Tag: races (Page 3 of 4)

My Favorite Playable Race/Class

September 3, 2013 / Bear

I've always thought that whatever you want to play should pretty much be fair game. You want to be a dragon PC? Sure. You start at 1st level with one hit point per die. You advance as an elf (4000 xp for level 2). You follow the M/U spell progression table, but you gain a hit point per die every fourth level. I tend to think of dragon PCs as being Silver Dragons because in D&D they are the most fond of humans, but if you want to be red, we can invent reasons why you are playing a good red dragon that enjoys the company of humans, dwarves and elves without eating them or their horses.

I'm not totally flexible. If you want to be a 1st level lich or beholder, I may ask you to think of something else. Then again, if we're playing with characters starting somewhere around 15th level or so, a lich or beholder is not impossible.

In short, play what you want. We, meaning the playing and the DM, can figure something out that will work for everyone in the group.

When someone asks what is your favorite race and favorite class in two separate questions, there is an embedded in the questions. Specifically, that you play with race and class as separate things when playing D&D. That is not how I started playing D&D, so I really can't answer it as two separate questions. Then again, my favorite was presented in AD&D as a separate race with a choice of classes.

Confusing?

When I started, my D&D was a mix of many different systems. I've mentioned Spell- um. er. Flying Grognards in Space before, but another book I treasured was the Dragonlance Hardback. It really belonged to my friend Bill, but he wasn't as taken with it. My group wasn't too fond of the setting because of what we felt like were needless restrictions. Today, I would enjoy Dragonlance, pretty much as written as a setting. Playing it though, would require the rules to be converted to S&W, and the non-weapon proficiencies thing would need to modified, and that whole thing with wizards would need to be worked out as well...

Point is, at the time, we couldn't be bothered with a setting that would tell us that we were doing it wrong because we wanted to learn any spell we wanted and didn't want magic research to go through some committee. I've changed since then, but Dragonlance is the source of my favorite playable race/class.

On page 69, you'll find the Krynn Minotaurs. I loved them. In the setting proper, they could be Fighters, one type of Mage, one type of Priest and a Rogue of little consequence (limit of 8th level). Up to the point of finding the book, I had always played Magic-Users (I changed the word on purpose) or Clerics. I saw that a Cleric-type character was written in the book for Minotaurs, so that is what I wanted to be.

I do not remember his name, but I do remember that I modeled him after Beta Ray Bill. Instead of a twin-bladed axe, he wielded a huge warhammer. He wore chain mail for reasons I never really explained. Per the setting, he was considered a heretic by other minotaurs because he worshiped Kiri-Jolith. For this reason, he left Krynnspace and found a home in a different sphere.

Clerics in my setting were d6 in hit dice. I guess the convention was the same for everyone else because as much as I loved starting with 2d8 Hit Dice (per the Clerics of Good rules in Dragonlance), I started with 1d8 instead, reflecting the minotaur's size and strength. He had no spells at first level, but otherwise progressed as a Cleric.

I believe I only played him once. I enjoyed the concept of him quite a bit, but unfortunately, I remember nothing of his adventures. Oh well. I will check my sources, but this guy may turn out to be someone I created, but never played at all. That happened a lot for me because I was usually the DM.

If you like, I post the Minotaur Cleric class formatted for S&W. Otherwise, thank you for another trip down memory lane in my favorite race/class character.

Mellivora and the Examati

May 27, 2011 / Bear

One of the more creative OSR products I've seen lately is Pars Fortuna. As it explains in the description, take the rules of S&W and remove the standards fantasy elements like races, spells, etc.

In the same spirit of inspiration, I present two races that exist symbiotically, the Mellivora and the Examati. This post covers the Examati. The next post will detail the Mellivora.

Life Together

The Examati and Mellivora have existed together for hundreds of years. Members of each race are rarely seen without a member of the other. The Examati rely of the fierce Mellivora warriors for protection and acquiring more territory. Despite their great need for the them, the Examati subjugate the Mellivora with alien and fearsome magics. Despite their fear of the Examati, the Mellivora rely on them for crafting weapons and social structure. Without the Examati, the Mellivora would devolve into several warring factions eventually devouring each other. Without the Mellivora, the Examati would be quickly overrun by inhabitants of the surrounding territories.

Examati

The Examati are roughly human in shape and stand between six-and-a-half and seven-and-a-half feet tall. They have a thin, wiry build with disproportionally long arms and six-fingered hands. They range from off-white to a pale grey in complexion. Their elongated heads feature small ears. On each side of their nose, there are three eyes in a triangular formation. Instead of teeth, the mouth has two bony plates.

They are devoted to their complex pantheon of gods. Attempts to catalog their religion have proven fruitless by sages. The Examati believe that they are servants and masters of various other-worldly spirits. These spirits are invoked to generate magic that ranges from granting boons to demolishing cities. Each spell appears as a tear in extra-dimensional space with beings foul and fair emerging just long enough to create a specific magical effect. The effect of seeing an Examati spell cast is enough to shake even the most seasoned adventurer.

Outside of their own spirit-based magic, the Examati are distrustful of any other form of magic. In their minds, all other magic demonstrates an arrogance that someone would disturb this plane and the spirit plane without consulting the spirits themselves.

Under the protection of the Mellivora, the Examati has developed a large temple system that governs in all their cities. All Examati belong a one of fifty or sixty temple orders. Based on their membership and status with a temple, an individual Examati is entitled to certain rights such as land ownership, voting in councils, a domicile outside the temple complex, and the ability to keep servants.

Racial Abilities

Examati are experts at identifying angels or demons. All Examati have the skill Demonology at a level of 11, regardless of their character class. They also gain a +1 to hit bonus when using a hurled weapon like a javelin or sling. They begin with a move of 15. They suffer a -2 penalty when attempting to Hide in Shadows and or Moving Silently.

Class Abilities

In game terms, Examati gain a +1 to Wisdom and a -1 to Strength. They tend to be Priests of their own religion. Weapon restrictions are dependent upon their temple membership, though all Examati clerics favor some kind of missile weapon or javelin. Examati will never be Mages, though some will become Warriors (either Fighters or Monks). A few Examati become Thieves that specialize in Lockpicking, Sneak Attacks, Ventriloquism and Climbing

The Lakma

(thanks again to Stuart's OSR Monk)

Examati that choose to become unarmed warriors or monks gain attacks as if they were weapon specialists. Using their long bodies for leverage, their kicks do 1d6 damage per attack. At first level, Lakma gain a -2 bonus to Armor Class and gain an additional -1 bonus on every odd level after that. At 9th level, the Lakma may cast the Examati Cleric spell Thanatic Strike (acts as Fireball spell cast at Lakma's current level) once per day. At 11th level, they use their normal unarmed attacks at a range of thirty feet plus ten feet for every level above the 11th.

Next time, the Mellivora

Alternate Races in RPG Fantasy Settings

June 8, 2009 / Bear

I was catching up on Trapcast listening to their return podcast from May 18. Aside from the usual random stuff, they were discussing the topic of creating races outside the standard fantasy milleu. On the podcast, they talked about balance and playing all characters as humans. Good points, be sure to take a listen.

As far as acheiving balance, though, I began to think about how races are defined in Microlite20. Most races are defined as a bonus or penalty to one of the three attributes. Humans get a +1 to all skills with no adjustments to attributes.

The balancing mechanism is that all adjustments total 2. For humans, having a +1 bonus to all four skills is equivalent to a +2 Attribute adjustment. For example, Elves get a +2 MIND adjustment, Half-Orcs get +3 STR and -1 MIND, Half-Elves get +1 MIND and +1 to any two skills.

With three attributes and four skills to fiddle with, M20 seems to be the perfect place to look at the mechanics of creating new races easily. To limit the number of options, I decided to set up a few parameters for this exercise:

There can be only one penalty and it can only be a -1. This could a -1 to any attribute or -1 to any two skills.
The largest bonus will be a +3.
Avoid setting specific skills to receive a bonus or penalty. It should be an adjustment to any 2 skills or to all 4 skills.
Add in as many pre-defined races from the macropedia that still fit within the above parameters.

The result is the attached spreadsheet below:
Racial Template Options

Looking through the results, some are quite interesting. For example, a race that receives a +1 to Mind, +1 to all skills and a -1 to STR. This would mean that there is a race that is just as adaptable as humans, slightly smarter, but slightly weaker physically. Of all the possibilities, the one that appealed to me was a somewhat evolved human.

Others have definite possibilities, especially a race that would receive a +1 bonus to all attributes, but a -1 to any two skills. (This may seem like a cheat to get a super character, but M20 is a skill-based system.) This creates a race that is smarter, stronger, and more agile than a typical human, but less adaptable. This makes me think of the invading aliens from In the Balance by TurtleDove.

This only takes care of the mechanics. For those that tend to look for how a race can benefit them in combat, not much more needs to be done. For others like me that get into the fluff, getting this part nailed down provides suggestions for what a race is like without removing many possibilties. Using a good random generation like this one can fill in some of the details.

I admit, I'm a nut when it comes to fluff like this. I think about the form and function of a different race. For example, giants in my world have a different material in there bone makeup. It is stronger than regular bone material by an exponential factor. This makes them feared adversaries, but also threatened by others that seek to harvest the hardened bone material. The reason for this change is that a 12 ft tall human could barely walk and would break bones at the slightest movement.

I have other examples, but I hope this provides a good baseline for creating new races. I hope to detail more of these just to see how far it can go. If you find any entries on the spreadsheet you find interesting, let me know.

Tag: races (Page 3 of 4)

My Favorite Playable Race/Class

Like this: