Voldur: Half-elf, half-orc (3.5) If you read it, you'll want to play it. Promise.

The Voldur
http://i.imgur.com/OhkJZ.jpg

Voldur are an incredibly rare hybrid race born of an (often unwilling) union between an orc and an elf. They are a strangely beautiful race, both graceful and strong, yet completely alien.

Personality: Voldur are incredibly remote, lost in their own conflicting thoughts. When threatened, they lash out incredibly violently although their emotions are still well concealed.

Physical Description: Voldur are quite tall, usually standing between 6 foot 3 to 6 foot 9, and are almost always remarkably well muscled. They combine the ferocious features of an orc with the natural beauty of an elf and have completely pupilless, empty eyes. This, more than anything else, makes people suspicious of the voldur. Some voldur have a slightly green tint to their skin or slight tusks, depending on who their orcish ancestor was. Those voldur are the exception, not the rule though.

Relations: Voldur are almost universally misunderstood and generally hated. Orcs hate them for the elves in them, elves hate them for the orcs in them, and other races hate them, for they see them as abominations.

Alignment: The voldur's detached personality means that almost all of them are neutral. Some, shunned by society, turn vicious and become evil, while others strive to be understood and become paragons of good.

Voldur Lands: The voldur have no homeland, and they are never welcome in the lands of either of their parent races. Therefore, most wander.

Religion: Many voldur blame the gods for what they see as their own abominable birth, and refuse to worship them or even acknowledge them. Voldur clerics are incredibly rare.

Language: Voldur are generally fluent in whatever languages they encounter most while traveling, which almost always includes common.

Names: Voldur names generally combine an element of elvish grace with orc roughness. They usually only have first names, since there really aren't any "elf and orc" families for them to attribute surnames to.

Male Names: Elkar, Skornhel, Volskan, and Ketheryl.

Female Names: Velandra, Kajyar, Thelka, and Merrivun.

Adventurers: Voldur adventurers adventure to find a place where they are accepted and more directly, to take out the incredible amounts of aggression they possess.

Voldur Racial Traits

• +2 Strength, +2 Dexterity, -2 Wisdom, -2 Charisma. Voldur are as graceful as elves and almost as strong as orcs, but their detachment makes it both hard for them to notice things and pay attention, and hard for people to really like them.
• Medium. As medium creatures, voldur have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size.
• Voldur base land speed is 30 feet.
• Low-Light Vision: A voldur can see twice as far as a human in starlight, moonlight, torchlight, and similar conditions of poor illumination. He retains the ability to distinguish color and detail under these conditions.
• Steel Wind: A voldur can use the steel wind maneuver as a warblade with levels equal to his HD. This means that, as standard action, the voldur can make two attacks at his highest base attack bonus, but against two different foes that he threatens. The voldur can recover this maneuver (gain the ability to use it again) as a move action.
• Elven and Orcish Blood: For all effects related to a race, a voldur is considered both an elf and an orc.
• A voldur gains a +2 racial bonus on all Climb, Jump, and Tumble checks.
• Favored Class: Warblade. If you aren't playing with Tome of Battle in your campaign, change its favored class to Ranger.

Voldur Paragon

The voldur paragon exemplifies the wandering warrior, distant but beautiful in his own right, and incredibly deadly.

Adventures: A voldur paragon adventures to find a homeland, to find friends, and to prove himself to the races that scorn him.

Characteristics: The voldur paragon is a deadly combatant, but for ranged combat and up close.

Alignment: Most voldur paragons are neutral.

Religion: Few voldur paragons worship deities, as they see themselves as having been abandoned by them.

Background: Voldur paragons are the voldur who strive to better themselves beyond what the rest of the world has come to see them as.

Races: Voldur only, obviously.

Other Classes: Voldur paragons have trouble relating to other classes simply because voldur are bad at relating to people in general.

Role: The voldur paragon is a front line combatant, although he can be deadly with a bow as well.

Adaptation: Whatever role the voldur race fills in your campaign setting is the role the voldur paragon will fill

GAME RULE INFORMATION
Voldur Paragons have the following game statistics.
Abilities: Strength and dexterity are the voldur's most important abilities, strength because he likes to deal damage, and dexterity because he can't wear medium or heavy armor.
Alignment: Any.
Hit Die: d10
Starting Age: As fighter.
Starting Gold: As fighter.

Class Skills
The Voldur paragon's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are...
Climb, Hide, Intimidate, Jump, Move Silently, Spot, Survival, and Tumble.

Skill Points at First Level: (2 + Int modifier) x 4
Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 2 + Int modifier

Voldur Paragon
{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Special

1st|

+1

|

+2

|

+2

|

+2

|Divided Ancestry, Darkvision

2nd|

+2

|

+3

|

+3

|

+3

|Hybrid Vigor

3rd|

+3

|

+3

|

+3

|

+3

|Ability Boost[/table]

Weapon and Armor Proficiencies: Voldur paragons are proficient with all simple and martial weapons, light and medium armor, and shields (but not tower shields).

Divided Ancestry (Ex): Unlike other racial paragons, voldurs can take levels in more than one racial paragon class. After gaining at least one level as a voldur paragon, a character can take either elf paragon levels or orc paragon levels (but not both).

Darkvision: At 1st level the voldur paragon gains darkvision 60 feet.

Hybrid Vigor: At 2nd level the voldur gains the elve's immunity to magic sleep. In addition he gets a +2 racial bonus on saving throws against Daze, Exhaustion, Fatigue, Paralysis, and Stunning.

Ability Boost: At 3rd level the voldur grows into the full power of his orc ancestors, gaining an additional +2 bonus to strength or dexterity (his choice).

Not that I don't like this race, cause quite frankly I think it's awesome, but why did you give it the inferior low-light vision rather than the superior darkvision?

Wait a second.... This looks very familiar..... And yet.... Better.... Haha wow this looks fantastic! I don't really know how to improve this, but I really like this. I like this better than the idea I had, but I mostly just wanted to say that I think that you've done a fantastic job with this!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by ScrambledBrains

Not that I don't like this class, cause quite frankly I think it's awesome, but why did you give it the inferior low-light vision rather than the superior darkvision?

---

I actually thought about that longer than anything else, and it's pretty simple. The elf has low light vision. The half-elf has low light vision. The half-orc has low light vision. The orc has darkvision. Looking at that, it seemed like a good idea to make it low light vision instead. Also, this race is on the upper end of LA 0, so I thought I'd have a small little balancer thrown in.

Thanks for the compliment also! I personally really like this...total badass :smallbiggrin:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Vilpich

I actually thought about that longer than anything else, and it's pretty simple. The elf has low light vision. The half-elf has low light vision. The half-orc has low light vision. The orc has darkvision. Looking at that, it seemed like a good idea to make it low light vision instead. Also, this race is on the upper end of LA 0, so I thought I'd have a small little balancer thrown in.

Thanks for the compliment also! I personally really like this...total badass :smallbiggrin:

---

Actually, the half-orc gets darkvision, though I understand your reasoning.

Otherwise, I like! Good to have a orc-ish race that doesn't have an int penalty. :smallsmile:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Talkan

Wait a second.... This looks very familiar..... And yet.... Better.... Haha wow this looks fantastic! I don't really know how to improve this, but I really like this. I like this better than the idea I had, but I mostly just wanted to say that I think that you've done a fantastic job with this!

---

Thanks! Good to have homebrew that gets positive feedback :smallbiggrin::smallbiggrin::smallbiggrin:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by ScrambledBrains

Actually, the half-orc gets darkvision, though I understand your reasoning.

Otherwise, I like! Good to have a orc-ish race that doesn't have an int penalty. :smallsmile:

---

He does? Ah well, I'd like to leave it at low light vision, although I am tempted to change it because they have those pupilless eyes...

In any case, I appreciate it :smallsmile:

This is super-awesome, man. Very nice job, both in fluff and mechanics.

Wow man thanks! Now I feel like I should make more races and less base classes...

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Vilpich

Wow man thanks! Now I feel like I should make more races and less base classes...

---

All I know is that I immediately want to play one. The great thing is, you can rest assured that you've made a great race when a Human is still almost always "better," but after looking at your race players immediately want to play it. I'd say that this is comparable with Dwarves, and Dwarves are really good, and yet not as powerful/useful overall as Humans, so it's definitely within an acceptable power range.

Also, it's good to see that someone agrees with me that Whirlwind Attack isn't a level 6+ effect. :)

Whirlwind attack is all flavor even as a feat for fighters IMO.

As for making this really playable...thanks! The positive feedback on this makes me want to do more homebrew (I was getting kind of discouraged since I haven't gotten many responses on a lot of it :smallfrown:)

Feel free to play one though :smallwink:

how would you guys feel about a base class that revolves around the sort of wandering, lonely warrior the voldur represents?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Vilpich

how would you guys feel about a base class that revolves around the sort of wandering, lonely warrior the voldur represents?

---

I'd say its too narrow a concept for a base class and could be a five-level PrC instead.

Wandering, lonely warrior? Sounds like a Ranger to me.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Lord_Gareth

I'd say its too narrow a concept for a base class and could be a five-level PrC instead.

---

...

I hate PrCs. Ah well, scratch that idea :smallannoyed:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Ziegander

Wandering, lonely warrior? Sounds like a Ranger to me.

---

I dunno, had some ideas, mixing the Gunslinger (Stephen King dark tower series) archetype with the class features of a barbarian and paladin. Bad idea though.

Bummmmpppppppp.

I think for the Paragon class you should replace the fighter bonus feat gained at 2nd level for something more elvish. Not sure what right now... I have an idea. Give it a class feature called Hybrid Vigor (Ex) which grants it elvish immunity to magic sleep effects and a +2 bonus vs Daze, Exhaustion, Fatigue, Paralysis, and Stunning?

EDIT: Also, the Voldur Paragon needs to have its proficiencies listed.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Ziegander

I think for the Paragon class you should replace the fighter bonus feat gained at 2nd level for something more elvish. Not sure what right now... I have an idea. Give it a class feature called Hybrid Vigor (Ex) which grants it elvish immunity to magic sleep effects and a +2 bonus vs Daze, Exhaustion, Fatigue, Paralysis, and Stunning?

---

Interesting... I like it! I'll put that in.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Vilpich

...

I hate PrCs. Ah well, scratch that idea :smallannoyed:

---

This sir is something I must ask you about. Why, per se, do you hate PrCs?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Madara

This sir is something I must ask you about. Why, per se, do you hate PrCs?

---

It's nothing really about individual PrCs, and quite frankly I don't have a reason. Just in general, they bug me.

The biggest issue I have with them that might sort of make sense is the way they dominated several supplements that should've had about 6 base classes, but instead just made 1-3 and then used PrCs.

For example, the ToB only had 3 base classes, which basically replaced the fighter, paladin, and sort-of the rogue (spellsage is hard to fit into a PHB role, but the closest thing is the rogue IMO) and then instead of making a barbarian-esque PrC they make the Tiger Claw PrC (I can't remember the name at the moment). Instead of making a very versatile class with access to all 9 disciplines they make the Master of the Nine.

Complete Warrior could've been an amazing supplement. They could've created several options for alternative fighters, and brought them up to Tier 3. Instead we get the swashbuckler and the Tier 6 samurai. And a bunch of PrCs.

Tome of Magic had 3 base classes for an entire system of magic. For shadowcasting, where's the shadowy warrior, like a shadowcasting ranger equivalent? Oh. He's a PrC.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Vilpich

Interesting... I like it! I'll put that in.

---

Make sure to specify that it's a racial bonus to saving throws. I forgot to specify that myself.

EDIT: And the Paragon is still missing it's weapon and armor proficiencies.

I understand, I enjoy PrCs because they allow for a good deal of customization. While Base 20 may be viable, I like having something to set me aside as different, even on paper.

Thing is, mah brotha, base classes are supposed to be broad, not narrow. A base class should be able to represent a wide variety of concepts, which is why from this perspective Barbarian is a bad thing to have as a base class whereas Fighter is a good one (the executions, obviously, are the exact opposite). PrC's are how you take that something broad and turn it into something narrow. The shadowy warrior being a PrC is a good thing (the execution is, again, another thing). "Wandering loner" is a PrC-worthy concept, not a base-class worthy one, just like "uses a katana" was a terrible idea for an entire base class. Y'know?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Lord_Gareth

Thing is, mah brotha, base classes are supposed to be broad, not narrow. A base class should be able to represent a wide variety of concepts, which is why from this perspective Barbarian is a bad thing to have as a base class whereas Fighter is a good one (the executions, obviously, are the exact opposite). PrC's are how you take that something broad and turn it into something narrow. The shadowy warrior being a PrC is a good thing (the execution is, again, another thing). "Wandering loner" is a PrC-worthy concept, not a base-class worthy one, just like "uses a katana" was a terrible idea for an entire base class. Y'know?

---

See, I disagree with the basic idea that base classes should be broad. The PHB itself goes back on itself when it says that. If it were really staying true to the idea of broad classes, it would use the UA generic classes or just a wizard, rogue, fighter, and cleric. Instead it has 11 base classes.

Then look at the supplements. CW has a hexblade base class, which is a fighter who uses curses, and then PrCs like "cavalier," "dark hunter," "hunter of the dead," "nature's warrior," "ravager," and "war chanter." A hexblade is a lot more specific than a dark hunter.

Moving on to supplements that were published farther into 3.5's reign, Heroes of Horror has a base class that is essentially a specialized wizard. With bonuses. Does that not sound like a PrC to you? And then it has, pages later, a "fiend blooded," who (and I quote) is defined as follows: "...the mortal descendants of such a union [a fiendish one] occasionally display a natural talent for the arcane arts." That is the oh-so-specific premise for the PrC. It's actually less specific than the dread necromancer, which is (again, quoting) "a practitioner of vile and forbidden arts, the dread necromancer roots about in graveyards, searching out smoldering components for her obscene spells. She calls upon restless, tormented spirits of the dead, seeking their arcane secrets."

Now (after the fact) I do agree that the idea of a base class based (forgive the lame and unintentional pun) on the voldur was a bad idea :smallbiggrin:

WotC being a bunch of incompetent freakmonkies is not a great thing to hold up as precedent, though. They didn't know their own game well enough to design for it - you do, so you should strive to exceed their example, yes?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Lord_Gareth

WotC being a bunch of incompetent freakmonkies is not a great thing to hold up as precedent, though. They didn't know their own game well enough to design for it - you do, so you should strive to exceed their example, yes?

---

True enough :smallwink:

Despite that...still not liking the PrCs. I do make exceptions for organizations and racial things though, and I like a few of the DMG PRCs (archmage, blackguard, mystic theurge, and assassin).

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Vilpich

Moving on to supplements that were published farther into 3.5's reign, Heroes of Horror has a base class that is essentially a specialized wizard. With bonuses. Does that not sound like a PrC to you? And then it has, pages later, a "fiend blooded," who (and I quote) is defined as follows: "...the mortal descendants of such a union [a fiendish one] occasionally display a natural talent for the arcane arts." That is the oh-so-specific premise for the PrC. It's actually less specific than the dread necromancer, which is (again, quoting) "a practitioner of vile and forbidden arts, the dread necromancer roots about in graveyards, searching out smoldering components for her obscene spells. She calls upon restless, tormented spirits of the dead, seeking their arcane secrets."

---

Well, I think the specific casters were for the purpose of balance. That said, it may not seem like it, but the DN is not as much of a PrC-type class as you think. It does three things,
1. Casts draining and weakening spells
2. Creates and controls undead
3. Becomes undead and acts in melee

Each one of these concepts can(and does) have a PrC, but together they are a base class. Just like this

A fighter decides to be a tripper, his base class allows him to do that, but if he goes into exotic weapons master, then he can become a spiked-chain tripping master.

That's the difference between base and PrCs. Also, PrCs are much more Dip friendly, which is why I like them

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Madara

Well, I think the specific casters were for the purpose of balance. That said, it may not seem like it, but the DN is not as much of a PrC-type class as you think. It does three things,
1. Casts draining and weakening spells
2. Creates and controls undead
3. Becomes undead and acts in melee

Each one of these concepts can(and does) have a PrC, but together they are a base class. Just like this

A fighter decides to be a tripper, his base class allows him to do that, but if he goes into exotic weapons master, then he can become a spiked-chain tripping master.

That's the difference between base and PrCs. Also, PrCs are much more Dip friendly, which is why I like them

---

A spiked chain tripper could also be in a weapon master base class, no? This has been done by 3rd party publishers before, and generally comes out quite nicely.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Vilpich

A spiked chain tripper could also be in a weapon master base class, no? This has been done by 3rd party publishers before, and generally comes out quite nicely.

---

Spending 20 levels mastering one weapon? That base class lacks the flexibility that makes it a base class.