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Kazyan
2014-01-19, 12:53 AM
Here's the deal. I'm planning on writing up a "Races of" homebrew sourcebook for seven of my homebrew races for D&D 3.5, and I don't want it to be as much of a mess as some of the official books. Thus, I need second opinions on their mechanics. Since they're unusual, balancing is hard and power creep is inevitable.

So I'm asking the homebrew forum to break them. Any way you can exploit their mechanics, I'm all ears, or if you simply think some of the numbers or mini-systems are too strong for LA+0, let me know why. Comparing them to published races is a good way to show me if they're balanced or not. I'm aiming for Gnome, not Anthropomorphic Bat.


{table=head]Race|Ability Adjustments|Size|Speed|Bonus Feat|Gimmick|Type (Subtype)|Estimated Exploitability
Amminon (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=310945)|+2 Dex, -2 Cha|Medium|30 ft|--|Nondimensional space|Humanoid|Low
Acrimima, Lesser (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=314170)|+2 Con, -2 Wis|Medium|30 ft.|--|Neutral|Humanoid (Planetouched)|Low
Exuhi (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=323352)|+4 Int, -2 Str, -2 Con|Small|20 ft.|--|Tired|Humanoid|Moderate
Fharrice (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=323935)|+2 Wis, -2 Cha|Medium|30 ft.|Iron Will|Willpower Summons|Humanoid|High
Isojus (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=16747131&postcount=3)|--|Small|20 ft.|--|Alignmentless|Aberration|High
Min-lau (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=16745486&postcount=2)|+2 Cha, -2 Int|Medium|20 ft.|--|Balancing on points|Monstrous Humanoid|Moderate
Zulicer (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=323704)|+2 Str, -2 Dex|Medium|30 ft.|--|Store item effects|Humanoid|Very High
[/table]

The part that benefits you: Feel free to post links to your own homebrew, and I'll take a shot at breaking it, too. I'm considering turning this into a contest along the lines of the PrC and Base Class contests, where we spotlight homebrew in the forum and optimize the heck out of it. That way, the creator gets a lot of feedback and recommendations.

Hadrian_Emrys
2014-01-19, 11:48 PM
Just at a glance, the Isojus amuse me simply because they can fill the shoes of a Paladin 2 / Blackguard 2 / Hexblade 2 in order to get Cha to all saves twice and a third time against spells and spell-like abilities. With an 18 Cha, we're looking at +8 and +12 BEFORE base saves and their related attributes.

"Cast at me, bro!"

Just to Browse
2014-01-20, 11:46 PM
Good Races: Amminon, Isojus
The Amminon's extradimensional space is pretty situational, but paired with +Dex/-Cha it makes an ideal thief, which is pretty lacking in the WotC set of races.

The Isojus alignment stuff is super cool, but situational. The big power come from their ability to craft things that ignore alignment and use items that would normally inflict negative levels for being an opposed alignment. The only abuse that comes to mind is an Isoju necromancer could build a bunch of holy/unholy/axiomatic/chaotic arrows and hand them to people to turn them into wights, which means free undead without onyx.

Decent Races: Min-lau, Acrimima
The Min-Lau consists of two interesting but conflicting ideas. Min-lau are +Cha/-Int classes, meaning they're totally sorcerer stock. However their balance and anti-prone abilities don't synergize with spontaneous magery at all.

The Lesser Acrimima has basically nothing special. They get some flavor abilities and energy resistance that falls off really hard. They're also bad druids despite having druid as a favored class.

No brokenness for these races, they're both just kind of meh.

Bad Races: Exuhi, Fharrice, Zulicer
The Exuhi literally have nothing good going for them. +4 Int is useless because of a heavy-handed banhammer on casting, and their weird 16hr-sleep requirement and tiredness make them effectively useless in adventure scenarios. The telepathy thing is so minor at the table that it might not even be worth a feat. I'm surprised such a race has survived beyond a single generation.

The Fharrice are doubly broken. Most importantly, their willstruct is horribly weak. It starts off weak at level 1, and just gets worse with the slow and non-regulated scaling. In addition, they craft twice as fast as anyone else over extended periods of time, which means they totally undermine all other crafters except artificers with dedicated wrights (for whom the racial feature is effectively pointless). Their key ability is so non-functional as to be ignored, and their secondary ability is insanely good except in certain builds when it is also ignored.

The Zulicer is the most abusable of all the races. Their racial ability literally lets them double the number of magical effects they can use at high levels, while effectively being useless at low levels when there are no magic rings to make use of. It also doesn't scale logically (Cloaks of Charisma are somehow more difficult to bind than Gloves of Dexterity). Zulicers are literally the best race of have at level 20 no matter what your build is, but their earlygame is sad pandas all around.

Kazyan
2014-01-21, 01:02 AM
Simon Cowell was my favorite American Idol judge, when I still watched. It's great to have a bit of a slap to the face. Two good, one alright, one kinda bad, two very bad, and one which I should be doused in cold water over.

I suppose that's a bit better than Sturgeon's Law predicts, but very far from satisfactory. Thoughts on what I should do, with informal prototypes in spoilers:

Acrimima: Fiiiiix the druid thing and don't take away the one interesting ability when using the Lesser option. Change up what they lose when ditching that LA. Otherwise not that bad.

Lesser acrimima have the same statistics as standard acrimima, except as listed below.

Humanoid (Planetouched): Lesser acrimima are planetouched humanoids.
No Energy Resistances: Lesser acrimima do not have resistance to acid 5 or resistance to sonic 5.
No Diplomacy Bonus: Lesser acrimima do not receive a +2 bonus to Diplomacy, though they still gain the benefits of Common Specialization.
Level Adjustment: +0

Favored Class: Fighter.

Exuhi: Just because they're the planners doesn't mean they have to be modeled with +4 to Int, and just because they're crippled with casting doesn't mean I have to ban it outright. Just give the casters a gentle tap with the nerfbat. Model planning and with +X to some checks instead. Sack the sleep problem. Tiredness probably won't come up that often, and it's pretty fluff-entrenched...not sure what to do with it.



+2 Intelligence, -2 Constitution: Exuhi have extremely powerful minds--they were the brains behind many zern operations--but their small bodies are weak.
Small size
Land speed: 20 feet.
Humanoid type: Exuhi are basically human-shaped, if very small.
+2 to Intelligence checks and Intelligence-based checks: Exuhi are expert planners.
Easily Tired (Ex): Exuhi take a -4 penalty on the following checks and saves: Swim checks made to resist nonlethal damage, Constitution checks made to continue running, Constitution checks made to avoid nonlethal damage from a forced march, Constitution checks made to hold their breath, Constitution checks made to avoid nonlethal damage from starvation or thirst, Fortitude saves made to avoid nonlethal damage from hot or cold environments, and Fortitude saves made to resist damage from suffocation. Also, they become fatigued if they sleep in light or heavier armor; they must be unarmored to avoid fatigue in this way.

The Endurance feat does not have its normal benefit for an Exuha. Instead, it suppresses this racial trait.

Exuha prefer to sleep for 16 hours a day, but they do not actually require more than 8 hours.
Magic-Inhibited (Ex): An Exuha's spells, spell-like abilities, powers, and psi-like abilities are weakened. Thy take a -1 penalty to their caster and manifester levels, to a minimum of 1, which often makes them ineligible to cast their highest-level spells. (For example, a 3rd-level Exuha Wizard could not cast Scorching Ray, because their caster level of 2 would be too low. However, thy could cast it upon reaching caster level 4.)
Telepathic Touch (Su): An Exuha can communicate telepathically with any creature they are physically touching. If they remain in contact with a creature for 10 minutes, they can communicate telepathically with them at a distance of up to 100 ft until they choose to sever the mental connection as a swift action. Both forms of Telepathic Touch require a shared language.
Mindfeel (Su): An Exuha is vaguely aware of telepathic or psychic fields around them. This has various effects.
- While an Exuha is within the Telepathy range of any creature, they can pinpoint that creature and learn information about them, as the Mindsight feat (LoM). This has a maximum range of 10 miles.
- An Exuha is automatically aware of the exact locations of all other Exuhi within 100 feet.
Favored Class: Binder.
Languages: Common. Bonus Languages: Gnome, Dwarf, Elven.
Level Adjustment: +0

Fharrice: Physical manifestations of willpower don't have to be a useless ally. Grant a Minor Shapeshift sort of deal, so they can apply will to their bodies, and the ability to turn that into a non-scaling secondary laborer of some sort. Also turn the crafting thing into something useable by all; maybe a reduced sleep requirement for the purposes of watching camp.

+2 Wisdom, -2 Charisma: Fharrices are strong-willed and clear-headed, but asocial.
Humanoid type
Medium size
Land Speed: 30 feet.
Willshaping (Su): A fharrice gains the benefit of the Minor Shapeshift feat, except that they replace the Vigor option with a Focus option, which grants them a +2 bonus to Will saving throws. They may use the benefits of the feat without having a spell slot in reserve, and the benefits last for a number of rounds equal to their Will save modifier (minimum 1). In addition, by forgoing all benefits of the feat, they may create a Medium-sized humanoid construct in an adjacent square, referred to as a willstruct, which is under the fharrice's absolute control. A willstruct lats until dismissed as a standard action, but cannot stay further than 60 feet from the fharrice without dissipating. If a willstruct is destroyed, the fharrice loses the benefit of Willshaping for 24 hours. While using Willshaping to gain benefits, relevant parts of the fharrice's body are reinforced by white crystalline material.

The willstuct has 10 HP (even though it should otherwise get 20 bonus HP due to its size), Strength and Dexterity scores of 10, and Wisdom and Charisma scores equal to that of the fharrice. The willstruct cannot attack. If the fharrice has ranks in Profession or Craft skills, the willstruct gains a competence bonus to those skills equal to the number of ranks.
Conscious Focus (Ex): Though a fharrice prefers to get a full 8 hours of rest every day, they do not actually require any more than 2 hours.
Iron Will (Ex): Fharrices don't actually have the Iron Will feat, but for the purposes of qualifying for feats and prestige classes, they count as having it.
Languages: Common. Bonus Languages: Dvati, Illumian.
Level Adjustment: +0

Zulicer: Affinity with magic items does not mean that they get the equivalent of some epic feats, seriously, what is wrong with me. Instead, do an Ancestral Relic sort of thing where some scaling GP value gets spread out to nonmagical items.


+2 Str, -2 Dex: Zulicers have adapted the strength to hunt down prey, though they are somewhat clumsy.
Humanoid type
+2 to Survival checks: Zulicers are skilled hunters and gatherers.
Medium size
Land Speed: 30 feet.
Crouch (Ex): So long as they have their feet on the ground, a zulicer can crouch to halve their land speed, but increase their AC as if they had decreased one size category. Crouching or reverting to standing is a move action.
Imbued Equipment (Su): A zulicer can grant items on their possession magical properties, provided they remain in contact with their skin. At 1st level, they may imbue items with up to 25 gp of magical properties. For example, a piece of parchment may become a 1st-level scroll for 25 gp. After 8 hours of rest, they may revoke the imbued properties and redistribute the GP equivalent among their equipment as normal. Imbuing items reqiures 1 hour of uninterrupted rest, and the item to be imbued must be of a form that makes sense for the desired property--for example, a weapon cannot be imbued with the properties of a potion; it is not drinkable.

If a zulicer stops physically contacting an imbued item, it loses its imbued properties until they resume contact; one cannot borrow an Item Flow item from a zulicer.

Above 2nd level, the amount of GP value a zulicer can imbue items with becomes equal to 1/20 of their wealth by level. If they use consumable magic items made with Item Flow, they permanently lose an amount from their Item Flow pool equal to 1/3 of the value of the consumable portion used. They can refresh their Item Flow pool by sacrificing four times the amount of GP they want to get restore, but they cannot expand their Item Flow pool above their by-level maximum. 'Sacrificing' items is done in the form of consuming rare spices and breathing exotic incenses worth the requisite amount of GP.

{table=head]Level|Item Flow Pool
1|25 gp
2|45 gp
3|135 gp
4|270 gp
5|450 gp
6|650 gp
7|900 gp
8|1350 gp
9|1800 gp
10|2450 gp
11|3300 gp
12|4400 gp
13|5500 gp
14|7500 gp
15|10,000 gp
16|13,000 gp
17|17,000 gp
18|22,000 gp
19|27,000 gp
20|38,000 gp
21|48,750 gp
22|60,000 gp
23|75,000 gp
24|90,000 gp
25|105,000 gp
etc.|1/20 WBL
[/table]
Languages: Zulicer, Common. Bonus Languages: Draconic, Gnome, Halfling.
Level Adjustment: +0

All of them: When most of them turn out bad, revamp them. Again. Repeat until all are at least decent.

Kazyan
2014-01-23, 11:20 PM
I would appreciate more feedback on the following revised racial abilities for the "bad" races and the Lesser Acrimima. These are not final. I'm trying to stay true to the already-written fluff, while still balancing everything. I think the Lesser Acrimima and the Fharrice are okay now, but the Exuhi is giving me trouble and I would like to see how the Zulicer can be broken in this "liquid +5% WBL" form.

Lesser acrimima have the same statistics as standard acrimima, except as listed below.

Humanoid (Planetouched): Lesser acrimima are planetouched humanoids.
No Energy Resistances: Lesser acrimima do not have resistance to acid 5 or resistance to sonic 5.
No Diplomacy Bonus: Lesser acrimima do not receive a +2 bonus to Diplomacy, though they still gain the benefits of Common Specialization.
Level Adjustment: +0

Favored Class: Fighter.

+2 Intelligence, -2 Strength: Exuhi have extremely powerful minds--they were the brains behind many zern operations--but their small bodies are weak.
Small size
Land speed: 30 feet.
Humanoid type: Exuhi are basically human-shaped, if very small.
+2 to Intelligence checks and Intelligence-based checks: Exuhi are expert planners.
Blind-Fight (Ex): Exuhi gain Blind-Fight as a bonus feat, as they are used to living in the dark.
Easily Tired (Ex): Exuhi take a -4 penalty on the following checks and saves: Swim checks made to resist nonlethal damage, Constitution checks made to continue running, Constitution checks made to avoid nonlethal damage from a forced march, Constitution checks made to hold their breath, Constitution checks made to avoid nonlethal damage from starvation or thirst, Fortitude saves made to avoid nonlethal damage from hot or cold environments, and Fortitude saves made to resist damage from suffocation. Also, they become fatigued if they sleep in light or heavier armor; they must be unarmored to avoid fatigue in this way.

The Endurance feat does not have its normal benefit for an Exuha. Instead, it suppresses this racial trait.

Exuha prefer to sleep for 16 hours a day due to their bodies' inhibited physical ability, but they do not actually require more than 8 hours.
Magic-Inhibited (Ex): An Exuha's spells, spell-like abilities, powers, and psi-like abilities are weakened. Thy take a -1 penalty to their caster and manifester levels, to a minimum of 1, which often makes them ineligible to cast their highest-level spells. (For example, a 3rd-level Exuha Wizard could not cast Scorching Ray, because their caster level of 2 would be too low. However, they could cast it upon reaching caster level 4.)
Telepathic Touch (Su): An Exuha can communicate telepathically with any creature they are physically touching. If they remain in contact with a creature for 10 minutes, they can communicate telepathically with them at a distance of up to 100 ft until they choose to sever the mental connection as a swift action. Both forms of Telepathic Touch require a shared language.
Mindfeel (Su): An Exuha is vaguely aware of telepathic or psychic fields around them.
- While an Exuha is within the Telepathy range of any creature, they can pinpoint that creature and learn information about them, as the Mindsight feat (LoM). This has a maximum range of 10 miles.
- An Exuha is automatically aware of the exact locations of all other Exuhi within 100 feet, as well as the locations of anyone they have a mental connection with via Telepathic Touch, provided they are on the same plane.
Favored Class: Binder.
Languages: Common. Bonus Languages: Gnome, Dwarf, Elven.
Level Adjustment: +0

+2 Wisdom, -2 Charisma: Fharrices are strong-willed and clear-headed, but asocial.
Humanoid type
Medium size
Land Speed: 30 feet.
Willshaping (Su): At character creation, a fharrice may select two of the benefits listed below; either of these may then be activated as a swift action. The chosen benefit lasts for a number of rounds equal to the fharrice's will save modifier (minimum 1), unless stated otherwise. If the fharrice activates this ability a second time while a previous benefit is still in effect, the first benefit ends immediately. None of the other benefits are available after selecting the first two at character creation, by default; for example, a fharrice with Might and Speed could not activate Focus as a swift action. When using one of the following benefits, skin surrounding the relevant portion of the fharrice's body turns crystalline white, except in the case of the willstruct.

Might: +2 bonus on melee damage rolls.
Mobility: +2 competence bonus on Balance, Climb, Jump, and Swim checks.
Savagery: Primary claw attack dealing 1d6 points of damage (assuming Medium size).
Speed: +5-foot enhancement bonus to any one movement mode they already possess.
Focus: At any time before this benefit expires, the fharrice can choose to reroll a Will saving throw before the DM announces the result of the roll. The result of the reroll must be accepted even if it is worse than the initial roll.
Willstruct: A Medium-sized mindless humanoid construct is created in an adjacent square, referred to as a willstruct, which is under the fharrice's absolute control. A willstruct lasts until dismissed as a standard action, but cannot stay further than 60 feet from the fharrice without dissipating. If a willstruct is destroyed, the fharrice loses the benefit of Willshaping for 24 hours. While using Willshaping to gain benefits, relevant parts of the fharrice's body are reinforced by white crystalline material. The willstruct has 10 HP (even though it should otherwise get 20 bonus HP due to its size), Strength and Dexterity scores of 10, and Wisdom and Charisma scores equal to that of the fharrice. The willstruct cannot attack. If the fharrice has ranks in Profession or Craft skills, the willstruct gains a competence bonus to those skills equal to the number of ranks. Due to social pressures, almost all non-adventuring fharrices develop the ability to form a willstruct.
Conscious Focus (Ex): Though a fharrice prefers to get a full 8 hours of rest every day, they do not actually require any more than 2 hours.
Iron Will (Ex): Fharrices don't actually have the Iron Will feat, but for the purposes of qualifying for feats and prestige classes, they count as having it.
Languages: Common. Bonus Languages: Dvati, Illumian.
Level Adjustment: +0

Racial Feat

Variable Will
You exert your willpower in various ways.
Prerequisite: Fharrice
Benefit: You gain access to the other four benefits of willshaping, beyond the two you selected at character creation. You may activate them as normal.

+2 Str, -2 Dex: Zulicers have adapted the strength to hunt down prey, though they are somewhat clumsy.
Humanoid type
+2 to Survival checks: Zulicers are skilled hunters and gatherers.
Medium size
Land Speed: 30 feet.
Crouch (Ex): So long as they have their feet on the ground, a zulicer can crouch to halve their land speed, but increase their AC as if they had decreased one size category. Crouching or reverting to standing is a move action.
Item Flow (Su): A zulicer can grant items on their possession magical properties, provided they remain in contact with their skin. At 1st level, they may imbue items with up to 25 gp of magical properties. For example, a piece of parchment may become a 1st-level scroll for 25 gp. After 8 hours of rest, they may revoke the imbued properties and redistribute the GP equivalent among their equipment as normal. Imbuing items requires 1 hour of uninterrupted rest and contact with the items to be imbued, and the items must be of forms that make sense for the desired properties--for example, a weapon cannot be imbued with the properties of a potion; it is not drinkable.

If a zulicer stops physically contacting an imbued item, it loses its imbued properties until they resume contact; one cannot borrow an Item Flow item from a zulicer.

Above 2nd level, the amount of GP value a zulicer can imbue items with becomes equal to 1/20 of their wealth by level. If they use consumable magic items made with Item Flow, they permanently lose an amount from their Item Flow pool equal to the value of the consumable portion used. They can refresh their Item Flow pool by sacrificing twice the amount of GP they want to restore, but they cannot expand their Item Flow pool above their by-level maximum. 'Sacrificing' items is done in the form of consuming rare spices and breathing exotic incenses worth the requisite amount of GP.

Items cannot be imbued so that they have a caster level greater than the zulicer's Hit Dice. When a zulicer gains a level, their Item Flow pool increases by the difference of Item Flow Pool in the following table between the two levels. For example,a zulicer leveling up from 14 to 15 would gain 2,500 gp in their Item Flow pool.

{table=head]Level|Item Flow Pool
1|25 gp
2|45 gp
3|135 gp
4|270 gp
5|450 gp
6|650 gp
7|900 gp
8|1350 gp
9|1800 gp
10|2450 gp
11|3300 gp
12|4400 gp
13|5500 gp
14|7500 gp
15|10,000 gp
16|13,000 gp
17|17,000 gp
18|22,000 gp
19|27,000 gp
20|38,000 gp
21|48,750 gp
22|60,000 gp
23|75,000 gp
24|90,000 gp
25|105,000 gp
etc.|1/20 WBL
[/table]
Languages: Zulicer, Common. Bonus Languages: Draconic, Gnome, Halfling.
Level Adjustment: +0

Racial Feat

Improved Item Flow
You can imbue more potent items.
Prerequisite: Zulicer
Benefit: Your level is treated as one higher for the purpose of your Item Flow pool.
Special: You can take this feat multiple times. Its effects stack.

Reality Glitch
2014-01-24, 01:05 PM
I've been having quite a bit of trouble w/ this, I've got really good flavor, but converting it to mechanics is being a pain. How is this iteration?

* +2 to any one ability and any one skill each chosen at character creation: Drakin have a biological caste system built into their XNA, this means different individuals will have different qualities from birth.
* Plant (Reptile): Drakin are Plants w/ the Reptile subtype; as such they can not be subject to effects that solely effect humanoids such as Hold Person, but are subject spell like Command Plant as long as they can get around their immunity to mind-affecting effects. Drakin have plant traits that aren't superseded by one of the below, this includes: immunity to all mind affecting effects, poison, sleep effects, paralysis, polymorph, stunning, and critical hits and do not need to Sleep, though they must still eat, drink, and breath. Even though it does not sleep, it must still rest in some way to regain abilities such as spell if their "class" tells them to, except they must rest for approximately 10 hours to gain the effect of an 8 hour sleep/rest.
* Plant (Psionic): Drakin are plants w/ the psionic subtype.
* Medium: Drakin get no benefits or drawbacks for its size.
* Drakin's base land speed is 30 feet.
* Telekinetic Sense (Ps): Drakin do not have normal sight or hearing, instead they use a specialized form of telekinesis, giving them 360 tactile blindsight out to the same ranges and w/ the same bonuses and penalties for distance as sight and hearing that doesn't need line of effect to work (allowing the perseption inside closed containers).
* Telepathy (Ps): As there primary form of communitation drakin can send and recieve the thoughts of others, at a distance of up to 500 feet under earth-like conditions, or longer or shorter depending of the strength and proximity of nearby psionics warping effects (including magnetic fields). Drakin can also relay such telepathic signals through heir own ability allowing communication over any distance as long as there a others to cover the distance. They use Detect Minds as a psi-like ability at-will. They may use it to "speak" verbal spell components.
* Wings: Darkin have wings, but feats are needed for this trait to provide any benefit.
* Ambidextrous: Neither hand is a Drakin's off-hand. (This means they never suffer penalties for wielding a weapon w/o the light property in their off hand.)
*Breath Weapon (Ex): Drakin can fire a breath weapon as a full-round action. This does 1d6 damage of a type determined at character creation to all creatures in a 15ft cone who fail your choice of a Fortitude, Reflex, or Will save chosen at character creation vs. a DC of 10 plus the ability modifier of the score increace by the racial traits.
* Drakin Training: Drakin must take the Technical Proficiency, Biological Proficiency as bonus feats. As these feats are normally free to any character, this trait only denies them the choice to opt out.
* Namelessness: See this truenaming (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=90961) fix for details.
* Language: Telepathy. Drakin can't learn spoken or written languages, but can understand them while in the presence of minds that can.
Favored Class: Any. Drakin do not count the they have the most levels in when determining multiclass penalty
Level Adjustment: +1

Kazyan
2014-01-25, 12:59 AM
The current iteration of Drakin appears solid for an LA+1 race, though I can see arguments for being up to LA+3. It has a bunch of goodies, though I'm not sure what to use them for, and the "required" feats pot the kibosh on just wanting a lot of numbers and stuff. However, I notice that it's not specified when you have to take the feats, so an optimized Drakin would just delay them forever. There's a lot it can do, but they don't synergize into anything obviously gamebreaking. I mean, they would be really good spotters if they take Mindsight; getting that at ECL 2 is...well, you won't have to deal with anything that would need Mindsight for at very low levels, actually.

Once thing that stands out is the fact that the breath weapon is so variable; 1d6 damage means it falls off after very low levels, but I immediately notice that you can choose whatever type you want. Does that mean "energy type"? Make it negative energy and combine with Tomb-Tainted Soul for unlimited healing, or it's just "type", maybe select divine damage to make it nigh-irresistible. Specify a list of energy types.

Reality Glitch
2014-01-25, 01:10 AM
I originally had it as Negative, but I change it to necrotic, I have a list of Castes to choose from and the elemental cast gives an extra bonus based on damage type so I changed it to necrotic and gave it a different effect. I've also been working on this at several other places on these forums and I have an updated, less powerful version.

* +2 to any one ability and any one skill each chosen at character creation: Drakin have a biological caste system built into their XNA, this means different individuals will have different qualities from birth.
* Plant (Reptile): Drakin are Plants w/ the Reptile subtype; as such they can not be subject to effects that solely effect humanoids such as Hold Person, but are subject spell like Command Plant as long as they can get around their immunity to mind-affecting effects. Drakin have plant traits that aren't superseded by one of the below, this includes: immunity to all mind affecting effects, poison, sleep effects, paralysis, polymorph, stunning, and critical hits and do not need to Sleep, though they must still eat, drink, and breath. Even though it does not sleep, it must still rest in some way to regain abilities such as spell if their "class" tells them to, except they must rest for approximately 10 hours to gain the effect of an 8 hour sleep/rest.
* Plant (Psionic): Drakin are plants w/ the psionic subtype.
* Medium: Drakin get no benefits or drawbacks for its size.
* Drakin's base land speed is 30 feet.
* Telekinetic Sense (Ps): Drakin do not have normal sight or hearing, instead they use a specialized form of telekinesis, giving them tactile blindsight out to 60ft.
* Telepathy (Ps): As there primary form of communitation drakin can send and recieve the thoughts of others, at a distance of up to 60 feet under earth-like conditions, or longer or shorter depending of the strength and proximity of nearby psionics warping effects (including magnetic fields). Drakin can also relay such telepathic signals through heir own ability allowing communication over any distance as long as there a others to cover the distance.
* Ambidextrous: Neither hand is a Drakin's off-hand. (This means they never suffer penalties for wielding a weapon w/o the light property in their of hand.)
*Breath Weapon (Ps): Drakin can fire a breath weapon as a full-round action. This does 1d6 damage of a type determined at character creation to all creatures in a 15ft cone who fail your choice of a Fortitude, Reflex, or Will save chosen at character creation vs. a DC of 10 plus the ability modifier of the score increace by the racial traits.
* Caste System: Choose a Caste from the list below, this is the caste it biologically belongs to. The drakin adds all spells, power, manuevers, soulmelds, etc. from the drakin list and the matching caste list to all of its classes' lists.
* Drakin Training: Drakin must take the Technical Proficiency, Biological Proficiency as bonus feats. As these feats are normally free to any character, this trait only denies them the choice to opt out. Drakin are also proficient w/ Fullblades; as well as the Biological counter parts of anything they have proficiency w/.
* Wings: Drakin have wings and can glide. They take no damage from falling, and can move 5 feet horizontally for every 1 foot they fall, up to 60 feet per round. They cannot gain height through this means alone. At level 6, Drakin gain a fly speed of 30 feet, with poor maneuverability.It is possible to improve their maneuverability with the same feats monsters use to improve maneuverability.
* Lifebound: +2 on all saves vs. death effects, negative energy, negative levels, and on constitution checks to stabilize at negative hp. Drakin are warriors, and can be difficult to finish off.
* Language: Telepathy. Drakin can eventually learn to telekinetically replicate voices.
Favored Class: Any.
Level Adjustment: +1

I'm still don't know about Namelessness though, keep or toss?
Defending Against Truespeak

Like anything, truespeak can be defended against. It’s extraordinary in nature, and not vulnerable to spell resistance, so conventional magical defences aren’t exceedingly helpful. However, there are methods that can be used to protect yourself.

• Detecting Truespeak: When a truespeak effect is used within line of sight of someone, they can make a Knowledge (arcana) check against a DC of 10 + the speaker’s truenamer level to detect it as a truespeak effect.

• Counterspeaking: A truenamer (or anyone with ranks in Truespeak) can attempt to counter a truespeak effect as an immediate action. This can only be attempted when they are affected by a truespeak effect, and detect it for what it is (see above). The counterspeaker must make a Truespeak check against the check made to activate the truespeak effect. Whoever loses the opposed check is dazed for one round. If the truenamer loses, the truespeak effect fails to occur, exactly as if he had failed the Truespeak check to deliver it.

• Name Resistance (Ex): If a creature has name resistance, its name is exceptionally difficult to speak in the language of Truespeech. The DC to target such a creature with a truespeak effect increases by the amount specified in its name resistance ability entry.

• Namelessness (Ex): If a creature has namelessness, it is completely immune to utterances.

Kazyan
2014-01-25, 12:44 PM
Regarding Namelessness, it doesn't seem like it will come up very often. You have to have A) a Drakin, dealing with B) a Kellus Truenamer. Neither of those are going to be terribly common occurrences in games.

Thinking about it more, Drakin seems heavy on the immunities. In the former version, there's all the things you get from the plant type, your feat chain that can give you flight, and access to Mindsight. These are powerful "haha, no" buttons to various monsters. I'm not sure what to do about it, since I don't know the Drakin fluff. If it's entrenched that they can do these things, maybe add a short Drakin racial class that comes before the caste classes, granting them their pile of special abilities. before moving on to their castes--you can also mandate that if the pre-caste racial class if, say, 3 levels long, that's when they have to take their Technical Proficiency and Biological Proficiency feats.

The idea would be that you were playing an underdeveloped Drakin when it hadn't completed the pre-caste racial class yet. When it fully developed at level 3 or so, it would be ready to perform the role of its caste.

Reality Glitch
2014-01-25, 03:20 PM
I actually tried the monster class levels before, but never got much positive feedback on it, I'll try it again to see if I can make it work. As for the caste-classes,I'm thinking of making them a series of either Pr.C.'s or racial paragon classes that show the individuals devotion to its natural abilities.