Ok, so i'm starting a new campaign and the background is as follows:
Not long ago, only 2 months or so, a mad, yet powerful wizard, divined that some characters would become powerful and get in the way of his plans... They weren't champions of good, they weren't warriors of light. They were some of the most fiendish and dire commanders of armys, or cruel necromancers, raging barbarians lusting for blood. But should they ever be allowed to grow in power, they would, by a series of events create a reign that would thwart his plans of conquering the world, by means of competition. Then, he devised a curse, a curse most fiendish and dire, that would transform all the competitors into harmless, fluffy creatures of most gracious demeanor. Of course, the wizard failed miserably, but not completely. As soon as the ritual was finished, he cast the curse, and all of his enemies were turned into tiny creatures. But, his calculations were not correct, and the energies that tapped into the outer planes made horrifying transformations on the flesh of those now fluffy creatures. They mantained their will, and their bodies were modified by the energies. Their minds soon became connected by their curse, and they sought one another trying to understand what just happened. And thus, the Alliance of the Fluffy Beasts of DOOM was born.
Ok, now that the introduction is over, let me explain the crunchy details:
All of the PC's will be Tiny Animals, with 2 free LA +1 or 1 LA +2 templates. The curse makes it that they're unable to use any type of form alteration magic, such as polymorph, alter self and shapechange, but not size-enhancing magic such as Enlarge Person.
Now, i'm looking for suggestions on templates and animals that my players can use to build their characters upon. Also, the campaign will start at level 6, so i guess the wealth by level won't be enough for the players to have sufficient protection for their level, having in mind that most items are made for Medium creatures and i think they'll be more expensive to them. I thought about them having all items wore at the moment of transformation be merged with them, by the rules of polymorph, but i think that's gonna allow too much cheese, so i'm asking, pretty pretty please with cherries on top, for suggestions on how to tackle this issue.
The animals i'm thinking of are: Bunnies, Squirrels, Badger, Cat(OH, The COMMONERS!!), and little puppies.
(I don't think there are stats for bunnies, squirrels or little puppies, where would i find them, if they exist?)
The templates, i have no idea on what to suggest to my players, except for fiendish and necropolitan(As LA +1, but for free per house rule).
EDIT: Now with a picture!
Shadow is a +1 LA as well, right?
"You see a figure of shadow... It has 4 horrns and it's coming fast at your direction... Once you see it, you realize it's not 4 horns, it's 2 horns, and 2 giant ears, that strangle your neck and the teeths sink hard on your skin"
Yup. Amusement.
It doesn't list a level adjustment, but it gives stuff equivalent to fiendish (a tiny little bit stronger, but not enough to warrant higher level adjustment).
I would also suggest to reduce the lvl adjustment of fiendish to 1 at most.
Feral Mineral Warrior Badger .... awesome combat Machine.... Rage until foe is Dead, Fast Healing, DR, great stats.... not very good mental stats
1/2 Fey Cat ...... flight and Charm person At will... great stats, and SLA as you gain levels
:D
try these:
1/2 Fey Cat ...... flight and Charm person At will... great stats, and SLA as you gain levels
:D
Funny, we recently hada PC do this in a joke campaign !/2 fey awakened animal cat.
:D
:D
Sounds like a hilarious campaign idea. :D
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ex/20031003e
EDIT: Ninja'd
Well these are all great suggestions! Except for pseudonatural, if it is like it's listed on d20srd.org, but you said the one from CA so i'll take a look there.
heh, yeah, the one from the Epic Level Handbook is not such a good idea...
Complete Arcane page 160 is the one I meant.
Barbarian 1
28pt buy(Str +4, Dex +4, Con +10, Int -14(minimum 1), Wis +2, Cha -6)
Racial from SRD entry + template for adjustments
18 Str(14 +4 Racial)
18 Dex(14 +4 Racial)
24 Con(14 +10 Racial)
1 Int(8 -14 racial= ...Min 1)
18 Wis(16 +2 Racial)
2 Cha(8 -6 Racial)
Speed: 50 ft. , burrow 25 ft.
Full Attack: 2 claws(1d2+4) and bite (1d3+4)
•Darkvision (Ex): darkvision with a range of 60'
•Low-light vision
•scent
•Bonus Feats: Track, Weapon Finesse
•+10ft to land speed only, gains a burrow speed equal to one-half the base creature's highest speed....already in Stats
•AC: +10 Natural Armor.
•Improved Grab (Ex): Useful ability if you are going to be using your natural weapons.
•Fast Healing 2.
•Rage (Ex): A badger that takes damage in combat flies into a berserk rage on its next turn, clawing and biting madly until either it or its opponent is dead. It gains +4 to Strength, +4 to Constitution, and –2 to Armor Class. The creature cannot end its rage voluntarily.
•Skills: A badger has a +4 racial bonus on Escape Artist checks.
•Earth Strike (Ex): Once per day, the mineral warrior can make an exceptionally vicious attack against any foe that stands on stone or earth. The mineral warrior adds its Constitution bonus (if any) to its attack roll and deals 1 extra point of damage per racial Hit Die.
•Damage Reduction (Ex): gains Damage Reduction 8/ Adamantine.
:D
I'll also suggest that at least 1 party member get leadership, so they can roam around more freely. (Maybe they can pose as pets?)
I'll also look at the possibility of posting a journal from the adventure. This will be SO much fun. I can't even wait, i'm twiching.
Maybe they could opt to be a familiar to a wizard/sorcerer. They companion would be worth a feat and the familiar benefits would be worth a +1 or +2 bonus.
Also, I would highly suggest using vow of poverty.
A cookie to whoever makes a shadow owl rogue. DEATH FROM ABOVE!
But I hate spending 2 LA on wings.
So how about a dark, shadow-walker monkey rogue? With ranged touch attack (poop).
40' base movement and 40' climb speed
+8 racial bonus to Balance, Climb
+4 racial bonus to Hide
+8 template bonus to Hide (it is untyped, not sure if it would count as racial)
+6 template bonus to Move Silently
Hide in plain sight. (except in daylight)
He's a skill monkey.
Kercpa
Kercpa Racial Traits
Stat Adjustments: -6 Strength, +4 Dexterity, and -2 Constitution: Kercpa are quick and agile but are tiny and physically weak.
Monstrous Humanoid: Kercpa are virtually indistinguishable from their nonintelligent counterparts.
Size - Tiny: As Tiny creatures, they receive +2 to hit, +2 AC, -8 grapple, +8 on Hide checks, but use smaller weapons than humans and their lifting and carrying capacity is 1/2 the listed amount. They also have no reach.
Base Land Speed: 20'; Climb 30’.
Low-Light Vision: Kercpa have the Low-Light vision ability.
Racial Bonuses: Kercpa have a +4 racial bonus to Hide and Move Silently. They have a +8 racial bonus to Climb and Balance. A Kercpa can always take 10 on a Climb check. They also have a +4 racial bonus on Disguise when trying to pose as a normal squirrel.
Balance and Climb are always class skills.
Automatically use Dexterity for Climb and Jump.
Favored Class: Scout
Level Adjustment +0
Stat Adjustments: -6 Strength, +4 Dexterity, and -2 Constitution: Kercpa are quick and agile but are tiny and physically weak.
Monstrous Humanoid: Kercpa are virtually indistinguishable from their nonintelligent counterparts.
Size - Tiny: As Tiny creatures, they receive +2 to hit, +2 AC, -8 grapple, +8 on Hide checks, but use smaller weapons than humans and their lifting and carrying capacity is 1/2 the listed amount. They also have no reach.
Base Land Speed: 20'; Climb 30’.
Low-Light Vision: Kercpa have the Low-Light vision ability.
Racial Bonuses: Kercpa have a +4 racial bonus to Hide and Move Silently. They have a +8 racial bonus to Climb and Balance. A Kercpa can always take 10 on a Climb check. They also have a +4 racial bonus on Disguise when trying to pose as a normal squirrel.
Balance and Climb are always class skills.
Automatically use Dexterity for Climb and Jump.
Favored Class: Scout
Level Adjustment +0
The skill monkey is a great idea. As is the Death from Above. Well, i guess they'll be much stronger than i anticipated :D
Thank you so much for the Squirrel!
Monkey also lets you have an archer.
Ranger 5/Justice of Weald and Woe 1. He's a monkey on a mission. And he could switch over to arcane archer.
And don't forget animal lord (cat)
Make that half fey cat a ranger 5/animal lord (cat) 1.
Raven makes a nice bard.
Dark template:
“Dark” is an acquired or inherited template that can be added to any creature (referred to hereafter as the base creature). Dark creatures tend to be much duller in color, with more gray and black skin tones and hair highlights, than their Material Plane versions. In general, they also weigh less, as if part of their very substance was mere shadow stuff.
A dark creature has all the base creature’s statistics and special abilities except as noted here.
Size and Type: Type and size are unchanged. Dark creatures encountered away from the Plane of Shadow have the extraplanar subtype.
Speed: As base creature, +10 feet to all modes of movement.
Special Qualities: A dark creature retains all the special qualities of the base creature and also gains the following.
— Darkvision 60 ft.
— Hide in Plain Sight (Ex): Use the Hide skill even while being observed (except in natural daylight, the area of a daylight spell, or a similar ettect).
— Resistance to cold 10.
— Superior low-light vision.
Skills: Same as the base creature, plus Hide +8 and Move Silently +6.
Environment: Changes to Plane of Shadow.
Challenge Rating: Same as the base creature or same as the base creature +1; see sidebar.
Alignment: Usually one step different from the base creature, rarely good.
Level Adjustment: +1.
“Dark” is an acquired or inherited template that can be added to any creature (referred to hereafter as the base creature). Dark creatures tend to be much duller in color, with more gray and black skin tones and hair highlights, than their Material Plane versions. In general, they also weigh less, as if part of their very substance was mere shadow stuff.
A dark creature has all the base creature’s statistics and special abilities except as noted here.
Size and Type: Type and size are unchanged. Dark creatures encountered away from the Plane of Shadow have the extraplanar subtype.
Speed: As base creature, +10 feet to all modes of movement.
Special Qualities: A dark creature retains all the special qualities of the base creature and also gains the following.
— Darkvision 60 ft.
— Hide in Plain Sight (Ex): Use the Hide skill even while being observed (except in natural daylight, the area of a daylight spell, or a similar ettect).
— Resistance to cold 10.
— Superior low-light vision.
Skills: Same as the base creature, plus Hide +8 and Move Silently +6.
Environment: Changes to Plane of Shadow.
Challenge Rating: Same as the base creature or same as the base creature +1; see sidebar.
Alignment: Usually one step different from the base creature, rarely good.
Level Adjustment: +1.
Thank you so much for the Squirrel!
Glad to be of some help. It works great for what I call the Fuzzy Buzzsaw of Doom based on the "I may be small but you're dead" thread.
No, no, as i said, their mental attributes will be tottally unnafected. Only their physicals will receive adjustments, although i'm thinking about leaving con unnaffected as well, adjusting only dex and str. That way they'll be less gimped and will have more survivability (a necessity). I'll go and see what i can do with a Feral Mineral Warrior Fiendish Badger Barbarian 6. If it can stand it's ground, i'm sure my pc's will think of something =)
I feel like I must have missed something.
How will these animals have enough int to take class levels if you're not adjusting their mental stats?
Also, in case this hasn't been mentioned, I believe Savage Species has equipment rules for non-humanoid and/or oddly sized PCs.
I feel like I must have missed something.
How will these animals have enough int to take class levels if you're not adjusting their mental stats?
I believe he means that the original characters mental stats won't change by being turned into the fluffy beasts of DOOM.
And now I think I may have to do this when I start running again. *snicker*
Them being familiars isn't really what the campaign is about. They were once normal people, just badly cursed, they're also leaders, familiars are weak. The shadow owl, on the other hand, that's the best idea. I really liked it! I'll suggest this to my players. Thank you!
What I meant was that either one of them could take leadership and have a spellcasting cohort to serve as a face for the party or that they could lie and say that they are a group of familiars.
Depending on how common spellcasters are in the campaign setting, just calling themselves would make them less unusual (a good thing when an evil wizard wants to make you dust), explain their intelligence to people without revealing their identity, and provide them with protection at lower levels. (while someone might be happy to squash a sentient rat who gives them a funny look, they might not be so eager to do the same to the familiar of a potentially powerful wizard)
"That rabbit's dynamite!"
How are you handling animal hit dice? And you said tiny animals, yet you have badger listed there.
If you want to up survivability, you could houserule the Dungeonbred template (from Dungeonscape) to work on medium or small size animals to shrink them.
"OOOOUUH OOOOOOUUH!(owlish for DEATH FROM ABOVE!!!)
dark telotharUE owl rogue 5/assassin 1
1:lucky start
3:improved initiative
6:leadership (because humans treating an owl like their leader is hilarious)
BAB +3
assuming 25 point buy: str -, dex 20(+5) (14 + 6), con 10(+0) (10+0), int 20 (18 + 2 because i was a grey elf before the curse), cha 8 (-1), wis 12 (+1) (11 + 1 from levels).
Death attack DC 16 (10 + 1 + 5).
to hit: +5(dex)+3(BAB)=+8
we are incorporeal. we make touch attacks.
our speed is 50 ft (40 ft base, +10 from dark)
strategy: fly high over the party. when enemies come into sight, study for 3 rounds. after this, do a diving charge. this does (1d4-4+3d6) damage, x2 for being a diving charge, per talon. for each talon that hits they have to make a fort save DC 16, or die. we're incoporeal, and the 50% miss chance is a very good defense by itself. that and we have a +5 dex modifier.
------
i think somebody owe me a cookie!
[SIZE="3"]
to hit: +5(dex)+3(BAB)=+8
You forgot the size bonus.
we are incorporeal. we make touch attacks.
How is this incorporeal?
Smack Attack Owl of DOOOOM
6:leadership (because humans treating an owl like their leader is hilarious)
Don't you mean a hoot?
What I meant was that either one of them could take leadership and have a spellcasting cohort to serve as a face for the party or that they could lie and say that they are a group of familiars.
Depending on how common spellcasters are in the campaign setting, just calling themselves would make them less unusual (a good thing when an evil wizard wants to make you dust), explain their intelligence to people without revealing their identity, and provide them with protection at lower levels. (while someone might be happy to squash a sentient rat who gives them a funny look, they might not be so eager to do the same to the familiar of a potentially powerful wizard)
Oh, ok, now i get it. Still, their cohorts would be 2 levels LOWER than them, so a wizard with a familiar that's actually more powerful than them, and still gets all the advantages of being a familiar, is a bit on the unbalancing side. But, that doesn't actually impedes them from posing as the wizard's familiar, just from getting the benefits of actually being so. I would be more than happy to give them a nice circumstance bonus on disguise checks should they go down that route. =)
Anyone else getting flashbacks to Redwall?
How are you handling animal hit dice? And you said tiny animals, yet you have badger listed there.
If you want to up survivability, you could houserule the Dungeonbred template (from Dungeonscape) to work on medium or small size animals to shrink them.
I'll just adjust the badgers Str and Dex as per the size reduction. Badgers are so damn cool, i just don't want to rule them out just because they're one step higher on size categories. :D
EDIT: As for the animal HD, i'll just not apply them, they'll just get their class levels worth of HD, and should they choose a template that adds HD, that HD as well. =)
The invisible nighthawk bard is flying overhead using Targeting Ray, while the falcons fly in and use orb spells to blast the enemy. Spooky, the owl gish, is circling high overhead with his wand of fireballs to lay down the suppressing fire or use his bow of speed on targets hit by the ray. Buffy, the mad alchemist albatross, slowly moves in carrying a large sack full of flasks of alchemists fire.
The osprey, of course, has a broken wing, and can't take off.
Don't you mean a hoot?
Get the flock out of here. :P
On that note someone should play a feral rabbit.
Surprisingly, Monkeys are tiny sized.
http://incarna.andablog.com/2007/10/02/Dog-Fluffy_Destroyer_of_worlds.png
This thread seriosly reminds me of the rabbit from Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
On that note someone should play a feral rabbit.
Feral rabbit w/ monk and kensai levels, having enchanted his unarmed strike as vorpal. ^_^
Feral rabbit w/ monk and kensai levels, having enchanted his unarmed strike as vorpal. ^_^
RETREAT!!
Feral rabbit w/ monk and kensai levels, having enchanted his bite attack as vorpal. ^_^
fixed it for you.
fixed it for you.
Problem w/ making the "bite" as vorpal is that it would not increase in damage w/ levels in Monk. Saying it is an unarmed strike might give a damage progression, even if the unarmed strike just happens to be applied w/ lips. ^_^
Problem w/ making the "bite" as vorpal is that it would not increase in damage w/ levels in Monk. Saying it is an unarmed strike might give a damage progression, even if the unarmed strike just happens to be applied w/ teeth. ^_^
moar fixes!
edit: my party is SO going to face this!
RETREAT!!
no ... the correct terms are:
moar fixes!
edit: my party is SO going to face this!
Heh. I recommend you look up the Paragon template from the Epic book. Apply THAT to the bunny instead of monk and kensai... you will never have a player look at the wildlife around himself the same way again.
http://forums.gleemax.com/showpost.php?p=18388537&postcount=38
"Roll for a spot check"
"I get a 16"
"You see some bushes rustle, and a small bunny hops onto the trail."
"..."
"RUN AWAY
Or...
You see a small grey and white lop.
"Hello Nerd-boy" *Ka-click!*
:D