kwanzaabot
2008-04-14, 01:16 AM
http://www.ffcompendium.com/EspMon/marlboro10.jpg
So, I posted this on the Wizard's forums, but it's gotten zero recognition. That is, besides the occasional party-pooper who says it should be a monster instead of a race, which frankly, doesn't work for my campaign.
So! As an avid reader of the Order of the Stick, I decided to post here.
(here's the original thread http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?t=1015909 )
Anyway, without further ado, PEACH plz. :D
History, background etc
Centuries ago, a wizard attempted to create the perfect creature- an animal with the cleanliness of a dog, and the loyalty of a cat. Unfortunately, the unspeakable horrors that resulted were deemed not cost-effective, and the wizard, aiming to market his creations as the ideal household pets, opted to just throw something together with Beholder DNA, instead (Beholders in those days, being as common as the common pidgeon, or “gutter bird”, which were ironically quite rare at the time).
Malboros, as the creatures came to be known, embody something of an oddity compared to the typical Beholder: while they have lots and lots of eyes, they can't blast magic out of them (without the proper training, anyway). Additionally, newborn Malboros cannot levitate, instead having a set of fully functioning limbs, in the form of eight tentacles- six of which are used for walking, or rather, dragging themselves along the ground, with the other two being just long enough to act as a pair of arms. However, once they begin to mature, their internal gases build up, allowing them to float for brief periods of time.
The final feature that sets Malboros apart from their bretheren is their putrid breath- Malboros are connoisseurs of all things stinky- especially cigarettes, garlic, and certain varieties of cheese, which builds up over time to produce a funk so vile, that few can stand to be around a Malboro for extended periods of time.
A Day in the Life:
It's 6am in the bustling metropolis of Shuuf City, and “Mad” Oscar O'Mackey the Malboro, an apprentice to the wizard Albert Stumbledoor has finished preparing his master's breakfast- a bowl of maize flakes with a hearty dose of sugar and freshly-squeezed Minotaur's milk. Oscar finds the idea of fresh food absolutely revolting, but he's used to humans and their strange habits. After waking Albert to find him not only not hungry, but also completely stinking drunk, Oscar claims the breakfast for himself- but leaves it out in the sun for a few hours first.
By 9 am, the wizard Stumbledoor has sobered up enough to teach his apprentice a thing or two about magic, although this mostly consists of him telling Oscar how pretty he is, and how he reminds him of his apprentice- turns out the guy can't hold his liquor.
After the “lesson”, Oscar retreats to the library, and begins teaching himself about magic. Finding he lacks the material components for a particularly potent demon-summoning spell, Oscar heads off to Blackest Magicks, a local shop that specialises in the occult. The shopkeeper is a kindly elf who has known Oscar since he first arrived in town, six years ago, and gladly lets Oscar but the bill on his tab.
Rushing back to Stumbledoor's tower, Oscar locks himself in his study and begins preparing the spell. A little eye of newt here, a little soul of baby there, and after grinding up the rarest ingredient- a cat's footprint, and invoking the name of the demon lord Fernus, suddenly, the wizard's tower explodes.
Nobody in town takes much notice, as that's what wizard's towers do.
The only people who take any notice are Stumbledoor, who only glances briefly before returning to his Sea Breeze, and tells the Drunken Troll's selkie bartender, Rosso, just how pretty he is and Oscar, who falls out of the sky, just outside the pub, charred, but otherwise okay. Tomorrow, he's going to try a little more newt eye in his incantation.
Relations: (Campaign-specific)
Malboros are mostly found in human lands, often in the service of wizards, so relate to them best, but don't agree with their opinions on fresh food. They're one of the few races who can tolerate Trader Grubs, and deeply respect Madagar. They don't understand how Dwarves place so much value on the art of war, and barely know anything about Trolls, Elves and Goblinoids, excluding the ones who have assimilated themselves into human culture, who they see as nothing but strange-looking humans.
They also enjoy the company of Conduit, possibly due to both being the result of magical experiments.
Alignment:
Malboros are mostly some degree of neutral, placing equal value on both law and chaos. Good and evil are unimportant to civilised Malboro, although wild Malboro are almost always evil, preferring to eat humans than befriend them.
Lands:
Civilised Malboro are mostly found living with humans, although wild Malboro can be found anywhere they can find a good meal (adventurers).
Language, Names and Religion: As a race nearly completely assimilated with humans, Malboro speak the languages and worship the gods humans do. They pick names for themselves when they're spawned, so can be pretty much anything, although they prefer human names.
Adventurers: Some Malboro have an insatiable curiosity about the world, and often leave home to find their place in it. Other Malboro simply leave home to find adventurers to eat.
Racial Traits:
Malboro
• +2 Con, -2 Dex
• Medium Aberration
• Base land speed is 20ft.
• Darkvision 60ft.
• All-Around Vision (Ex): A Malboro's eyestalks allow it to look in any direction, providing a +4 racial bonus to Spot and Search checks.
• Natural Weapons (Ex): A Malboro has a Bite attack that deals 1d4 points of damage plus their Strength bonus.
• Bad Breath (Sp): 3 times per day, a Malboro may expel a cloud of toxic gas from its mouth that acts as a Troglodyte's Stench (seen here- http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/troglodyte.htm) that has a range of 5ft. As a Malboro grows and develops stronger lungs, this range increases- at 2nd level, it has a range of 10ft, at 3rd level it becomes 20ft, and at 4th level it reaches its maximum range of 30ft. Troglodytes and Malboros are immune to each other's smell.
• Iron Liver: Thanks to their revolting eating habits, Malboros are immune to non-magical inhaled/ingested poisons and diseases. However, magical poisons and diseases, as well as mundane ones spread by injury or contact still affect them normally, as will a poison or disease (even if it's ingested or inhaled) that is specifically concocted to harm Malboros.
• Automatic Languages: Common, Beholder
• Bonus Languages: Any
• Favoured Class: Sorcerer or Warlock
Sorcerer racial substitution levels:
As creatures born from magical experimentation, their development is closely tied to their spellcasting ability. By channeling raw magic through their bodies, a Malboro's body goes through changes not dissimilar to a human's puberty. Their lungs strengthen, and are able to convert the various toxic fumes within into gases such as Helium, allowing the Malboro to puff up and float like a balloon for brief periods of time. They lose their “baby teeth”, gaining an increasingly sharp set of fangs, their tentacles toughen, their already potent eyesight improves further, and they finally achieve asexual maturity- a Malboro becomes able to produce tiny spores, capable of spawning new Malboros from decaying biological matter- most often in the form of a slain enemy.
Requirements
To take a Malboro Sorcerer substitution level, a character must be a Malboro about to take her 3rd, 5th or 7th level of Sorcerer.
Class Skills
Malboro Sorcerer substitution levels grant the same class skills as the standard Sorcerer class, plus Spot.
Skill Points at Each Level: 2 + Int modifier
{table="head"]Level|BAB|Fort|Ref|Will|Special|Spells
3rd|+1|+1|+1|+3|Float, Bite 1d6|As standard Sorcerer
5th|+2|+1|+1|+4|Drain/Osmose, Bite 1d8, Slam 1d4|As standard Sorcerer
7th|+3|+2|+2|+5|Malboro Spores, Darkvision 120ft, Bite 2d6.|As standard Sorcerer[/table]
• Float (Sp): At 3rd level, the Malboro gains Levitate as a Spell-like Ability useable 3 times/day.
• Drain/Osmose (Sp): As 5th level, the Malboro gains Vampiric Touch as a Spell-like Ability useable 3 times/day.
A Malboro may subsitute Vampiric Touch with Mana Siphon (see Blood Elf http://www.geocities.com/magusrogue/Elf.html), although this still counts towards the 3 uses per day of Vampiric Touch.
• Malboro Spores (Sp): At 7th level, the Malboro has fully matured and can choose to infest a freshly slain humanoid with Malboro Spores in order to reproduce. A new Malboro with 1 HD rises from the corpse in 1d4 days with a single level in whichever class it had the most levels in in its previous life. However, if the corpse is affected by a Create Spawn ability, both before and after infestation, the Malboro's attempt fails.
A Gentle Repose spell delays the progression of the spores for the length of its duration. A Raise Dead, Resurrection, True Resurrection, Reincarnate or True Reincarnation spell destroys the spores in the process of resurrecting the victim. A Remove Disease, Heal, Lesser Restoration, Greater Restoration, Wish or Miracle cast on the victim also destroys the spores.
Destroying the body via elemental energy (fire, cold, electricity, acid, sonic etc) also destroys the spores.
A victim who has had a Malboro rise from its corpse cannot be resurrected by any means until the Malboro is destroyed. A Wish, Miracle, or Greater Restoration cast on the subject can restore memories of the Malboro's past life, however.
Malboro are not particularly maternal creatures, and often they'll infect a corpse with their spores and then forget all about it, simply leaving the area and getting on with their lives. Additionally, the newborn Malboro will rarely care about its parent, seeing it as simply another random Malboro rather than a family member.
• Bite: At 3rd, 5th and 7th level, the Malboro's Bite increases one step- (1d4 becomes 1d6, which becomes 1d8 etc). If the Malboro has the Improved Natural Attack feat, the damage increases accordingly.
• Slam: At 5th level, a Malboro's tentacles are powerful enough to perfom a Natural Attack in the form of a Slam attack that does 1d4 damage.
• Darkvision: At 7th level, the Malboro's Darkvision increases to 120ft.
Maybe racial feat:
Putrid Breath I
Prerequisites: Must be able to use Bad Breath (usually Malboro), 4th level.
Benefit: You may inflict a single opponent within breath range with an additional spell-like ability from the below list (as a sorcerer whose level equals the Malboro's total Hit Dice) when using Bad Breath. The effect is chosen at random by rolling 1d4, as seen in the table below.
This bypasses the poison resistance/immunity that Bad Breath is affected by, but if the opponent has a resistance or immunity to any of the following spells, they work as normal.
{table="head"]Spell Name|1d4 Result
Charm Person|1
Sleep|2
Inflict Moderate Wounds|3
Silence|4
[/table]
Putrid Breath II
Prerequisites: Putrid Breath I, 8th level.
Benefit: Your Bad Breath is even more revolting, and adds a host of new effects. The 1d4 from Putrid Breath I becomes 2d8, adding the below spells to your repertoire. The 2d8 allows you to inflict two spells upon the enemy- either two on one enemy, or one on two enemies in range. Finally, Sleep is replaced with Deep Slumber.
{table="head"]Spell Name|2d8 Result
Slow|5
Charm Monster|6
Fear|7
Ray of Exhaustion|8
[/table]
Putrid Breath III
Prerequisites: Putrid Breath II, 12th level.
Benefit: Your Bad Breath is more rancid than ever before, and uses 2d10 instead of 2d8. This adds the following spells. Additionally, you may use Bad Breath one more time per day.
{table="head"]Spell Name|2d10 Result
Disintegrate|9
Flesh to Stone |10
[/table]
Anyway, apparently the basic racial traits are more or less balanced, so i'm happy there, but it's those "maybes" that I'd like some serious peachage on. :)
So, I posted this on the Wizard's forums, but it's gotten zero recognition. That is, besides the occasional party-pooper who says it should be a monster instead of a race, which frankly, doesn't work for my campaign.
So! As an avid reader of the Order of the Stick, I decided to post here.
(here's the original thread http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?t=1015909 )
Anyway, without further ado, PEACH plz. :D
History, background etc
Centuries ago, a wizard attempted to create the perfect creature- an animal with the cleanliness of a dog, and the loyalty of a cat. Unfortunately, the unspeakable horrors that resulted were deemed not cost-effective, and the wizard, aiming to market his creations as the ideal household pets, opted to just throw something together with Beholder DNA, instead (Beholders in those days, being as common as the common pidgeon, or “gutter bird”, which were ironically quite rare at the time).
Malboros, as the creatures came to be known, embody something of an oddity compared to the typical Beholder: while they have lots and lots of eyes, they can't blast magic out of them (without the proper training, anyway). Additionally, newborn Malboros cannot levitate, instead having a set of fully functioning limbs, in the form of eight tentacles- six of which are used for walking, or rather, dragging themselves along the ground, with the other two being just long enough to act as a pair of arms. However, once they begin to mature, their internal gases build up, allowing them to float for brief periods of time.
The final feature that sets Malboros apart from their bretheren is their putrid breath- Malboros are connoisseurs of all things stinky- especially cigarettes, garlic, and certain varieties of cheese, which builds up over time to produce a funk so vile, that few can stand to be around a Malboro for extended periods of time.
A Day in the Life:
It's 6am in the bustling metropolis of Shuuf City, and “Mad” Oscar O'Mackey the Malboro, an apprentice to the wizard Albert Stumbledoor has finished preparing his master's breakfast- a bowl of maize flakes with a hearty dose of sugar and freshly-squeezed Minotaur's milk. Oscar finds the idea of fresh food absolutely revolting, but he's used to humans and their strange habits. After waking Albert to find him not only not hungry, but also completely stinking drunk, Oscar claims the breakfast for himself- but leaves it out in the sun for a few hours first.
By 9 am, the wizard Stumbledoor has sobered up enough to teach his apprentice a thing or two about magic, although this mostly consists of him telling Oscar how pretty he is, and how he reminds him of his apprentice- turns out the guy can't hold his liquor.
After the “lesson”, Oscar retreats to the library, and begins teaching himself about magic. Finding he lacks the material components for a particularly potent demon-summoning spell, Oscar heads off to Blackest Magicks, a local shop that specialises in the occult. The shopkeeper is a kindly elf who has known Oscar since he first arrived in town, six years ago, and gladly lets Oscar but the bill on his tab.
Rushing back to Stumbledoor's tower, Oscar locks himself in his study and begins preparing the spell. A little eye of newt here, a little soul of baby there, and after grinding up the rarest ingredient- a cat's footprint, and invoking the name of the demon lord Fernus, suddenly, the wizard's tower explodes.
Nobody in town takes much notice, as that's what wizard's towers do.
The only people who take any notice are Stumbledoor, who only glances briefly before returning to his Sea Breeze, and tells the Drunken Troll's selkie bartender, Rosso, just how pretty he is and Oscar, who falls out of the sky, just outside the pub, charred, but otherwise okay. Tomorrow, he's going to try a little more newt eye in his incantation.
Relations: (Campaign-specific)
Malboros are mostly found in human lands, often in the service of wizards, so relate to them best, but don't agree with their opinions on fresh food. They're one of the few races who can tolerate Trader Grubs, and deeply respect Madagar. They don't understand how Dwarves place so much value on the art of war, and barely know anything about Trolls, Elves and Goblinoids, excluding the ones who have assimilated themselves into human culture, who they see as nothing but strange-looking humans.
They also enjoy the company of Conduit, possibly due to both being the result of magical experiments.
Alignment:
Malboros are mostly some degree of neutral, placing equal value on both law and chaos. Good and evil are unimportant to civilised Malboro, although wild Malboro are almost always evil, preferring to eat humans than befriend them.
Lands:
Civilised Malboro are mostly found living with humans, although wild Malboro can be found anywhere they can find a good meal (adventurers).
Language, Names and Religion: As a race nearly completely assimilated with humans, Malboro speak the languages and worship the gods humans do. They pick names for themselves when they're spawned, so can be pretty much anything, although they prefer human names.
Adventurers: Some Malboro have an insatiable curiosity about the world, and often leave home to find their place in it. Other Malboro simply leave home to find adventurers to eat.
Racial Traits:
Malboro
• +2 Con, -2 Dex
• Medium Aberration
• Base land speed is 20ft.
• Darkvision 60ft.
• All-Around Vision (Ex): A Malboro's eyestalks allow it to look in any direction, providing a +4 racial bonus to Spot and Search checks.
• Natural Weapons (Ex): A Malboro has a Bite attack that deals 1d4 points of damage plus their Strength bonus.
• Bad Breath (Sp): 3 times per day, a Malboro may expel a cloud of toxic gas from its mouth that acts as a Troglodyte's Stench (seen here- http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/troglodyte.htm) that has a range of 5ft. As a Malboro grows and develops stronger lungs, this range increases- at 2nd level, it has a range of 10ft, at 3rd level it becomes 20ft, and at 4th level it reaches its maximum range of 30ft. Troglodytes and Malboros are immune to each other's smell.
• Iron Liver: Thanks to their revolting eating habits, Malboros are immune to non-magical inhaled/ingested poisons and diseases. However, magical poisons and diseases, as well as mundane ones spread by injury or contact still affect them normally, as will a poison or disease (even if it's ingested or inhaled) that is specifically concocted to harm Malboros.
• Automatic Languages: Common, Beholder
• Bonus Languages: Any
• Favoured Class: Sorcerer or Warlock
Sorcerer racial substitution levels:
As creatures born from magical experimentation, their development is closely tied to their spellcasting ability. By channeling raw magic through their bodies, a Malboro's body goes through changes not dissimilar to a human's puberty. Their lungs strengthen, and are able to convert the various toxic fumes within into gases such as Helium, allowing the Malboro to puff up and float like a balloon for brief periods of time. They lose their “baby teeth”, gaining an increasingly sharp set of fangs, their tentacles toughen, their already potent eyesight improves further, and they finally achieve asexual maturity- a Malboro becomes able to produce tiny spores, capable of spawning new Malboros from decaying biological matter- most often in the form of a slain enemy.
Requirements
To take a Malboro Sorcerer substitution level, a character must be a Malboro about to take her 3rd, 5th or 7th level of Sorcerer.
Class Skills
Malboro Sorcerer substitution levels grant the same class skills as the standard Sorcerer class, plus Spot.
Skill Points at Each Level: 2 + Int modifier
{table="head"]Level|BAB|Fort|Ref|Will|Special|Spells
3rd|+1|+1|+1|+3|Float, Bite 1d6|As standard Sorcerer
5th|+2|+1|+1|+4|Drain/Osmose, Bite 1d8, Slam 1d4|As standard Sorcerer
7th|+3|+2|+2|+5|Malboro Spores, Darkvision 120ft, Bite 2d6.|As standard Sorcerer[/table]
• Float (Sp): At 3rd level, the Malboro gains Levitate as a Spell-like Ability useable 3 times/day.
• Drain/Osmose (Sp): As 5th level, the Malboro gains Vampiric Touch as a Spell-like Ability useable 3 times/day.
A Malboro may subsitute Vampiric Touch with Mana Siphon (see Blood Elf http://www.geocities.com/magusrogue/Elf.html), although this still counts towards the 3 uses per day of Vampiric Touch.
• Malboro Spores (Sp): At 7th level, the Malboro has fully matured and can choose to infest a freshly slain humanoid with Malboro Spores in order to reproduce. A new Malboro with 1 HD rises from the corpse in 1d4 days with a single level in whichever class it had the most levels in in its previous life. However, if the corpse is affected by a Create Spawn ability, both before and after infestation, the Malboro's attempt fails.
A Gentle Repose spell delays the progression of the spores for the length of its duration. A Raise Dead, Resurrection, True Resurrection, Reincarnate or True Reincarnation spell destroys the spores in the process of resurrecting the victim. A Remove Disease, Heal, Lesser Restoration, Greater Restoration, Wish or Miracle cast on the victim also destroys the spores.
Destroying the body via elemental energy (fire, cold, electricity, acid, sonic etc) also destroys the spores.
A victim who has had a Malboro rise from its corpse cannot be resurrected by any means until the Malboro is destroyed. A Wish, Miracle, or Greater Restoration cast on the subject can restore memories of the Malboro's past life, however.
Malboro are not particularly maternal creatures, and often they'll infect a corpse with their spores and then forget all about it, simply leaving the area and getting on with their lives. Additionally, the newborn Malboro will rarely care about its parent, seeing it as simply another random Malboro rather than a family member.
• Bite: At 3rd, 5th and 7th level, the Malboro's Bite increases one step- (1d4 becomes 1d6, which becomes 1d8 etc). If the Malboro has the Improved Natural Attack feat, the damage increases accordingly.
• Slam: At 5th level, a Malboro's tentacles are powerful enough to perfom a Natural Attack in the form of a Slam attack that does 1d4 damage.
• Darkvision: At 7th level, the Malboro's Darkvision increases to 120ft.
Maybe racial feat:
Putrid Breath I
Prerequisites: Must be able to use Bad Breath (usually Malboro), 4th level.
Benefit: You may inflict a single opponent within breath range with an additional spell-like ability from the below list (as a sorcerer whose level equals the Malboro's total Hit Dice) when using Bad Breath. The effect is chosen at random by rolling 1d4, as seen in the table below.
This bypasses the poison resistance/immunity that Bad Breath is affected by, but if the opponent has a resistance or immunity to any of the following spells, they work as normal.
{table="head"]Spell Name|1d4 Result
Charm Person|1
Sleep|2
Inflict Moderate Wounds|3
Silence|4
[/table]
Putrid Breath II
Prerequisites: Putrid Breath I, 8th level.
Benefit: Your Bad Breath is even more revolting, and adds a host of new effects. The 1d4 from Putrid Breath I becomes 2d8, adding the below spells to your repertoire. The 2d8 allows you to inflict two spells upon the enemy- either two on one enemy, or one on two enemies in range. Finally, Sleep is replaced with Deep Slumber.
{table="head"]Spell Name|2d8 Result
Slow|5
Charm Monster|6
Fear|7
Ray of Exhaustion|8
[/table]
Putrid Breath III
Prerequisites: Putrid Breath II, 12th level.
Benefit: Your Bad Breath is more rancid than ever before, and uses 2d10 instead of 2d8. This adds the following spells. Additionally, you may use Bad Breath one more time per day.
{table="head"]Spell Name|2d10 Result
Disintegrate|9
Flesh to Stone |10
[/table]
Anyway, apparently the basic racial traits are more or less balanced, so i'm happy there, but it's those "maybes" that I'd like some serious peachage on. :)