Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Mesinock 04-25-08, 10:37 PM	Glacial Dwarf: Glacial Dwarves are hearty, adapted to the cold climate of the northern lands they have developed in ways make the ruff life in such extreme conditions easier. Glacial Dwarves are slightly stocker than other dwarves, their skin has a bluish tint and their hair is white or near yellow blonde. Capable hunters, fishers and sea fairer, Glacial Dwarves have taken to harvesting sea lions, walruses, polar bears and whales for survival in the cold regions they call home. Unlike their cousins, the Glacial Dwarves have taken to life on the seas, often needing to sail great distances to glacial areas to hunt. Their main homes are often located near the sea; they build long cabins in which many generations of a family reside. These villages are often build near a cave system which is use to store food and goods for roughest months of the year, and for the defense of the village. Glacial Dwarf racial traits: +3 constitution, -2 charisma, -1 strength. Medium: Base land speed 20ft. Low light vision: Glacial Dwarves have lost their dark vision due to living mainly on the surface and the seas. Sea Savvy: Glacial dwarves have been sailing the rough northern seas for hundreds of years and have developed tactics for such enterprises, +2 to skill checks for sailing and swimming, and +2 bonus to attacks and defends while aboard a ship. Weapon Familiarity: treat dwarven waraxe and dwarven urgroshes as martial weapons, rather than exotic. Stability: Dwarves are exceptionally stable on their feat, +4 bonus on ability checks to resist bull rush and trip when standing on the ground or aboard a ship. +2 racial bonus to resist poisons. +2 racial bonus on saving throws against spells and spell-like abilities with the cold descriptor. +1 racial bonus on attack rolls against trolls, goblinoids, and winter wolfs. +4 dodge bonus to armor class against monsters of the giant type. Any time a creature loses its dexterity bonus to armor class it also loses its dodge bonus. +2 racial bonus to appraise checks on items made of metal or wood. +2 bonus on craft checks related to metalworking or wood working. +2 bonus on craft checks related to boat making. +2 bonus to survival checks when in cold climate or at sea. Automatic Languages: Common and Dwarven. Bonus Languages: Giant, Gnome, Goblin, Orc, Aquan. Favored Classes: Fighter or Ranger. A Glacial Dwarfs fighter or ranger class does not count when determining whether they take an experience point penalty (see XP for Multiclas Characters, page 60 ph). Only one of the class’s works for the favored class, the Glacial Dwarf must choose which to take at the beginning of play. Bovian: Distant cousins of the minotaur, Bovians are large powerful creatures. Considerably stronger than other races, but much more intelligent than their minotaur relatives, Bovians seek to cut a place for themselves in the world. Bovines are strong, cunning and intelligent, they have a natural connection with the world around them and many are druids or rangers. They have strong sense of family and tribal connections and live out most of their life peacefully. Bovines stand between 6 and 8 feet tall and weigh from 200 to 350 pounds. Bovines have the following racial traits: +2 Strength, +2 Wisdom, -2 Dexterity, -1 Intelligence. Medium: As medium size creatures, Bovians have no bonus or penalty due to size. Land base speed 30 ft. Low light vision: A Bovine can see twice as far as a human in starlight, moon light, torchlight, and similar conditions of poor illumination. She retains the ability to distinguish color and detail under these conditions. Gem cunning: Bovines treasure precious stones and gain a +2 bonus when appraising the value of a gem. Natural cunning: Like their cousins, Bovians can not become lost, be affected by maze spells or be caught flat-footed; they also gain the track ability. +2 racial bonus on spot, search and listen checks. Thick hide: +2 natural armor bonus. Automatic Languages: Common, Bovian. Bonus Languages: Giant, Terran, Orc. Favored Classes: Druid or Ranger. A multiclass Bovine’s druid or ranger class does not count when determining whether they take an experience point penalty (see XP for Multiclas Characters, page 60 ph). Only one of the class’s works for the favored class, the Bovine must choose which to take at the beginning of play. Necrophite: Necrophites can be started as a race or be templated to any base creature. Necrophites are the risen dead from the battlefields of Celestials and gods on the material plane. Because of the nature of the Celestials, some of their otherworldly power has entered the bodies of these fallen few and caused them to rise as conscious and intelligent undead. Necrophite retain the memories of their former lives and most of them retain their former skills and abilities. However because they are no longer truly living beings some of their former abilities in life have been lost to them forever, while new abilities have been gained. If creating a Necrophite as a race chose a base creature, this can be any of the normal playable races. From the chosen base creature's racial traits, disregard any racial ability modifiers, all other traits remain. When starting a Necrophite as a race it is considered to have been a commoner of its base creature and the base creature is for appearances only. If creating a Necrophite as a templated character, add the following traits to the character, traits which are level specific remain level specific. If the pc does not have sufficent levels to have a specific trait or trait power level they may not have that trait or trait power level untill they attain the required level. The newly formed Necrophite retains all other traits from the base creature. Necrophite traits: Darkvision out to 60 feet. Immune to mind-affecting effects (if starting at level 1 pc; grant +2 to save rolls agains mind-affecting effects; at level 8 grant immunity), Immune to disease and death effects (if starting at level 1 pc; grant +2 to save rolls agains death effects; at level 8 grant immunity). Rotting touch: When a Necrophite touches a dead creature it causes its corpse to begin a rapid composition, the Necrophite can then feed on this rotted flesh for sustenance. All Necrophites have a d12 hit die, a - score in constitution, +2 bonus to strength, -2 to charisma. Resist Control (Ex): at 5th level gain +2 bonus on their will saving throws to resist the effect of a control undead spell. Turn Resistance: at 3rd level gain +2 turn resistance, at 9th level gain +4 turn resistance. Unnatural Resilience: Automatically heal hit point damage and ability damage at the same rate as a living creature. The heal skill have no effect on Necrophites; however, negative energy heals them as cure spell would heal a living creature. Immune to any effect that requires a fortitude save (unless the effect also works on objects or is harmless). Uses their charisma modifier for concentration checks. Not at risk of death from massive damage, but is instantly rendered immobile when your hit points reach 0, at -1 hit points you die. Special: Because Necrophites where created by the unique power surges of the Celestials, their soul is bound to their undead body, therefore they can be “resurrected” by having a raise dead or reincarnate spell cast upon them. Casting Resurrection on a Necrophite will call its soul back to its undead body; however, casting True Resurrection on a Necrophite will restore him to the living creature he was before. Advancement: As per class. Weapon and Armor Proficiency: As per class. Necrophites, like other undead, do not breathe; however, they must eat. Necrophites eat dead rotting flesh.
sonofzeal 04-26-08, 01:28 AM	Odd racial stat modifiers are completely unheard of. While not a balance issue, I'd strongly recommend rounding up or down to the nearest even mod. That said, Bovian are solidly overpowered, especially for a Cleric or Druid. Nothing short of a Con penalty balances out for a mental stat boost, since many casting classes can get so much mileage out of a single high mental stat, and +2 NA is excessive. Even +1 NA is rare on LA +0 races, and usually only found on the weakest of them like Kobolds. Bovians would be served much better by being increased slightly and made into an LA +1 race. Or, you could follow the Wildling link in my sig and copy our Oxfolk. Necrophites seem cool, but mechanically awkward. Are you saying that a "Ogre Barbarian" Necrophite becomes an Ogre with four levels in Commoner and only a +2 Str / -2 Cha instea of "+10 Strength, -2 Dexterity, +4 Constitution, -4 Intelligence, -4 Charisma"?
Mesinock 04-26-08, 11:47 AM	Not at all, the "Ogre Barbarian" would; in essence; gain a - con, +2 str and -2 cha. These adjustments would be made to his existing scores. He would take on the Nerophite traits, basically undead traits, and on his next level gained he would roll a d12 for hit points rather than his class hit dice. *In this particular example it would not a change because the barbarian has a d12 hit die anyway. I see the area of text where the confusion is derived and I'm going to edit it to help elimate that confussion. As for the Bovine I will edit that also for balance. I'm thinking, in order to keep the +2 NA, that the stat adjustments should look like +2 str, -2 dex, -2 int; maybe; or should I drop the NA altogether and go for +2 str, -2 int?
sonofzeal 04-26-08, 01:08 PM	Not at all, the "Ogre Barbarian" would; in essence; gain a - con, +2 str and -2 cha. These adjustments would be made to his existing scores. He would take on the Nerophite traits, basically undead traits, and on his next level gained he would roll a d12 for hit points rather than his class hit dice. *In this particular example it would not a change because the barbarian has a d12 hit die anyway. I see the area of text where the confusion is derived and I'm going to edit it to help elimate that confussion. Ah, okay. I figured it was a miscommunication somewhere. Does the template have LA +1 on it? Pretty much every method of getting undead PCs has something like that, even Necropolitan (significant xp cost rather than LA, but same idea). The racial flavour is nice though. As for the Bovine I will edit that also for balance. I'm thinking, in order to keep the +2 NA, that the stat adjustments should look like +2 str, -2 dex, -2 int; maybe; or should I drop the NA altogether and go for +2 str, -2 int? Either way sounds good. I'd be tempted to go with +2 Str, +2 Con, +2 Wis, -2 Dex, keep the +2 NA, and toss a +1 LA on there.... but that's just me. My own bovine race has +2 Str, -2 Dex, +6 Con, +2 Wis, and +3 NA, a gore attack, and powerful charge, but +2 LA to balance. They're also Large.
Mesinock 04-27-08, 12:40 PM	I did not figure on a +1 LA, reason being, in order for the necrophite template to be gained the pc must die in a zone which is rich in celestial residue and the likelyhood of that happening at level 7- is very rare as such an area would be too powerful a low level pc. At level 7+ any character could potentialy own a few magic items which grant some the resistances which would be gained by the template anyway. This is why I have stated alternates in character creation for templating and for starting at level 1 with this race. Looking back I think that for a level 1 start I will rework the racial traits of mind-affecting effects, resist controll, and turn resistance to reflect increase of power, and leave it as automatic gain for template. As for the Bovine, my goal is create a new race which can be played from level 1 without any LA.
Qube 04-30-08, 10:31 AM	perhaps some layouting ? bold? underline stuff ? Necrophite is a template I presume . do they change to undead? (and I hope con becomes '-', not 0 )