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Jack Mann
2006-03-14, 06:55 PM
I'm currently running a custom campaign. It involves airships, and I wanted an inventor race. Since gnomes tend more for a gypsy-like feel in my campaign, I decided to make a custom race for the purpose. I ended up with the Drazai, a small reptilian species.

Drazai

Drazai live deep in the mountains of the Aralech's Mountain Range, where they fight for metal ores with the dwarves. They are known far and wide as celebrated magic users, being among the best wizards in Brenak. They are constantly experimenting with new magics.

Personality: Drazai are often cautious, though they are not afraid to take risks once they've identified a potential gain. They constantly experiment and try to learn more about their environments and their comrades. Living in tight warrens as they do, they have little or no sense of privacy. They see nothing wrong with going through a companion's bags, or walking into a privy that's in use.

Physical Description: Drazai are small, lizard-like humanoids. Their colors range from light bronze to nearly black, with colorful strips and crests in blues and greens. The males stand at three-and-a-half feet tall, with the females standing slightly taller and broader. Eye color ranges from yellow, to green, to the occasional brown. Their clothing tends towards thick, leather robes.

Relations: Drazai get along well with humans and gnomes, in whom they see fellow explorers and experimenters. They see elves as being too chaotic to be interesting. Halflings are nice, but don't always make enough effort to find out new things. Half-orcs are useful mercenaries and allies. Dwarves are too obsessed with gold, and waste iron and other valuable ores by turning them into weapons.

Alignment: Drazai are usually lawful, with a tendency towards good. They believe in a strong, unified community, with various members working for the good of the whole. However, they have a strong individualistic streak as a group, making them resist other races who try to impose their ways on them.

Religion: The drazai don't worship the gods. Instead, they engage in a peculiar form of ancestor worship focusing on the mythical hero Trechnar, who wrested the secret of iron from the gods.

Language: Drazai speak Draz, a language that uses the Dwarven alphabet, but has both Terran and Draconic roots.

Adventurers: Drazai feel a strong compulsion to explore and discover new things. A drazai adventurer is either looking for new magic (or other learning) or else is looking for something to strengthen the community. A very few drazai adventurers are outcasts who were unable to fit into the rigid mold of Drazai society. Generally, other drazai look at them with pity, rather than scorn or anger.

Aging: Drazai reach adulthood at twenty, middle age at fifty, old age at sixty-five, and venerable at ninety.

Drazai Racial Traits
Darkvision 60'
Small Size
Base Speed 20 ft.
+2 Int, -2 Str
+2 to craft checks involving metal objects.
+2 to climb checks
+2 racial bonus to saves vs. confusion
Education Feat (Eb. 52)
Favored Class: Artificer


I made 'em a race of unbelievers to help give them some flavor. They know the gods are there, but they don't see any reason to worship them. They see the gods more as obstacles and nuisances than anything else.

That gave me a bit of a problem when a player wanted to play a cleric. I felt the PH solution (just pick two domains and forget about deity) lacked interest. So I decided to work back to the Drazai culture and psychology. They're basically magical scientists. They like to experiment. They believe that everything is understandable. Everything can be measured, figured out. They fully believe that there is nothing in the universe that can't be understood and used as needed.

For them, a cleric isn't the same as a priest. They have priests, but these are basically storytellers and givers of rites. It's just an occupation. Clerics are divine magic users, nothing more. The difference between a wizard and a cleric for them is more a matter of specialization than philosophy.

Now, that magic has to come from somewhere. If it isn't a god, then where?

I decided they built their own source of divine magic. They'd gather magic from various sources and pool it together into a sort of makeshift god. The sources of magic would be from several sources. One, early on in this experiment, would have been holy objects from other religions, mostly from kobolds, orcs and goblins, with any taint of the god itself removed. This would form the basis of a pool of divine magic. Next, they would use certain spells to transform arcane magic into divine, and add that to the pool. They would also pray to their ancestors, who would add their own energy to the pool. They also made deals with certain lesser powers, like elementals, demigods, and some outsiders.

The pool can act as a god, though it has no intelligence of its own. Its neutral, but it can be used by any cleric given access by the Drazai Chancellors. The Drazai guard this pool of energy very carefully.

Any domain is, in theory, accessible, but there are some that most drazai wouldn't use, such as trickery or evil.

It's functionally the same as if I just had the PH solution, but I felt it gives more backstory and potential plot hooks.

Thoughts?

Jothki
2006-03-14, 07:32 PM
Couldn't the clerics serve a "cause", or did you want to avoid that?

Jack Mann
2006-03-14, 07:37 PM
Wanted to avoid it because I felt it lacked any real flavor, and because I think that power should come from somewhere, especially divine magic. Indeed, for me, that's one of the big differences between divine and arcane.

starwoof
2006-03-14, 07:41 PM
The created 'god' thing really reminds me of the dwemer in the Elder Scrolls (y'know, morrowind). Nifty.

The stats seem to balance together, though Im not sure what education is (if its like educated in FR then you choose some knowledge skills as class skills right) and I dont know what artificers do (make stuff right?).

Jack Mann
2006-03-15, 01:06 AM
Pretty much. Education gets you all knowledge skills as class skills, plus you get a bonus to some.

Artificer gets pretty much all of the item creation feats, and casts infusions. Infusions are like spells, but only affect objects. They have some other abilities, but most of those relate to creating and using magic items.

EDIT: Looking at both Eberron and Forgotten Realms, it's the same feat.

Splendor
2006-03-15, 02:09 AM
The Archivist in the Hero's Of Horror book may work. Their more like wizards who use divine spells. They must study books of divine magic to cast spells.

Jack Mann
2006-03-15, 02:13 AM
I'll have to get my hands on a copy of that. That does sound like the Drazai.

belboz
2006-03-15, 02:45 AM
Yeah, I wouldn't even consider changing your account of drazai clerics. A very cool idea.

You could even make the pool vaguely sentient, and give it a (probably very low) divine rank.

<edit: Er, just like you said. Except the sentient bit, which you explicitly denied. Sorry. Although I kind of like the idea that the pool has an Int of around 1-2...dim consciousness>

Jack Mann
2006-03-16, 07:28 AM
Hmm. I suppose it could be semi-sentient. That could certainly be interesting.

Yeah, I kind of like the idea. Still under the control of the Chancellors, but with a vague intelligence, probably influenced by the drazai ancestors.

tgva8889
2006-03-16, 07:34 AM
I would find it ammusing if the pool learned of how it was created, and lashed out against it's creators, spewing divine energies everywhere. THAT would be an adventure! (and a bad one for your party Drazai cleric at that)

Jack Mann
2006-06-02, 03:12 AM
In preparation for the Compendium game, I'm revamping the Drazai slightly.

I originally gave them favored class (artificer). Those are a bit overpowered, though, I've found. So, I'm changing their favored class to wizard. However, for wizards, education is... well, not very good. So, I'm taking it out and putting in a few new things. One is mostly for flavor, and the other is a few spell-like abilities.

Drazai Racial Traits
Low-light Vision
Small Size
Base Speed 20 ft.
+2 Int, -2 Str: Drazai are clever, but not very strong.
+2 to craft checks involving metal objects. Drazai are adept at working steel and iron, having perfected their work over the centuries.
+2 to climb checks. The claws on the drazai, though not very long, are good for helping them find handholds and footing.
+2 racial bonus to saves vs. confusion. Drazai have very well-organized minds, and are less prone to being confused.
Claws: Drazai do not normally have natural attacks. However, they do have claws, and when they make an unarmed attack, it does slashing, rather than bludgeoning damage. It is in all other respects like a normal unarmed attack.
Spell-like Abilities: Detect Magic and Amanuensis 1/day, Caster Level 1st Light 3/day, Caster Level 1st
Favored Class: Wizard
Automatic Languages: Common and Draz
Bonus Languages: Any (except for secret languages like druidic)

Hario
2006-06-02, 08:14 AM
The social and way they react makes me think of kenders a bit much, but hey kenders are funny, and don't realise they do chaotic things ;) I love PC's that play lawful characters and don't realise they are doing chaotic or evil things...

Jack Mann
2006-06-02, 08:33 AM
Their behavior is not at all chaotic. Quite the opposite. They might go through a companion's belongings, but they would never take something. They would never borrow without asking permission first. They might, however, leave things reorganized so that their friend can find things more easily.

Expectations of privacy stem from individuality. Individuality is of most concern to chaotic individuals. When you tend too far towards law, privacy becomes less important. A drazai simply doesn't understand why anyone would care if they walked in on them in the privy, or went through someone else's belongings. It doesn't occur to them that anyone might have something they'd want to hide.

Shiny, Bearer of the Pokystick
2006-06-02, 09:14 AM
I like em'.
Plenty of delicious flavor around and a juicy center of mechanical balance, seems like.

Edit: Especially the ancestor worship. I think that gels really well with the rest of their concept.

ScorpiusRisk
2006-06-02, 11:52 AM
I really like them as well. My Burads(coming to a compendium near you) are based on them. The Drazai as in didn't quite fit into my homebrew. I really should put that in the post huh . .

Jack Mann
2006-06-02, 11:54 AM
I really like them as well. My Burads(coming to a compendium near you) are based on them. The Drazai as in didn't quite fit into my homebrew. I really should put that in the post huh . .

That would be polite, yes...

ScorpiusRisk
2006-06-02, 12:22 PM
There we go. No creative property theft intended. Grovels solemnly to the JackMann.