Post/Author/DateTime	Post
SirLaggalot 03-22-08, 12:59 AM	I know there are lots of these around, but I wanted to try my hand at them. Please critique and let me know what you think. These appear to be normal sized house cats. The only difference between them and normal cats is that their front paws have small opposable thumbs allowing them to carry very small things (such a a ring or piece of folded paper) The Combat Claws I have not made yet, but they will be sheaths of metal to go over their claws. Probably 1d3 or 1d4 damage. Amenti Str: -4, Dex: +4, Con: -2 Tiny: As a Tiny creature, a amenti gains a +2 size bonus to Armor Class, a +2 size bonus on attack rolls, and a +8 size bonus on Hide checks, but she uses smaller weapons than humans use, and her lifting and carrying limits are three-quarters of those of a Medium character. Additionally they do not posses reach, so they must move into the same square as an enemy they attack. Amenti posses the ability to hold objects, they have opposable thumbs. Amenti's base land speed is 30 feet. +2 racial bonus on Climb, and Move Silently checks and Balance checks. +4 racial bonus on Jump checks +4 racial bonus on Craft: alchemy checks to notice poisonous liquids and materials by smell. Amenti's can sense diseased people, materials and other compounds by smell. (Treat as scent ability that works only if subject has disease or carries a disease. For example dire rat is a disease carrier.) Amenti use their Dexterity modifier instead of their Strength modifier for Climb and Jump checks. Amentis ignore the first d6 of falling damage as they always land on their feet. This ability doesn't work if amenti is paralyzed, unconcious, stunned or otherwise unable to move or control itself. +4 racial bonus to disguise as a cat. Amenti have two claw attacks that deal 1d2 damage and a bite attack that does 1d3+poison. Poison's initial damage: unability to speak, secondary damage: paralysis for 1d4 rounds. Fort save DC is constitution based. LA +2 Edit Upped LA after talking to a friend and worked out Poison. Primary damage Silence, Secondary is Paralysis for 1d4 + Con mod rounds. So after getting poisoned you have a minute before having another chance against it and if you fail that your paralyzed. This is an NPC race, not player.
CryoSilver 03-22-08, 02:48 AM	No way. Paralysis is as good as death.
SirLaggalot 03-22-08, 11:33 AM	I have changed it to a secondary effect making it come a minute later, this should help with the cheese value, and the venom bite doesn't have to stay. I wanted an intelligent cat race that is a Cat. The venom bite I added to make it more solidly a LA 2 but apparently (after talking to a Dm friend of mine) it bumps it up to LA 3. Any input would be helpful. I would like to lower this to LA 2 or 1 if possible without losing a lot of the cat stuff. I understand the cheesy nature of Tiny size for a caster and so I am looking for ways to discourage that, but at the same time I want it to be possible.
ArochanoX 03-22-08, 01:32 PM	Tiny: As a Tiny creature, a amenti gains a +2 size bonus to Armor Class, a +2 size bonus on attack rolls, and a +8 size bonus on Hide checks, but she uses smaller weapons than humans use, and her lifting and carrying limits are three-quarters of those of a Medium character. Additionally they do not posses reach, so they must move into the same square as an enemy they attack. Shouldn't that be half of that of a medium character? The ability score modifiers aren't bad. The strenght penalty makes them unable to carry anything except the most light-weight items. Base speed of 30ft for a tiny race is quite much, but I suppose it's ok. Considering that it's the same as the dnd cat's speed. Also the skill modifiers. They're bit high but they're normal for a tiny dnd cat. They don't have scent ability as normal dnd cats do. Did you meant to get rid of the scent? Amenti posses the ability to hold objects, they have opposable thumbs, but they do not posses the control needed to wield them in combat. This puzzles me. Does that mean that Aventis can't use wands, scrolls, spell components, divine focuses, weapons, bucklers in combat but out of combat they can? Because if they can't, the Aventi should have LA of maybe +1. They can't cast all spells effectively and they can't use almost any form of ranged attacks so the ranged sneak attack is also out of question. Getting into melee with a larger creature would grant the opponent an aoo, which could be devastating (for rogue HD atleast). The poison thingy looks ok. It sure cripples spellcasters, but for all other creatures it's almost useless. All in all this is a very skill-oriented. Especially sneaking, rogue-like skills. It sure can be an effective spy in any town but in combat the Aventi is very weak (because of the LA granted by skill bonuses). If those paws can't be used in combat in any way (except for the claw attacks), this little furry thing shouldn't have a LA much greater than +1. If those paws can be used for casting spells, the creature should have a LA of +2. I really think that you should lower the skill bonuses (they don't need hide bonus as they already gain +8 size bonus, also +8 bonus for jump and balance seems an overkill). And they should be more all-around capable. Give them bonuses for detecting poisoned or diseased materials, maybe a weak scent like ability, ability to attach to a creature (see Weasel's ability of the same name), and some other abilities. And depending on how usable the claws are, they should be LA of +2 or +3 after adding more abilities.
bhu 03-22-08, 04:59 PM	LA +3 is tooo high. Plus you'll want a Feat for combat, otherwise every time they enter the square of a larger opponent to attack they'll provoke an attack of opportunity. Should they ever get cornered in a fight, that will end them pretty quick.
ragoftag 03-23-08, 11:12 AM	There is a playable 'cat' in the Dragon Compendium that I've been told works. My copy was on the shelf here, but the cat must have slipped it away to keep us from finding out about...
bhu 03-23-08, 04:00 PM	There is a playable 'cat' in the Dragon Compendium that I've been told works. My copy was on the shelf here, but the cat must have slipped it away to keep us from finding out about... You're thinking of the Tibbit. Its a halfling that can change into a kitty.
ragoftag 03-24-08, 02:21 AM	Thats the one!
SirLaggalot 03-25-08, 12:49 AM	I am actually playing a Tibbit right now, but I wanted to create something a step farther. Most of the race is copy paste from the monster manual, with the skills especially. The skills can get bumped down if that would help a lot. As to do with the wielding, they could use a wand or the like, but they wouldn't be able to use a sword or dagger. They also wouldn't be able to use a shield. I might restrict their holding capabilities or even take it away entirely. Their weight limit is correct, they are quadrupeds giving them an enhanced weight limit. I would love to end with a +1 LA creature because anything past that is just too difficult to have in a game. The reason I put it LA +3 is because usually tiny sized creatures get mauled by balancing. I think I will shuffle around bonuses a bit, let me know what LA you would recommend for them. Oh, and I love scent but it seems like more of a dog/wolf's thing, also it was cut for the LA.
ArochanoX 03-25-08, 04:02 AM	I think it's still around +2 LA. For spellcasters (especially sorcerers) they're very very good. Also an Aventi warlock, warmage, beguiler and dread necromancer make extremely good combinations. Rogue is actually a sub-par class for them as they have really hard time getting that sneak attack without any ranged weaponry. An Aventi factotum would on the other hand work well. Considering that an awakened cat has 3 racial hit dice and atleast +1 LA, making a playable cat without any racial HD or almost no LA is extremely difficult. I think you shouldn't watch the dnd cat's statistics too much as they're designed for a "monster" rather than for a player. I made some adjustments in the spoiler block. I think that constitution penalty and slower speed could do the thing. Str: -4, Dex: +2, Con: -2 Tiny: As a Tiny creature, a amenti gains a +2 size bonus to Armor Class, a +2 size bonus on attack rolls, and a +8 size bonus on Hide checks, but she uses smaller weapons than humans use, and her lifting and carrying limits are three-quarters of those of a Medium character. Additionally they do not posses reach, so they must move into the same square as an enemy they attack. Amenti posses the ability to hold objects, they have opposable thumbs.) Amenti's base land speed is 20 feet. +2 racial bonus on Climb, and Move Silently checks and Balance checks. +6 racial bonus on Jump checks (to counter speed penalty). +4 racial bonus on Craft: alchemy checks to notice poisonous liquids and materials by smell. Amenti's can sense diseased people, materials and other compounds by smell. (Treat as scent ability that works only if subject has disease or carries a disease. For example dire rat is a disease carrier.) Amenti use their Dexterity modifier instead of their Strength modifier for Climb and Jump checks. Amentis ignore the first d6 of falling damage as they always land on their feet. This ability doesn't work if amenti is paralyzed, unconcious, stunned or otherwise unable to move or control itself. +5 racial bonus to disguise as a cat. Amenti have two claw attacks that deal 1d2 damage and a bite attack that does 1d3+poison. Poison's initial damage: unability to speak, secondary damage: paralysis for 1d4 rounds. Fort save DC is constitution based. LA +1
SirLaggalot 03-25-08, 11:22 PM	I really like it, though I don't like the hit to speed, (I personally hate slow characters). I'll replace mine with yours, with my own modifications, let me know what you think.
ArochanoX 03-26-08, 03:03 AM	I think it's now quite good for LA +2. You should though ask and wait for other board members to say what they think.
SirLaggalot 03-26-08, 05:26 PM	k, I will give it time to stew, see what other people think, and change it accordingly.
SirLaggalot 04-17-08, 08:29 PM	Bumps FTW? :bump: