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View Full Version : Homebrew - Velociraptor Humanoid (P.E.A.C.H.)



gurgleflep
2013-05-08, 11:42 PM
Basically, what I'm going for here is a humanoid velociraptor and I'm trying to keep the ECL five or lower, but that's not a requirement. All of this is open for debate... Anways, what I've got so far is as follows:

Raptoid
Medium - Monsterous Humanoid
Base land speed: 40
Racial ability modifiers: +2 Strength, +4 Dexterity, -2 Wisdom, -6 Charisma
RHD: 3d8
Natural Attacks: Bite (1d6) and two claws (2d4) (the claws are using their feet, so I guess it'd be slashing or piercing damage, depending on what exactly you're doing)
Racial Skills: +5 to jump, +5 to balance, +2 on spot and listen.
Racial Feats: Run and Track (that is a feat, right?)
Natural Armor: +2
Automatic Languages: draconic
Bonus Languages: common, undercommon, (any suggestions?)
LA: +__

A creature made through magical methods combining a raptor with a human.
Typically found in packs similar to that of actual raptors, members of the same clan will stay together.

They currently have no place to call home, but they are most often found in dense woodland areas and near their region of creation.

It has a tail roughly half the length of the body, clawed feet, and a head similar (but bulkier) to that a kobold.
Varying in brown or green in color, though on rare occasion they do come up in black, they have green or yellow eyes. No hair, but sometimes sprout feathers.

PersonMan
2013-05-09, 05:02 AM
Why the -6 Cha? A quick check on the SRD shows Charisma scores ranging from 4 to 10 on animals, with the dinos generally sitting at 10. I'd be wary about such a large hit to a score like that, as it makes them vulnerable to the Cha-damage-knockout if they have something like 2 or 3 Charisma.

The stats are, in total, negative, giving a pretty significant weakness to a PC raptoid - LA, lowered Wis and stats that push one towards physical classes will probably all make their Will save bonus pretty low, making them vulnerable to the worst kind of save-or-Xs (generally "Save or die", "save or attack your team" or "save or be useless).

RHD: I assume these are Monstrous Humanoid levels? It's generally specified, as it determines their saves/BAB.

Racial Feats: Generally, you give bonus feats if all raptoids have them, otherwise you let the players pick feats from RHD. Especially with Run and Track, which are not very useful - Track is sometimes called "railroading as a feat", for good reason.

Skills: The skill bonuses are a bit odd - in my experience, they're generally even. I believe the standard is "has a tail = +4 to Balance checks" if that's what that is from. I'd also mention the type of bonus - Racial, Competence, etc. for the purposes of stacking. If they have no type, just say "Raptoids have a +X bonus to Y checks".

Remember, they already have a +4 bonus to Jump checks from their 40' speed, so they end up with +9 from that and the untyped racial skill bonus.

Also, you didn't list their class skills for their RHD.

---

I'd put LA at +1 or so, as you're already paying with RHD and the raptoids don't really have much of anything worth a lot of LA.

Have you considered stripping down a few things and making them a scaling 0-RHD, 0 LA race? Something like:

Raptoid
Type: Monstrous Humanoid
Base Land Speed: 40 feet
Natural Armor: +1
Natural Weapons: Bite (1d6), primary
Ability Scores: +2 Dexterity, -2 Charisma
Racial Skills: +4 to Balance (from tail), +2 to Spot and Listen checks

At 3 Hit Dice, a raptoid's natural armor increases to +2.
At 5 Hit Dice, a raptoid gains two claw attacks as secondary natural weapons, doing 2d4 damage each.

If you want to add the other stuff, you can always make a racial paragon class.

Something like:

Raptoid Paragon
HD: d8
{table=head]Level|BAB|Fort|Ref|Will|Special
1|+0|+0|+2|+0|Run, Natural Leaper
2|+1|+0|+3|+0|Track, Predatory Instincts
3|+2|+1|+3|+1|+2 Dexterity, Born Claw-Fighter
[/table]

Run: At level 1 a Raptoid Paragon gains the Run feat as a bonus feat. If they already have this feat, they may take any other for which they meet the prerequisites.

Natural Leaper: At level 1 a Raptoid Paragon's muscles grow further developed and aid them in jumping even more than before. A Raptoid Paragon gains a +2 bonus to Jump checks which increases by one per additional class level.

Track: At level 2 a Raptoid Paragon gains Track as a bonus feat. If they already have this feat, they may take any other for which they meet the prerequisites.

Predatory Instincts: A Raptoid Paragon's predatory instincts become stronger and, at level 2, they gain a +3 bonus to Survival checks which increases by one per additional class level.

Born Claw-Fighter: A Raptoid Paragon learns how to use their claws to a greater extent. At level 3, a Raptoid Paragon's claws now gain the raptoid's full Strength bonus to damage.

gurgleflep
2013-05-09, 12:18 PM
Why the -6 Cha? A quick check on the SRD shows Charisma scores ranging from 4 to 10 on animals, with the dinos generally sitting at 10. I'd be wary about such a large hit to a score like that, as it makes them vulnerable to the Cha-damage-knockout if they have something like 2 or 3 Charisma.

The stats are, in total, negative, giving a pretty significant weakness to a PC raptoid - LA, lowered Wis and stats that push one towards physical classes will probably all make their Will save bonus pretty low, making them vulnerable to the worst kind of save-or-Xs (generally "Save or die", "save or attack your team" or "save or be useless).

RHD: I assume these are Monstrous Humanoid levels? It's generally specified, as it determines their saves/BAB.

Racial Feats: Generally, you give bonus feats if all raptoids have them, otherwise you let the players pick feats from RHD. Especially with Run and Track, which are not very useful - Track is sometimes called "railroading as a feat", for good reason.

Skills: The skill bonuses are a bit odd - in my experience, they're generally even. I believe the standard is "has a tail = +4 to Balance checks" if that's what that is from. I'd also mention the type of bonus - Racial, Competence, etc. for the purposes of stacking. If they have no type, just say "Raptoids have a +X bonus to Y checks".

Remember, they already have a +4 bonus to Jump checks from their 40' speed, so they end up with +9 from that and the untyped racial skill bonus.

Also, you didn't list their class skills for their RHD.

---

I'd put LA at +1 or so, as you're already paying with RHD and the raptoids don't really have much of anything worth a lot of LA.

Have you considered stripping down a few things and making them a scaling 0-RHD, 0 LA race? Something like:

Raptoid
Type: Monstrous Humanoid
Base Land Speed: 40 feet
Natural Armor: +1
Natural Weapons: Bite (1d6), primary
Ability Scores: +2 Dexterity, -2 Charisma
Racial Skills: +4 to Balance (from tail), +2 to Spot and Listen checks

At 3 Hit Dice, a raptoid's natural armor increases to +2.
At 5 Hit Dice, a raptoid gains two claw attacks as secondary natural weapons, doing 2d4 damage each.

If you want to add the other stuff, you can always make a racial paragon class.

Something like:

Raptoid Paragon
HD: d8
{table=head]Level|BAB|Fort|Ref|Will|Special
1|+0|+0|+2|+0|Run, Natural Leaper
2|+1|+0|+3|+0|Track, Predatory Instincts
3|+2|+1|+3|+1|+2 Dexterity, Born Claw-Fighter
[/table]

Run: At level 1 a Raptoid Paragon gains the Run feat as a bonus feat. If they already have this feat, they may take any other for which they meet the prerequisites.

Natural Leaper: At level 1 a Raptoid Paragon's muscles grow further developed and aid them in jumping even more than before. A Raptoid Paragon gains a +2 bonus to Jump checks which increases by one per additional class level.

Track: At level 2 a Raptoid Paragon gains Track as a bonus feat. If they already have this feat, they may take any other for which they meet the prerequisites.

Predatory Instincts: A Raptoid Paragon's predatory instincts become stronger and, at level 2, they gain a +3 bonus to Survival checks which increases by one per additional class level.

Born Claw-Fighter: A Raptoid Paragon learns how to use their claws to a greater extent. At level 3, a Raptoid Paragon's claws now gain the raptoid's full Strength bonus to damage.

This is my first time homebrewing a race (only other homebrew I've done was smashing together a couple classes), so honestly, I had no clue what I was doing. I thank you considerably for the help on this :smallsmile:

No, I hadn't considered taking off some of their stuff to make it 0LA/0RHD. In all honesty, I don't know what I'm doing.
Also, what's a "paragon" class :smallconfused:

I had the charisma so low because I honestly can't imagine a dinosaur-like human being very personable.

PersonMan
2013-05-09, 12:47 PM
I've been in your shoes, I'm happy to help a new homebrewer with their first race. :smallsmile:

A racial paragon class is basically a short (generally 3 levels, I think) prestige class with a requirement like "race: [insert race here]; BAB: +3 OR level 2 spells OR ..." so that it's easy to get into for a member of that race. It basically builds up on the race's already existing traits - a dwarf gets more dwarfy, an elf more elfy, etc.

The Charisma thing is probably better dealt with via a smaller penalty - something like -2 Cha, maybe with a -1 racial penalty on interaction rolls (or just Diplomacy) to get a similar effect without leaving one stat super-low.

Agent 451
2013-05-09, 01:01 PM
gurgleflep, here is some more information on paragon classes. (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/races/racialParagonClasses.htm)

gurgleflep
2013-05-09, 01:12 PM
I've been in your shoes, I'm happy to help a new homebrewer with their first race. :smallsmile:

A racial paragon class is basically a short (generally 3 levels, I think) prestige class with a requirement like "race: [insert race here]; BAB: +3 OR level 2 spells OR ..." so that it's easy to get into for a member of that race. It basically builds up on the race's already existing traits - a dwarf gets more dwarfy, an elf more elfy, etc.

The Charisma thing is probably better dealt with via a smaller penalty - something like -2 Cha, maybe with a -1 racial penalty on interaction rolls (or just Diplomacy) to get a similar effect without leaving one stat super-low.

Well that actually sounds pretty cool :smallsmile:
Also, I like your idea on the charisma thing, that's a lot nicer for it :smalltongue:


gurgleflep, here is some more information on paragon classes. (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/races/racialParagonClasses.htm)

Thank you for linking to that :smallsmile: