[3.5] (Spelljammer) Sharkentine Empire Troops. (Please Critique)

[Pika...]

the most obvious aquatic slave race is Skum from the MM. If your Sharkentine empire is techno/magically advanced then you've got the ability to produce the slime from aboleths that make people into skum (refluffed of course).

Would be a fitting punishment for rebellious slaves/POWs and so on...

Like the idea, but they have to be from Human stock according to the MM. I guess I can hand-wave that, though.

There are a couple problems with feats and damage that I can see. Firstly, the Sharkentines only have a single natural attack, meaning they get it at 1.5 Str bonus, so +1 damage across the board. For the Octosapiens, their bite should be secondary, meaning half Str to damage, meaning they only have +1 on the bite's damage. Secondly, the Sharkentines should have a 2nd feat, considering the Basic Warriors have 3 HD and thus a feat at 1st and 3rd level. The same for the Squad Leader. Thirdly, none of your races actually meet the BAB requirements for their feats, Improved Natural Attack requires BAB +4 and Weapon Finesse requires BAB +1, neither of which are met with the first HD of Monstrous Humanoid. There's precedent for creatures having Weapon Finesse as a bonus feat, which I would suggest for the Octosapien and making their 1st level feat Skill Focus(Craft(Any One)), which makes them better at their jobs. The underground may have them switch Skill Focus for Multiweapon Fighting and wield shortswords or something like that. For the Sharkentines, I'd switch to Weapon Focus(Bite), keep the damage at 1d6 like Medium Sharks and Power Attack, which fits with their strong arm tactics.

The final bit I've noticed is the LAs seem off to me. Sharkentines have Str +4, Con +2, Int -2, Cha -2, darkvision, a bite and a swim speed (which makes me notice the lack of Swim skill score, which should be +10 without any ranks), along with unimpeded land movement and +4 natural armor, which is really good for LA +0. Probably too good, putting them in line with Gnolls, who are LA +1 and have 2 racial HD. I'd match the gnolls for LA. The octosapiens are even more uber, with +6 Str, +8 Dex, +2 Con, +2 Int, +6 Wis, +2 natural armor, improved grab, the ink cloud, jet, 6 slams and a bite, equal land and swim speeds, not to mention the innumerable skill bonii they seem to have that their 15 skill points and ability scores don't seem to take care of. They're at least LA +2, if not +3, and makes me wonder how they became slaves in the first place, if for nothing besides plot and racial temperament. They outclass the Sharkentines quite easily in single combat, making me think the Sharkies must have a breeding advantage on the Octos or something.

Despite my above comments, I do find them interesting, just mechanically rough right now. With a little work, you could get them into good shape, methinks. Them's my 2 coppers. Take as you will.

WOW. I really messed these creatures up.

Thanks a ton for helping me correct them! Will update them now to your corrections.

Warriors have d8 hit dice, not d10, and the sharkentines don't qualify for improved natural weapon, also bite for a medium creature is normally 1d6 so if they did have the feat it should be 1d8.

The Squad leader should have +1 to one ability score (he has levels and 4+ HD).

Also how did the race with +2 Str (assuming that like everything else with warrior levels they're using the non-elite array), +4 Natural Armor, and a bite attack enslave the race with 6 arms and a much better over all racial ability score modifiers and +3 natural armor?

Thanks again for the corrections.

As for how they enslaved the Octo-Sapiens? Well, my fluff was Spelljammer technology. Their "edge" in this sector of the Material Plane.

I like everything you've done here. The whole aquatic race in Spelljammer thing is cool and I like that you've got minis for your troops. I do really like what you've done but I have to ask why for stats you didn't just use the Sahuagin or Locathah and just file the names off? That said I look forward to seeing what else you care to show us about these guys.

I would especially like to see more things like the water tanks and coral grenades that make these guys unique. About those, by the way--don't the water devices scrub the CO2 out of the water and just replace it with oxygen from the outside air when in airy environs? If you could build a magical space-traveling ship, you should be able to filter out a little CO2 at least while there's outside air around. And for the coral grenades, I would up the damage to something like 4d4 but state that each die is rolled separately against DR so if you have DR 1, it effectively does 4d4-4. And wouldn't a ten-foot radius be better than a five-foot radius? I mean, better for the purposes of representing a grenade, not better for the Sharkentines! :)

One last note--I don't have an idea of how but it would be cool to see some sort of a use of electric eels as a weapon. Maybe a cannon that's full of water and electric eels that throws lightning bolts or some kind of lasso/grapping weapon that throws an electric eel around an opponent and ties him up and shocks him at the same time!

Many thanks for the kind words.

As for why I did not refluff a race? Two reasons. First, I have players who love to read their MMs. Secondly, I wanted the challenge. Apparently I messed up, but oh well.

As for the grenades? Well, I did not want to put them all the way at modern day tech level, just advanced enough to be of danger to the statuesque. Hence I did not give them explosives/gunpowder, and instead based their "grenades" on the same tech as their spear-guns: compressed air. I imagined this would mean the weapons are weaker, but are still good enough to deliver the poisonous shrapnel which is truly the main point of the weapon.

And thanks, you just helped me figure out what to do with the "heavy weapon" model I have had no clue what to do with.