[3.P] New Race: Artificefolk

[Bugbeartrap]

It's my first time posting in the Homebrew Forum so please let me know if there's some etiquette that I'm missing. A friend of mine approached me with an idea for a new race for his character, and it sparked such a great idea in my campaign that I quickly wrote it in. The problem is, we don't know how to stat it. This is the problem which I humbly beseech your aid with.

The Fluff

In his own words

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"Secretive and hidden people that make dwellings in places no one would look, from deep caverns of the Underdark to thickly wooded forests on the furthest corners of forgotten maps. Artifice folk are the remnant of ancient experiments made by a myriad of beings, who, after being discarded for some unknown reason, founded small communities that still survive to this day. Artifice people are unique in that they need not take classes in order to fight, although they are more than capable. Their bodies have the ability to mutate into various weapons and other devices for everyday purposes, although it is usually limited to limbs and small portions of the rest of their body. They learn new forms much the same way a sorcerer might learn new spells. In this way, no two artifice folk are alike, each having amassed his own forms."

In short, beings made of marble flesh and quicksilver blood with a penchant for artifice and turning their bodies into weapons.

The Mechanics

My friend originally came to me with the idea of both large, medium, and small varieties, with the ability to gain new "body transformations" with each level. His idea was to spend skill points on it. His idea was to base the transformations on the maug grafts in fiend folio.

This is where trouble started. Sacrificing skill points for increased combat effectiveness isn't very common, and most races don't increase in power by level. My first thought was to just make racial feats, however, then all artificefolk would have either no racial feats or have no feats to spend on "normal" feats. Thus did Hellbred spring to mind, as a race that increased in power by level and even gained bonus feats!

Any suggestions to put me on the right track would be greatly appreciated!

[Fable Wright]

What I would do? Give the character the ability to make one natural weapon of his choice that deals a flat-out 1d6 damage. The character can take feats to add special qualities to these weapons. If you so choose, the character might be able to use Craft(Sculpting) to increase the damage of the weapon (as well as the ascetics of the weapon). Possibly increasing the die size by one or increasing the critical threat range of the weapon by one (maximum 18-20 crit range, maximum d12 damage die) for each 5 points the character beats DC 10. Shaping a weapon is a move action, and the character can only have one at a time. Both of these can be improved with feat investment. How does that sound?

[Bugbeartrap]

The natural weapons and shaping them definately sounds like something he wanted, however he also wanted to include mobility and versatility. For example, the different movement types provided by grafts. I know the fiend folio is NOT the most balanced book WoTC ever released, but perhaps their is someway to equate the GP cost of a graft to the equivalent cost of a feat?

[Fable Wright]

The natural weapons and shaping them definately sounds like something he wanted, however he also wanted to include mobility and versatility. For example, the different movement types provided by grafts. I know the fiend folio is NOT the most balanced book WoTC ever released, but perhaps their is someway to equate the GP cost of a graft to the equivalent cost of a feat?

No. Many of the prices of things that emulate feats vary wildly, depending on the feat. However, if he wanted something like flight for a graft... I would say no. Because how a quicksilver and marble golem-creature is flying under it's own power is beyond me.

For other things, you could say that he can gain a movement speed <X> with a speed equal to his Craft(Sculpting) result -10. Thus, he can burrow, swim, climb, possibly fly if you let him, at relatively low speeds, and at higher levels he can reliably get speeds that matter.

[EdroGrimshell]

I actually came up with a similar idea where a prospective member of said race would be able to invest skill points, feats, money, and even class levels in the form of a racial paragon class to gain more and more options. By investing enough in those areas the player could make their character into a unique creature.

[BluesEclipse]

Wings could be handled as a refluff of the Dragon Wings feat chain from Races of the Dragon... in fact, several of those feats could be refluffed as racial feats for this class, if you wanted.

[TheOneWhoWalks]

In the homebrew section of the D&D Wiki, there's a fascinating template called Spellborg. It's not perfect; it has some serious balance issues, but most of them are obvious and fairly easily resolved. The fluff doesn't work, obviously, but if you assume every member of the race has the effect of the template as part of their racial traits, and just work it's LA into to race... Then, to account for the versatility you're looking for, you could give them a racial feat that lets them choose more benefits, but only let them have three active at one time. Let them take it multiple times (though probably no more than 2 or 3 times total...) so that they have the option of sacrificing learned skills (i.e., other feats) for physical versatility. You would probably want to rule some of the benefits off the list (Magical Adept, Hammerspace, and Improved Ability come to mind), and make some others non-switchable options... I don't know, it would take some fiddling to make it work, but it might give you a place to start. Hope this helps!

[failbarian21]

What about a point pool system, wherein as the character grew in HD, he would receive a set of points which could be allocated to give him various effects, similar to they Shadow Sentinel in Races of Destiny? like, a single point is enough to make a simple or martial weapon, by 4 or 5 HD, he has enough points to make the weapon magical. After that he starts getting access to more and more points, which he could use to make his weapon have different effects, or as people have said, wings or nat. armor or a variety of effects. and since the race is divided into three sizes, each size has a certain number of options (larges can join both hands to make a twohanded weapon by giving up hand based skills while its in effect, for example)

btw, bugbeartrap is my DM, and the artifice folk are my children :P

[Demidos]

Sorta sounds like the incarnum system? Maybe you should look into it