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View Full Version : Shardminds! (3.5, PEACH)



LOTRfan
2011-03-24, 04:48 PM
This race originally appeared in the 4e Player's Handbook III. Here, I present them as a 3.5e monstrous race.

http://fc09.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2010/147/6/9/Shardmind_Monk_by_whitelycandf.jpg

Shardmind
Medium Construct (Living Construct, Psionic, Extraplanar)
Hit Dice: 4d10-2 (20 hp)
Initiative: +0
Speed: 30 ft. (6 squares)
Armor Class: 16 (+2 natural, +4 chain shirt), touch 10, flatfooted 16
Base Attack/Grapple: +3/+3
Attack: Claw +3 melee (1d4)
Full Attack: Claw +3 melee (1d4)
Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks: Shardmind traits, Powers, Shard form swarm
Special Qualities: Shardmind traits, Damage Reduction 5/Bludgeoning, Vulnerability to sonic attacks
Saves: Fort +0, Ref +1, Will +2
Abilities: Str 11, Dex 10, Con 9, Int 12, Wis 11, Cha 12
Skills: Autohypnosis +9, Knowledge (The Planes) +9, Knowledge (Psionics) +9, Spot +6
Feats: Psionic Body, Open Minded
Environment: The Astral Plane
Organization: Solitary
Challenge Rating: 4
Treasure: Standard
Alignment: Often Lawful Neutral
Advancement: By character class
Level Adjustment: +1

A crystalline humanoid can be seen walking forward. Small bright lights pulse throughout its body, almost like blood.

Shardminds are the fragments of the Living Gate, which once stood to keep aberrations and Daelkyr from entering the world. Even with its eternal watchfulness, some creatures managed to get through, resulting in the various aberrations that now infest the planes. Recently, however, an unknown force smashed apart the gate, sending millions of shard fragments throughout the Astral Plane. Within three weeks of the destruction of the Living Gate, a new type of creature “evolved;” the Shardminds.

Shardminds are clusters of psionically focused crystals that have gathered together into a humanoid shape. They have learned to take on a humanoid form (the form they usually are in) to better interact with other creatures. Shardminds come in a variety of colors, including blue, green, purple, and (most commonly) red. Despite their relatively new creation, Shardminds are exceedingly wise and intelligent; it is believed that this is leftover from the collective consciousness of the Living Gate. Regardless of where exactly this innate intelligence comes from, it ensures that all Shardminds are aware of how they were created. Most still don’t know why.

Some groups of Shardminds (referred to as Thought Builders) believe that the destruction of the Living Gate was a terrible accident, and now they must work together to rebuild it. They believe that they must gather up all Shardminds and form together again to make the Living Gate whole. Not all of these Shardminds are purely benevolent. Some are willing to torture and coerce other Shardminds into reforming the gate.

Another group (the God Shards) believes that if the Gate is recreated, there will still be a chance that it will fall again sometime in the future. Instead, they believe that Shardminds should become as powerful as they can psionically to face the growing aberration threat in combat. These Shardminds are highly individualistic, and tend to be more chaotic than the other types.

The final group (Shard Slayers) believes that their creation was a mistake. They believe that when a Shardmind dies, their souls form part of the Living Gate. So, they believe that in order to bring the Living Gate back to its former glory, all Shardminds must be killed. These Shardminds are obsessed with the genocide of their own race, and wander the Astral Plane in search of their latest victims. These Shardminds are often viewed as sociopaths, but many truly believe that the genocide of their race is a saddening, but necessary, task.

Shardminds (no matter which gender they resemeble) are thin and sleek, weighing 90 pounds. Most are human height, but others may have modeled their height after other medium humanoids, like Elves or Half-Orcs. All Shardminds speak Undercommon, and most also speak Common.

Combat
Shardminds usually attack with their powers first. If heavily damage, they revert to their shard swarm forms to attack.

Powers: Shardminds manifest powers as a 4th level Wilder. Typical Powers Known (power points 21; save DC 11 + power level). 1st- Crystal Shard, Energy Ray. 2nd-Swarm of Crystals. Being naturally psionic, Shardminds gain 2 bonus power points at 1st level.

Swarm Form (Ex): Once per day, a Shardmind may break down into its base form, a swarm of animated crystalline shards. In this form, the Shardmind’s size changes to diminutive, has a space of 10 ft., and has a reach of 0 ft. The Shardmind does not have the distraction ability, but deals swarm damage as a swarm of its HD would. A Shardmind gains all other swarm traits, except a Shard swarm reduced to 0 hp becomes inert. A Shardmind can remain this form for a number of rounds equal to its Wisdom modifier before having to make concentration checks (DC 15 + number of rounds spent in swarm form) to maintain it. All items being carries by the Shardmind are dropped during the transformation. A Shardmind who is killed or knocked unconscious automatically enters the Swarm Form, even if it has expended its daily use. It does not deal swarm damage when this occurs, but it keeps all swarm immunities. Once brought back to positive hit points, the Shardmind regains its humanoid form.

Shardmind Racial Traits
• -2 Constitution, +2 Intelligence, +2 Charisma
• Medium Construct (Living Construct, Extraplanar): Living constructs combine aspects of both constructs and living creatures. See the Living Construct subtype for more details. As Medium creatures, Shardminds do not gain and advantages or disadvantages due to size. As natives of the Astral Plane, Shardminds gain the Extraplanar subtype when on the Material Plane.
• +2 bonus to attack and damage rolls against Aberrations.
• Naturally Psionic: Shardminds gain 2 extra power points at 1st level. This benefit does not grant them the ability to manifest powers unless they gain that ability through another source, such as levels in a psionic class.
• Racial Levels: A Shardmind starts with four levels of Construct. This grants a BAB of +3, two racial feats, 4d10 HD, and base saves: Fort +1, Ref +1, Will +1.
• Racial Skills: Shardminds gain a number of skill points per day equal to (2 + INT mod) for each HD it has, with x4 for its 1st HD. A Shardmind's class skills are listen, spot, autohypnosis, knowledge (the planes), and knowledge (psionics).
• Powers: Shardminds can manifest powers as a 4th level Wilder would. Shardminds have a base daily allotment of 17 (not including their natural psionic power and any bonus to Charisma).
• Two natural claw attacks (1d4)
• Swarm Form (Ex): Once per day, a Shardmind may break down into its base form, a swarm of animated crystalline shards. In this form, the Shardmind’s size changes to diminutive, has a space of 10 ft., and has a reach of 0 ft. The Shardmind does not have the distraction ability, but deals swarm damage as a swarm of its HD would. A Shardmind gains all other swarm traits, except a Shard swarm reduced to 0 hp becomes inert. A Shardmind can remain this form for a number of rounds equal to its Wisdom modifier before having to make concentration checks (DC 15 + number of rounds spent in swarm form) to maintain it. All items being carries by the Shardmind are dropped during the transformation. A Shardmind who is killed or knocked unconscious automatically enters the Swarm Form, even if it has expended its daily use. It does not deal swarm damage when this occurs, but it keeps all swarm immunities. Once brought back to positive hit points, the Shardmind regains its humanoid form.
• Damage Reduction 5/Bludgeoning
• Vulnerability to Sonic Attacks: Shardminds, being composed of living crystal, are more vulnerable to sonic attacks than other creatures. They take 50% extra damage from such attacks. Shardminds take damage from the Shatter spell (see spell description for more details).
• Languages: Common, Undercommon. Bonus Languages: Terran, Celestia, Infernal, Abyssal.
• Favored Class: Wilder
• Level Adjustment: +1

Benly
2011-03-24, 05:03 PM
You list two different Level Adjustments. Is it +4 or +1? +1 would probably be playable, +4 probably not.

They manifest as a Wilder, but have Psion as a favored class. This doesn't make sense. If they naturally manifest as Wilders, any shardmind who takes class levels is best served taking Wilder levels to continue its natural manifesting and keep getting level-appropriate powers instead of resetting to level 1.

LOTRfan
2011-03-24, 05:06 PM
You list two different Level Adjustments. Is it +4 or +1? +1 would probably be playable, +4 probably not.

They manifest as a Wilder, but have Psion as a favored class. This doesn't make sense. If they naturally manifest as Wilders, any shardmind who takes class levels is best served taking Wilder levels to continue its natural manifesting and keep getting level-appropriate powers instead of resetting to level 1.

Some of those are minor errors. I copy pasted from my old stats for the most part, and I must've forgot to change those.

Level Adjustment is +4, and the favored class is Wilder.

arguskos
2011-03-24, 05:09 PM
Some of those are minor errors. I copy pasted from my old stats for the most part, and I must've forgot to change those.

Level Adjustment is +4, and the favored class is Wilder.
Unplayable. LA +4 and 4 HD is HORRIFICALLY BAD. Change it back to +1, please, for the love of god. I was almost excited there for a moment. :smallfrown:

If you want feedback on them as a monster... eh. They're ok I guess. Swarm Form is nice, but weak, a good trade-off for the utility of becoming a swarm. They have great thematics though, gotta give 'em that.

LOTRfan
2011-03-24, 05:18 PM
Unplayable. LA +4 and 4 HD is HORRIFICALLY BAD. Change it back to +1, please, for the love of god. I was almost excited there for a moment. :smallfrown:

Unfortunately, I think their ability to manifest powers as 4th level Wilders eliminate any possibility of that. These are meant more for a gestalt campaign coming up, sorry. :smallfrown:

I can post a link to the LA +1 version, if you want, though.


If you want feedback on them as a monster... eh. They're ok I guess. Swarm Form is nice, but weak, a good trade-off for the utility of becoming a swarm. They have great thematics though, gotta give 'em that.

Thank you.

arguskos
2011-03-24, 05:25 PM
Unfortunately, I think their ability to manifest powers as 4th level Wilders eliminate any possibility of that. These are meant more for a gestalt campaign coming up, sorry. :smallfrown:

I can post a link to the LA +1 version, if you want, though.
Uh... no it doesn't? You have FOUR HIT DICE! That's your Wilder stuff. Trust me, it is unplayably bad.

Construct hit dice are terrible. You have four of them. Getting 3 powers for your four hit dice is barely an even trade. With LA +1, you're still worse than a level 5 Wilder.

Really, do this following experiment. Get a level 5 wilder and a Shardmind with no levels. Have them duke it out. Watch as the Shardmind gets ravaged over and over by someone with more and better powers and class features that matter. Alternately, make them LA +4, then make a Shardmind Wilder 1 and have him adventure with a party of 9th level characters. Watch as his terrible hit dice and horrible casting fails to be important and how he can be killed ON ACCIDENT by anything.

I understand you're making this for gestalt, but you cannot balance to that point. You must balance for standard play, what 99% of people will be using. Doing so easily proves that LA +4 is unplayably terrible. Please, for the love of all that is holy, make it LA +1. It's your creation, you have the power, please please PLEASE exercise it. :smallfrown:

LOTRfan
2011-03-24, 05:29 PM
Uh... no it doesn't? You have FOUR HIT DICE! That's your Wilder stuff. Trust me, it is unplayably bad.

Construct hit dice are terrible. You have four of them. Getting 3 powers for your four hit dice is barely an even trade. With LA +1, you're still worse than a level 5 Wilder.

Really, do this following experiment. Get a level 5 wilder and a Shardmind with no levels. Have them duke it out. Watch as the Shardmind gets ravaged over and over by someone with more and better powers and class features that matter. Alternately, make them LA +4, then make a Shardmind Wilder 1 and have him adventure with a party of 9th level characters. Watch as his terrible hit dice and horrible casting fails to be important and how he can be killed ON ACCIDENT by anything.

I understand you're making this for gestalt, but you cannot balance to that point. You must balance for standard play, what 99% of people will be using. Doing so easily proves that LA +4 is unplayably terrible. Please, for the love of all that is holy, make it LA +1. It's your creation, you have the power, please please PLEASE exercise it. :smallfrown:

Alright, you've convinced me. :smallsmile:

I guess the Rakshasa isn't worth +7 LA as well, than?

arguskos
2011-03-24, 05:40 PM
Alright, you've convinced me. :smallsmile:

I guess the Rakshasa isn't worth +7 LA as well, than?
OH GOD NO AUUUUUUUUUGH DON'T DO THIS TO ME I'M MEEEEEEEEEELTING....

But seriously, LA is a blight. Keep it low at all times, period.

Zaydos
2011-03-24, 05:45 PM
They manifest as wilders. :smallsmile:

Their favored class is wilder. :smallcool:

They get +2 Int and Wis :smallconfused:

Also where are their feats from I don't recognize them.

LA +1 looks about right. Shardform is neat but makes you drop items (it says carried I'm assuming that includes worn as well) which means making you lose magic item benefits, and the DR 5/bludgeoning is useful but by no means impenetrable (bite attacks deal bludgeoning damage) and the vulnerability to sonic nicely counter balances it. Just why +2 to Int and Wis and not Cha?

LOTRfan
2011-03-24, 05:55 PM
They manifest as wilders. :smallsmile:

Their favored class is wilder. :smallcool:

They get +2 Int and Wis :smallconfused:

Also where are their feats from I don't recognize them.

LA +1 looks about right. Shardform is neat but makes you drop items (it says carried I'm assuming that includes worn as well) which means making you lose magic item benefits, and the DR 5/bludgeoning is useful but by no means impenetrable (bite attacks deal bludgeoning damage) and the vulnerability to sonic nicely counter balances it. Just why +2 to Int and Wis and not Cha?

That is another uneditted error from the LA +1 version. If you look in the monster entry, there is indeed a +2 bonus to charisma instead of wisdom. I'll fix that, now.

EDIT: Feats are from Expanded Psionics Handbook/SRD
EDIT II: Oh, wait, no they are not; they are homebrewed feats on the D&D wiki. :smallsigh:
I switched 'em for two new ones.

radmelon
2011-03-24, 09:22 PM
This would be interesting for the improved monster classes homebrew edition. Might wanna think 'bout that.

LOTRfan
2011-03-24, 09:37 PM
I've always preferred savage progressions (what can I say, I'm weird :smalltongue:), but you may be right. While I would be willing to allow others to make one, I don't think I'm the right person to do that sort of thing.