Rethinking Fantasy Races - Slaughtering Your Sacred Minotaurs
We've touched on most of the common races by now. This week, I want to take a look at a "race" that rarely gets developed for player use: the undead. Sure, Dhampir exist, but the half-vampire thing isn't quite what I'm angling for and they aren't even technically undead.
Step 1: Concept
What I want is something closer to the Forsaken from the Warcraft games. Sentient zombies, but balanced for player use. Plus I need to give them a decent name.
Step 2: Racial Qualities
TYPE - The Undead type carries a 16 RP cost, which is already more than I'm aiming for for the finished product. Dhampir are just Humanoids with some stuff to reinforce their undead connections, so we could go that route. There's also the Half-Undead subtype, which only costs 5 RP. That hits a fair amount of the notes I'm going for, so let's just start from there. Humanoid (half-undead).
SIZE - I guess this is going to be variable? I didn't initially consider the possibility of halfling Necrites (I decided to call them Necrites, obviously). I don't really like the idea. Maybe I can pull some explanation out of my ass as to why these things need to be Medium.
SPEED - A part of me deeply wants to make these guys Slow. We'll sit on that for now.
ABILITIES - Dhampir get +2 Dex, +2 Cha, -2 Con. That's kind of the opposite of what I want these guys to be. I get the -2 Con because undead lack a Con score. These guys, however, are gonna be stiff both physically and socially. The only other physical option we have is Strength, and I like it. As far as mental scores, I'm liking Int here over Wis. These guys are having to learn how to be people all over again.
So +2 Strength, +2 Intelligence, -2 Constitution.
LANGUAGES - Hrm...I'm gonna tweak something here. We're going to combine Xenophobic and Linguist. These guys are going to start out with only their racial language, Necril. BUT, their bonus languages will just be Any. I'm sure that balances out to 0 RP.
Step 3: Racial Traits
Let's take a look at what Dhampir get.
Undead Resistance - Already covered by the half-undead subtype.
Resist Level Drain - Also already covered.
Manipulative (4 RP) - Maaaybe.
SLAs (1 RP) - I don't know if I want these guys to have spell-likes.
Darkvision - Covered.
Low-Light Vision (1 RP) - Sure.
Light Sensitivity (-1 RP) - Also maybe.
Negative Energy Affinity - Covered
And alternates...give us literally nothing that isn't vampiric in nature.
I have an idea. We're gonna look at some of the abilities that Samsarans get.
Shards of the Past (4 RP) - This is really cool, thematically.
Mystic Past Life (4 RP) - Works really well here too. Gonna keep it an alternate.
I still don't feel like these guys really have an identity yet. Let's comb through the race builder and see what looks good.
Unnatural (2 RP) - I always loved the fact that animals instinctively fear the undead in some stories.
Stalker (1 RP) - Being able to pretend to be a corpse has gotta have some benefit, right?
Fell Magic (3 RP) - Still not sure I wanna give them SLAs, but if I decide to this is the way I'd like to go.
Stench Aura (4 RP) - This one just amuses me.
Toxic (1 RP) - And this one is legitimately cool.
Carrion Sense (1 RP) - I love how flavorful this is.
See in Darkness (4 RP) - I just really want to give this to things. All the things.
Resurrection Vulnerability (-1 RP) - Very Final Fantasy.
Hold Breath (1 RP) - This hits those WoW notes.
Well, that's more to look at, at least. We're gonna have to cut a ton.
NECRITE
Type - Humanoid (half-undead) 5 RP
Size - Medium 0 RP
Base Speed - Slow -1 RP
Ability Score Modifiers - Standard (+2 Strength, +2 Intelligence, -2 Constitution) 0 RP
Languages - Mixed 0 RP
Racial Traits
Defense Racial Traits
Unnatural 2 RP
Feat and Skill Racial Traits
Manipulative 4 RP
Shards of the Past 4 RP
Stalker 1 RP
Magical Racial Traits
SLAs 4 RP
Mystic Past Lie 4 RP
Offense Racial Traits
Stench Aura 4 RP
Toxic 1 RP
Senses Racial Traits
Low-Light Vision 1 RP
See In Darkness 4 RP
Carrion Sense 1 RP
Standard Racial Traits
Hold Breath 1 RP
Weakness Racial Traits
Light Sensitivity -1 RP
Resurrection Vulnerability -1 RP
So as of right now, we're looking at 33 points. Dropping Manipulative, all the SLAs, and Low-Light Vision gets us down to 22. Mystic Past Life as an alternate brings us to 18. Let's drop Stench Aura to hit 14 and remove Light Sensitivity to hit our 15.
So, our final version looks like this.
Necrite Standard Racial Traits
Ability Score Racial Traits: Necrites are raw power and intellect, but their bodies are still one foot in the grave. They gain +2 Strength, +2 Intelligence, and -2 Constitution.
Type: Necrites are Humanoids with the half-undead subtype.
Base Speed: Necrites have a base speed of 20 feet.
Languages: Necrites begin play speaking Necril. Necrites with high Intelligence scores can choose any languages they want (except secret languages, such as Druidic). See the Linguistics skill page for more information about these languages.
Defense Racial Traits
Half-Undead Traits: Necrites have darkvision 60 feet. Necrites gain a +2 racial bonus on saving throws against disease and mind-affecting effects. Necrites take no penalties from energy-draining effects, though they can still be killed if they accrue more negative levels than they have Hit Dice. After 24 hours, any negative levels they’ve gained are removed without any additional saving throws. Necrites are harmed by positive energy and healed by negative energy. A necrite with the fast healing special quality still benefits from that quality.
Unnatural: Necrites take a –4 penalty on all Charisma-based skill checks to affect creatures of the animal type, and receive a +4 dodge bonus to AC against animals. Animals’ starting attitude toward necrites is one step worse than normal.
Feat and Skill Racial Traits
Shards of the Past: A necrite’s past life grants them bonuses on two particular skills. A necrite chooses two skills—they gains a +2 racial bonus on both of these skills, and they are treated as class skills regardless of what class they actually take.
Stalker: Perception and Stealth are always class skills for necrites.
Offense Racial Traits
Toxic: A number of times per day equal to its Constitution modifier (minimum 1/day), a necrite can envenom a weapon that it wields with its toxic blood (using blood requires the necrite to be injured when it uses this ability). Applying venom in this way is a swift action.
Paralytic Blood: Injury; save Fort DC 10 + the 1/2 user’s Hit Dice + the user’s Constitution modifier; frequency 1/round for 6 rounds; effect 1d2 Dex; cure 1 save.
Senses Racial Traits
Carrion Sense: Necrites have a natural ability to sniff out carrion. This functions like the scent ability, but only for corpses and badly wounded creatures (creatures with 25% or fewer hit points).
See in Darkness: Necrites can see perfectly in darkness of any kind, including that created by spells such as deeper darkness.
Standard Racial Traits
Hold Breath: Necrites can hold their breath for a number of rounds equal to four times their Constitution score before risking drowning or suffocating.
Weakness Racial Traits
Resurrection Vulnerability: A raise dead spell cast on a necrite can destroy it (Will negates). Using the spell in this way does not require a material component.
Alternate Racial Traits
Mystic Past Life (Su): You can add spells from another spellcasting class to the spell list of your current spellcasting class. You add a number of spells equal to 1 + your spellcasting class’s key ability score bonus (Wisdom for clerics, and so on). The spells must be the same type (arcane or divine) as the spellcasting class you’re adding them to. For example, you could add divine power to your druid class spell list, but not to your wizard class spell list because divine power is a divine spell. These spells do not have to be spells you can cast as a 1st-level character. The number of spells granted by this ability is set at 1st level. Changes to your ability score do not change the number of spells gained. This racial trait replaces shards of the past.
There, I think they're neat. Let me know what you think.
Until next time.
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