PDA

View Full Version : My, aren't your teeth sharp...[4e races]



JackTR69
2008-06-21, 09:08 PM
This thread is dedicated to helping me build and improve on two different race hombrews for a 4e setting, the vampire and the werewolf. I am deciding to treat them as their own races, and I want them to balance reasonably well with other races at first level.


Vampires
Stat Bonuses: +2 Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, and Charisma.
Skill Bonuses: +2 to diplomacy and intimidate.
Light Vulnerability: Vampires suffer a -2 to Strength and Dexterity and a -4 to constitution when exposed to sunlight.
Fangs: Vampires have a bite attack that deals 1d4 damage, and may cause infection (see below). They count as unarmed when using this attack.
Bloodthirsty: Vampires must drink human blood every 48 hours just as a normal person must eat.
Blood Scent: A vampire can smell spilled blood within 50ft of itself.
Everwoken: Vampires do not need to sleep, but must spend at least 4 hours a day in a meditative state where they take no action but are fully aware of their surroundings.
Infections: A Vampire has a racial encounter ability according to the race it was before it became the victim of a Vampire. Select a previous race when you create a vampire character. A vampire still counts as whatever race it was before for the purposes of feats etc. When a Vampire successfully brings a character below zero hitpoints with their bite attack, that character will die and awaken as a vampire the next night.


Werewolves
Stat Bonuses: +2 Strength and Constitution
Skill Bonuses: +2 to Intimidate and Athletics
Thick Skinned: When bloodied, werewolves have resist 1 negated by silver. This increases to 2 at 11th level and 3 at 21st level.
Blood Scent: Werewolves can smell spilled blood within 50ft of itself.
Moon Crazed: On the three days of the full moon, a werewolf grows several inch long fur, sharp fangs, and rugged claws. They gain a bite attack that deals 1d4 damage and threaten infection (see below), and two claw attacks that deal 1d6. Both the bite and claw attacks count as armed. If a werewolf fails to infect a victim during the three days of the full moon, they take a -1 moral penalty to all rolls until the next full moon.
Infection: A human victim that becomes bloodied from a werewolves claw attack will suffer a Constitution based attack on their fortitude defense. A successful hit causes them to become a werewolf. A human who becomes a werewolf loses all their human traits and gains all werewolf traits.
Encounter Ability: Werewolves may throw themselves into a berserk fury, their eyes turning a dangerous shade of red. They gain temporary hitpoints equal to twice their constitution modifier, and gain +2 Strength. This effect lasts a number of rounds equal to their constitution modifier.

Goober4473
2008-06-22, 01:21 AM
damage reduction 1/silver

This is a nonsense statement in 4.0. It should be something like "resist 1 against everything except silver."

+8 total in ability scores is not remotely balanced with other races, and their other powers seem much better as well.

Also, werewolf infection should act like a disease (DMG page 49), and should make an attack vs. Fortitude as a secondary attack after a hit with a claw/bite, instead of automatically being effective.

JackTR69
2008-06-22, 08:35 AM
Changed from damage reduction to resist.
The werewolves +4 was a typo, it has been changed to +2.
Vampires gain a total of +8 at night, but in sunlight they have no bonus. Since half the time is daylight, that averages to the normal +4 (depending on how the DM is running the surroundings).
Werewolves racial ability has also been edited so that it isn't so powerful.

Tingel
2008-06-22, 12:30 PM
I'd make vampires much weaker in sunlight - maybe because I personally prefer the "sunlight burns vampires" approach. But I realize that this is simply a matter of subjective taste.
What is objective however is that your stat balance reasoning ("Vampires gain a total of +8 at night, but in sunlight they have no bonus. Since half the time is daylight, that averages to the normal +4") is incorrect. After all, a relevant amount of daytime adventuring will happen indoors or even underground, so a vampire will benefit from his major +8 bonus on abilities far more often than you claim. On top of that, it shouldn't be too difficult for any vampire to arrange it so that he is active almost exclusively during nighttime anyway.

Since you said yourself that you are interested in balancing your vampires with the regular player races, you should add more weaknesses to the vampire (folklore offers a plethora of flavorful options here, e.g. irrational fear of fire and sunlight or irrational fear of garlic/moving water etc.).


Everwoken: Vampires do not need to sleep, but must spend at least 4 hours a day in a meditative state where they take no action but are fully aware of their surroundings.
This advantage I don't get, based on traditional depictions of vampires in fiction. Usually vampires spend just as much or even more time asleep than the living. I also have never heard of a "meditating" vampire before.




I am also confused about the apparent lack of undeath in your vampire description, specifically the vampire's fantastic ability to regenerate most types of damage and to come back to unlife whenever his body might be destroyed.
Is your vampire simply a gothic-flavored mortal that likes blood instead of an undead predator?

JackTR69
2008-06-22, 08:10 PM
You're right on alot of things Tingel, rework in progress. And yes, they are closer to Gothic infectious blood drinkers than traditional vampires.

ImpFireball
2008-06-22, 08:38 PM
I'd make vampires much weaker in sunlight - maybe because I personally prefer the "sunlight burns vampires" approach. But I realize that this is simply a matter of subjective taste.
What is objective however is that your stat balance reasoning ("Vampires gain a total of +8 at night, but in sunlight they have no bonus. Since half the time is daylight, that averages to the normal +4") is incorrect. After all, a relevant amount of daytime adventuring will happen indoors or even underground, so a vampire will benefit from his major +8 bonus on abilities far more often than you claim. On top of that, it shouldn't be too difficult for any vampire to arrange it so that he is active almost exclusively during nighttime anyway.

Since you said yourself that you are interested in balancing your vampires with the regular player races, you should add more weaknesses to the vampire (folklore offers a plethora of flavorful options here, e.g. irrational fear of fire and sunlight or irrational fear of garlic/moving water etc.).


This advantage I don't get, based on traditional depictions of vampires in fiction. Usually vampires spend just as much or even more time asleep than the living. I also have never heard of a "meditating" vampire before.




I am also confused about the apparent lack of undeath in your vampire description, specifically the vampire's fantastic ability to regenerate most types of damage and to come back to unlife whenever his body might be destroyed.
Is your vampire simply a gothic-flavored mortal that likes blood instead of an undead predator?

Why not make 'em half-vampire? A gothic human is likely to have the same stats as normal humans and simply be a follower of some crazy occult.

Alternatively, actual pure vampires are usually hideously burnt alive when fully immersed in sunlight, rather than simply suffering a more irritating version of what orcs have to endure.