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Sylren Thelfir
2016-09-19, 09:11 AM
Greetings Hive Mind!

This is one of the homebrew races I've come up with to inhabit my own campaign setting. It is heavily inspired by Ripjaws from the original Ben 10 series. I'm not exactly sure how balanced it is for a standard Pathfinder game. If you guys have revisions or suggestions that'd be great.


Piscen

Hailing from the great deep, Piscen are amphibious merfolk like creatures. However where merfolk are strong and regal, Piscen are frightening and savage. Piscen are extremely warlike to invaders and those polluting to their invaders. Unlike their merfolk cousins, Piscen are as adept on land as they are in water.

Physical Description - Piscen stand about as tall as the average elf. Their antennae make them slightly taller however. Male Piscen are slightly taller and bulkier than female Piscen. They have large external teeth similar to that of an alligator, gills similar to sharks, and antennae similar to angler fish. They usually possess milky lavender eyes, however these range from green to the rarest being sapphire blue. Piscen possess a green dorsal fin that runs all the way from the back of their neck to their lower back. They also possess the same style green fins that run from their forearm to the elbow. While on land Piscen possess a black and green loincloth. In water their loincloth combine with their legs and form a long black and green merfolk like tale with a green fin.

Society - Piscen are an extremely warlike race. However they do not typically seek to expand, more to defend and get revenge against those who spite them. All Piscen are trained from birth in the use of tridents, nets, ranseurs, and longswords. A select few Piscen are trained in the ways of the druid, channeling the awesome power of the ocean. It is rare to see Piscen outside the ocean, when they are seen, they are often warlords, underwater rescuers, or even scholars.

Relations - Piscen are not directly at the throats of any other aquatic races, however many of the other aquatic races look upon them hesitantly. Piscen do despise certain land-dwelling races though. Primarily the more industrious races, gnomes, dwarves, humans, etc.. This is because of the pollution these races often put into the oceans where Piscen live. They also greatly dislike underwater explorers that “invade” Piscen lands

Alignment And Religion - Piscen are more often than not, lawful as they are a more militaristic race. They have a structured society, almost as structured as drow, but not matriarchal and valuing martial prowess. Piscen value gods of nature, darkness, water, and war.

Adventurers - Piscen rarely leave their ocean homes permanently. A large chunk of Piscen adventurers are pirates or other sea-faring men. Some Piscen adventure to bring revenge to those who have wronged the ocean or other oceanic spirits. All Piscen when adventuring out of the ocean usually jump at the chance to be in some sort of water and typically stand out in the rain when it’s storming. Piscen in the ocean typically adventure to destroy their particular city’s enemies.

Male Names - Ankar, Drethna, Thraknul, Yetrik

Female Names - Ankara, Mariat, Prothruim, Salenior

Standard Racial Traits -

+2 Strength, +2 Constitution, -2 Intelligence, -2 Charisma. Piscen are physically adept both in land and water, however their race’s natural solitarity makes them somewhat alien to the other races.

Size: Medium. Piscen are medium and thus receive no bonuses or penalties due to their size.

Type: Piscen are Humanoids with the reptilian subtype.

Base Speed: Piscen have a base speed of 20 feet. They also have a swim speed of 40 feet.

Scales: Piscen’ tough scales give them a +2 bonus to their natural armor.

Natural Weapons: Piscen have a bite attack that does 1d8 damage as a primary attack.

Weapon Familiarity: Piscen are automatically proficient with longswords, nets, ranseurs, and tridents. They also treat all weapon with the word “Piscen” in it’s name as a martial weapon. They may use any of these weapons under water with no penalty.

Darkvision: Piscen have darkvision out to a range of 60 feet.

Low-Light Vision: Piscen have low-light vision allowing them to see twice as far as humans in conditions of dim light.

Amphibious: Piscen are amphibious once they reach maturity.

Pressurized: Piscen take no damage from water pressure.

Light: Piscen can make the bulb on the end of their antenna glow as a torch that produces no heat an unlimited number of rounds per day. A Piscen must be conscious to use this ability.

Natural Piercing: Piscen natural weapons bypass all hardness of 10 or lower.

Fire Vulnerability: Piscen are vulnerable to fire.

Languages: Piscen begin play speaking common and aquan. Piscen with a high intelligence can choose from the following: aboleth, celestial, draconic, or sylvan.

remetagross
2016-09-19, 09:18 PM
Could you find a picture somewhere ? I can't really figure out the head of a Piscen. Is it like a lizart with a lightbulb ?

Apart from that, I kind of get the feeling of your race easily enough :)

You had nice idea for the race abilities, the lantern reminds me of the Body Lamp ability of the Asherati in Sandstorm.

The Natural Piercing ability is darn powerful, it allows you to simply stack on as many natural weapons as you can and pounce. Having three natural weapons is also very powerful.
Combined with Darkvision, a swim speed and amphibious, this race deserves a LA + 1, even with fire vulnerability.

Something else I'd say is that such a race narrows down the options of the player, as it begs to be turned into an ubercharger or any kind of melee character. It is a little too bad, unless this is what you wanted.

Grand Arbiter
2016-09-19, 09:43 PM
The Natural Piercing ability is darn powerful, it allows you to simply stack on as many natural weapons as you can and pounce. Having three natural weapons is also very powerful.
Combined with Darkvision, a swim speed and amphibious, this race deserves a LA + 1, even with fire vulnerability.

Seconded. It is too potent for LA +0.


Also, it may deserve the Aquatic subtype.


If you'd like I may be able to provide critique to help lower the LA in the morning.

Sylren Thelfir
2016-10-12, 02:20 PM
A piscen looks like Ripjaws from the original ben 10 series, a quick Google search should find it (sorry, I'm new and haven't unlocked the ability to post links yet).

What if I got rid of the claw attacks and just gave it the 1d8 bite attack?
Also, how about lowering natural piercing to bypassing 5 hardness?
And, giving it the aquatic subtype (I originally intended it to be there, just forgot).

Kaje
2016-10-12, 02:30 PM
I would get rid of the claws and lower the land speed to 20ft.