Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Godris_Grimsteel 05-08-07, 04:23 PM	I'm not sure if anybody else has posted a race like this or not, but I spent a couple of hours last night pouring over texts and looking at certain rules and such and, after watching The Wizard of Oz, yet again, I thought how cool it would be to have a race of Munchkins in DnD. I have incorporated society and other pertinant information on the race itself. I'm looking for some feedback here, to see if I did it right, and to see if anything could be altered to make them a better race. thanks so here they are.. the Munchkins A race of tiny creatures that stand no more than a foot and a half normally, some make it to 2 feet but that’s it. They tend to live in forested areas, or locations with a heavy overgrowth of plant life and bushes and trees. Most of them have some form of plant growing out from the tops of their heads. Depending on the type of plant, generally decides their place in life and the position they will be relegated to. While the Munchkins are a gentle race by nature (pun intended) they are very strict with social status. Munchkins are born, moreover hatched from eggs. The baby munchkin does not have any natural hair, nor plant growing from atop its head. The plant, if any, sprouts by the time they learn to speak, which is around 6 months of age. Any Munchkin who never grows any plant life atop their head are seen as bad omens and are shunned from society. The outcast Munchkins find fellowship among Halflings or Gnomes, being the closest in size to them. The most we know about Munchkins other than what we know here is from the tale “The Wizard of Oz.” They tend to dress uniformly in groups and with vibrant colors but always match their surroundings as to blend in better. They may be small but they are a proud race. Munchkin Racial Traits: -+2 Intelligence, -2 Dexterity -Tiny: As a Tiny creature, Munchkins have a +2 to Armor Class -Munchkins base land speed is 20ft. -+4 racial bonus to Hide and move silently checks: Because of their tiny size they are able to hide rather well and due to their natural plant life atop their heads, they blend in perfectly to foliage. And due to the sounds they make are similar to nature, they can move rather silently too. -Automatic Languages: Common and Munchkin. Bonus Languages: Halfling Munchkins generally speak the language that nature speaks, in hums, buzzes, whooshes and crunches. They mimic the sounds they hear in nature and add their own alphabetic meanings to them. -Favored Class: Cleric, Monk -Botanical Brilliance: because of the locations they find themselves in, and because of the plant on their heads, they know how to take care of plants, so anyone approaching a Munchkin territory, they will find it vibrant with flowers and strong trees and incredibly fresh fruits. -Summon Insect: If ever threatened, a Munchkin may Summon a swarm of monstrous insects to protect them. The kind of insect they may summon depends on the plant they have on their heads. For instance, if a Munchkin has a sunflower on its head, it may summon a swarm of monstrous bees. If it has a weed on its head, such as a dandelion or some other form of weed, it may summon monstrous gnats, spiders, or centipedes. And so on. Munchkin Characters: Munchkins generally don’t go adventuring; they prefer to stay where they are and work the land. However those that are found without plant life on their heads, or those who have weeds and feel too low hatched to make a difference in their world, tend to set out on their own to seek another destiny. The Munchkins that stay, tend to become Bards or Clerics. Those that tend to go out on their own, tend to become rogues or rangers. While these are what they normally become, they are not limited to these classes. If a Munchkin does leave its home, it generally needs to seek training in some form of self-defense from either the Halflings or the Gnomes. Character Names: Generally a basic name is chosen for the Munchkin at hatching. Meaning their names will change and be altered within the first year and a half of life. Names generally are nature words. Meaning their names will sound much like their language does, so it can get confusing to have a conversation with a Munchkin. Names are then altered when the plant grows on their heads. So say Tweet sprouts a sunflower atop her head, her name will be her original name of Tweet and a random formation of the letters from a Sunflower for a last name. So it might be Tweet Soulfewn or Sowfluner. A few have last names that are an unaltered plant. So Sunflower for her last name might also be. Male Names: Bark, Scratch, Cricket, Buzz, Hum, Whoosh, Crash. Female Names: Tweet, Trickle, Root, Lilac, Chirp, Cricket, and Sparkle. Last names: (The following are examples of alterations of plants as last names): Daisy: Sayid, Yasid, Aidys, and Isyad. Weed: Generally for a weed, the name is not altered. But there are some that do, Dandelion: Linondaed, Dilandone, Elonadin. (For the PC’s think of other flowers or plants and switch the letters around to create a last name) Munchkin Society: Munchkins are hatched from eggs, and grow rather quickly, reaching adulthood by 13. Munchkins never marry, nor do they ever have “Fathers” in the traditional sense. A female’s plant generally never withers until she reaches adulthood at 13, at which time 4 months after she becomes 13, her plant dies and falls off, which will grow back within 8 months. 4 months later it falls off once again and grows back fully after 8 more months. In the 1 month preceding the plant falling off and dying, the female is able to release seeds from the plant itself. But she will not do so unless approached by a male Munchkin. If the male is of higher status than her, or equal status she will more than likely agree, since the male has no fatherly responsibilities, it’s not like most other races where the male directly fathers a child. The Male and Female get together in a nest made by the female; the female drops the seeds into the nest, and the male fertilizes them with water and nutrients from vegetables and fruits. There is no direct application of male genes into the seeds, which grow larger and round off becoming eggs. The female raises the child, but males are raised by the community in general, but cared for by the female or the Mother. So the society of Munchkins only has Mothers, no Fathers. It is a very matriarchal society. Most females “mate” with a male by age 15 and eggs grow and hatch within 6 months of fertilization. Alignments: Munchkins are a peaceful race and prefer to take care of the land itself. As a result they tend to be lawful good to lawful neutral. The outcasts tend to be Chaotic Good, or true neutral. Very rarely does one find an evil Munchkin. An evil munchkin is one that is pushed too far from the fringes of its own society, but is an outcast among any other society it is able to come into contact with. It is more than likely to find a female who becomes evil than a male, due to the violent mood swings in the month preceding the death of the head plant. If a female becomes an outcast, it is very unlikely she will reproduce with the help of another male. If she cannot find a munchkin male to help her, she seeks out other waters and other nutrients, which in most cases tend to be of lesser quality creating a Munchkin that does not live long after hatching. This drives the female mad and she is prone to evil acts. Lands and Settlements: Munchkins can be found in forested areas or bushy locale, generally near a stream or creek. Rivers and lakes and Oceans tend to be too deep for a Munchkin to risk living near, however some more extreme Munchkin societies live near these very large bodies of water. They are never found in an area without bushes or trees. With no trees or bushes or fields of tall grass, they have no natural way of hiding. So the wayward adventuring Munchkin tends to make her bed in someone’s garden or in a forest far away. Encountering a Munchkin: Generally they will only attack if you threaten the sanctity of their homes. In most cases if you are friendly enough they will offer you fruits and vegetables. Because they are so small and non violent they do not eat meat. If they should attack, they attack in swarms of their own. -Godris Grimsteel
fiendish_platypus 05-08-07, 04:53 PM	Wow 0.o ... I think you're crazy. Anyways, why -2 Dexterity? I think they should maybe even get a bonus to Dexterity, I haven't actually seen the Wizards of Oz, and, honestly, only skimmed through your post, but are they actually that strong? No penalty to strength? Seeing as you talked about plants alot, maybe druid as a favored class? Monk seems odd for such a small being, but maybe it's good flavourwise. Should Botanic Brilliance really be an ability? If so maybe bonuses with plant creatures because they know them so well, or bonuses on Craft (plant), if there is such a skill.... Or survival? Summon Insect? Wow, first of all is it at will? If so that's pretty powerful, also what kind of swarm? Centipede (CR 4), or maybe Locust (CR 3)? Those are way too powerful for first level, but not powerful enough for high levels. Also, is it a spell-like ability or what? Does it duplicate a specific spell? Hope that helped. ;) fiendish_platypus
Godris_Grimsteel 05-08-07, 05:06 PM	I think you're crazy. Thank you! :) Should Botanic Brilliance really be an ability? If so maybe bonuses with plant creatures because they know them so well, or bonuses on Craft (plant), if there is such a skill.... Or survival? Summon Insect? Wow, first of all is it at will? If so that's pretty powerful, also what kind of swarm? Centipede (CR 4), or maybe Locust (CR 3)? Those are way too powerful for first level, but not powerful enough for high levels. Also, is it a spell-like ability or what? Does it duplicate a specific spell? Well the botanical brilliance wasn't really meant to be an ability just something that i didn't move out of that area to be perceived as an ability. Though I like the idea of having bonuses with plant creatures. as for summon insect, yeah it is a will thing. Maybe having a different kind of insect, instead of monstrous would be good to start out with? like a normal insect for the first 2 levels, and then a monstrous small insect as they get stronger and then bigger as they become more powerful. as for abilities...I wasn't entirely sure what they might be good or bad at. I said +2 to intelligence since they spend most of their time studying things, mostly plants. Usually every race gets a -(something) to some ability and I wasn't sure which to make them worse in, but Strength does sound more likely, and maybe a +1 to Dexterity? how do these sound as possible changes?
FatMonkey13 05-08-07, 05:12 PM	Tiny creatures get +8 to hide due to size. An additional +4 seems it could be unbalancing (for a PC race). Also the Summon Insect ability needs more clarification (ability type, duration, uses) and could be very powerful (Summon Swarm is 2nd level and can only summon CR 2 swarms, Centipede Swarms are CR 4). Stats can only have +/- an even number
Godris_Grimsteel 05-08-07, 05:19 PM	Tiny creatures get +8 to hide due to size. An additional +4 seems it could be unbalancing (for a PC race). Also the Summon Insect ability needs more clarification (ability type, duration, uses) and could be very powerful (Summon Swarm is 2nd level and can only summon CR 2 swarms, Centipede Swarms are CR 4). Stats can only have +/- an even number Then perhaps I should change the summon insect thing to a uniform insect, just a single type of insect? I never did say what level they learn it at...i kind of just assumed they automatically could have it. I didn't realize there was an ability already called Summon Swarm, I didn't come across that. I wasn't adding 4 to their already +8 on hide checks, I actually was unaware of it. I looked for information regarding sizes of creatures and what +'s they get in certain areas, but I could not find it. I couldn't even find what height is considered tiny, small, medium, large, etc. so I had to assume a few things, and hope I had come up with something realistic
FatMonkey13 05-08-07, 05:36 PM	Tiny is 1 foot to 2 feet. +2 to attack, +2 to AC, -8 grapple/bull rush, +8 to Hide, 1/2 carrying capacity Small is 2 feet to 4 feet. +1 to attack, +1 to AC, -4 grapple/bull rush, +4 to Hide, 3/4 carrying capacity Medium is 4 feet to 8 feet. Some creatures break these guidlines though. Dwarves are under 4' but still medium. When I said "summon swarm" I meant it was a 2nd level spell. PHB races do not get 2nd level spell like abilities but some other races do but it can be unbalancing. You could change so it is delayed until say 3rd level or later...
fiendish_platypus 05-08-07, 05:57 PM	Or maybe set a prerequisite and limit its number of uses, such as a gnomes spell-like abilities, only stricter requiremements.
Godris_Grimsteel 05-08-07, 05:59 PM	Yeah I could, but then it seems like something they can learn rather than naturally do. I know some people didn't read the thing in full because of its length, but Munchkins are not a violent race. They will fiercly defend their own home but don't normally have great strength. So to rob them of any defense for 3 levels makes it seem like there is no way to advance the character appropriatley until after level 3. I've seen rules in DnD where certain classes, or races automatically get a (feat) (skill) (ability) and doesn't need to meet certain prerequisites in order to attain it. I was thinking this could be a Spell-Like ability for the race of Munchkins that they naturally have. and I suppose instead of a monstrous swarm of anything, it could simply be a swarm of normal sized creatures, not that they'd be all that powerful, but it would be a defense. in regards though to the centipede being a CR 4....it only goes past CR 4 at Gargantuan size. at Huge Size it's still a CR 2. Gargantuan is a CR 6 and Collosal is a CR 9 and even if I did a swarm of say small monstrous centipedes, at the minimum of a swarm of 6 would only be 1 and 2/4 CR. there are no Monstrous bees, so it'd have to be a Giant Bee which is medium sized CR at 1. if I did the Buzz: 2-5, and capped it at say 2 of them that'd only be a CR 2. and if the Summon Swarm can only summon up to CR 2 of swarms, then all I have to do is figure out rules to keep it at a certain number so it doesn't go over the CR limit. i'm looking at the MM for all of this, and it's right there. So really all I'd need to do for the Summon Swarm thing is just set a limit to how many of each insect could be summoned. and I think I could limit it to once per day of use for every, let's say 3 levels of Character. and then it can go up in use per day much like Barbarian's Rage
fiendish_platypus 05-08-07, 06:01 PM	Thank you! :) Your Welcome. Well the botanical brilliance wasn't really meant to be an ability just something that i didn't move out of that area to be perceived as an ability. Though I like the idea of having bonuses with plant creatures. as for summon insect, yeah it is a will thing. Maybe having a different kind of insect, instead of monstrous would be good to start out with? like a normal insect for the first 2 levels, and then a monstrous small insect as they get stronger and then bigger as they become more powerful. as for abilities...I wasn't entirely sure what they might be good or bad at. I said +2 to intelligence since they spend most of their time studying things, mostly plants. Usually every race gets a -(something) to some ability and I wasn't sure which to make them worse in, but Strength does sound more likely, and maybe a +1 to Dexterity? how do these sound as possible changes? Hmmm, maybe something like +2 to Armor Class and attacks against plant-type creatures? Honestly, I'm not sure how I would handle the swarms... I'd say something like +2 Int, +2 Dex, -4 Str.
Kursk 05-08-07, 06:02 PM	Medium is 4 feet to 8 feet. Some creatures break these guidlines though. Dwarves are under 4' but still medium. No. PHB states they (dwarves) are 4' to 4 1/2' tall.
fiendish_platypus 05-08-07, 06:04 PM	Yeah I could, but then it seems like something they can learn rather than naturally do. I know some people didn't read the thing in full because of its length, but Munchkins are not a violent race. They will fiercly defend their own home but don't normally have great strength. So to rob them of any defense for 3 levels makes it seem like there is no way to advance the character appropriatley until after level 3. ... So really all I'd need to do for the Summon Swarm thing is just set a limit to how many of each insect could be summoned. and I think I could limit it to once per day of use for every, let's say 3 levels of Character. and then it can go up in use per day much like Barbarian's Rage I was talking about the actual swarm's challenge rating, it's under 'Swarm' in the MM... I would limit it 1/day period, end of story, usable once per day from 1st level and up.
Godris_Grimsteel 05-08-07, 06:08 PM	I was talking about the actual swarm's challenge rating, it's under 'Swarm' in the MM... I would limit it 1/day period, end of story, usable once per day from 1st level and up. oh I must have missed the Swarm section. you're right about that though i see it now. so Summon Swarm, use once per day, period. Technically I called the ability Summon Insect, and in the description said Swarm. So maybe instead of a swarm just a singular insect of at best Medium size maybe? much like summoning a familiar or a monster? how does that sound?
fiendish_platypus 05-08-07, 06:40 PM	oh I must have missed the Swarm section. you're right about that though i see it now. so Summon Swarm, use once per day, period. Technically I called the ability Summon Insect, and in the description said Swarm. So maybe instead of a swarm just a singular insect of at best Medium size maybe? much like summoning a familiar or a monster? how does that sound? This could work better, maybe choose only 1 of the monstrous vermin that grow in size (centipede, spider, scorpion, etc.) and you could scale the size with the level. Just a suggestion.
Godris_Grimsteel 05-08-07, 07:10 PM	This could work better, maybe choose only 1 of the monstrous vermin that grow in size (centipede, spider, scorpion, etc.) and you could scale the size with the level. Just a suggestion. Well they're all suggestions. and I think that could actually work. thanks! do you or anybody else see anything else that doesn't quite make sense? also, unrelated, I see all the time generally in regards to race, or even classes...LA or Level Adjustment. what does Level Adjustment mean exactly? and what's the point of LA what does it do?
fiendish_platypus 05-08-07, 07:29 PM	LA means Level Adjustment, it means well, the Level Adjustment. A creatures ECL (Effective Class Level or sumthin' to that effect) is their Racial HD plus their LA plus their Class level. Level Adjustment is to help scale player's characters so they are all about equal power.