Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Lappy9000 03-11-08, 08:03 PM	Hoo boy, with so many powerful feats at their disposal, I'm not sure if these guys are gonna stay at LA +0 and be able to keep their physical manipulation. Help is most graciously appreciated. And yes, the 'M' is silent ;) Mnorra Mnorras are a small yet powerful race seeking physical perfection. Generations upon generations of physical conditioning have given them the ability to control their bodies to a degree far greater than that of other beings. Through their physical prowess, the mnorras can enter a state to make themselves more powerful, more intelligent, and even unable to feel pain. Personality: To an outsider, many mnorra may seem dry and solemn, though those who have spent time with the mnorras and treat them with respect will find that they are actually quite benevolent. A mnorra will show respect to a stranger, but they expect to be treated equally as such. No mnorra will associate themselves with someone who treats them with disdain. Physical Description: Mnorras stand between 3 ½ to 4 feet tall and usually weigh 35-40 pounds. The physical conditioning has left many mnorras to be unusually sturdy, despite their smaller frames. Their skin is often a light tanned color, and they usually have brown, green, or hazel eyes. Males lack hair entirely on the top of their heads and face, and even females only grow a few small strand of hair, which they usually braid ornately. Neither gender has eyebrows, but instead have short, catlike whiskers in their place. Males have a mane of sorts draped around their collar which can be any shade of brown. Their mane is a symbol of pride for the mnorras, so much so, that initiates to monastic traditions must shave it and not allow it to grow until they have completed their training. Relations: Mnorras show respect to those who show it to them. Though their contact with the common races has only been made recently, they already have some predispositions towards them. Mnorras enjoy the company of gnomes, Halflings, and dwarves, but often get irritated at elves, who tend to look down upon them. Alignment: Due to ancient monastic traditions, most mnorras are lawful. Rarely will a mnorra within a community be evil. Most malevolent mnorras have been outcast from common society. Mnorra Lands: Mnorras have only recently left the seclusion of their sacred temples, nestled high atop the mountain peaks. However, a more small sect of mnorras have forsaken their ancient sanctuaries completely, and attempt to live among the common races. Religion: Mnorra follow a path of physical protection, rather than any specific deity. Since their recent incorporation into the outside world, some mnorras have become clerics of lawful deities. Language: Mnorras write and speak in Mnorran, though they have picked up Common easily. Names: Mnorras usually favor names with silent letters, with female names being longer than male ones. Male Names: Coln, Drebt, Kemb, Knon, Lacht, Nymn, Roup Female Names: Mnoward, Knessal, Pseraia, Tabtalia, Writess Adventurers: Thousands of years of seclusion suddenly ended provides mnorras with many reasons to become adventurers. As long as a mnorra does not forsake their ancient traditions, they will always be welcome back in the ancestral temples. Mnorras often are trained monks, but occasionally take rogues, clerics, and even find a just cause to fight for as a paladin. Few mnorras manifest arcane powers and fewer become bards or barbarians. Mnorra Racial Traits • +2 Con, -2 Cha • Small: As a Small creature, a mnorra gains a +1 size bonus to Armor Class, a +1 size bonus on attack rolls, and a +4 size bonus on Hide checks, but he uses smaller weapons than humans use, and his lifting and carrying limits are three-quarters of those of a Medium character. • Mnorra base land speed is 20 feet. • +2 racial bonus on Balance checks. • Physical Manipulation (Su): A mnorra has the ability to control aspects of his anatomy to a greater extent than that of other races. Once per day, a mnorra can control an aspect of his body in a way superficially similar to a barbarian’s rage. Every mnorra is trained in at least one state that enhances part of the mnorra’s body (represented by racial feats) and must say which state they wish to enter prior to beginning physical manipulation. A mnorra can only use 1 state per physical manipulation. However, such control over the body takes a great deal of concentration to maintain and cannot be used along with another such state such as a barbarian’s rage. A mnorra barbarian can enter a rage during his physical manipulation, but loses any bonuses as if the physical manipulation had ended. Physical manipulation is a free action and last for a number of rounds equal to 3+ the mnorra’s Constitution modifier. (If a mnorra ability or other effect increases the character’s Con modifier, use the newly improved modifier.) A mnorra can take feats to improve this ability. Every mnorra feat a character takes increases the duration of his physical manipulation by 1 round. For every two mnorra feats a character takes, the number of times per day he can manipulate his body increases by one. So, a character with two mnorra feats can manipulate his body two times per day (instead of the usual one), and each use of the ability lasts for a number of rounds equal to 5 (instead of 3) + the mnorra’s Con modifier. • Automatic Languages: Common and Mnorran. Bonus Languages: Draconic, Dwarven, Giant, Gnome, and Goblin. • Favored Class: Monk. A multiclass mnorra’s monk class does not count when determining whether he takes an experience point penalty for multiclassing.
Lappy9000 03-11-08, 08:03 PM	These work as racial feats. A mnorra monk or fighter can take a mnorra racial feat as one of their bonus feats. Adrenal Rush You send energy into your muscles, enhancing your strength. Prerequisites: Mnorra. Benefit: During physical manipulation, you gain a +2 bonus to Strength and a +10 foot bonus to your land speed. Hardened Body By greatly tightening the muscles in your body, you are less susceptible to bodily harm. Prerequisites: Mnorra. Benefit: During physical manipulation, you gain a +2 bonus to Constitution and gain damage reduction 2/Piercing. Heightened Perception You will your body to boost the supply of oxygen to your brain, enhancing the senses. Prerequisites: Mnorra. Benefit: During physical manipulation, you gain a +2 bonus to Wisdom and gain low-light vision. Sure Footing You subtly adjust the center of your weight to anchor yourself to the ground. Prerequisites: Mnorra. Benefit: During physical manipulation, you gain a +2 bonus to Constitution and receive a +4 bonus on ability checks made to resist being bull rushed or tripped when standing on the ground (but not when climbing, flying, riding or otherwise not standing firmly on the ground). Tranquil Consciousness You empty and relax your mind so that concentration becomes easier. Prerequisites: Mnorra. Benefit: During physical manipulation, you gain a +2 bonus to Intelligence and a +4 Circumstance bonus to saves against mind-affecting spells and effects. Flood of Essence By pumping your life essence throughout your body, you are able to heal minute amounts of damage. Prerequisites: Mnorra, Constitution 13, one other mnorra feat. Benefit: During physical manipulation, you flood your body with life essence in order to heal 5 + your HD points of damage. However, doing so ends your body manipulation instantly and leaves you fatigued for 5 minutes. Improved Hardened Body Your mnorra feat improves; your body is further toughened. Prerequisites: Mnorra, Hardened Body feat, one other mnorra feats. Benefit: During physical manipulation, you gain an additional +2 bonus to Constitution and your damage reduction increases to 5/Piercing. Pain Split You sever the connections to your body’s nerves, allowing you to feel no pain. Prerequisites: Mnorra, Constitution 13, one other mnorra feat. Benefit: During physical manipulation, you are able to fight even if you are disabled or dying. When reduced to 0 hit points, you act as if you weren't disabled. You do not lose 1 hit point for performing a standard or otherwise strenuous action while at 0 hit points. When reduced to -1 to -9 hit points, you do not fall unconscious. You do not automatically lose 1 hit point each round when at -1 to -9 hit points. When you current hit points drop to -10 or lower, you die instantly. Improved Heightened Perception Your mnorra feat improves; your senses are now a step ahead of others. Prerequisites: Mnorra, Heightened Perception Feat. Benefit: During physical manipulation, if an enemy provokes an attack of opportunity from you, you can make the attack even if you’ve already taken your allotted number of attacks of opportunity this round (usually one). These abilities stack with the abilities gained in the Heightened Perception feat. Mind Blast The force of your mind emanates in a blast that rips through the surrounding area. Prerequisites: Mnorra, Tranquil Consciousness Feat. Benefit: At the beginning of physical manipulation, a blast of energy bursts from your body dealing 1d6 per 2 HD points of damage to all creatures within a 20-foot radius. This happens at the beginning of physical manipulation. After the blast, you assume the abilities of the Tranquil Consciousness feat.
ciaran 03-11-08, 10:25 PM	The M isn't completely silent, right? Takes pronunciation skills unavailable in English? ;) So I'm left asking where are bonus psionic power points? I know its not your intent, but the flavor text seems to suggest a few. Oh, I like the bonus on Minotaurs. Makes absolutly no sense mechanically. Flavor rules. Woohoo!
Lappy9000 03-11-08, 10:54 PM	Oh, I like the bonus on Minotaurs. Makes absolutly no sense mechanically. Flavor rules. Woohoo! You better believe it. The fact that it was spliced in last second only adds to this. So yeah, some of the Psionic powers had exactly what I was looking for to base (*cough*) some of the physical manipulation powers off of. I actually had a whole other system planned for the mnorra's racial abilities but it required more book kepping, so I just opted for racial feats instead.
AtsuiShoto 03-13-08, 05:06 PM	Mnorra feats are divided into four discipline: Advocate of Body, Apprentice of Blood, Devotee of Mind, and Temporal Partisan. A mnorra gains the abilities of one of the four disciplines and must progress another feat within the discipline should he choose to take another mnorra racial feat. After reaching the fourth racial feat within a discipline, a mnorra can choose another discipline in which to take additional feats. However, a mnorra monk can forego this restriction and progress through multiple disciplines simultaneously.Huh??? Where did the rules for this go? I can't discern such a pattern in the feat prerequisites, where I suppose it would be easiest to enforce these discipline rules.
Lappy9000 03-14-08, 02:21 PM	Gar, that was the old, unnecessarily complicated system which I opted to remove and apparently didn't get deleted between the various copy-pastes of Microsoft Word windows. Sorry 'bout that. It's fixed now. I appreciate your comments, but does anyone have any for the feats available? Too powerful? Not powerful enough? Prerequistes not quite right? Huge gaping loophole? etc. EDIT: The M isn't completely silent, right? Takes pronunciation skills unavailable in English? Think a silent 'M' like mnemonic. Re-EDIT: I just realized that the feat system still takes quite a bit of book keeping. Hmm...it's still nothing compared to the skill system though. I originally planned to give mnorras a special skill which they could invest points to and gained new abilities depending on how many skill points they spent. It would work something like the "Learn Language" skill. I might put it up for critiquing if the feats prove to be unpopular/broken.
Lappy9000 03-16-08, 02:43 AM	With the Bump Spell readily prepared the night before, Lappy9000, 1st level Threadomancer, speaks the remaining verbal component, "With many views, yet few reviews, I give this thread a bump!" Arcane Spell Failure check roll (15%): 1d100=63 Suddenly, a flash of light bursts from Lappy9000, creating this post and hopefully summoning aid from the WOTC boards...
Avolakian 03-17-08, 11:50 AM	That is the most amusing way I have seen anyone bump a thread. Thumbs up to you. Anyway, I like this guy, he could get insanely powerful in a Physical Manipulation but it is constrained to 1/day and takes a lot of feats to make it work. I think it is great so far, I may use them, a feat that ups dex and another that gives it a natural attack.
Lappy9000 03-17-08, 12:47 PM	That is the most amusing way I have seen anyone bump a thread. Thumbs up to you. Glad you liked that :P I actually wanted to avoid giving the mnorra natural weapons. One thing I did not like about Shifters (and part of the reason why I'm making the mnorra to replace them) was that their natural attacks were...kinda useless. At first level, a shifter probably won't even use thier 1d6 bite attack when they just have a 2d6 greatsword. They may use it as a secondary attack, or they may not even bother. Every player I've ever had playing a shifter always went for Wildhunt or Beasthide, though one player went with Longstride (This is prior to Races of Eberron). Even though RoE lets you take a feat to gain two shifter abilities, mnorra get to pick several with more customization. The other thing is that the mnorra are tailored to be monks. Natural weapons don't work in tandem with the monk's flurry of blows and it doesn't really mesh with the fluff (Though I did toy with the idea of giving the mnorra a feat which lets them use some kinda natural bone sword or something).
AtsuiShoto 03-17-08, 11:54 PM	Given how infrequent manipulations are on a per-day basis (unless with a HEAVY feat investment), I don't see any overpowered feats for it so far. Flood of Essence, being a linearly-scaling healing feat, becomes nigh-useless at higher levels. Using up a manipulation, then either being fatigued for 5 minutes or needed some way to be immune to fatigue, is not worth (for example) 5 to 8 hitpoints at 9th level. Not by a long shot. Again, Mind Blast isn't level-appropriate either. Dealing 6-15 damage, assuming a pimped out Intelligence score, at 6th level (when you can take your 4th racial feat) is not worth a feat at all. The uses of the feat are limited, too, so it's not even a crappy at-will ability like a reserve feat. The prerequisite for Improved Hardened Body should be Hardened Body. I think you left an artifact of a previous version in there. Improved Heightened Perception isn't bad. It's just not terribly level-appropriate, because it overlaps with Combat Reflexes, but Combat Reflexes can be taken much sooner than 6th level. None of these feats strikes me as actually being WORTH filling the very limited un-typed feat slots. Perhaps the manipulation duration/frequency/effectiveness synergy between the feats makes taking a bunch of them worthwhile, but I don't actually think so.
Lappy9000 03-18-08, 12:24 AM	Cool, I'll start beefing up some of them feats now. I also had a suggestion for increasing the mnorra racial stats to +2 Str, +2 Con, and -2 Cha. Think it'll work with them maintaining a +0 LA? Another suggestion I really liked was to make some feats available to the monk's list of bonus feats and possibly the fighters'. EDITS: Beefed up a couple of feats by using Hit Die instead of set numbers or stat modifiers, took out the minotaur thing, fixed some typos. (Need to change Improved Adrenal Rush. It just sounds stupid right now)
AtsuiShoto 03-18-08, 08:30 PM	Improved Hardened Body: During physical manipulation, you gain an additional +2 bonus to Constitution and your damage reduction increases to 5/Piercing. This feat replaces the Hardened Body feat. Instead of replacing the feat, it should simply be "...increases to 5/Piercing, instead of 2/Piercing." Heightened Perception: gain low-light vision to 60 feet Low-light vision doesn't work that way. It's normally just a multiplier applied to the distance that the character can see in shadowy illumination. Tranquil Conciousness: a +4 Circumstance bonus to mind-affecting spells and effects. This should be a bonus to saves against mind-affecting spells.
Lappy9000 03-18-08, 08:54 PM	Thanks. EDITED for above fixes. Still working on something for Improved Adrenal Rush, I'm probably gonna change regular Adrenal Rush as well.
Lappy9000 03-20-08, 11:12 PM	Lappy9000, 1st level Threadomancer, was in trouble. Stumbling through the dark, cavernous corridors of the Tower by the Coast, he narrowly avoided a Forgotten Thread spell as the crimson blast rocketed just over his head. He could smell the smoke coming from his wizard's hat, and the frantic commotion of the melee made it difficult to focus. Regardless, Lappy9000 knew he would have to stop his pursuer. Pulling himself together, he prepared to cast his last remaining spell. Frantically, he spoke the remaining verbal component, "Lion's Roar, Hyena's Yelp, my thread's in desperate need of help!" Concentration check roll: 1d20+4=16 Arcane Spell Failure check roll (15%): 1d100=49 Glittering sparks filled the air as Lappy9000's Summon Peach Spell called forth the power and advice of superior D&D minds to finally complete his thread's grand quest.
Googlepacer 03-21-08, 09:46 AM	I see them as more psionic then anything. You could change the favored class from Monk to a Psion. I think haveing +2 Str, +2 Con, -2 Cha would be fine seeing as his class abilities consists only of Physical Manipulation. You also dont get the full advantages from it at first lvl because you have to keep taking the feats. All in all, :thumbsup: I think you did a great job.
Lappy9000 03-21-08, 12:02 PM	Excellent, that's what I like to hear :D Thanks everyone for your putback. Unless anyone else has some advice, I believe the mnorra are pretty much finished.
Lotus Crane 03-21-08, 03:21 PM	Hmm... net positive ability score modifiers (and the penalty is in the often-unnecessary Charisma), a bonus feat, and a not-insignificant racial special ability? Definately can't remain LA 0. If you want to cut it down to LA 0, change the ability score penalty to something that hurts more character builds, such as Dex, Int, or Wis, and remove the free bonus feat (even if it's limited to racial feats, there's no real reason not to want them anyway, so it's a non-limitation, really). On the other hand, if you don't want to take anything away, if you make them LA +1, you can feel free to drop the Charisma penalty, and maybe even give them a base land speed of 30 ft. instead of 20.
Lappy9000 03-21-08, 10:53 PM	Hmm... net positive ability score modifiers (and the penalty is in the often-unnecessary Charisma), a bonus feat, and a not-insignificant racial special ability? Definately can't remain LA 0. Hmm, everyone else's been telling me otherwise. This was the reason why the first build (wasn't on here) was -2 Str, +2 Dex and didn't have the +2 Balance Check. Keep in mind that the racial bonus feat grants the 1st level mnorra powers no more than that of an Eberron Shifter (heck, they're technically weaker than Shifter abilities at 1st level). EDIT: Just for the record, one of my players (a 6th level bard) has proved to me that Charisma is by no means unnecessary.
Lotus Crane 03-22-08, 12:09 AM	But shifters have a net negative ability score modifer, what with +2 Dexterity, but -2 Intelligence and -2 Charisma. Even if the baseline racial ability is weaker, the fact that you include a free racial bonus feat with it makes the special ability overall comparable to the shifter one. Being small and having a lower base speed cancel each other out. So in the end, you're left with the fact that shifters have an overall -2 to ability scores, while your race has an overall +2 to ability scores. Having overall positive ability scores modifiers, almost by default, means that you can't remain LA 0, unless you had massive penalties in other areas, which you don't. Even if you remove the bonus racial feat, and change the ability score penalty to something more painful than Cha, it would still make your race one of the only LA 0 ones with a net positive ability score modifier, which is in itself remarkable. (Lesser planetouched are widely known to be an oversight of the system.) I'm inclined to believe that most of the people who've responded to your ideas thus far, have basically been so interested by the concept and flavor text of your race, that they're blinded to the mechanical imbalance with it. Basically, your race is somewhere in what I'll call the "LA +0.7-0.8 range", where it's clearly stronger than any published LA 0 race (barring the faulty and often-banned lesser planetouched), but not necessarily as strong as most LA +1 races. That's why I'm saying you have 2 choices: either bring it down to a proper LA 0 by making the ability score penalty something more painful than Cha (Dex, Int, or Wis) and removing the free bonus feat, or bring it up to a proper LA +1 by removing the ability score penalty entirely, and changing the base speed to 30 ft. (like kobolds, which are LA 0 with bad ability score penalties, but base speed 30 ft. on Small size).
Lappy9000 03-22-08, 12:14 AM	Interesting. So would you say that a dual penalty (Ex: -2 Str, -2 Wis [or something) would balance it out? EDIT: Just say the edit in your post. I might need to do a bit more fiddling with the overall physical manipulation mechanics. The only reason why they're feats in the first place are so that they're not copy/paste/edit shifter clones. How about replacing the 1st level feat with a mnorra racial feat (Players might hate me for that, though...) Re-EDIT: ^ Not happenin' ^ Evidence for your theory is flooding in at an astounding rate O_O Discovering Solardin's ECL Calculator, the Mnorra ranked a LA +0.7 with the current incarnation. Toying with a +2 Con -2 Cha (Still leaves them physically stronger than most short races) or a +2 Dex -2 Cha (right beastly monks...) scored a LA +0.5 Nerfing the Balance bonus dropped them to LA +0.4
Lotus Crane 03-22-08, 02:07 AM	You know, why not just let them be LA +1, and keep them as they are or make them even slightly stronger, by increasing their base speed to 30 ft., dropping the ability score penalty entirely, or making their racial ability even stronger? I don't know why most people who write custom races have this phobia of LA, to the point where they'll amputate their original idea to shoehorn it into the absolute limits of LA 0, and/or irrationally dismiss even the most well-supported arguments as to why they should accept LA +1. Honestly, by accepting LA +1, you actually buy yourself a lot more breathing room to flesh out your concept, and can usually put in even a bit more cool stuff. Catfolk from Races of the Wild are probably the most powerful LA +1 race that are considered playable rather than abusively broken, so that's your upper limit for how tricked out you want LA +1 mnorra to be. If you back yourself into the corner of LA 0, well then you really shouldn't be making mnorra anymore obviously attractive than shifters or half-orcs, both of which have overall negative ability score modifiers. Do you really want to be forced to tune down your ideas to that meager level?
Lappy9000 03-22-08, 10:26 PM	That bonus feat really bugs you, doesn't it? Moved it to fighter or monk bonus feats instead of bonus racial feat. -2 Charisma balances out a +2 Constitution well enough to allow a +2 Balance. Smooth ECL 0.3/0.4 -ish without "amputating" any of the original ideas. I do appreciate your input but ECL +1 Core Races really make life difficult for the players, particurally if they aren't very rule savvy. With the possible exception for another racial feat or two, I'm pretty much ready to call the mnorra finished.