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Sintanan
2010-01-03, 07:43 PM
Please critique the race here. While I'm pretty sure there shouldn't be anything really breakable in the feats, there might be. The only thing I'm really wondering about is whether or not the valkov should have an LA +1 or not.
I'm fairly certain that the racial bonus on the jump check in Blessing of Alou feat might be unbalanced, but please keep in mind it will also override the racial jump check found in the valkov, for a total of a +8 increase.

Racial Adjustments• +2 Dexterity, –2 Charisma: Valkov are well known for their fluid movements as they bound through the arctic wastes, but their environment has left their emotions sharp and their attitudes towards outsiders harsh.
• Medium: As Medium creatures, valkov have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size.
• Valkov base land speed is 30 feet. A valkov unarmored or wearing light armor and not carrying anything in their hands can drop to all fours and gain +10 ft. to their movement.
• Low-light Vision.
• Natural Weapons: Valkov naturally have two claw attacks at 1d3 damage. Valkov claws are usable as primary or secondary attacks.
• +2 racial bonus on Jump, Move Silently, and Survival checks. There are multiple opportunities to hone one's survival skills in the frozen wastes.
• Cold Tolerant: Valkov gain a +2 racial bonus on saving throws against cold damage and cold effects. Additionally, valkov can exist comfortably in conditions between –20° and 90° F (severe cold to hot) without
having to make Fortitude saves. This ability counts as if a valkov had the Cold Endurance feat for purposes of fulfilling prerequisites for other feats or prestige classes.
• Automatic Languages: Arctican, Valkovin. Bonus Languages: Common, Draconic, Dwarven, Giant, Orc. Valkov commonly
know the languages of their enemies and of their friends, as well as Draconic, the language commonly found in ancient tomes of secret knowledge.
• Favored Class: Barbarian.


Player's Handbook: Chapter 6 AddendumRandom Starting Age
• Valkov adulthood: 18 years
• Barbarian, Rogue, Sorcerer: +1d6
• Bard, Fighter, Paladin: +2d6
• Cleric, Druid, Monk, Wizard: +3d6

Aging Effects
• Middle Age: 40 years
• Old: 60 years
• Venerable: 80 years
• Maximum Age: +3d20

Random Height and Weight
Valkov, male
• Base Height: 6' 10"
• Height Modifier: +2d10
• Base Weight: 190 lb.
• Weight Modifier: x(2d4) lb.
Valkov, female
• Base Height: 6' 7"
• Height Modifier: +2d8
• Base Weight: 180 lb.
• Weight Modifier: x(2d4) lb.


New FeatsThe following are new feats that are introduced alongside the valkov. While the majority of the following are intended for use by the valkov alone, other creatures may find themselves able to qualify for a couple of the feats.

Strength of the All-Father
Prerequisite: 1st level only, valkov
Benefit: You were born under the watchful gaze of the All-Father and have inherited a portion of his strength.
You gain powerful build. In a nutshell, powerful build allows you to be treated as large size whenever it would be beneficial (such as using large weapons, bull rush, trip, etc).

Blessing of Alou
Prerequisite: 1st level only, ability to cast divine spells or 1st-level paladin, valkov
Benefit: You are a spellwolf that has been blessed by the Moon Goddess.
You sprout a pair of functional feathered wings granting you a +10 racial bonus on Jump checks.
Additionally, you can use your wings to glide. You glide at a speed of 30 feet (thus 20 feet of movement with a 5 foot decent) at average maneuverability. You cannot hover while gliding. You cannot glide while carrying a medium or heavy load.
If you become unconscious or helpless while in midair, you may attempt a DC 15 Constitution check to have your wings unconsciously unfurl, allowing you to glide in a tight corkscrew towards the ground, suffering only 1d6 falling damage regardless of the distance of the fall.
Special: Wizards may substitute Blessing of Alou for Scribe Scroll at 1st-level without meeting the prerequisites as an alternate class feature.

Kiss of Alou
Prerequisite: 6th level, ability to cast 2nd-level arcane or divine spells, Blessing of Alou
Benefit: Your wings now grant you a fly speed of 30 feet with average maneuverability. You cannot carry a medium or heavy load while flying.
You can fly a number of rounds equal to your Constitution modifier (minimum 1 round). You can exert yourself to double your flight time, but you are fatigued afterward. You are also fatigued if you spend a total of 10 minutes or more per day flying. Rounds while gliding do not count against your flight time, thus you can remain aloft for an extended period of time before you are fatigued.
When you reach 12th level, you have enough stamina and prowess to fly forever if you so choose. At this point, you are no longer fatigued at the end of your flight and have no limit to your flight time.
You may make a dive attack while flying. Treat a dive attack like a charge with a minimum movement of 30 feet and 10 feet of decent. You can make a dive attack only while wielding a piercing weapon; if the attack hits, it deals double damage.
You can run while flying, provided you fly in a straight line.

Worg-touched
Prerequisite: Dex 13, valkov
Benefit: In combat, you adopt a more bestial stance allowing you to bring your teeth to the fight.
You tap in to your bestial nature, gaining a bite attack as a secondary attack. Your bite attack deals 1d4 damage. If you have Improved Trip, you may attempt a trip attempt whenever you successfully bite someone. If this trip attempt fails, your opponent may not attempt to trip you in return.

Moonwarrior
Prerequisite: Low-light vision
Benefit: In conditions of low light such as torchlight or starlight, you gain a +1 morale bonus to attacks. In actual moonlight, you additionally gain a +1 morale bonus to damage.
Additionally, you are not affected by the concealment miss chance brought on when fighting in low light conditions.

Sprinter
Prerequisite: Dex 13, Con 15, Run
Benefit: Three times per day you may increase your base movement speed by 20 feet for a number of rounds equal to your Constitution modifier when running or charging. You can choose to overexert yourself by sprinting for an increased duration of up to twice your Constitution modifier, but you are fatigued afterward.


Disclaimer: I borrowed the concept from the Dragonborn in RotD in designing my Blessing of Alou feat.

Temotei
2010-01-03, 07:46 PM
The race itself isn't overpowered, by my reckoning. Why is Draconic a bonus language? The natural attacks have 1d3 damage though, which isn't even possible to roll at the table. I haven't looked at the feats yet, so I'll get back to you on that.

Sintanan
2010-01-03, 08:02 PM
Draconic is there because of the lore in my campaign setting. Whether or not they will have draconic is still up in the air as I finish the lore for the arctic lands.

As for the 1d3 damage, it can be rolled (1d6; 1-2=1, 3-4=2, 5-6=3). I was originally going for 1d4 damage, but since they can get a bite attack I wasn't sure if the bite would be overpowered at 1d6 since it's a secondary attack.

Temotei
2010-01-03, 08:26 PM
Draconic is there because of the lore in my campaign setting. Whether or not they will have draconic is still up in the air as I finish the lore for the arctic lands.

As for the 1d3 damage, it can be rolled (1d6; 1-2=1, 3-4=2, 5-6=3). I was originally going for 1d4 damage, but since they can get a bite attack I wasn't sure if the bite would be overpowered at 1d6 since it's a secondary attack.

I suppose the 1d3 thing makes sense. :smallredface:

I would advocate for 1d3 over 1d4 as well.

Sintanan
2010-01-03, 08:57 PM
I was also toying with the idea of giving them Powerful Build because at this point Valkov would be fitting into the role of the "large" race in the northern lands

(Using same formulas found in Ch 6 of the PHB)
Age: 18 +1d6 (simple class), +2d6 (average class), +3d6 (complex class).
Middle: 40 yrs, Old: 60 yrs, Venerable: 80 yrs, Max: +3d20 yrs

Males: 6'10" + 2d10, 190 lbs + x2d4 (7' - 8'6", 194 - 350 lb)
Females: 6'7" + 2d8, 180 + x2d4 (6'9" - 7'11", 184 - 308 lb)


But, I figure Powerful Build would push them to +1 LA, so I'm thinking they will be "large" in fluff only.



EDIT: Also toying with the idea of renaming the goddess Loa to Alou... kinda a play on the sound a wolf makes when howling, but I figured this might be slightly too cheesy.

Temotei
2010-01-03, 09:00 PM
I was also toying with the idea of giving them Powerful Build because at this point Valkov would be fitting into the role of the "large" race in the northern lands

(Using same formulas found in Ch 6 of the PHB)
Age: 18 +1d6 (simple class), +2d6 (average class), +3d6 (complex class).
Middle: 40 yrs, Old: 60 yrs, Venerable: 80 yrs, Max: +3d20 yrs

Males: 6'10" + 2d10, 190 lbs + x2d4 (7' - 8'6", 194 - 350 lb)
Females: 6'7" + 2d8, 180 + x2d4 (6'9" - 7'11", 184 - 308 lb)


But, I figure Powerful Build would push them to +1 LA, so I'm thinking they will be "large" in fluff only.



EDIT: Also toying with the idea of renaming the goddess Loa to Alou... kinda a play on the sound a wolf makes when howling, but I figured this might be slightly too cheesy.

Pun-pun is cheesy. Go with what you want.

GenPol
2010-01-03, 09:11 PM
Naming the Valkov gods and godesses things that would be natarually easy to pronounce for the Valkovs actually makes sense. If the Valkov language is more similar to howling and grunts than to, say, British English, then I'd say go for it.

As for the powerful build, maybe you could make some racial substitution levels for some kind of melee based class that offers/gives Powerful Build as a bonus ability.

Sintanan
2010-01-03, 09:42 PM
Maybe a racial feat?


Strength of the All-Father
Prerequisite: 1st level only, valkov
Benefit: You were born under the watchful gaze of the All-Father and have been granted a portion of his strength. You gain powerful build. Powerful build allows you to be treated as large size whenever it would be beneficial.


This way non-caster valkov have a racial 1st-level feat, and casting valkov have their racial feat (Blessing of Alou, I'm going to change the name in the first post).

Zaydos
2010-01-03, 10:09 PM
I'd say the race itself looks fine. The initial set of feats also looks fine (Blessing of Alou doesn't seem any stronger than the Dragon Wings feat/Improved Dragon Wings). I would point out that a single class wizard doesn't fulfill the prerequisites of spontaneously casting spells and ask if it is your intent for them to be able to gain it by multiclassing into wizard at above 1st level or to ignore the prerequisites if they are wizards or if that was an oversight.

Sintanan
2010-01-03, 10:24 PM
That was an oversight.

I was aiming for spellcaster valkov only being able to get the blessing, but I was unsure on exactly how to word it to keep pseudo-spellcasters from dipping into the blessing...

Would "ability to cast 1st-level divine or arcane spells" keep pseudo classes out? I'm not fully versed in all the sourcebooks out there at the moment.

Either that or should I just remove the 'special' entry and write up an ACF for valkov wizards that say they get Blessing of Alou as a bonus feat even if they don't meet the prerequisites?

Zaydos
2010-01-03, 10:34 PM
As written only bards and sorcerers from the PHB could take it, and maybe wizards (they don't fill prerequisites but it's a bonus feat so they could). Make it 1st level spells and that closes off bards, but opens up Clerics, and Druids (from PHB). Out of Core, it is also currently open to Beguilers, Dread Necromancers, Warmages, Favored Souls, Spirit Shamans, Shugenjas (hey all of complete divine), and Duskblades (that I know of), and depending upon how magic-psionics transparency works also available to all psionic characters except soulknives. If you change it you open it to archivists and wujens. That's all that I can remember but there might be some I'm missing.

Knaight
2010-01-03, 10:35 PM
I can't think of any that can get in, but there might be some. Certainly rangers, paladins and such can't get even close.

Sintanan
2010-01-03, 11:00 PM
From a lore-perspective to match what currently is being written up for the northlands and the fluff for the valkov... the feat should change to:

Blessing of Alou
Prerequisite: 1st level only, ability to cast divine spells or 1st-level paladin, valkov
...
Special: Wizards may substitute Blessing of Alou for Scribe Scroll at 1st-level without meeting the prerequisites.


This allows Paladins, Clerics, Druids, other divine spellcasters, and Wizards. Valkov treat arcane and divine magic as coming from the goddess herself, and the libraries of ancient lore are actually maintained by the church.
Rangers in the campaign setting actually use a homebrewed non-spellcasting variant or make them more "hunt-y"... as another player's younger brother put it.
Addendums can be added for the non-core races on a case-by-case basis if they can access the Blessing of Alou.

erikun
2010-01-04, 03:35 PM
Winged wolf people, eh?

While the race itself isn't overpowered, almost anything with Powerful Build is a +1 LA. Your group may not run into any major problems with a +0 LA Powerful Build (truth be told, most groups do not) but it can be rather easy to deal large amounts of damage due to multiple size increases.

Kiss of Alou seems intended to be used by Paladin/Sorcerers and Druid/Bard/Lyrist characters, as I don't see why you'd include the spontaneous arcane qualification otherwise - wizards can't cast spontaneously. Well, maybe a Wizard/Sorcerer/Ultimate Magus.

GenPol
2010-01-04, 06:55 PM
The racial feat sounds like a good fix. Races with Powerful Build do tend to be +1 LA, but I suppose it depends on how power gamey your group is.

I think there's a version of a playable LA+0 Kobold with the Slight Build feature, plus a number of other small bonuses. I think it was in Races of Dragon, somebody correct me if I'm wrong.

Sintanan
2010-01-05, 05:25 AM
Kiss of Alou seems intended to be used by Paladin/Sorcerers and Druid/Bard/Lyrist characters, as I don't see why you'd include the spontaneous arcane qualification otherwise - wizards can't cast spontaneously. Well, maybe a Wizard/Sorcerer/Ultimate Magus.

The prereqs on Kiss of Alou are outdated. Originally the intention was to have a range of spellcasters access the Blessing/Kiss chain without allowing for pseudo-spellcasters like the warlock to tap into it (more for lore than anything).

I just forgot to update Kiss of Alou when I corrected Blessing of Alou. :smallredface:

The prereqs should read as follow (and I will edit the original post shortly):


Kiss of Alou
Prerequites: 6th level, ability to cast 2nd level arcane or divine spells, Blessing of Alou


Yes, a optimized character with Precocious Apprentice can abuse the access to the Kiss of Alou and qualify for it as a wizard 1/whatever 5 to make a flying gish. But I figure if my players all want wings, there will just be a few more aerial encounters than originally planned. :smallbiggrin:

Tim4488
2010-01-05, 11:02 AM
Looks good. Not sure how I feel about Powerful Build as a feat, I've always considered it one of the more powerful abilities in the game (almost all the benefits for being Large with none of the penalties?), but they're definitely LA +0. Other feats look fine too, and Worg-touched looks fun for descriptive combat. :smallbiggrin:

Sintanan
2010-01-05, 08:53 PM
{Snip} Not sure how I feel about Powerful Build as a feat, I've always considered it one of the more powerful abilities in the game {Snip}
I understand where you are coming from, while my group is planning for the valkov to fill a large niche in the arctic wastes, other groups might find powerful build too much for the race to gain and just ban the feat.

I appreciate all the input on getting the valkov balanced enough to work as a LA +0 race. Thank you.

Lappy9000
2010-01-06, 01:07 AM
Simple, yet unique. I like them :smallcool:

The racial feats are cool and fluffy (I especially like Moonwalker), and everything seems to fall into balance without feeling repetitive in regards to other races. Nicely done!