[Mystic Muse]

Pegasus (From the SRD/Monster manual 1.)

Description and Details: As much as I'd like to have something more substantial here, I don't know what to say about them other than that they're Horses with Wings. Pegasi are often white, but there are some reported to be Yellow, Blue, Pink, and a few that are said to have manes that are Pink, Purple, or even every color of the rainbow.


Religion: The Pegasi who do worship gods tend to worship gods of nature, or gods who control some natural element. Most often, they worship the deities of the sun and moon as long as the tenets of said deities do not conflict with their own moral dispositions.

Adventures: Pegasi most often adventure with good aligned beings, serving as mounts. Pegasi occasionally leave their homes to adventure on their own, often as some sort of service to either their home, or any gods they may serve.

Ecology/Background: Pegasi live in clouds or forest in isolation almost exclusively. They are often shy and reclusive, so they do not prefer highly populated areas. Besides the fact that they are not well received by the “Civilized” races for various reasons, said races tend to kidnap their young and raise them as mounts.

If a Pegasus plans on raising children, they tend to leave their clouds homes temporarily to raise them on the ground. Newborn Pegasi cannot yet walk on clouds as more developed ones can, and so cloud homes are no longer viable. Once a youngling Pegasus can cloudwalk, the family often moves back to the clouds, unless the settlement they find on the ground proves better.

Pegasi have a natural association with nature. Many prefer the clouds, but Pegasi moving down to forests to get in touch with the animals there is far from unheard of. Such Pegasi tend to be Druids or Rangers for the animal companion feature.

Languages: Pegasi begin play knowing Common and can understand other languages for each point of intelligence bonus as per usual. While it's not unheard of for Pegasi to speak, they are often only able to communicate through body language.

Favored Class: Druid or Ranger.

Class

Spoiler

HD: d8

Level	BAB	Fort	Ref	Will	Feature
1	+0	+0	+2	+0	Pegasus Body, Racial Skill Bonus,
2	+1	+0	+2	+0	Scent, Wild Empathy, +1 Dexterity
3	+2	+1	+3	+1	Glide, Cloud Walk, Call of Nature, +1 Dexterity

4 Skill points+int per level, quadruple at 1st level. Class skills: Spot, Listen, Profession, Perform, Knowledge (Nature), Jump, Intimidate, Craft, Survival,

Proficiencies: Pegasi are not proficient with any armor or weapons besides their own natural weapons.

Pegasus body (Ex): At first level the Pegasus loses all other racial traits and gains the following. Pegasi are medium sized Magical beasts with two natural hoof attacks for 1d4+Strength modifier damage each, and a base move speed of 40 feet. The Pegasus's Hoof attacks are primary natural attacks.

Pegasi use their mouths for tasks requiring fine manipulation, and as such, are treated as one handed for all purposes. At first level, the Pegasi's dexterity is treated as 4 points lower than what it actually is for tasks requiring fine manipulation. At 4 HD this penalty is reduced to 2 points lower. At 8 HD this penalty goes away entirely.

Lastly, Pegasi gain a natural armor bonus equal to their Constitution modifier.

Racial Skill Bonuses (Ex): Pegasi have a racial bonus to the Listen and Spot checks equal to half their HD.

Scent (Ex): At level 2, the Pegasus gains the benefits of the Scent Extraordinary ability.This extraordinary ability lets a creature detect approaching enemies, sniff out hidden foes, and track by sense of smell.

A creature with the scent ability can detect opponents by sense of smell, generally within 30 feet. If the opponent is upwind, the range is 60 feet. If it is downwind, the range is 15 feet. Strong scents, such as smoke or rotting garbage, can be detected at twice the ranges noted above. Overpowering scents, such as skunk musk or troglodyte stench, can be detected at three times these ranges.

The creature detects another creature’s presence but not its specific location. Noting the direction of the scent is a move action. If it moves within 5 feet of the scent’s source, the creature can pinpoint that source.

A creature with the Track feat and the scent ability can follow tracks by smell, making a Wisdom check to find or follow a track. The typical DC for a fresh trail is 10. The DC increases or decreases depending on how strong the quarry’s odor is, the number of creatures, and the age of the trail. For each hour that the trail is cold, the DC increases by 2. The ability otherwise follows the rules for the Track feat. Creatures tracking by scent ignore the effects of surface conditions and poor visibility.

Creatures with the scent ability can identify familiar odors just as humans do familiar sights.

Water, particularly running water, ruins a trail for air-breathing creatures. Water-breathing creatures that have the scent ability, however, can use it in the water easily.

False, powerful odors can easily mask other scents. The presence of such an odor completely spoils the ability to properly detect or identify creatures, and the base Survival DC to track becomes 20 rather than 10.

Wild Empathy (Ex): As per the Druid feature. The Pegasus is treated as having a Druid level equal to its HD for the purposes of this ability.

Ability Bonus (Ex): At levels 2 and 3, a Pegasus's dexterity score increases by 1

Cloud Walk (Su): Pegasi tend to make their homes among the clouds. As such, they are able to tread on clouds and fog as if they were on solid ground. This ability functions continuously, but can be negated or resumed At-Will.

Glide (Ex): A Pegasus can use her wings to glide, negating damage from a fall from any height and allowing 20 feet of forward travel for every 5 feet of descent. Pegasi glide at a speed of 30 feet with average maneuverability. Even if a Pegasus's maneuverability improves, she can't hover while gliding. A Pegasus can't glide while carrying a medium or heavy load.

If a Pegasus becomes unconscious or helpless while in midair, her wings naturally unfurl, and powerful ligaments stiffen them. The Pegasus descends slowly in a tight corkscrew and takes only 1d6 points of falling damage, no matter the actual distance of the fall.

At 6 HD, the Pegasus becomes capable of Flight and has a fly speed equal to 10 feet times its HD with average maneuverability.

Call of Nature (Su): The Pegasus can use “Summon Nature's Ally 2” as a Spell Like ability, 1/day per 2 HD. At 6 HD this improves to Summon Nature's Ally 3. At 8 HD, this improves to Summon Nature's ally 4, and continues to improve every 2 HD up until Summon Nature's ally 9 at 18 HD.

Growth (Ex): At 8 HD, the Pegasus may grow a size category (Ordinarily to large size). Her AC, bonus to hit, base damage, grapple and skills change accordingly, but she doesn't get any ability score bonus or penalties.

Comments and FAQ

Spoiler

1. This was intended to be balanced with Tier 3 classes
2. The reason the abilities scale with HD is that otherwise the abilities suck once she gets out of the class.
3.In taking this you give up your choice of race. You cannot be a Tiefling Pegasus for example.
4. You do not have to be the traditional alignment.
5. This is intended to be playable with just the SRD allowed.
6. You can multi-class out at any point. This is not a traditional racial class, so you don't have to go through all 3 levels, you simply have to take the first.

To be honest, I took a lot of this from My Little Pony: Friendship is magic, as the class Picture indicates. While I know at least a few people will probably dislike that, I hope you can appreciate the class in spite of that fact. The SRD version of the Pegasus simply didn't have enough to work with. Heck, even the fluff in the Monster Manual version was like a paragraph long at best.

This is one of the Creatures my Girlfriend requested, and it was made largely with her in mind.

Changelog

Spoiler

I changed the flight to be a bit better since it's the main reason somebody is going to be a pegasus.