I love the Tari and I have a player who may want to be one. Has there been any homebrew stats for them in fourth edition? If not, let's throw down some stats and see if we can whip something up for my player!
Thanks
Strength -4, Dexterity +4, Wisdom +2, Charisma -2
Small: As Small creatures, tari receive a +1 to hit and AC, and a +4 bonus to all Hide checks and a –4 penalty to all grapple checks.
Tari base land speed is 20 feet. They have a burrow speed of 10 feet.
Darkvision: Tari can see in the dark up to 60 feet. Darkvision is black and white only, but is otherwise like normal sight, and tari can function just fine with no light at all.
Natural Weapons: Bite (1d3)
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Tari Fever (Su): Supernatural disease—bite, Fortitude DC 8, incubation period 1d3 days; damage 1d3 Con. The save DC is Charisma-based. Unlike normal diseases, tari fever continues until the victim reaches Constitution 0 (and dies) or is cured with a remove disease spell.
Light Sensitivity (Ex): Tari are dazzled in bright sunlight or within the radius of a
Immunity to all non-magical and non-psionic diseases.
+1 racial bonus to all Reflex saving throws.
+4 racial bonus to all saves vs. poison.
+2 racial bonus on Listen, Search, and Spot checks. A tari who merely passes within 5 feet of a secret or
Automatic Languages: Tari and Common. Bonus languages: Elven.
Favored Class: Rogue.
Level Adjustment: +1.
I had a Tari write up sitting in my homebrew folder somewhere, but was never particularly happy with it.
I am hoping someone can "fourth editionize" it a little
Honestly, if I had the choice I would make them medium-sized creatures, as a way to differentiate them from goblins and kobolds and the like.
The wiki also says that they knuckle-walk, which could also account for the small size category, but even still, anything to make them distinct from kobolds is good.
Their stats seem to suggest that they should definitely get a +2 dexterity and +2 wisdom bonus, though I don't know why Tari are so wise, but what the hay. Why not.
Speed I imagine should be 6 squares.
Definitely a candidate for low-light vision.
As for skills, we have quite a few options, and what we take kind of depends on how we proceed with their other racial abilities.
-Perception: This seems apropriate, given the racial bonuses done by athas.org. This stacks well with the Tari's Wisdom bonus, as well.
-Dungeoneering: In the Shattered Lands game, the Tari lived in the sewers beneath Draj. Perhaps this leads to a rather unique familiarity with dungeons? This would also stack with their Racial Wisdom bonus.
-Stealth: Given their somewhat parasitic lifestyle, being able to stay out of sight would work to nearly any Tari's advantage. Also stacks with their wisdom bonus.
My votes would be for Stealth and Perception. One is Wisdom, the other is Dex, and they would seem to be pretty useful skills for Tari.
-Disease: Now there are a couple things we could do here. We could just give them a flat immunity to disease, which is what they have had, historically. And if you really like that, I am not going to argue against it. However, one thing to keep in mind is that disease is a much deadlier thing in 4th edition, than it was in any previous edition, which makes that immunity pretty potent.
OTOH, how often is disease going to come up? It seems like a really potent defense against something that is not terribly common. It makes me wonder if we wouldn't be better off with a more reasonable +5 bonus to saving throws against disease, that way we could focus more on giving them more interesting and more frequently useful abilities. I might even scale that up a bit and give them a +5 bonus to saving throws and endurance checks against disease. But I don't see it as necessary to give them otyugh-level-i-roll-around-in-poop-and-love-it disease immunity.
-Bite: Given the way that disease works in 4e, I can see no logical reason to give Tari PC's a disease attack. It would be totally useless for a player. I could see a bite attack that does ongoing damage, though. Maybe a bite attack, encounter, that does 1d3 damage ongoing 1 save ends?
-Tail: The tail could also be the source of a good racial power. Perhaps some kind of trip attack? I don't know.
AFAIK (and you can look it up in Athas.org's Terros of Athas) Tari are rat-people...just like Kenku are raven-people. They once were a great race, so great a Champion was assigned to them.
Also, it says that Tari had a wonderous civilization "far to the south of the Tyr region" that was highly advanced. I just mention this because this is a good hook for a Tari PC. =]
It also said their diseased bite is apparently due to venomous glands in their jaw, not from their filthy lifestyle. (gotta love 2nd edition attention to detail) Incidentally, the light-blindness and the disease immunity do not seem to be present, so dropping them in 4th edition isn't going to kill any sacred cows.
It also says that Tari are theives, but not very good ones. They scurry about madly, climbing up walls and the like, making lots of noise and trying to steal whatever they can get their paws on. In that case, since stealth is apparently NOT their forte, perhaps athletics or acrobatics might be better.
Knuckle walk?
Like a gorilla.
Racial Traits:
Average Height: 4’8”-5’6”
Average Weight: 80-120lbs
Ability Scores: +2 Constitution, +2 Dexterity or Wisdom
Size: Small
Speed: 5 squares
Vision: Low-Light
Languages: Tari, Common or Elven
Skill Bonus: +2 Perception, +2 Stealth
Nimble Tail: Tari gain a +5 bonus to athletics checks to catch and hold and to acrobatics checks to reduce falling damage. Tari do not need a free hand to catch hold.
Deft squeeze: Tari may move their full speed when squeezing, or shift two squares. Tari do not provoke opportunity attacks for taking the squeeze action, and may move through squares occupied by large or larger enemies while squeezing (movement without shifting does provoke opportunity actions as normal).
Survival lore: Tari are trained in Dungeoneering, Nature, Stealth, or Thievery.
Bite: Tari unarmed attacks with a +3 proficiency bonus doing 1d6 damage.
Cut and Run: Tari gain the Cut and Run encounter power.
Cut and Run Tari racial power
Encounter
Immediate Reaction
Trigger: An enemy hits or misses you with an attack
Effect: The next two squares of movement you take do not provoke opportunity attacks. You may immediately take a free move action.
It's not a terrible write-up at all...
Let me rephrase that: WTF?
Oh. Well, I dunno then. That's how they are described in Terrors Beyond Tyr. Don't know what to tell ya.
A feat would need to provide for poison damage (normally it'd be a diseased bite, but - and I might be wrong here - diseases are stuff meant to affect PCs, not monsters).
Considering you don't even make a saving throw against a disease until after a combat... It really makes little difference to a PC.
I kind of like the idea of giving them a bite attack encounter ability that does a little ongoing damage because their bites cause their opponent to itch and burn. Probably give it the poison keyword as well. (so that way it doesn't work on creatures like skeletons)
But to be honest the whole disease-carrying thing makes Tari a rather unappealing race in DS IMHO. I bet they are going to be in the creature catalog, and in there they are probably going to have a disease attack. So with a Tari PC, you are either going to have to A) give them a disease ability, which come to think of it is only good for making subdued foes sick later (yay!) or B) give them something useful to replace it, and then just hand-wave the whole disease thing, even though the others of their race have it. I personally would go route B.
It's not a terrible write-up at all...
Thanks. It could still be fixed up quite a bit though. Anyway, potential feats:
Bileous Venom
Prerequisites: Tari, 11th level
Benefits: All your attacks with the poison or acid keywords gain both the poison and acid keywords.
Bite and Claw
Prerequisites: Tari, Monk, Flury of Blows power
Benefits: Your Flury of Blows power deals an additional point of damage, and each time you use it you may give your Flury of Blows power the poison keyword.
Disease Caster
Prerequisites: Tari
Benefit: You gain a +1 bonus to damage rolls with attacks with the poison or acid keyword, and enemies suffer a -2 penalty to saving throws from ongoing conditions resulting from your poison or acid attacks.
Disease Inured
Prerequisites: Tari
Benefits: You gain a +2 bonus to your AC and Fortitude defenses against attacks with the poison or acid keywords.
Hidden Strike
Prerequisite: Tari
Benefit: Whenever you use the squeeze action to pass through an enemy’s square, you gain combat advantage against that enemy until the end of your turn.
Night Eyes
Prerequisites: Tari
Benefit: You gain darkvision.
Slick Fur
Prerequisites: Tari
Benefit: You gain a +5 feat bonus to athletics and acrobatics checks to escape a grab.
Spirits of Filth
Prerequisite: Tari, any primal class
Benefit: Choose one of your primal at-will attack powers. That power gains the poison keyword.
Swift Runner
Prerequisites: Tari
Benefit: Your speed increases to 6 squares.
Tari Survival Training
Prerequisites: Tari, 2nd level
Benefit: You may select one free skill power from Dungeoneering, Nature, Stealth, or Thievery as long as you are trained in that skill.
Venomous Fangs
Prerequisite: Tari, Druid, Wild Shape power
Benefit: Whenever you use a power with the Beast Form keyword, it gains the poison keyword.
Vile Bite
Prerequisites: Tari
Benefits: Your unarmed attacks gain the poison keyword
Racial Traits
Average Height: 4'8" - 5'0"
Average Weight: 80-120lbs.
Ability Scores: Constitution +2 and Dexterity +2
Size: Medium
Speed: 7 squares
Vision: Low-Light Vision
Languages: Tari, Common
Skills: +2 Streetwise, +2 Thievery
Guttertrash Gourmand: +5 bonus to saving throws and edurance checks against disease
Nibble and Dash: You get the Nibble and Dash ability.
Nibble and Dash
Tari Racial Ability
With a satisfying chomp, you sink tiny, sharp teeth into your foe. Infectious venom seeps into the wound, causing it to itch and burn. With this distraction, you make your getaway.
Encounter * Poison
Minor Action Melee 1
Target: One Creature
Attack: Dexterity +3 vs. AC
Increases to +5 at 11th level, and +7 at 21st level
Hit: 1d4 +Dexterity modifier damage, plus 1 ongoing poison damage (save ends).
Shift 3 squares.
change the d3 to d4 since half dies don't appear to be included in 4th edition and imo they were confusing anyway, plus the ongoing damage should increase at 11th and 21st level, i'd also say that the power should be at least move or standard action. I also think you should add the no penalty for squeezing in, seems fitting for a rat.
I will go ahead and change the die to d4, I think you are right about that.
I would rather leave the ability as a minor action, because making it a standard or move action hampers the ability's use as a mobility action. As it is, the shift is dependent on hitting with the attack. (because the bite is being used as a distraction)
This version of the Tari is medium sized and has a speed of 7, so I am not entirely sure if it needs the squeezing ability, since it has a higher average movement rate than the small version that Bera did.