Post/Author/DateTime	Post
evilgenius 03-01-05, 08:22 PM	Hey all. I am introducing an NPC into an upcoming game that I have all the motivation, personality, plot hooks and flavour for, but I can't seem to figure out how to do this... Aranic has always admired the chivalirc, gigantic humans dressed in Purple that he sees from time to time outside his forest home in the woods surrounding the Dales and Cormyr. Eventually, he willtake it upon himself to leave the confines of his small home, to "see the world". With his ferocious steed Blade-Fangs, (a long, lean brown and white jackrabbit), he sets off to introduce himself to a lost group of human and dwarven Warriors in his forest home, and ask to squire under them. What's going to happen is the PCs will meet this little fellow, who I imagine to be around a 30 cm (1 foot) high and weighing around 2 Kilos (5 pounds) or so, who asks to join up with the party. Ultimately, I plan to make Aranic a Cavalier (the PrC from Complete Warrior), but I am having trouble getting started... I am looking for a RATIONAL, and above all LEGAL 3.5E way to justify a TINY mounted combatant... I am a pretty stick to the rules DM, and I don't want to just "make something up out of my head" to introduce to my players if there's a way I can do this legally. Anyways, I have access to PHB, MM, DMG as well as: FR Campaign Setting Player's Guide to Faerun Races of Stone, Wild, and Destiny Complete Adventurer, Arcane, Divine and Warrior Unapproachable East (FR) Lost Empires (FR) The concept is this: He has to be Tiny Sized, Capable of wearing Heavy Armour, must be humanoid shaped (though not necessarily Humanoid; I could go with Fey or outsider or something else. He must be capable of riding a particularly big (that is Small Sized) rabbit; perhaps a jackrabbit, or Arctic Hare, both animals can be quite large. Perhaps a Dire rabbit? I looked at the Grig as a base creature for the Aranic, but they have Tauric bodies and probably couldn't ride a mount. I also thought of a Halfling or Gnome with a permanent "reduce" on them... Would that do the trick? Are there any tiny humanoid shaped creatures (nothing inheirently evil if possible) in MMII or MMIII, or Fiend Folio? Other books? Can anybody help me out with this? L8er evilgenius
LosGunD 03-01-05, 08:37 PM	Sorry I don't have an direct answer, but the fact that you're DM gives you plenty of power to create your own race. Add it to the world and claim that none of your players have been here/looked down on the ground recently enough. Maybe they usually live underground and one came up and was inspired by the riders. Anything's possible, it's your world. Or maybe it's a creature from a plain where everything is really small. You never know, unless you're DM.
The_Yellow_Dart_Swinger 03-01-05, 08:50 PM	Simple, you can just change the Grig into a biped. This would do three things I believe but someone would have to check: a) Reduce base walking speed (15ft I think, could be slower) b) Reduce carrying capacity (Creatures with 4 or more legs can carry more) c) Reduce stability (Again you'd have to check, but I think creatures with more than two legs get additional bonuses to avoid being tripped.) Other than this I don't think anything else would change. I like the idea of your character. A being of small stature with a big heart in a big world. Rule wise I don't think their is anything stopping you from doing it. Just follow the normal rules about a mount being at least one size bigger than the rider. It's a fun idea, go with it. Edit: Los, I think he is the DM from the sounds of it. I don't think a player would really be creating a NPC if they are going to play. I believe he is creating a DMPC.
LosGunD 03-01-05, 09:18 PM	Well, ya' never know. It could have been a DM commisioned NPC so a DMCNPC. Or he could have multiple personalities and he was making the character to assisst the other one!! :blink: I wonder if a person with multiple personalities could play D&D with themselves by writing notes to theirself stating what they do/narrating the world and events of it...
evilgenius 03-01-05, 09:35 PM	Yah, I'm a DM, and this is an NPC to interact with my characters, and perhaps join their party for a few adventures. I correctly guessed that the Character Development forum would be a good place for this one... I think that a bipedal Grig might do the trick. The only other option I could think of was a permanently "reduced" gnome, riding a Dire Rabbit (or a permanently "enlarged" rabbit) - but then the question comes up, "Why was this gnome reduced? How? And why does this gnome know so little about humans?" Unfortunately, as a DM, I self-limit myself as much as possible - that is, I prefer to operate within the rule system whenever I can, and design "DMPC" characters with the same point buy as my players, so my characters don't outshine the stars of the show, the PCs. Anyways, thanks for the advice, it is sincerely appreciated! If there's more, it's certainly welcome. L8er evilgenius
Tippy100 03-02-05, 05:29 PM	I wonder if a person with multiple personalities could play D&D with themselves by writing notes to theirself stating what they do/narrating the world and events of it... Finally! An incentive for multiple personalities!