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Brom
2007-12-17, 05:58 AM
I am working on a campaign setting. In this campaign setting, there will be 22 races, each sharing the same world. The world is mostly landmass, unlike ours, instead of being mostly ocean. I have started working on this; for the campaign I hope to have off the ground in six months, I am designing the race, maps, governments, relations, restructuring all the classes to make them more balanced in relation to eachother, preparing the kind of plotlines I'd want, etc.

Basic race description
Grispen

Grispen are known for their skilled mages, their ability to utilize low-level spells instinctively, their knowledge of planes & arcana, their brutally dictated societies, and their grim, often morbid attitudes. Their planar homes, in dimensions that almost none from the Prime Plane have been to, are rumored to be the staying place of some of the most powerful archmages and magics in the multiverse.

Personality description for the race.
Personality: A Grispen is grim, displeased, and often sees death waiting on his doorstep. However, since he is always grim, hard times never both him. He expects the worst, so he’s comfortable traveling with most anyone. He is ready to face a mortal peril at any time, and thus keeps a cool head under danger. Both paranoid and unworried at the same time, a Grispen is often so used to feeling negative feelings about things that situations that make others buckle simply make the Grispen give a disinterested nod and jam a few Magic Missiles down the throats of those they fight. Grispen value arcane power and respect, as well as authority among those they are around. They have a methodical way of doing things, but rarely take time to see moralities behind the situations they analyze and move for efficiency.

Physical description of age/height/weight/appearance etc

Physical Description:
A Grispen stands at about six feet tall, with shoulders that are unusually broad, at least two feet wide, sometimes wider. Grispen are hairy, and all males have beards that are at least four feet long. Their heads are always bald, however, and they only seem to have hair around their beards. The men have coarse features and faces that have circular wrings of wrinkles to them. The women are about five feet tall and have small amounts of head hair but no facial hair. Their faces, male or female, are always painted with marks of red, blue, gold, black, green, or silver; each color stands to mean something different to other Grispen. Grispen usually live to be about 400 years of age.

Description of their relations to other races. Brief note; the Tiscern empire is an empire of humans that spans nine human nations and has a great deal of Paladins. As godless folks, as you shall note below, the Grispen envy paladins and hate the missionaries that are sent to them.

Relations:
Grispen have poor social relations with most anyone; the humans of the Tiscern Empire, humans who count a great deal of holy knights and clerics among their numbers, cannot relate properly to the Grispen, who cannot access any Divine Magic. They have had few relations with most peoples of the world; they have only ever had contact with the Undead and the Tiscern Empire. Of the two, they understand Undead, who avidly practice arcane arts to keep themselves strong. On a person to person basis, a Grispen is unlikely to tolerate anyone who talks of gods and religions and to be very happy of someone who is where they are because of unusual arcane magic.

Alignment

Alignment:
Meticulous, paranoid, efficient, stalwart, focused; these are all Grispen traits and are all Lawful traits. A Grispen, due to the military dictatorship that rules their people on the Prime Materium, are likely to be Lawful & Neutral in alignment, unsure of what standard norm is for treating people under tight situations.

Grispen Lands
Grispen Lands:
Grispen have managed to settle a vast, largely uninhabitable desert in the middle of the world’s largest continent, Tyrea. There, they are ruled by strict military dictators, who feed the people propaganda and force them to learn various arcane arts and participate in experiments. Their society is one constantly struggling, for they lack raw materials and supplies, but they have no desire to live in the desert or to accept foreign trade and influence. Many in the world expect violence from them soon, a campaign of conquest in hopes of raw supplies and fresher lands to inhabit. The Materium the Grispen come from originally is a place of lush forests and eternal dusk with exceptional humidity, and is ruled by a Magocracy.

Grispen societal descriptions

Grispen society on their home Materium is a magocracy; a place where the most powerful mages have rule over the masses. However, recent overpopulation of the world on their home plane has caused them to need to expand into another world on another dimension. They opened a massive Portal, which they called the Worldgate, which led them to a vast, uninhabited desert on a Prime Plane they call Sarthas. Wanting to make themselves as toughened and battle-ready as possible in case their appearance made for an unexpected violent response, they made it mandatory for all Grispen to learn arcane arts, and made great colleges in the desert for learning the various arts of the arcane. However, since their society was a magocracy, it meant that those who could cast spells were treated as better than those who weren’t. There was now an abundance of spellcasters, however; everyone was a spellcaster. Society needed to be re-ordered in a way that kept the populace under control of the mages and benefited the Planer Expansion Project. A General and powerful Wizard, Tas Runekarve, proposed a military dictatorship with him running things on the Prime Materium that they had located. He would, of course, report to the Archmages Council on a frequent basis.

A thorough description of the Grispen magical colleges. I'm rather proud of my work with this.

Schools of the Arcane Arts:
Grispen society has nine mandatorily attended schools of the arcane arts on the Prime Materium. They are divided in purpose; there is one for Beguilers, another for Bards, another for Warmages, another for Duskblades, another for Sorcerers, another for Warlocks, and two more for Wizards. They are all taught by different people, in different locations, and teach for different ends to meet. The schools are as follows:
Chasmere:
Vos Chasmere, or School for Charms, is the school the Grispen teach their Beguilers in. It is a single black building, and people who go in are reported to not come out for at least nine years. When they come back, they are totally different; they habitually manipulate, vanish periodically and come back without explaining where they went, and seem to live in a near constant state of paranoia. People can’t apply to Vos Chasmere, they are chosen by those who run the school after a long period of observation. People who are taught in Vos Chasmere are divided into three occupations afterwards; ILP aka Internal Loyalist Police, IDA, aka Information Defense Agency, or WMIA, aka World Military Intelligence Agency. The three groups all make their membership serve for life, and death is usually the cost of trying to retire. Even aged and old agents are made to teach the next generation and do desk work, for fear of what they might reveal to the public once they are out of service. The ILP acts as a secret police agency of sorts, reinforcing the dictatorship in the society. The IDA acts as defenders of the nation, making sure information follows its proper flows and that people within and without the government do not spy and illicitly gain information. The WMIA acts as a direct military intelligence for the Grispen, providing battlefield intelligence and spellcasting support for covert special operations groups. The WMIA has the highest fatality rate, as all of their agents act with little chance of extraction until they are well and done with their missions. They are almost never seen outside of military theaters or in areas they soon suspect to become military theaters, as they are trained in techniques to kill and torture, and have little knowledge in how to blend in to other societies.
Vos Lorica:
Vos Lorica, or the School of Stories, is a college for Bards. It came about well before the appearance of Grispen on Sarthas. Bards have always had a place in Grispen society; they are merchants, inn keeps, reporters, messengers, rumormongers, and other such social aspects. When the Bardic college got news of the Planer Expansion Product, they established a specific program for those willing to join that would teach those who were there to become Bards how to mix in with other cultures using the cultures the Grispen had encountered previously. These Bards mixed in with the populaces of the world, and became a valuable source of intelligence on the outside world. Using magic, they disguised themselves and blended in, and are now scattered all over the world, reporting intelligence to a handful of controllers. Those trained in Vos Lorica almost never kill if they can avoid it and are trained to tone down their intrusiveness, focusing on blending in and staying alive in cities where they could be named as spies.
Vos Shi’Shran:
Vos Shi’Shran, or the School of Warlocks, is the one of the largest Arcane colleges in the Grispen societies. They train Warlocks of demonic, celestial, fiendish, elemental, and draconic heritage in magical arts. Warlocks have varied places due to the depth of variety in their invocations, but due to their ability to produce magic infinitely, their ability to utilize light armors, and their abilities with magical items, they are often foot soldiers and the bulk of the Grispen armies, especially the devoted shock/vanguard battalions. Warlocks will go to battle in various planes that the Grispen have found; currently, Grispen warlocks are being shipped alongside Grispen Wizards, Sorcerers, and Warmages to do battle with Demons across the Hellgate.
Vos Ensorceere:
Vos Ensorceere, or the School of Sorcery, trains mages in many tasks and purposes. Those who study in Vos Ensorceere have the easiest time finding a place in society after their schooling in the magical arts. As long as they study spells that need to be cast frequently by a large body of people, they can find a life style that suits their purposes. The end result of where a Grispen Sorcerer finds himself in his society is usually dependant on what spells he decides to learn, and most governmental agencies in Grispen society have at least a 10th of their numbers drawn from Sorcerers.
Vos Roni’Lespl:
Vos Roni’Lespl, or the school of Iron Spellcasters, is a school for Duskblades who are training. Duskblades train almost exclusively in warlike professions, and can be found in any Grispen military group. Many Grispen also employ specially trained Duskblades as their bodyguards. The archmages are known to have an Order of Duskblades that serves them called the Obliterators. The Obliterators are a feared all-Duskblade battalion which turns the tide of any war theatre the Grispen are devoted to by virtue of their excellent combative abilities and spellcasting.
Vos Shi’Maleespre:
Vos Shi’Maleespre, or the school of Warmages, is a brutal training camp filled with the most troublesome members of Grispen society. Misfits, poor people, waifs, and other bottom-rung members of society are brought there, broken down, and trained from the ground up in the destructive magics needed to employ war magic against Grispen opponents. Any theater of war on a large scale is going to have, in most cases, an entire battalion of Warmages amongst their numbers.
Vos Wisharn:
Vos Wisharn, or the School of Wizards, is the most commonly attended school. It is the least intensive and most practical school of arcane magic in Grispen Society. They do not teach people how to specialize, and focus on teaching Craft skills in addition to knowledge skills rather than concentration and Spellcraft. The common citizen probably attended Vos Wisharn for at least five years of his life, if not far longer.
Vos Tel-Wishar:
Vos Tel-Wishar, or the School of True Mages, is a very intensive school of magic funded intensively by the government to teach flexible, adaptive wizards that suit their needs. They are often put into lightly funded organizations that need a small membership of trustworthy mages who can adapt frequently. Mages who went to Tel-Wishar often become government employees, or join the military. A large bulk of armed forces are Wizards, and are trained extensively in Metamagic. A group of Grispen Wizards can repel most any attack by simply utilizing wands, scrolls, and their powerful spells; between Melf’s Acid Arrow, Empowered Magic Missile, Fireball, Lightning Bolt, and Mage Armor, a small Grispen taskforce can quickly destroy enemies in a volley of damage; not every single spell can be successfully resisted, and on top of that, most of these spells are stored in magic items, leaving the Grispen free to prepare magic that makes them even more versatile than they already are.

Language portfolio

Grispen are taught three different languages in school; Grispen, Planar Trade, and Nomads Tongue. Grispen is a crisp, concise language that talks about things in ways that don’t involve ethics, simply efficiency. In Grispen, it is impossible to talk about good or bad, only what is productive and what is a set back.

Grispen familial and name structure.

A Grispen name is often short, or at least the first one. Their second, their family name, is often longer and have the ring of a title; Uln Mageflame, for example. What constitutes a single Grispen family usually constitutes at least 3, usually 5, and sometimes as many as 9 normal human families. A community usually on has 3-4 of these ‘families’ in them.

And finally, the part actually relevant to balance...

Grispen Racial Traits:
• Medium Creature.
• Arcanists Fingers: The Grispen automatically knows when he has picked up an arcane magic item, what the power of the person who made it was, and what schools of magic are on the blade.
• Educated: Grispen gain a +2 bonus to Knowledge (Planes), & Knowledge (Arcana) and treat these as class skills.
• Trained: Grispen gain a +4 bonus on Use Magic Device & Spellcraft.
• Magical: The Grispen is trained to use a number of can trips per day equal to his Intelligence modifier and has spell slots set aside just for casting those spells.
• Magical Resistance: A Grispen gains a +2 to savings throws on any spell that allows a savings throw.
• Read Magic: Read magic is constantly active on the Grispen.
• Godless: The Grispen literally cannot manifest godly magic. Despite kidnapping Clerics of other races, extensive apprenticeship with Clerics of other factions, direct contact with celestial and demonic forces, they simply cannot tap Divine magic. For this reason, no Grispen can become a Paladin, Favored Soul, Cleric, or Druid.
• Forced Arcanists: All Grispen are taught to manifest Arcane Magic for a little while, at least. The first three class levels of a Grispen must be in Bard, Beguiler, Duskblade, Sorcerer, Warmage, or Wizard, or any combination of the three.

If you are confused, read the whole thing or the relevant sections, and if that yields nothing, ask questions!!

Thanks for taking the time to view.

brian c
2007-12-17, 06:09 AM
Hm... the fluff is nice, nothing to criticize about that, looks like you put a lot of thought into it. And glad to see you figured out the spoiler tags :smallwink:

For the balance part... very interesting array of modifiers. At first glance it seems like it might be overpowered, especially +4 UMD and +2 all saves, but the net effect isn't really that great. Maybe you could just give them +2 Int instead of all of those bonuses, since they're mostly in Int-based skills anyway. I suppose as they are, they're pretty balanced for no LA. Arcanist's Fingers needs some rewording though, that's a pretty vague ability, maybe give them the ability, like Swordsages have (Tome of Battle, in case you're not aware) to identify a magic item by studying it for a minute.

A note: you describe them as "grim" and "morbid" which made me think they'd have a Cha penalty, but then they wouldn't make good Sorcerers. You could give them +2 Int, -2 Cha and a special ability that for any spellcasting-related purpose they treat Cha as two higher than it is (save DCs, bonus spells, highest spell to cast, etc). That would make them unpleasant to be around, but still good at magic.

Brom
2007-12-17, 06:16 AM
I should have specified this for my post.

I don't have any Charisma based casters, with the exception of Warlocks. I don't see how being pretty is going to make you a stronger mage, and why focusing on your force of personality will make you stronger with magic.

Warlocks have been given a gift -- or curse -- by higher powers. For that purposes, their family, or them, needs to be strong of personality, enough that a powerful entity saw it worthy to divulge some of their arcane secrets.

I wanted something a little more human, that's all. The +2 Intelligence, meh, I just didn't care for it. I have 22 races, anyways; the fewer I have with stat bonuses and the more I have with more unique feeling bonuses, the better.

Arcanists fingers essentially functions like a Detect Magic spell used over a minute. That could use some editing, thanks for the comment.

And yes, I did get the spoiler stuff! TYVM!

brian c
2007-12-17, 07:04 AM
I don't have any Charisma based casters, with the exception of Warlocks. I don't see how being pretty is going to make you a stronger mage, and why focusing on your force of personality will make you stronger with magic.

Ah, okay. In that case it really seems like they would do well with a Cha penalty. Definitely still keep the unique feeling bonuses, but if you have 22 races with the same average ability scores (ie no adjustments for any) then they won't feel very much like entirely different beings, you know?

Aside: Charisma as a casting stat is really more about force of personality than physical attractiveness; you can be beautiful but have low charisma by just being dull, but you can be plain-looking and attractive if you've got charisma. If you line up the physical and mental stats, Con-Wis are resistance to change (physical-mental), Dex-Int are quickness, and Str-Cha are capacity to change the outside world (physically or using magic). I use a system where all casters have save DCs based on Charisma

Brom
2007-12-17, 07:10 AM
There will be ones with altered ability scores, just not this one.

RandomFellow
2007-12-17, 07:17 AM
Much like the other race, these guys are pretty 'strong' for a LA +0 race. However, that does seem to be a theme for your races...so if it stays consistent it will be balanced against each other and really that is all that matters.

Typo/Wording fixes.
Grispen Racial Traits:
• Medium Creature.
• Arcanists Fingers: The Grispen automatically knows when he has picked up an arcane magic item, what the power of the person who made it was, and what schools of magic are on the item.
• Educated: Grispen gain a +2 bonus to Knowledge (Planes), & Knowledge (Arcana) and treat these as class skills.
• Trained: Grispen gain a +4 bonus on Use Magic Device & Spellcraft.
• Magical: The Grispen is trained to use a number of cantrips per day equal to his Intelligence modifier and has spell slots set aside just for casting those spells.
• Magical Resistance: A Grispen gains a +2 to savings throws on any spell that allows a savings throw.
• Read Magic: Read magic is constantly active on the Grispen.
• Godless: The Grispen literally cannot manifest godly magic. Despite kidnapping Clerics of other races, extensive apprenticeship with Clerics of other factions, direct contact with celestial and demonic forces, they simply cannot tap Divine magic. For this reason, no Grispen can become a Paladin, Favored Soul, Cleric, or Druid.
• Forced Arcanists: All Grispen are taught to manifest Arcane Magic for a little while, at least. The first three class levels of a Grispen must be in Bard, Beguiler, Duskblade, Sorcerer, Warmage, or Wizard, or any combination of the three.

Brom
2007-12-17, 07:19 AM
I'm going to bed. If you guys could take a look at my post for ''Redoing the classes'' I need some help making a different sort of Ranger.

Anyways, that's why I'm not posting every few minutes anymore.