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Zyrusticae 09-14-07, 10:14 PM

Kalinzatugghrizs CR 5 Female Half-Lizardfolk/Half-Dragon Lizardfolk/Adventurer level 2/2 (LA +2) CN Medium Dragon Init +4; Senses darkvision 60ft., low-light vision; Listen +10, Spot +10 Languages Common, Draconic, Gnoll, Orc, Goblin, Giant ------------------------- AC 24, touch 18, flat-footed 20 (+2 armor, +4 Dex, +4 natural, +2 class, +2 deflection) hp 41 (4 HD (+2 Race, +2 Class)); DR 8/- Immune fire, sleep, paralysis Fort +7, Ref +9, Will +7 ------------------------- Spd 40 ft. (8 squares) Melee Greatsword +8 (2d6+14/19-20); or Melee 2 claws +8 (1d4+8) and bite +8 (1d6+8) Ranged with weapon +6 Space 5 ft; Reach 5 ft Base Atk +2 (+1 Race, +1 Class); Grp +8 Special Actions breathe fire Power Points 14 Powers (ML 2nd) Call Armor, Call Weaponry, Chameleon, Force Screen ------------------------- Abilities Str 22, Dex 18, Con 14, Int 18, Wis 16, Cha 12 SQ hold breath Feats Weapon Proficiency (simple, martial), Armor Proficiency (light, medium, heavy), shield proficiency (light, medium, heavy), Psionic Meditation, Psionic Weapon, Quicken Power, Speed of Thought Skill Groups Psionics +7, Athletics +7 Skills Autohypnosis +12, Balance +13 Climb +13, Concentration +10, Intimidate +6, Jump +21, Knowledge (Psionics) +13, Listen +9, Psicraft +13, Spot +9, Swim +17, Tumble +13, Use Psionic Device +6 Possessions 3750 GP, thick robes, cloak of resistance +3, ring of protection +2, backpack (books, various foodstuffs, camping gear), gloves of dexterity +2, dimension stride boots Kalinzatugghrizs CR 5 (RAW version) Female Half-Lizardfolk/Half-Dragon Humanoid/Psychic Warrior/Psion level 2/1/1 (LA +3) CN Medium Dragon Init +3; Senses darkvision 60ft., low-light vision; Listen +4, Spot +4 Languages Common, Draconic, Gnoll, Orc, Goblin, Giant ------------------------- AC 30, touch 15, flat-footed 27 (+6 armor, +3 Dex, +9 natural, +2 deflection) hp 49 (4 HD (+2 Race, +2 Class)) Immune fire, sleep, paralysis Fort +8, Ref +9, Will +8 ------------------------- Spd 40 ft. (8 squares) Melee brutal surge greatsword +8 (2d6+9/19-20); or Melee 2 claws +8 (1d4+8) and bite +8 (1d6+8) Ranged with weapon +5 Space 5 ft; Reach 5 ft Base Atk +2 (+1.5 Race, +1.25 Class); Grp +8 Special Actions breathe fire Power Points 4 Powers (ML 1st) Chameleon Powers (ML 4th) Force Screen, Precognition (Offensive), Energy Ray ------------------------- Abilities Str 22, Dex 16, Con 16, Int 16, Wis 15, Cha 12 SQ hold breath Feats Weapon Proficiency (simple, martial), Armor Proficiency (light, medium, heavy), shield proficiency (light, medium, heavy), Psionic Body, Psionic Weapon, Speed of Thought, Practiced Manifester (Psion) Skills Autohypnosis +4, Balance +8, Concentration +10, Heal +4, Intimidate +3, Jump +13, Knowledge (Psionics) +7, Listen +4, Psicraft +5, Spot +4, Swim +11, Tumble +5 Possessions 2750 GP, thick robes, cloak of resistance +3, ring of protection +2, backpack (books, various foodstuffs, camping gear), brutal surge greatsword, breastplate +1, gloves of dexterity +2, dimension stride boots (Base saves: 3.49 3.66 3.5) Alrighty, then. You'll notice that she's a race that gets +1 LA and 2 racial HD, and that half-dragon normally has a +3 LA. You'll also notice the odd classes (Lizardfolk/Adventurer? Heh). Read through and you'll understand. House rules in place: Szatany's Fantastic Feats (http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?t=761528). They're fantastic. Use them. This particular character doesn't carry any examples, but she will eventually. Fractional BAB & Saves. Class AC bonus that stacks with all other bonuses, determined by 1/2 BAB + 1/2 Reflex Defense (rounded down; use fractions). Consider it "Plot Armor"; this AC applies at all times, including when flatfooted and for touch AC. I find this to be fairest; having class AC based entirely on armor proficiencies is too vulnerable to twinking, and the math in this version works out just fine. I might have to do a little changing around with the shields, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. As far as the math goes, the AC isn't too high, nor too low. Touch AC for a 20th level fighter will be 23 without any other bonuses; a wizard can still beat this with a decent Dex score, but it's no longer quite as simple as before. A fighter can fight naked and still have a decent AC, but they're still relatively gimped without items (something that can only be solved in 4e). Iron Heroes skill system, with no class skills and skill 'groups' in their place. For each skill point spent on a skill group as a whole, you gain one rank in each skill it contains. This character possesses two skill groups: Psionics (Concentration (Con), Psicraft (Int), Use Psionic Device (Cha)), and Athletics (Climb (Str), Jump (Str), and Swim (Str)). With this, you'll see she has Listen, Spot, Intimidate, and Tumble as skills with a good number of ranks in them. I could easily have put skill points into 'fluff' skills without damaging my character concept. Using racial classes created by Lotus Crane. (http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?t=596634) Great way to get rid of LA while keeping races on a relatively even footing. Using Szatany's Ultimate Classes. (http://www.liquidmateria.info/wiki/index.php?title=Ultimate_Classes) Do I even need to explain this one? In case you're wondering, her 'adventurer' class is a mix of Psion and Psycker. Good stuff. XP debt in place of LA buy-off. A character with level adjustment may choose to acquire 1/2 XP each level, with 1/2 going to the LA and the other half going to character classes. For the first time, every two levels that a character spends XP in or after the first level above LA, whichever is higher, a single LA is removed. After that, every two levels removes a point of LA. This means an even slower advancement, but can be done with a smoother progression than just buying off an entire level every three levels. Saga-edition style ability score increases (two ability scores every four levels rather than just one); Saga-Edition style strength bonuses (x1 for one hand, x2 for two); Saga-Edition style iterative attacks (takes a feat), iterative attacks replaced by 1/2 level damage bonus. Triple 1st level HD. I was thinking of porting over Saga Edition style defenses, but it would've taken a lot more work than this already did. Even more from Saga Edition: Practically all the uses of Use the Force. Take all of it and stick it under Psicraft while replacing all references of Use the Force with Psicraft, with the possible exception of Search Your Feelings. I just couldn't help but feel that the way Use the Force was made in Saga Edition was far too ingenious to let slip by. Armor as half AC/half DR. Dodge, Deflection, and Shield bonuses provide all AC; armor and natural armor bonuses provide AC & DR, with DR rounded up and AC rounded down. Example: A suit of Half-plate has an AC bonus of 7 normally. Using this variant, it provides an AC of 3 and DR 4/-. A suit of Full Plate +5 has an AC of 13 normally, but in this case provides +6 AC and DR 7/-. Reasoning: Obviously, AC can get very high when using the class AC variant as above. Having more of it go to DR prevents characters from becoming too untouchable, and keeps the math nice and clean. The DR actually becomes very negligable at higher levels, but it's still there, and could conceivably buy a character an extra round or two in combat. I used all of these to construct the stat block as presented above. Whaddya think? Probably powerful for a level 6 character, but I might construct a level 6 human fighter with the same rules just for comparison's sake. At least she's not gawdawfully weak like before (she literally couldn't exist at CL 6 due to LA and racial HD). Stuff from another post of mine: Thread is self-explanatory. Here's mine. Magic/Psionics 1. Spell and Power Save DCs are based on 10+1/2 caster/manifester level+ability mod rather than 10+spell level+ability mod, as this allows spell DCs to scale all the way into epic levels, and makes increasing one's caster level a primary factor in increasing a spellcaster's power. (May introduce new ways to increase save DCs to account for saving throws outstripping DCs at higher levels due to various spells, class features, and magic items.) 2. Spells per day are based on the assumption of 4 encounters/day. Thus, a caster shall start with 4 level 1 spells per day rather than one, and rather than get more low-level spells at higher levels, a caster gets 2 spells of a given level before reaching the next one. For example, a level 3 wizard would have 6 1st level spells and 2 second level spells, and a 9th level wizard would have 6 1st level spells, 4 second level spells, 4 third level spells, and 2 fourth level spells. Races Lotus Crane's Rebalanced Races (http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?t=596634). Yeah, this one gets all the explanation it needs in the thread. As for templates, I simply consider the LA on a case-by-case basis. Some templates that are obviously fighter-based will have their LAs reduced for a character who's a primary caster, or maybe will just get bonus caster levels for their trouble (though obviously not too many, lest characters grab templates simply because they're better). Classes Well, everyone should know this. I make use of the Ultimate Classes (http://www.liquidmateria.info/wiki/index.php?title=Ultimate_Classes) rather than the base classes, with some (minor) modifications. In particular, I change them to use the spells/day progression above, rather than the default. Combat/Character Development 1. Charging is a standard action, not a full-round action. 2. Withdrawing is a move action, not a full-round action. A withdrawing character can only move half its speed for that move action. (Any subsequent move actions are as normal.) 3. Rather than getting an iterative attack every 5 BAB, characters get +1 damage per 2 points of BAB. (Full attack actions no longer exist.) Special abilities based on iterative attacks simply grant extra attacks or bonus damage instead. 4. Rather than roll straight die, characters roll 1d4+ the difference between a d4 and the character's HD. For example, a d8 would be rolled as a 1d4+4. This allows a constant variance in characters' HP, rather than the variance depending on the die type. (1d4 is rolled as 1d3+1 instead, so as to avoid screwing over full casters). 5. Saving throws are determined by +1/2 level rather than (2+1/2 level) or (1+2/5 level) or (1/3 level) for every class. "Good" saves get a flat +2 bonus at first level; "fair" saves get a +1 bonus at first level, and "bad" saves get no bonus. These do not stack with other classes, but rather overlap. For example, a character with a level in Wizard and Monk would get a +2 bonus to every save, rather than a +2 bonus to every save but a +4 bonus to Will saves. 6. Skills get a fixed bonus based on level: 1/4 level for all skills. Skills that are "trained" get 1/2 level instead. Characters start with all class skills "trained". Characters may take the feat "Skill Training" to "train" other skills (2 skills per feat). Multiclassing does not add trained skills, but adds Class Skills that can be "trained" with the feat. Listen and Spot are class skills for all classes. Ranks for skills are capped at 1/2 level+3. Cross-class skills do not cost more ranks, but are capped at half this number. This keeps the variance between skill bonuses more manageable, while still allowing for some fine granularity in raising certain skills over others. 7. Obviously, I use fractional BAB and saves. Because a bard 1/wizard 1/psion 1/rogue 1/druid 1 having a BAB of +0 where a level 5 rogue has a BAB of +3 just isn't right. 8. Characters may increase two ability scores by +1 every four levels, rather than just one. 9. Characters get a 'Defense Bonus' equal to half their BAB. This bonus applies to all situations and stacks with all other forms of AC. There's probably some more that I've forgotten over time, but that's the gist of what I prefer to use in my games. (Yeah, I use lots of formulae over referring to tables). As you can probably guess, much of this was blatantly stolen from Saga Edition. Because it's totally full of win. Seriously. Try it sometime.