The Halfling Man-eater
"It tastes like crodlu."
- Ranaj, the halfling Man-eater, answering a silly question.
Man-eaters, the feared subgroup of halfling hunters, are commonly formed when a great threat looms over their communities. Threat from the tablelands, to be sure. On many occasions did groups of people, and demi-people as well, try to root out the halflings from parts of the Ringing Mountains, trying to start the exploitation of the fertile forests. At such occasions the Great Chief calls upon the Ritual of the Hunt and Forrest Cleansing, which forms these barbaric and brutal cannibals. The sheer ferocity of these warriors was always more than enough to drive the intruders away, screaming in fear.
The Ritual of the Hunt and Forrest Cleansing is actually a very simple ceremony, though undoubtedly mystic to the untrained eye. The halfling Man-eaters-to-be have their teeth sharpened into spiky needles (very painful to be sure, which is remedied by the use of natural herbs to dumb the pain), and the Great Chief would impart on them some of the more frightening aspects of the nature through the use of naturalistic magic. These aspects are permanent and are considered to be a great honor among the halflings.
Some halflings grow their fingernails into claw-like fashion at an almost magically sharp and alarming rate, others would get a mad-like look as their eyes would widen. They would all remain quite sane as these transformations are used only to impart a sense of dread onto their enemies.
Hit Die: d10
Requirements
Race: Halfling
Base attack: +5
Skills: Climb +8, Jump +8, Intimidate +5
Feats: Acrobatic or Athletic, Poison Resistance, Track ability
Special: Must have attended the Ritual of Hunt and Forrest Cleansing.
Class Skills:
The halfling Man-eater's class skills are: Climb, Craft (Poison-making), Craft (Alchemy), Hide, Intimidate, Jump, Listen, Move Silently, Spot, Survival
Skill Points at Each Level: 4 + Int modifier.
Few notes however, change 'fangs' to 'claws' or 'talons'. Fangs are in your mouth, not on your hands. Crodlu is spelled with a 'C'. Alchemy is not a knowledge, its a craft. The DC on your fear effect should probably be 10 + Halfling Man-Eater Level + Cha modifier.
Also rather than the poison dart in the mouth thing, what about requiring the following feat as a prerequisite, and then making members of this PrC immune to poison as a supernatural ability at 2nd level. That way you could have them just literally spit the poison or apply it to their teath.
Poison Resistance
You are unusually resistant to poison, having built up a tolerance from repeated exposure at an early age.
Prerequisite: Halfling
Benefit: You gain a +4 bonus on all fortitude saves vs. poison and nausia effects.
Special: This feat can only be taken at 1st level.
:D Awesome!
Thanx a LOT! I'll implement the changes immediately! ...Although I think your poison resistance should be general, not halfling-only nor regional. Anyone can dabble in poisons anywhere. Son of some bard for example. I think you're right about the feat but I'd put that in and leave the darts as well.
I'd leave this at this, and see what others say.
Those Scare and Fear abilities - are they supernatural or spel-like abilities? I'm a bit confused in this particular case..
Thanx a LOT! I'll implement the changes immediately! ...Although I think your poison resistance should be general, not halfling-only nor regional. Anyone can dabble in poisons anywhere. Son of some bard for example. I think you're right about the feat but I'd put that in and leave the darts as well.
Fair enough
Those Scare and Fear abilities - are they supernatural or spel-like abilities? I'm a bit confused in this particular case..
Spell-like abilities are supernatural abilities (but, supernatural abilities aren't necessarily spell-like abilities). These are spell-like abilities and thus supernatural abilities as well. So the (Su) listed after the ability names is correct, but when specify what type of ability they in the text you need to say that they are spell-like abilities.
BTW once you finish refining this PrC you should submit it to Jon for inclusion in the PrC2 document :D
So the (Su) listed after the ability names is correct, but when specify what type of ability they in the text you need to say that they are spell-like abilities.
Well, I did say "as per spell" so I guess that's reasonable enough. It won't work in an anti-magic field and that's all there is to it.
Thanx again for the help!BTW once you finish refining this PrC you should submit it to Jon for inclusion in the PrC2 document :D
Hmm, I think this is it, for now, although I'd like to see some comments/tests on the jump and climb attacks. (oh btw, I always thought those two skills are woefully under-used)
Say, we have a generic Man-eater with STR +2 and 12 ranks in Climb and Jump. Say it's +14 with Jump and +16 with Climb due to the feat. Base attack +9 because he's a 5th lvl ranger / 4th lvl man-eater.
Generic enemy: Fighter, touch AC 12, AC 17 (armor+shield). Base attack +10 for a 10th lvl fighter. Strength +4.
Jump and bite:
1. PC has to beat AC 22 with a jump check, thus he has to roll 8 to hit a fairly ordinary touch AC. Check.
2. Hit touch AC. Halfling has to roll 2 to make that hit. Well, this is also ok, since it's not much damage.
3. The tricky part. strength check against an always more powerful opponent, since halflings have strength penalties. Only 40% chance of a critical hit.
Result: If the halfling made a normal full attack with his claws, he'd have to roll 6 of first attack and 11 on second. You can see that the halfling easily can do as much and more damage id he's not jumping the enemy. Adding to that is the fact he landed right in front of an enemy who can now do a full attack on him. That's why I'd allow this. Needless to say, the halfling will have a trophy - an ear or an eye after his attack succeeds.
Climb and slash.
Round 1:
1. PC now has to beat AC 27 with his climb check. He has to roll 11 or more, which is circa 50%. Check.
2. PC deals damage automatically if he sucedded 1. - d6+2, bad, but this damage is only preliminary, since the whole point of climbing one's back is to slash him over and over on the unprotected face, at step 4.
Round 2:
3. On the next round the enemy makes a strength check to toss him over. 40% chance of remaining in saddle. Much lower if climbing a half-giant.
4. Halfling starts his massacre. Having +11/+6 attacks, he has to roll 2 on the first attempt and 6 on the second to deal damage. Now, this is the good part. Every round he has only 40% chance to remain "in saddle", but if he does, he deals damage practically unhindered.
Result: This is a much harder approach since the odds are greatly against the halfling. But if the halfling has two-weapon fighting feat he can slash with his other hand as well, and damn, it looks cool.
Are there any other objections or suggestions from you dear people, or should I wrap this baby up as the final version for submission? Are the attacks clear? Is there anything missing/undefined? Any questions or corrections?
I'm suprised no one else responded to this one!
Yeah, very creative.
Haven't had time to tear it apart yet though. If you will wait a little while I can.
The biggest thing that sticks out to me is the d1 dart damage thing, that needs to be killed and just stick with normal dart rules. Maybe say they can only spit darts that are one size category smaller than themselves?
Yeah, very creative.
Haven't had time to tear it apart yet though. If you will wait a little while I can.
The biggest thing that sticks out to me is the d1 dart damage thing, that needs to be killed and just stick with normal dart rules. Maybe say they can only spit darts that are one size category smaller than themselves?
The way I see it, the blowgun darts are not crossbow bolts. They are a small poison delivery tool that fit into a quarter-inch wide blowgun pipe. If they're so small hey can't do much damage and without the blowgun air thrust they only do minimal damage. If you have a suggestion on how to aviod the d1 rule, by all means, I'm willing to implement it.
As for the playtest, please! I'd be more than happy to hear other people's results on how this lil monster works! :D
The way I see it, the blowgun darts are not crossbow bolts. They are a small poison delivery tool that fit into a quarter-inch wide blowgun pipe. If they're so small hey can't do much damage and without the blowgun air thrust they only do minimal damage. If you have a suggestion on how to aviod the d1 rule, by all means, I'm willing to implement it.
If you don't want to use the darts out of the PHB then I suggest writing up the rules for these darts and only make them do 1 point of damage instead of saying d1, especially since there is no such thing as a d1. ;)
If you don't want to use the darts out of the PHB then I suggest writing up the rules for these darts and only make them do 1 point of damage instead of saying d1, especially since there is no such thing as a d1. ;)
Lol, thanx! Fixed now.
Edit: added the halfling blowgun dart description and rules, fixed proficiencies to reflect this.
If none I'll submit it for the PrC2.