Post/Author/DateTime	Post
deneb 01-28-06, 09:58 PM	This is a race iv played once upon a time. however, it was unballanced to say the least.. im trying to remake it into a playable at first level race.. but still has the flavor of the origional. This is a golem similer to warfarged. Mageborn • –2 Constitution, -2 Wisdom • Medium: As Medium creatures, mageborn have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size. • Mageborn base land speed is 30 feet. • Automatic Languages: Common Bonus Languages: As human • Favored Class: Sorcer. A multiclass mageborn’s Sorcer class does not count when determining whether she takes an experience point penalty for multiclassing. • Magic metabalisim: Mageborn do not need to eat or breath instead they draw in the ambient magic while they sleep. However, they require 9 hours of sleep each night, also, any time they must sleep in an area with no magic(such as a dead magic zone or inside a antimagic field) they suffer from the effects of starvation. • Vulnrabilitys: When targeted by a Dispell Magic or similer must save or fall uncious for 1d4 rounds. Also if subjected to Mords Disjunction must save or die. In such case the Mageborn can only be raised by True Res. or Wish or similer magic. • Magic Consumption: Mageborn also will consume nearly any magic that they come into contact with. Every round that a spell or item is in contact with a mageborn must make a casterlevel check of 15+class level. Spells are canceled as if ended, charged items lose 1d4 charges and perment items lose their power for 1d4 minutes. Mageborns gain 1 hp each time. This ability cannot be lowered even to accecpt bennificial spells or to wear items. This is the mechanics of the race.. ill post the backgroud flavor text in a bit. im more looking to see if they are to powerfull or not.
Phoenix Knight 01-28-06, 10:27 PM	• Magic Consumption: Mageborn also will consume nearly any magic that they come into contact with. Every round that a spell or item is in contact with a mageborn must make a casterlevel check of 15+class level. Spells are canceled as if ended, charged items lose 1d4 charges and perment items lose their power for 1d4 minutes. Mageborns gain 1 hp each time. This ability cannot be lowered even to accecpt bennificial spells or to wear items. Well I was about to say they were underpowered, until reading this. I'm not totally clear on what the mechanic is supposed to mean. Do you mean, that the spell or item must make a caster level check against a DC of 15 + the hit dice of the mageborn? I don't really think there is any good way to reconcile dispel magic at will as a proper ability for a creature with no LA or racial hit dice. Regardless, the DC for a supernatural ability is usuall 10 + the relevant ability mod + 1/2 the creature's racial HD. In this case, I'd say 10 + Cha mod + 1/2 character level (if you do not give it racial HD). Also, if it is a golem, is it a construct? That creature type carries many advantages (and a few disadvantages) with it. Among them, no Con score. You could consider something like what was done with raptorans (Races of the Wild), where you don't gain all the abilities of the race at 1st level. With that race, they can't fly until a certain level (5th, maybe?). So you could start off with having spells cast against them fail, then at higher levels, allow them to drain charges, and so on.
deneb 01-28-06, 11:12 PM	humm.... guess that was confusing... :) I'll try to explain what I was trying to do... First thoguh.. some back ground. Mageborn began as golems designed to help a somewhat mad (and racest) human Wizard. The wizard hated Elves so he designed his slaves/golems to look like them(ego trip ya know?) As the wizard did many experiments he designed his golems to be able to run off of ambient magical energy as well as allow them to not be destroyed when any of his experiments went amuck(IE went boom). However the God of magic, who had a soft spot for elves(why else do you think they have such an innate magic?) and was a bit of a prankster gave life and sentence to all of the wizards golems. being more or less immune to magic they turned on the wizard and killed him. Now.. as for magic consumption i was trying to get a certain effect and im not sure the best way to do it. Mageborn (with the exception of dispell and disjunction) feed off of magic. they require small amounts of it just to survive. larger concentrations(such as spells and items) they can feed off of just as well. The idea was to give them something like SR only expanded in 4 spesfic ways 1) they are actuly feeding on (absorbing) the magic rather then just resisting it. 2) it cannot be turned off, even for benificial stuff 3)it affects ANYthing magicical that they touch... spells items ect and 4) they get a minor boost for anything they drain the reason i had the DC at 15+hd was because it was closer to SR and dispell magic number sets rather then the 10+1/2hd+cha which is more geared twards saving throws. I might want to change it to 11+HD(like Drow SR). but I was wanting it to be very hard to place benificial spells (including stuff like buffs and healing from the party cleric) hope that makes sence..... any advice? Edit:: Im not sure their type. their phisioligy is not normal enoguh to be called humanoid. I said golem because that was their background.... looking at it again the best fit now seems to be perhaps monstrous humanoid, but thats just a shot in the dark........
Phoenix Knight 01-29-06, 05:03 PM	Well, you might consider making them aberrations. The precedent would be the Elan. If they are organic, then construct is out. 11 + HD as SR is hard to pass. It means that a normal caster of the same level will lose half his spells cast on that target. For what you are talking about, I would just give them spell resistance, and say if a spell fails to overcome SR, then they absorb the spell and gain 1 hp. You could add a special restriction that they cannot voluntarily lower SR. IIRC, Savage Species says that no race should ever have SR without a level adjustment. You could argue that the vulnerability to dispel and the two stat penalties even out with just SR, assuming the SR is not too high. I cannot see their power affecting items without a LA or at least some racial hit dice. To balance that you'd need another serious drawback, and one likely to actually come up nearly as often as benefit they reap from the ability. If their ability means they cannot use magic items, then this could certainly qualify. You could also have this affect spells they attempt to cast, I suppose, as a drawback. However, on another note, if you set up a race that cannot use magic items in D&D, you make that race virtually unplayable, at least as PCs. A large part of the power structure in D&D revolves around magical items. Except in a very low magic game, I cannot see anyone wanting to play the race. Of course, one has to ask what a race that feeds on magic would be doing in a low-magic area. If you want to make such a race, they may make better NPCs (especially villains), than PCs. In that case, of course, LA doesn't apply.
NightEIves 01-29-06, 05:39 PM	This race begs to play with Vow of Poverty. Also, would their own spells be consumed by them? Goodbye mage armor. The wording "comes into contact with" needs to be better defined. This race would not work well as a pc race for both the huge weakness of their vulnerability and for their Magic->Hp ability. Need to think this one through a bit more.
deneb 01-30-06, 05:29 PM	PK: You could add a special restriction that they cannot voluntarily lower SR. They cant. If their ability means they cannot use magic items, then this could certainly qualify. You could also have this affect spells they attempt to cast, I suppose, as a drawback. here is an area that i was thinking about... normal magic items they cannot use(or at least not reliably) this is a given. im not sure if they should be able to use custom created items... IE they would have to be preasent for the entire item creation processes. As for spells cast... if it dosent affect the mageborn it should work as normal. if it does affect the mageborn.. i duno, off the top of my head i cant think of any creatures in the MM that are affected by their own SU or EX abbilitys. so they CAN access items.. its just rather restricted(IE this will give a DM a handel on things) NE: any PC that takes VoP had better start talking very fast and very convincingly. i think that it is the single most common feat on the CO boards heh. comes into contact with: anytime the mageborn phsicaly touches (IE hair, skin) magic or enters it its AOE, enters a zone of truth, gets hit witha +1 sword, blasted witha fireball, puts on bracers of armor, is tapped for curelight wounds ect. A mageborn could pickup say a wand however if he was wearing gloves. (mind you in casting the mageborn is part of the line of sight and would then require a SR check to make sure the wand DOES actuly go off. Edit: also noticed that RAW says that a mageborn would gain 1HP every 1d4 minutes of wearing a magical item. might want to change that to the item is disabled for 24 hours.
cougar78 02-01-06, 04:16 PM	seems like you'd have to make them restricted to non good due to not willing to go into non magical areas for the fear of starving. Unless you have items that could provide them with magic to feed on. Also the 9 hours of sleep will be a huge hinderance with low hp and -2 to con.
deneb 02-02-06, 04:16 PM	cougar: I cant follow your logic there... Im not prevented from being good because im unwilling to spend long hours underwater for fear of drownding. (and yes most any item will feed them in magicless areas. mind you, its not going to be very usefull during that time) and yes.. they are weak in HP, this is due to the power of their Magic Consumption ability. So the BBEG hits our poor low HP with a +5flaiming ice bursting longsword? welp.. if it dosent make the level check our poor BBEGs reduced to a masterwork longsword for the next 24 hours.