Rethinking Fantasy Races - Slaughtering Your Sacred Minotaurs
I was planning on making this entry about Svirfneblin, but they're just so...not gnomes. In so many ways. I'll get around to Svirfneblin eventually, I just need to figure out what I want to do with them first.
Instead, let's do probably my favorite subterranean race of all time. Hells, maybe my favorite race period.
MUSHROOM PEOPLE!
Whether Myconids or Myceloids or what have you, mushroom people have always been awesome. Maybe I watched Fantasia too many times as a child.
Step 1: Concept
So, these guys are sentient mushrooms. Adorable. Also a bit scary. Usually, they're incapable of audible speech, instead using spores to communicate telepathically with things. Let's see what we can shake out here.
Step 2: Racial Qualities
TYPE - I mean, Plant, clearly. It's a hefty entrance fee of 10 RP, but it comes with a suite of immunities that are pretty impressive. Plus, they don't need to sleep. Because there's a logical reason for that.
SIZE - While they tend to be Medium in properties that include them, I much prefer them as Small creatures.
SPEED - Slow. They're plant people. I don't imagine they move too quickly.
ABILITIES - This is a tough sell. These guys aren't anywhere near common enough to really have a codified set of abilities. That said, this gives us the freedom to do whatever we want.
I like these guys with a Constitution bonus. Plant dudes should be tough. Also, I really like the idea of them being crafty. Alchemists and such. So let's give them a bonus to Intelligence.
As far as the penalty, we're really stepping into untested waters here. I want them to have a Dexterity penalty.
"GASP!" you may say. How many Small races have a Dex penalty? Scratch that. How many races have a Dex penalty PERIOD. The answer? Incredibly few. Like...less than 1%.
But they're mushroom dudes, and I want them to be slow and awkward. It makes me happy.
LANGUAGES - I'm probably gonna just go with telepathy here. I have no idea what kind of RP equivalent that is, but it's probably gonna cost at least 1. I would add a list of races that they can at least understand, but if they evolved with telepathy, they probably don't hear the same way we do. That might be a neat weakness for them.
Step 3: Racial Traits
About the only unifying feature amongst the various incarnation of mushroom people is that they emit spores for different effects. Kind of like spell-like abilities, but not quite. Maybe supernatural abilities. I'll figure it out. That said, we're mostly just gonna be combing the race builder for cool shit, keeping in mind that just being a plant is costly.
Hydrated Vitality (3 RP) - This a cool. I like the idea of mushroom people gathering around the bank of some underground to drink up. I don't like that they have to be completely submerged.
Natural Armor (2 RP) - Ever the classic ability.
Stability (1 RP) - This is a neat ability for these guys.
Camouflage (1 RP) - Totally appropriate. I'm digging making them Small even more now.
Cave Dweller (1 RP) - Appropriate.
Fertile Soil (2 RP) - Could be cool as an alternate trait.
Spell-Like Abilities (3 RP) - It's just easier to work their spores as SLAs. I'm thinking charm person, polypurpose panacea, and sleep.
Terrain Stride (1 RP) - On point.
See in Darkness (4 RP) - These guys need it.
Light Blindness (-2 RP) - These guys need some weaknesses to balance out, and this one fits.
Treespeech (2 RP) - This is neat.
Looking deeper at it, I think I'm just going to make their racial language spore-based and give them the Xenophopbic language trait. It's a lot less costly than telepathy.
Alright, let's see what we have here.
I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO NAME THEM (SHROOMKIN?)
Type - Plant 10 RP
Size - Small 0 RP
Base Speed - Slow -1 RP
Ability Score Modifiers - Standard (+2 Constitution, +2 Intelligence, -2 Dexterity)
Languages - Xenophobic
Racial Traits
Defense Racial Traits
Hydrated Vitality 3 RP
Natural Armor 2 RP
Stability 1 RP
Feat and Skill Racial Traits
Camouflage 1 RP
Cave Dweller 1 RP
Magical Racial Traits
Fertile Soil 2 RP
Spell-Like Abilities 3 RP
Movement Racial Abilities
Terrain Stride 1 RP
Senses Racial Abilities
See in Darkness 4 RP
Treespeech 2 RP
Weakness Racial Traits
Light Blindness -2 RP
That puts us at 27 points. We need to cut 12. We'll drop See in Darkness. I love it, but it means that these guys now cultivate bioluminescent mushrooms for light. Hydrated Vitality and Treespeech can also go. Finally, we'll cut Stability and make Fertile Soil an alternate racial trait like we planned to all along.
Okay, let's put it together and see what we get.
Shroomkin Standard Racial Traits
Ability Score Racial Traits: Shroomkin are clever and hardy, but they are slow to move.
Type: Shroomkin are Plant creatures.
Size: Shroomkin are Small creatures and thus gain a +1 size bonus to their AC, a +1 size bonus on attack rolls, a –1 penalty to their Combat Maneuver Bonus and Combat Maneuver Defense, and a +4 size bonus on Stealth checks.
Base Speed: Shroomkin have a base speed of 20 feet.
Languages: Shroomkin begin play speaking Sporren. Shroomkin with high Intelligence scores can choose from the following: Common, Elven, Dwarven, and Undercommon. See the Linguistics skill page for more information about these languages.
Defense Racial Traits
Natural Armor: Shroomkin gain a +1 natural armor bonus to their Armor Class.
Plant Traits: Shroomkin are immune to all mind-affecting effects (charms, compulsions, morale effects, patterns, and phantasms), paralysis, poison, polymorph, sleep effects, and stunning. They do not need to sleep, but can choose to rest in order to regain spells and daily abilities.
Feat and Skill Racial Traits
Camouflage: Shroomkin gain a +4 racial bonus on Stealth checks while underground.
Cave Dweller: Shroomkin gain a +1 bonus on Knowledge (dungeoneering) and Survival checks made underground.
Magical Racial Traits
Spores: Shroomkin with a Constitution score of 11 or higher gain the following spell-like abilities (the caster level is equal to the user’s character level):
1/day—charm person, polypurpose panacea, sleep.
The DC is equal to 10 + the spell’s level + the user’s Constitution modifier.
Movement Racial Abilities
Cavern Strider: Shroomkin can move through natural difficult terrain at their normal speed while underground. Magically altered terrain affects them normally.
Senses Racial Traits
Low-Light Vision: Shroomkin can see twice as far as a race with normal vision in conditions of dim light.
Weakness Racial Traits
Light Blindness: Abrupt exposure to bright light blinds shroomkin for 1 round; on subsequent rounds, they are dazzled as long as they remain in the affected area.
BONUS FEAT OPTIONS!
Spore Lord (Shroomkin)
Prerequisites: Able to use shroomkin spores, shroomkin.
Benefit: You may use root as a spell-like ability at will, and add memory lapse and glitterdust to the spell-like abilities that you may use once each per day. Your caster level is equal to your character level.
Improved Spore Lord (Shroomkin)
Prerequisites: Con 13, Spore Lord, able to use shroomkin spores, shroomkin
Benefit: You may use your glitterdust, memory lapse, polypurpose panacea, and sleep spell-like abilities twice per day. Your charm person spell-like ability instead becomes charm monster, which you may use twice per day.
Greater Spore Lord (Shroomkin)
Prerequisites: Con 13, Spore Lord, Improved Spore Lord, able to use shroomkin spores, shroomkin
Benefit: Your root spell-like ability is now constant. You may use your charm monster, glitterdust, memory lapse, polypurpose panacea, and sleep spell-like abilities at will.
Awesome. I like these guys already. Let me know what you think.
Until next time.
No comments:
Post a Comment