d3 is 2, that means they do 4 points of damage on average. This is almost the same as having a weapon that uses a d8 damage die, which averages 4.5 points of damage, rounded down.
Of course, none of that is really problematic - just make it clear the weapon damage dice is also doubled on a critical, and make sure to answer questions regarding the type of damage (piercing/slashing/bludgeoning) these do, and if they modify the damage type for the unarmed strike also, and you should be fine.
Ah. Okay then.
I can't deny your assertion, here, but at the same time I feel like there's more to it than that. On the surface, any race that has an animal/human transformation would seem similar to a lycanthrope of that type, but only in regards to their major theme of humans who turn into animals.
Lycanthropes have other major themes that define them, such as their trinity of shapes (humanoid/hybrid/animal), vulnerability to silver, and contagious bite (for natural lycanthropes) or loss of control (for afflicted lycanthropes). Remove these and add in other themes, and you have a new kind of shapechanger, such as the tibbit (who look like a small humanoid, or a cat) from the Dragon Compendium.
Sounds good.
You're not wrong; I just always saw it as being "humanoid with magical abilities, or humanoid with weird body shape" and that if it doesn't have one or the other, it's not a monstrous humanoid.
The quickest way to bump up a level adjustment is to add in things like energy resistances or spell-like abilities; spell resistance too, but I wonder if that'd be too much here.
The bonuses to Appraise and Craft checks, as well as giving them an item creation feat, aren't such great ideas. The former isn't bad, but it won't bump up their LA at all, since those are rarely-used skills (and never used in combat or for class abilities). Likewise, the Craft feats are only useful to spellcasting classes, and even then you have to meet the caster level of any items you want to make, have the necessary spells and funds, and spend experience points, which is why PCs don't take item creation feats too often.
Giving them the dwarven ability to carry heavier armor without a speed reduction isn't a bad idea, but it's not enough to bump up their LA. Also giving them some save bonuses might do it, though.
I wonder if this makes it too easy for them to creating items; not to mention it'd be somewhat odd if Fighters with no ranks in Spellcraft or Knowledge (arcana) can spend a feat to start forging magic sword.
It's not all that bad an idea - the notion that only rogues (with the trapfinding ability) can detect difficult mechanical traps, or any magical traps, has gotten quite a bit of criticism and third-party revision from some of the bigger names in the industry. For example, Paizo Publishing's Pathfinder makes it so that anyone can detect or disarm a mechanical trap, or detect a magic trap; trapfinding is only needed to disarm a magic trap. Likewise, Sean K. Reynolds covered this several years ago as part of his idea regarding fewer absolutes.
That said, it's not like this one ability would make rogues obsolete, since they have many other abilities - that said, add in a caveat that anyone who takes a class that grants trapfinding gains a bonus or something.
And, of course, add in fluff for why they have that at all.
There's always Improved Natural Attack.
Bear in mind, an unarmed strike is not a natural weapon - monk delfahs wouldn't use their claws for their flurry of blows, and would follow the normal monk progression for unarmed strike damage.
The major drawback to natural weapons isn't their damage dice - a longsword also deals 1d8+X damage - but rather is twofold: you don't get iterative attacks with them, and you can't enchant them. Major damage is gotten from stacking bonuses onto your attack, and then being able to attack multiple times over the course of a round.
Maybe that's an idea for a racial ability - delfah's claws are special, and can be enchanted as magic weapons can, with enhancement bonuses and magic weapon qualities. In fact, that'd also get around the problem with iterative attacks too; according to Trailblazer, you're more likely to deal damage with two attacks that have small/no penalties on the to-hit roll than on four attacks with increasing penalties. Given that making two claw attacks as a full attack action would carry no penalties, since both are primary natural weapons, a delfah with enchanted claws would be able to inflict damage at the same proficiency as a character using enchanted weapons.
Though be aware that the more attractive you make their claws, the more useless powerful build becomes in comparison.
For example, you mentioned that these do "slightly less" damage than normal spiked gauntlets. Let's assume that's 1d3, which is also what an unarmed strike does - hence, a strike while wearing these gauntlets does 2d3 damage. Since the average roll on a d3 is 2, that means they do 4 points of damage on average. This is almost the same as having a weapon that uses a d8 damage die, which averages 4.5 points of damage, rounded down.
Of course, none of that is really problematic - just make it clear the weapon damage dice is also doubled on a critical, and make sure to answer questions regarding the type of damage (piercing/slashing/bludgeoning) these do, and if they modify the damage type for the unarmed strike also, and you should be fine.
Ah. Okay then.
I can't deny your assertion, here, but at the same time I feel like there's more to it than that. On the surface, any race that has an animal/human transformation would seem similar to a lycanthrope of that type, but only in regards to their major theme of humans who turn into animals.
Lycanthropes have other major themes that define them, such as their trinity of shapes (humanoid/hybrid/animal), vulnerability to silver, and contagious bite (for natural lycanthropes) or loss of control (for afflicted lycanthropes). Remove these and add in other themes, and you have a new kind of shapechanger, such as the tibbit (who look like a small humanoid, or a cat) from the Dragon Compendium.
Sounds good.
You're not wrong; I just always saw it as being "humanoid with magical abilities, or humanoid with weird body shape" and that if it doesn't have one or the other, it's not a monstrous humanoid.
The quickest way to bump up a level adjustment is to add in things like energy resistances or spell-like abilities; spell resistance too, but I wonder if that'd be too much here.
The bonuses to Appraise and Craft checks, as well as giving them an item creation feat, aren't such great ideas. The former isn't bad, but it won't bump up their LA at all, since those are rarely-used skills (and never used in combat or for class abilities). Likewise, the Craft feats are only useful to spellcasting classes, and even then you have to meet the caster level of any items you want to make, have the necessary spells and funds, and spend experience points, which is why PCs don't take item creation feats too often.
Giving them the dwarven ability to carry heavier armor without a speed reduction isn't a bad idea, but it's not enough to bump up their LA. Also giving them some save bonuses might do it, though.
I wonder if this makes it too easy for them to creating items; not to mention it'd be somewhat odd if Fighters with no ranks in Spellcraft or Knowledge (arcana) can spend a feat to start forging magic sword.
It's not all that bad an idea - the notion that only rogues (with the trapfinding ability) can detect difficult mechanical traps, or any magical traps, has gotten quite a bit of criticism and third-party revision from some of the bigger names in the industry. For example, Paizo Publishing's Pathfinder makes it so that anyone can detect or disarm a mechanical trap, or detect a magic trap; trapfinding is only needed to disarm a magic trap. Likewise, Sean K. Reynolds covered this several years ago as part of his idea regarding fewer absolutes.
That said, it's not like this one ability would make rogues obsolete, since they have many other abilities - that said, add in a caveat that anyone who takes a class that grants trapfinding gains a bonus or something.
And, of course, add in fluff for why they have that at all.
There's always Improved Natural Attack.
Bear in mind, an unarmed strike is not a natural weapon - monk delfahs wouldn't use their claws for their flurry of blows, and would follow the normal monk progression for unarmed strike damage.
The major drawback to natural weapons isn't their damage dice - a longsword also deals 1d8+X damage - but rather is twofold: you don't get iterative attacks with them, and you can't enchant them. Major damage is gotten from stacking bonuses onto your attack, and then being able to attack multiple times over the course of a round.
Maybe that's an idea for a racial ability - delfah's claws are special, and can be enchanted as magic weapons can, with enhancement bonuses and magic weapon qualities. In fact, that'd also get around the problem with iterative attacks too; according to Trailblazer, you're more likely to deal damage with two attacks that have small/no penalties on the to-hit roll than on four attacks with increasing penalties. Given that making two claw attacks as a full attack action would carry no penalties, since both are primary natural weapons, a delfah with enchanted claws would be able to inflict damage at the same proficiency as a character using enchanted weapons.
Though be aware that the more attractive you make their claws, the more useless powerful build becomes in comparison.
That doesn't sound like something I'd want to build into a race, but it does sound like an excellent idea for a Prestige Class.
Funny. That's the second time I've decided that a racial trait would be better off as a Prestige Class. First the Monk/Barbarian concept, and now this. Both could be built-in, but really, they work so much better as Prestige Class concepts.
That's just me, though.
I personally don't think spell or energy resistance would quite fit the flavor. I'm trying to keep the Beringi and the Delfi as close to the concept of "that animal, but sentient" as possible, and I've never had the fortune of running across a fire-retardant bear.
One thing of note is that several species of bear are listed with a swim speed of 20ft. Seeing how swimming usually isn't as useful as climbing (though it really depends on the environment), I wonder if that might not be something that could be tacked on?
Though I must admit, it would be rather odd for a race to have special bonuses for both wearing armor and swimming. Unless you throw in a third thing that lets them swim more freely while in armor, that's just inviting some inattentive PC to go and drown themselves.
What do you think?
Though I know D&D tends to try and avoid it, one possible solution would be that it stacks. That is to say, having Trapfinding 'twice' doubles it's effectiveness.
Though in all honesty, it would be way easier, and much neater, to just assume everyone can spot and attempt to disarm traps, but that Rouges get a substantial Skill bonus for it.
Also, here's something else to chew on. The only way to disarm a magic trap is to either have Trapfinding as a class ability (Rouge), or be able to cast arcane magic (Wizards, Sorcerers, and Bards). Furthermore, though an arcane caster doesn't get the Rouge's bonus for it, they get their own in the form of their caster level. A Wizard that can cast 5th level spells gets a +5 bonus to attempts to disarm a magic trap.
I think that more accurately reflects what would actually go on, seeing how if I had a magical trap that needed to be taken apart, there are only two people I'd want to talk to: a sneaky thief type, or Gandalf.
This also works really nicely with the concept of joint skill checks, where multiple characters work together to try and beat a DC. I can totally see a Wizard and a Rouge squatting over a open panel in the middle of a dungeon conversing in technical jargon about how to best dismantle the device without getting anyone disintegrated.
Funny. That's the second time I've decided that a racial trait would be better off as a Prestige Class. First the Monk/Barbarian concept, and now this. Both could be built-in, but really, they work so much better as Prestige Class concepts.
That's just me, though.
I personally don't think spell or energy resistance would quite fit the flavor. I'm trying to keep the Beringi and the Delfi as close to the concept of "that animal, but sentient" as possible, and I've never had the fortune of running across a fire-retardant bear.
One thing of note is that several species of bear are listed with a swim speed of 20ft. Seeing how swimming usually isn't as useful as climbing (though it really depends on the environment), I wonder if that might not be something that could be tacked on?
Though I must admit, it would be rather odd for a race to have special bonuses for both wearing armor and swimming. Unless you throw in a third thing that lets them swim more freely while in armor, that's just inviting some inattentive PC to go and drown themselves.
What do you think?
Though I know D&D tends to try and avoid it, one possible solution would be that it stacks. That is to say, having Trapfinding 'twice' doubles it's effectiveness.
Though in all honesty, it would be way easier, and much neater, to just assume everyone can spot and attempt to disarm traps, but that Rouges get a substantial Skill bonus for it.
Also, here's something else to chew on. The only way to disarm a magic trap is to either have Trapfinding as a class ability (Rouge), or be able to cast arcane magic (Wizards, Sorcerers, and Bards). Furthermore, though an arcane caster doesn't get the Rouge's bonus for it, they get their own in the form of their caster level. A Wizard that can cast 5th level spells gets a +5 bonus to attempts to disarm a magic trap.
I think that more accurately reflects what would actually go on, seeing how if I had a magical trap that needed to be taken apart, there are only two people I'd want to talk to: a sneaky thief type, or Gandalf.
This also works really nicely with the concept of joint skill checks, where multiple characters work together to try and beat a DC. I can totally see a Wizard and a Rouge squatting over a open panel in the middle of a dungeon conversing in technical jargon about how to best dismantle the device without getting anyone disintegrated.
Well, I don't really know much about D&D or the stats involved but how about have it so that they can kinda sense magic? Like they would be able to sense if a magic user had been in an area, or if there are any magic items in a room. So they don't get a bonus for attempting to disarm magic traps, but they know if, and where, one is in a room.
To be clear: I'm not talking about having their claws become enchanted naturally. Rather, they have the potential to be enchanted, just like a masterwork weapon. It'd still require a spellcaster with the requisite feat and spells, spending time, gold, and XP to do it.
I understand that you want these to be somewhat non-magical in nature; I was just tossing out some ideas that aren't overtly supernatural from an in-game standpoint. Being able to shrug off a certain element, or even spells, was a suggestion for a special defense that's not purely ordinary, but not "flashy" either.
I think that only polar bears have a swim speed; the brown bear and black bear both lack one - are the delfah a polar race?
That said, the thing with a swim speed is that it's utterly superfluous until your character is in the water - at which point he's swimming rings around the other party members, and it becomes the best part of your character. And of course, you already noted the problem with having a swim speed and a use for armor (particularly since armor check penalties are doubled for Swim skill checks, which'd rapidly eat into the +8 bonus from the swim speed).
Stacks how? Trapfinding doesn't grant any bonuses, it just gives rogues increased ability with the Search and Disable Device skills.
Yeah - the Sean K. Reynolds article I linked to above is halfway there with letting anyone find and disarm traps; whereas Pathfinder (also linked to above) has trapfinding grant a bonus to locating and disarming traps.
I think this is an alternate rule you're proposing, right? Because that's not at all how the rules as they're written now work.
Currently, only rogues can actually disarm traps. Magic traps are just individual spells that happen to also fall under the designation of being "traps" and thus something rogues can locate and disarm. For spellcasters, they're just an in-place spell.
Given that, spellcasters can't disarm traps. They can - whether arcane or divine - simply locate them with spells like detect magic and try and remove them with spells like dispel magic. They certainly don't get a caster level bonus for doing so (unless you mean the caster level bonus on dispel magic), and even if they did, caster level is based around their actual levels in their spellcasting class(es), not on the highest-level spell they can cast.
From an in-game standpoint, the way it'd is that if there were a magic trap, the sneaky thief would be figuring out a way to pick it apart or simply tiptoe around it, whereas Gandalf would just negate it with his own magic.
You mean aid another? That only works when the aiding characters also make a (easy) skill check with the same skill, and it doesn't work for other characters who couldn't achieve the same result (such as characters without trapfinding making checks to spot or locate a trap they couldn't without that ability).
They wouldn't be speaking the same language at all. The rogue would only know that there was some harmful magic there, and be coming up with a jury-rigged plan to shut it off. The wizard would analyze what kind of magic it was, and simply dispel it.
I understand that you want these to be somewhat non-magical in nature; I was just tossing out some ideas that aren't overtly supernatural from an in-game standpoint. Being able to shrug off a certain element, or even spells, was a suggestion for a special defense that's not purely ordinary, but not "flashy" either.
I think that only polar bears have a swim speed; the brown bear and black bear both lack one - are the delfah a polar race?
That said, the thing with a swim speed is that it's utterly superfluous until your character is in the water - at which point he's swimming rings around the other party members, and it becomes the best part of your character. And of course, you already noted the problem with having a swim speed and a use for armor (particularly since armor check penalties are doubled for Swim skill checks, which'd rapidly eat into the +8 bonus from the swim speed).
Stacks how? Trapfinding doesn't grant any bonuses, it just gives rogues increased ability with the Search and Disable Device skills.
Yeah - the Sean K. Reynolds article I linked to above is halfway there with letting anyone find and disarm traps; whereas Pathfinder (also linked to above) has trapfinding grant a bonus to locating and disarming traps.
I think this is an alternate rule you're proposing, right? Because that's not at all how the rules as they're written now work.
Currently, only rogues can actually disarm traps. Magic traps are just individual spells that happen to also fall under the designation of being "traps" and thus something rogues can locate and disarm. For spellcasters, they're just an in-place spell.
Given that, spellcasters can't disarm traps. They can - whether arcane or divine - simply locate them with spells like detect magic and try and remove them with spells like dispel magic. They certainly don't get a caster level bonus for doing so (unless you mean the caster level bonus on dispel magic), and even if they did, caster level is based around their actual levels in their spellcasting class(es), not on the highest-level spell they can cast.
From an in-game standpoint, the way it'd is that if there were a magic trap, the sneaky thief would be figuring out a way to pick it apart or simply tiptoe around it, whereas Gandalf would just negate it with his own magic.
You mean aid another? That only works when the aiding characters also make a (easy) skill check with the same skill, and it doesn't work for other characters who couldn't achieve the same result (such as characters without trapfinding making checks to spot or locate a trap they couldn't without that ability).
They wouldn't be speaking the same language at all. The rogue would only know that there was some harmful magic there, and be coming up with a jury-rigged plan to shut it off. The wizard would analyze what kind of magic it was, and simply dispel it.
It's actually a Dwarven ability, but racial abilities don't have to be exclusive (Powerful Build is ripped from the Goliaths), and I think it fits quite well with the concept of a sentient bear. There aren't many ways I can think of to display such obvious innate physical power as to see someone sprinting around in full plate armor.
And the fact that it's a huge bear running at you with either metal-clad claws or a seven foot long claymore just makes it terrifying in addition to being impressive.
Really, I think the combination of Powerful Build and Unencumbered Movement does a good job of illustrating the power of the race without just giving them a giant Strength bonus. I think it's a tad more elegant, in some ways. That's just me, though.
And the fact that it's a huge bear running at you with either metal-clad claws or a seven foot long claymore just makes it terrifying in addition to being impressive.
Really, I think the combination of Powerful Build and Unencumbered Movement does a good job of illustrating the power of the race without just giving them a giant Strength bonus. I think it's a tad more elegant, in some ways. That's just me, though.
Right, try this on for size.
Delfah
One of the things I've always liked about Rouges is that they don't have to be played as thieves and tomb robbers, even though most people do, and that is their cliche. However, the Delfah break that sterotype, because, being a race of merchants and traders, the abhor thieves, and consider theft one of the greatest of dishonorable acts. Delfah Rouges tend to focus more on the prolific skills available to them, becoming experts in a variety of fields ranging from negotiation, trade, and appraisal, to crafting, engineering, and shipwrighting.
Many expert Delfah commoners possess one or two levels in Rouge, and most master craftsmen or experienced warriors and merchants possess levels in Rouge, if they aren't fully Rouges outright. If you see a Delfah in the ruins of an ancient citadel or underground dungeon, they're far more likely to be an engineer or clockwork craftsman disarming and examining traps than they are thieves sneaking about in search of treasure.
Also, I toyed with the idea of making one of their favored classes Bard, as 1.) There isn't a race of bards to my knowledge, at least not a good one, and 2.) I think it would add a nice flavor to their race and society if Bards were an integral part of how they function and think on a day-to-day level. However, I couldn't make myself axe either the Druid or the Rouge as a favored class, so I sadly can't add it. I may, however, use fluff to justify the Delfah being able to have a few interesting Bard-related feats (such as a feat that allows them to add Bard to their list of favored classes, or something of that nature).
Delfah
- +2 Strength, +2 Constitution: The Delfah are a strong and hardy people, possessing great natural strength and a robust constitution.
- Movement: Delfah base land speed is 30 feet. However, Delfah can move at this speed even when wearing medium or heavy armor or when carrying a medium or heavy load (unlike other creatures, whose speed is reduced in such situations).
- Medium: As Medium creatures, Delfah have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size. However, see the Powerful Build ability description below for more details.
- Monstrous Humanoid: As monstrous humanoids, Delfah are proficient with all simple weapons, but they have no proficiency with any armor or shield.
- Powerful Build: The physical stature of a Delfah lets them function in many ways as if they were one size category larger. Whenever a Delfah is subject to a size modifier or special size modifier for an opposed check (such as during grapple checks, bull rush attempts, and trip attempts), the Delfah is treated as one size larger if doing so is advantageous to them. A Delfah is also considered to be one size larger when determining whether a creature's special attacks based on size (such as improved grab or swallow whole) can affect them. A Delfah can use weapons designed for a creature one size larger without penalty. However, their space and reach remain those of a creature of their actual size. The benefits of this racial trait stack with the effects of powers, abilities, and spells that change the subject's size category.
- Cold Tolerant: Delfah gain a +2 racial bonus on saving throws against cold damage and cold effects. Delfah can also exist comfortably in conditions between -20<sup>o</sup> and 90<sup>o</sup> F (severe cold to hot) without having to make Fortitude saves (see Cold Dangers, Frostburn, p.8). This ability counts as if a Delfah had the Cold Endurance feat for the purposes of fulfilling prerequisites for other feats and prestige classes.
- Alternate Form (Su): A Delfah can take the form of a bipedal bear and turn back again as a standard action. This ability functions like the polymorph spell, except as noted here. The Delfah retains the ability to speak in any language it is proficient in while in it's alternate form, and can communicate normally with other bears. While in alternate form, a Delfahs gains the following modifications to it's stats: +4 Strength, -2 Dex. These changes stack with it's existing racial modifications.
- +2 Balance: Over many generations, the Delfah have adapted to life on the rocky cliffs, deep fjords, and the open seas that they call home.
- +2 Appraise: As a race of experienced craftsmen, merchants, and traders, all Delfah have an eye for quality, and can judge the worth and quality of an object at a glance.
- Automatic Languages: Common, Dwarven. Bonus Languages: Draconic, Elven, Giant, Ork. As prolific traders, seafarers, warriors, and merchants, Delfah know the languages of many of their neighbors.
- Favored Classes: Rouge, Druid. Delfah traders, scouts, warriors, and merchants soak up a variety of skills in their travels, and are very mechanically-minded, but all feel a deep, primal connection to the wild places of the world. A multiclass Delfah's Rouge and Druid class does not count when determining whether they take an experience point penalty.
- Level Adjustment: +2
One of the things I've always liked about Rouges is that they don't have to be played as thieves and tomb robbers, even though most people do, and that is their cliche. However, the Delfah break that sterotype, because, being a race of merchants and traders, the abhor thieves, and consider theft one of the greatest of dishonorable acts. Delfah Rouges tend to focus more on the prolific skills available to them, becoming experts in a variety of fields ranging from negotiation, trade, and appraisal, to crafting, engineering, and shipwrighting.
Many expert Delfah commoners possess one or two levels in Rouge, and most master craftsmen or experienced warriors and merchants possess levels in Rouge, if they aren't fully Rouges outright. If you see a Delfah in the ruins of an ancient citadel or underground dungeon, they're far more likely to be an engineer or clockwork craftsman disarming and examining traps than they are thieves sneaking about in search of treasure.
Also, I toyed with the idea of making one of their favored classes Bard, as 1.) There isn't a race of bards to my knowledge, at least not a good one, and 2.) I think it would add a nice flavor to their race and society if Bards were an integral part of how they function and think on a day-to-day level. However, I couldn't make myself axe either the Druid or the Rouge as a favored class, so I sadly can't add it. I may, however, use fluff to justify the Delfah being able to have a few interesting Bard-related feats (such as a feat that allows them to add Bard to their list of favored classes, or something of that nature).
Okay, the new delfah write-up looks good. Just some thoughts on this:
The editor in me wants to say that you can't reference Frostburn since it's closed content, but since this is a fan work, I guess you're okay.
You don't seem to be aware of the 2006 revisions to form-changing abilities. The gist of it was that WotC acknowledged that polymorph had major problems, and while they couldn't fix it, they could at least reduce the number of things that were based on it. Hence, alternate form is no longer a polymorph-based ability.
You can find an updated listing for exactly what alternate form does here.
Given what's stipulated there, you'll need to mention exactly what kind of bear the delfah morphs into, either a black bear or a brown bear. Depending on which it is, it changes their size, possibly their speed (it says movement modes, but not the actual speed), their natural armor bonus, their natural weapon damage, and if they have improved grab or not.
Further, alternate form mandates that you have the exact physical ability scores of your new form, so having that give +4 Str, -2 Dex is problematic, since they'll have (as a brown bear) Str 27, Dex 13, Con 19 in that form.
Also, you might want to specify that they can only speak to other bears while in bear form; that reads a little oddly the way it is now.
It's a minor thing, but you might want to reword these so that you mention that these are racial bonuses.
Rogue, dude, not rouge.
What, you have a problem with gnomes or something?
Yeah, because nothing says "badass" like a dancing bear.
The editor in me wants to say that you can't reference Frostburn since it's closed content, but since this is a fan work, I guess you're okay.
You don't seem to be aware of the 2006 revisions to form-changing abilities. The gist of it was that WotC acknowledged that polymorph had major problems, and while they couldn't fix it, they could at least reduce the number of things that were based on it. Hence, alternate form is no longer a polymorph-based ability.
You can find an updated listing for exactly what alternate form does here.
Given what's stipulated there, you'll need to mention exactly what kind of bear the delfah morphs into, either a black bear or a brown bear. Depending on which it is, it changes their size, possibly their speed (it says movement modes, but not the actual speed), their natural armor bonus, their natural weapon damage, and if they have improved grab or not.
Further, alternate form mandates that you have the exact physical ability scores of your new form, so having that give +4 Str, -2 Dex is problematic, since they'll have (as a brown bear) Str 27, Dex 13, Con 19 in that form.
Also, you might want to specify that they can only speak to other bears while in bear form; that reads a little oddly the way it is now.
It's a minor thing, but you might want to reword these so that you mention that these are racial bonuses.
Rogue, dude, not rouge.
What, you have a problem with gnomes or something?
Yeah, because nothing says "badass" like a dancing bear.
They closed it? Why?
No, I am not. I'll have to look into it.
I can't. They don't shapeshift into a creature that already exists. Their bear forms are capable of bipedal locomotion, possess opposable thumbs, and are more humanoid than a straight bear. Think this:
Not this:
Yes, actually. I feel that having both Gnomes and Hobbits is redundant, and that you really only need one race of "little folk." Especially seeing how the standard Gnomes and Hobbits are basically Tolkien's original Hobbits split into two different races.
I don't know, what do you think is badass about bear-shapeshifting warrior skalds charging into battle covered tattoos detailing the heritages and mythologies of their race, roaring battle hymns to the skies?
It's mostly personal preference, though sometimes it's more convenient to be one or the other. When in lands and areas that aren't familiar or accustomed to the Delfah, they usually take human form, as it saves them a lot of hassle. However, they do tend to prefer bear form when traveling or exploring.
Again, though, it's mostly personal preference. Some Delfah prefer to do as much as possible while in bear form, only rarely appearing human, while others only use their bear shape when it is necessary.
No, I am not. I'll have to look into it.
I can't. They don't shapeshift into a creature that already exists. Their bear forms are capable of bipedal locomotion, possess opposable thumbs, and are more humanoid than a straight bear. Think this:
Not this:
What, you have a problem with gnomes or something?
Yeah, because nothing says "badass" like a dancing bear.
It's mostly personal preference, though sometimes it's more convenient to be one or the other. When in lands and areas that aren't familiar or accustomed to the Delfah, they usually take human form, as it saves them a lot of hassle. However, they do tend to prefer bear form when traveling or exploring.
Again, though, it's mostly personal preference. Some Delfah prefer to do as much as possible while in bear form, only rarely appearing human, while others only use their bear shape when it is necessary.
It was always closed. The only things that are Open Game Content from WotC are the SRD, most of Unearthed Arcana, those two monsters in the back of the Monster Manual II (reprinted from the Creature Collection, and improperly cited in the MM2's OGL declaration), and an article or two (also improperly cited) in some issues of Dragon back when it was still a print publication.
All the rest of it is closed content. But again, yours is a fan-publication, so you should be okay.
In that case, you shouldn't call the power "alternate form" as that has a specific meaning for what it is and can do - specifically, that you take the form of an existing creature(s). I recommend calling what the delfah can do something along the lines of "bear form."
Dude, I know guys who'd so totally take your head off for that.
Personally, I just think that gnomes have yet to be given a distinctive game-identity (save for the tinker gnomes of Dragonlance/Spelljammer). Though I think Pathfinder is doing a good job of that so far.
Well, for one thing if he's in bear form, those tattoos are probably going to be hidden by his fur.
And I'm sorry, but I have a hard time seeing the guy in the above picture being a bard...bards were never that cool.
All the rest of it is closed content. But again, yours is a fan-publication, so you should be okay.
In that case, you shouldn't call the power "alternate form" as that has a specific meaning for what it is and can do - specifically, that you take the form of an existing creature(s). I recommend calling what the delfah can do something along the lines of "bear form."
Dude, I know guys who'd so totally take your head off for that.
Personally, I just think that gnomes have yet to be given a distinctive game-identity (save for the tinker gnomes of Dragonlance/Spelljammer). Though I think Pathfinder is doing a good job of that so far.
Lord Raine said:
I don't know, what do you think is badass about bear-shapeshifting warrior skalds charging into battle covered tattoos detailing the heritages and mythologies of their race, roaring battle hymns to the skies?
And I'm sorry, but I have a hard time seeing the guy in the above picture being a bard...bards were never that cool.