Post/Author/DateTime	Post
ArisenFromTheDead 04-04-07, 03:39 PM	The Kyuudan The Kyuudan are a race of shapeshifters bred by the Magocracy of Fausi during the Magi/Psion Wars a millenia a go to counteract the attacks of the Psionic shapeshifters. After the wars had ended, the Kyuudan suddenly found themselves free to do what they wanted, and ever since have been finding their place in the world. Except for a series of scales running down their backs, the Kyuudan's natural form looks like a basic Half-Elf. Medium Size Base Speed 30 feet +2 Constitution, -2 Wisdom: The Kyuudan are exceptionally hardy, but are fairly susceptible to mind controlling magic - a trait bred into them by their longdead masters. Magically Stunted: Bred to fear magic, the Kyuudan have a hard time using the craft. They take a -2 to Use Magic Device and Spellcraft checks. Unnatural: In their base forms, Kyuudan take a -4 penalty to Ride and Handle Animal checks. Natural Enemies:: Kyuudan get a +1 to their attack rolls when fighting Thri-Kreen or Changelings. Kyuudan get a +4 to their spot checks to oppose a Changelings disguise check. Anti-Psionic: A Kyuudan gets a +4 bonus on Will saves to resist Psionic powers. Shapeshift: A Kyuudan has the ability to shapeshift into a medium animal 2 times a day. This ability functions like the Druids wildshape ability. His caster level is equal to half his class levels(rounded down) plus his constitution modifier. Upon attaining 5 HD a Kyuudan can choose to either shift into either large animals or into small animals, or to increase his number of shifts per day by one. The choice cannot be rechosen afterwards. At 8 HD, and again at 12, the Kyuudan can choose to shift into an animal one step smaller or one step larger than what he is currently capable of with this power, or he can increase the amount of times he can shift a day by one. My grasp of English isn't the best that it could be, I've gotten some help from my roommate but he's not a d&d guru, so could someone help me with the nuts and bolts of the race? Also what LA/Racial Hit die range do you think the Kyuudan fall into?
Captain_Kobold 04-04-07, 04:24 PM	A few thoughts: Unnatural: Include Wild empathy checks as well? Would the bonus to penetrate disguises be just to changelings, or include doppelgangers, disguise self spells, or all disguise checks? (I'm not sure what the history of your world is.) Perhaps allow them to shapeshift into Medium or Small animals at start. (Don't think there are many 1HD medium animals around.) At 5HD could go Large or Tiny etc. Are there any other restrictions on shapeshifting? The scales might imply reptiles only. Can a Kyuudan become any animal in the right size range, or does each one have only a few specific alternate forms? Would the Kyuudan advance solely by character class, or would even an untrained one have more than one hit dice? Once you decide how many racial hit dice they have (if any), you can work on a level adjustment.
calronmoonflower 04-04-07, 04:45 PM	The base ability adjustment are worth adding a +1 level adjustment(barely). You might consider adding another _2 to another mental score. Cha would seem a good choice as they do seem to have an unnatural feel. Shapeshift is much like a druid's wildshape, but that ability doesn't include caster levels because it is a supernatural ability rether than a spell, so use druid level instead. As it is giving them the druid's most powerful ability is too much. If you have the Player's handbook II you might consider giving them the predator form, but no new forms at higher level. Even then it would be worth another +1 level adjustment.
ArisenFromTheDead 04-05-07, 11:38 AM	The base ability adjustment are worth adding a +1 level adjustment(barely). You might consider adding another _2 to another mental score. Cha would seem a good choice as they do seem to have an unnatural feel. No it's not. Dwarves get a +2 to constitution and -2 to Charisma, a much less useful stat overall than Wisdom is. Dwarves may be on the stronger side for a LA +0, but +2 Con, -2 Wisdom is balanced, or at least not worth a +1 LA at all. Shapeshift is much like a druid's wildshape, but that ability doesn't include caster levels because it is a supernatural ability rether than a spell, so use druid level instead. As it is giving them the druid's most powerful ability is too much. If you have the Player's handbook II you might consider giving them the predator form, but no new forms at higher level. Even then it would be worth another +1 level adjustment. The shapeshifting is a major part of the race...both of these suggestions would ruin it. I was asking for an approximate LA for what the ability would be worth - not a complete nerfing of it. Unnatural: Include Wild empathy checks as well? That would indeed fit in with the race. Would the bonus to penetrate disguises be just to changelings, or include doppelgangers, disguise self spells, or all disguise checks? (I'm not sure what the history of your world is.) Only on Changelings, Dopplegangers are very, very rare and use different techniques than the Changelings do when it comes to shifting into humanoids. Maybe a flat bonus for detecting people in disguise wouldn't be TOO unbalancing. Perhaps allow them to shapeshift into Medium or Small animals at start. (Don't think there are many 1HD medium animals around.) At 5HD could go Large or Tiny etc. Are there any other restrictions on shapeshifting? The scales might imply reptiles only. Can a Kyuudan become any animal in the right size range, or does each one have only a few specific alternate forms? Your first suggestion seems fine, and I think that's the kind've route I'd like to take with the ability. As for restrictions on shapeshifting, they are really supposed to be the ying to the Changelings yang...not a very reptillian race. They have to physically contact a creature to be able to wildshape into it, so they would be limited by which creatures they would've ran into, and by the HD of the creature, like the Druid is capable of. Would the Kyuudan advance solely by character class, or would even an untrained one have more than one hit dice? Once you decide how many racial hit dice they have (if any), you can work on a level adjustment. I'm not exactly sure how racial hit die effect ECL, so I'm hesitant to assign racial HD.
Captain_Kobold 04-05-07, 01:46 PM	How common are psionics going to be in your campaign? The worth of the Anti-psionic trait depends a bit on this. If they are as common as magic, this is a powerful ability. I don't think a flat bonus on spot and sense motive checks to penetrate a disguise is too unbalancing. By "have to physically contact a creature to be able to wildshape into it" do you mean "can only copy a creature the Kyuudan is in contact with at the time" or "can turn into any creature that they have ever touched"? What is the purpose behind the wildshaping? Why were the Kyuudan bred with it? For scouting and infiltration, or for fighting? Is having a lot of variety in the forms you can take important? For example: you could set it as "can only turn into those forms suitable as animal companions for a 1st level Druid. This ability does not improve as the Kyuudan advances". This would be much less powerful (and thus affect the LA less) than it is currently worded. As to how racial hit die affect LA; Humanoid hit dice are worth less than party levels. Thus if the race had (for example) a +3LA if advanced by base class, it might have only a +2 LA if they had a base racial HD of 3.
Thomar_of_Uointer 04-05-07, 09:15 PM	Medium Size Base Speed 30 feet +2 Constitution, -2 Wisdom: The Kyuudan are exceptionally hardy, but are fairly susceptible to mind controlling magic - a trait bred into them by their longdead masters. Magically Stunted: Bred to fear magic, the Kyuudan have a hard time using the craft. They take a -2 to Use Magic Device and Spellcraft checks. Unnatural: In their base forms, Kyuudan take a -4 penalty to Ride and Handle Animal checks. Natural Enemies:: Kyuudan get a +1 to their attack rolls when fighting Thri-Kreen or Changelings. Kyuudan get a +4 to their spot checks to oppose a Changelings disguise check. Anti-Psionic: A Kyuudan gets a +4 bonus on Will saves to resist Psionic powers. Shapeshift: A Kyuudan has the ability to shapeshift into a medium animal 2 times a day. This ability functions like the Druids wildshape ability. His caster level is equal to half his class levels(rounded down) plus his constitution modifier. Upon attaining 5 HD a Kyuudan can choose to either shift into either large animals or into small animals, or to increase his number of shifts per day by one. The choice cannot be rechosen afterwards. At 8 HD, and again at 12, the Kyuudan can choose to shift into an animal one step smaller or one step larger than what he is currently capable of with this power, or he can increase the amount of times he can shift a day by one. Also what LA/Racial Hit die range do you think the Kyuudan fall into? Does their resistance to powers use transparency? If it does, you're better off just saying it works against magic and saying nothing else, or to be safe say it works against both. Otherwise, note that it violates transparency. Racial Hit Dice tend to be an inherent feature, on par with ability score modifiers (though a bit more complex). If you don't think they have any inherent natural toughness (i.e., young adult grizzly bear versus a human) they don't need Hit Dice. Everything else looks pretty good for LA +0... Except for Shapeshift. I'm going to peg it at LA +2 because it's a major class feature, but scales well by level. Good writeup, by the way. Very flavorful, fits into various settings, really gives them a place in the world and would make them easier to roleplay.
ArisenFromTheDead 04-07-07, 04:48 PM	How common are psionics going to be in your campaign? The worth of the Anti-psionic trait depends a bit on this. If they are as common as magic, this is a powerful ability. It's actually pretty common. There is a Psionics vs. Faith vs. Arcane theme that I have tried to weave into the setting. Maybe it could be pegged down to a +2 or +1 bonus. It was originally was a +1 but I was afraid that it wouldn't mesh well with the wisdom penalty. By "have to physically contact a creature to be able to wildshape into it" do you mean "can only copy a creature the Kyuudan is in contact with at the time" or "can turn into any creature that they have ever touched"? I meant the latter one. Although the former one is an interesting idea, I think it wouldn't fit the flavor of what I am going for, and would be too limiting. What is the purpose behind the wildshaping? Why were the Kyuudan bred with it? For scouting and infiltration, or for fighting? Is having a lot of variety in the forms you can take important? For example: you could set it as "can only turn into those forms suitable as animal companions for a 1st level Druid. This ability does not improve as the Kyuudan advances". This would be much less powerful (and thus affect the LA less) than it is currently worded. It was for both. Sthyr, the nation that they were bred to combat, was co-founded by a nature Ardent, and hostilities against animals was taboo for a lot of the common people because of it. Having to fight people who could take the form of said animals? It was supposed to be very demoralising. It didn't turn out that way...but that was the original plan. And I want to apologize, my original reply came off as a bit snappy to you and I didn't mean it to be. Does their resistance to powers use transparency? If it does, you're better off just saying it works against magic and saying nothing else, or to be safe say it works against both. Otherwise, note that it violates transparency. Racial Hit Dice tend to be an inherent feature, on par with ability score modifiers (though a bit more complex). If you don't think they have any inherent natural toughness (i.e., young adult grizzly bear versus a human) they don't need Hit Dice. Thanks, I'll be sure to note that it violates transparency. Everything else looks pretty good for LA +0... Except for Shapeshift. I'm going to peg it at LA +2 because it's a major class feature, but scales well by level. Good writeup, by the way. Very flavorful, fits into various settings, really gives them a place in the world and would make them easier to roleplay. Thanks! Just for a clarification, Druids don't exist in my campaign...so things like Wild spell and the races synergy with the Druid class aren't a very big problem. I'm thinking of giving the race 2 racial hit dice regardless. How would this affect the LA?
Thomar_of_Uointer 04-08-07, 01:34 AM	I'm thinking of giving the race 2 racial hit dice regardless. How would this affect the LA? Good question. Are they humanoid Hit Dice or Animal Hit Dice? Either way, it should reduce it to LA +1. Either type of Hit Die tends to be subpar compared to class levels. Also, I think they deserve the Shapechanger subtype. It's a very minor feature, and wouldn't affect their LA at this point.