Help with a potential race for my 3.5 game?

[MonkeySage]

Some of the major characters in my game, at least 1 in particular, have been around since before most of the major player races(in this world) took their first steps. Given that I am a stickler for details, I wanted to design a new race for these characters... Here's what I got so far, perhaps you guys can help me work out the kinks in my design, anything interesting I could add, point out redundant bits, etc. Hopefully in the end assign a reasonable LA for the race as a whole...

Few details before going on:

The creature type is spirit, as in oriental adventures spirit. Oriental Adventures is 3.0, and in 3.0, spirit was a subtype, not a creature type. As you can all see, I've amended that to fit as best I could with 3.5 rules, namely changing it to a creature type all on it's own(like outsiders from regular D&D).

Sizes are based roughly on the sizes for humans and spirit folk from the oriental adventures handbook. These humans are shorter on average than the humans in the PHB.

Now to the stats I wrote up. :)

Heavenly Spirit (I welcome you to provide a better name if you wish)

+4 Wis, +2 Int, +2 Dex

2d8 Hit Die, 10 HP

Medium Spirit

Size(Height 4ft 3+2d6in, Average 4'9", (Weight 70+3d12lbs, average 90lbs)

Land Speed 40 ft.

Darkvision 60 ft.

Resistance to acid 5, cold 5, electricity 5

Skills: +4 Listen and Spot, +2 Sense Motive

Feats: Gain feats according to Class Levels

Environment: Spirit World

Spell like abilities: Daylight 1/day, Detect Chaos at will

Automatic Languages: Spirit Tongue, Bonus Languages: Any Regional(In this world, Common is a regional language), Goblin, Tengu, Giant

Favored Class: Shaman

Level Adjustment: Unknown

Alignment: Always Lawful

Heavenly Spirits are among the oldest beings with a humanoid appearance(Some of the oldest are immortals who've been alive for millions of years). Heavenly spirits make up most of the ruling and noble castes of the Jade Empire. Most heavenly spirits abide by a strict code of conduct, and disobeying a superior is unthinkable for those individuals. In terms of appearance, they are almost indistinguishable from spirit folk, though they usually carry marks on their bodies, designating their families.(Ex: A green inked calligraphy symbol on the left arm, the symbol of that child's family, caste identified by the color of the symbol).

Ages: Adulthood 200, Middle Age 350, Old 600, Venerable 925, Max 10d%

Feel free to ask questions, they help me to learn more about the world I'm using(It's my own design).

[Frathe]

You shouldn't be giving its HP--you don't know the specific creature's Con, and you can't calculate HP without that. Where are you getting the number 10?

Detect Chaos at will seems a little over the top, considering the other things it's getting.

The resistances seem like probably the best stuff it's getting.

It's unusual to make up a new creature type based on your setting. The Outsider type (with the Native subtype) seems like it might fit for a 3.5 version of this.

Sorry if I come off as brusque.


How do you feel about "Immortal Spirit" as a name?

[MonkeySage]

The hit dice are monster hd, at least to the best of my knowledge. Here's an example: http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/lizardfolk.htm
Good point about the hit points.

Spell like abilities are another area that I was hoping for help on. So far I've been looking through the cleric spell list but daylight was the best I could find within the first few tiers.

Maybe cure moderate wounds? Detect Chaos fewer times per day?

The reason for the creature type comes from some of the other creatures in this game:

Hengeyokai was originally a "Shapechanger" with the spirit subtype. Since "shapechanger" is not a creature type in 3.5, I simply made spirit it's creature type instead, using the info provided in oriental adventures. It'll probably come back to haunt me, but for now it seems to be working.

Immortal Spirit... technically immortal is a prestige class, though I never brought that up. The Prestige Class pretty much does what it implies to the character that takes it(there are other prestige classes that end with a drastic change in the character, like walker in the waste[change to dry lich] and dragon disciple[change to half dragon]).
These creatures also have a finite lifespan, usually. They just have greater access to the aforementioned prestige class. It's an ok suggestion otherwise.

[Frathe]

The hit dice are monster hd, at least to the best of my knowledge.Okay, if those are racial hit dice, then that means it has racial levels and you should have something like this:


Racial Hit Dice: A heavenly spirit begins with two levels of spirit, which provide 2d8 Hit Dice, a base attack bonus of +1, and base saving throw bonuses of Fort +0, Ref +3, and Will +0.

I don't know if those saves and BAB are right, because how you're making up a type. That's the problem with making up a type.

Note: That example is copied and a few names changed from the Lizardfolk you linked me to. This one has BAB and saves like the humanoid type right now, because that's what Lizardfolk are.


Edit: Sorry [if] I edited my initial post under you, but I figured out that those were racial Hit Dice before you responded. You can't just give those by themselves without the other things I mentioned, though, especially because racial Hit Dice contribute to effective character level (they're kind of like further Level Adjustment).

[MonkeySage]

Good so far, with the exception of it being will instead of reflex. :)

Spirits in oriental adventures pretty much gain susceptibility to commune with spirit spells, and the protection/invisible from/to spirits spell.

Anything you would do to improve the race as a whole?


(Response to your edit): I gathered, thanks for pointing that out, I wouldn't have noticed that otherwise.

[Pesimismrocks]

it would be helpful to know the level of the campaign you will play with the race. If it is low I would remove the racial hit dice, as these are not very popular choices for spellcasters which the class seems designed for. I also think having a - to either CHA or CON would be a good idea, and I don't see why they have a DEX bonus. Perhaps with some stat changes LA+1 but It would seem at LA +2/3 at the moment.

[MonkeySage]

I would file this into the "not normally encountered as a player character" category, since their most likely encounters with Heavenly Spirits are not shamans, but soldiers or messengers. :P

The party is made up of:

The oni equivalent to a tiefling, a lizardfolk monk, a tricked out vanara shaman(+1 LA for the edits), and a hengeyokai sorceress.

I made it so that the party was largely balanced. So the lizardfolk lost her racial hit die and the vanara was given a few extra things to match the rest of the party. I didn't wanna deal with ECLs within the party. :P