Protoss 3.5 Homebrew

[Fan]

A regular Protoss Zealot

The Protoss are creatures of Iron will, strong faith, and extreme psionic capabilities. They are ageless, breathless, and never need stop to rest due to them have a natural immunity to fatigue.
Now, some may question why such a powerful race would exist within a 3.5 realm outside of the various ebberon cheese. Well, I'm going to tell you.

the Protoss were beaten, and ragged after the fall of Auir, and while most fled to Shakuras a Dimensional anomaly sent them veering into the dimension of the Prime material Plane we all know, and love.


Crunch:
Stats
+2 strength, +2 int, and -4 cha, The Protoss while Physically strong, and intelligent are not friendly EVER except to the members of the conclave.
Creature type: Outsider (extraplanar)
Size: Medium: Everything is normal
Abilities (Ex):
Mind sense (Su): The Protoss through their innate, and life long use of psionics areable to sense the minds of others near by. (Range 100ft, and only living creatures.)
Powerful build: A Protoss is counted as one size catagory larger any tme it would be benfical to him.

These blades stack with the benfit provided by the soulknife Psionic class, and can be adapted into the Soulbow class as well.
LA: +1

Groups: A trio: Two Level 5 Zealots, and a Level 12 High Templar ECL:13, or a WAR band 17 Level 5 zealots, 10 Level 8 Zealots, 5 Level 12 High templar, and a singular level 17 Archon.

CR: 7
Favoured class: Soul knife

For over a thousand years theZealot caste of the protoss have defended their people from threats both internal and external, dedicating their long lives to the pursuit of martial perfection. Zealots are peerless warriors who have yet to achieve the uppermost ranks of the Khala. Ever eager for battle, zealots train constantly to attune themselves more closely to the Khala's disciplines and prove themselves worthy of advancement. They exemplify the unbridled ferocity of the protoss at war.
The formidable physique of a zealot is a wonder to behold when seen by the lesser races, and Yet a zealot is far more than the muscel they bring to bear against the enemy. Each zealot is trained for decades in hand-to-hand combat, tactics, pain tolerance and martial discipline. Zealots are taught to hate their enemies with a white hot passion and to hunt them down without mercy.

High Templar


The High templar are a completely different people than that of the lower Zealots, and have transcended the Mortality of those who have yet to Master the Kalla.

racial stats:
Intellgence +4, Charisma -2, Wisdom +4.-2 strength, and -2 dex.
while superior mentally in every way to their non ascended breatheren they are physically weakened by the constant strain that is put on by their close realtion to the Kalla.

+2 natural armor
Mind sense (Su): As the Zealot except A high templar has a range of out to 200 feet, and it can detect the exact location of creatures without focusing.

Naturally Psionic: The High Templar are Incredible psions, and have been gifted from their mastery of the Kalla power in the Psionic realm few could even dare to grasp at. Thus at each level they get an additonal +6 Power points.

Mastery of the Kalla: These beings have spent their entire lives striving to achieve psionic prefection, adn the high Templar are those who have transcended rality to achieve perfect mastery.

thus all Save Dc's of any psionic powers they manifest are increased +3 this is a Racial Bonus, and stacks with other soruces.

Psi like abilties: The protoss have strived for generations to achieve their mastery, and as such it has become a innate part of their beings, and thus gain the following abilities 1 time a day provided their HD is eqaul to the minimum manfiester level nesscary to produce thsoe effects.
Etangling Ectoplasm, Mirror image
La: +4

[FMArthur]

Are you sure they should get bonuses to Str and Con? Remember that the only examples of physical strength are Zealots, who are using technologically advanced energy blade weapons, and that they're wearing hyper-advanced armor as well as shields. Dark Templar are more likely to be examples of hightened agility rather than strength. Otherwise, the protoss appear to be a little frail.

Your post doesn't seem to mention psionics... does this reflect its incompleteness or an actual lack of natural psionic abilities? Looking forward to tomorrow morning.

[Demented]

Protoss are 9 feet tall sans the armor.
Their weaknesses are being few in number and having a Conclave that's a little headstrong, not to mention an enormous tendency to bang heads with the Zerg using all the wrong weapons.

The zealot armor may help, but chances are they can still beat the stuffing out of a human.

[Starsinger]

Ahh, yet another race with a penalty to charisma because "They're cranky and don't have friends."

[KKL]

Ahh, yet another race with a penalty to charisma because "They're cranky and don't have friends."

Protoss exceed cranky by several magnitudes.

[Fan]

Are you sure they should get bonuses to Str and Con? Remember that the only examples of physical strength are Zealots, who are using technologically advanced energy blade weapons, and that they're wearing hyper-advanced armor as well as shields. Dark Templar are more likely to be examples of hightened agility rather than strength. Otherwise, the protoss appear to be a little frail.

Your post doesn't seem to mention psionics... does this reflect its incompleteness or an actual lack of natural psionic abilities? Looking forward to tomorrow morning.

I'm, ediitng it right now,and them not beign natural psions is like Humans not being naturally adaptive.
Its simply not workable Fluff, or RAW for them.

[Silence]

This has been done before. Many times.

[AsuroftheStair]

Just looking at the crunch, as it is it merits a +1 LA simply because of the strength modifier (Int is balanced, not Str). Two ways to solve:

1. Maybe add a penalty to Dex or Con (technically we never see Zealots without their gear, so it could be just to cover up their lesser capabilities),
2. else downgrade bonuses str & int to +2 and add an additional mental score (like wisdom- the whole nature of being a zealot (in the real-world usage) drains one's presence of mind)

I'll be interested in how you pull off the mind sense in game terms, given that the Zealot's been created many times. Maybe (if you want to avoid the stigma of beating a dead horse) you could make it an entirely new race? Like "Psion's Guardian", a slave race (similar to 1/2 Giants) who, rather than typical psionics, have this sense ability?

[Fan]

This is a porject of mine to take the entire Protoss race, all the machines, and ships and convert them to 3.5
Hell, they have flying castles in 3.5 why not a flying ship?

[Fan]

*shameless bump*

[AsuroftheStair]

It's an intreguing approach to account for Protoss by class, rather than by making one race & templates...
I'm going on the assumption that you're wondering about LAs, so here's my two (well, three) cents:
1. High Templar LA of +6 through +8 (and possibly more, see below):

• +6 unbalanced Mental Ability scores (could balance with -4 penalty in physical abilities, if desired), +1 or +2
• Natural Armor +1 (if I'm remembering the Savage Species correctly),
• Mindsense +1 (possibly 2, given the range),
• Massive number of points +2 @ minimum,
• Mastery of the Kalla +1,

2. Given that the two "large shortswords" (longswords?) can't be disarmed (I assume) and are created out of nothingness (as a standard action?), I'd add at least 1 more level adjustment. If you did give the LA for the swords aspect, then this extra would instead go for the Mindsense, since it counters invisibility. To make it clearer you may want to describe how (as I infer from the High Templar's version) this mindsense is similar to detect magic.
3. I see that the Protoss are Ageless, Breathless, and Immune to Fatigue. All these traits would certainly bump both races LA up by 1 (the last one alone would if it includes spell-like abilities).

They're still interesting specimens... and have you looked at any Spelljammer material? I know that Dungeon Magazine 92 (the one with Nature's Revenge) had a Spelljammer campaign setting (including ships).

[FMArthur]

Not every protoss has energy swords. Just give the physical version Soulknife as a favored class and remove the automatic mind blades.

[imp_fireball]

Since when were 'toss more intelligent then humans? Higher magnitude of technology doesn't necessitate greater natural intelligence.

Really, I would've gone with another translation (which I can't find) which gave all 'high' 'toss +2 WIS, +2 STR, and -2 Cha (Cha doesn't necessitate 'niceness', rather it reflects what the individual socially exudes... the fact that a protoss lacks facial features and is often completely motionless at times of inaction (read the 'queen of blades' novel) could weird out other races) as well as an ECL of which I forget.

Why not make the High Templar a prestige class?

[LurkerInPlayground]

I would have actually gone the opposite route with charisma myself. They seem like they're forceful to the point of arrogance and have a high degree of self-confidence and conviction. They just typically step over the line from "assertive" to "outright belligerent" So I'd give them Charisma and Wisdom bonuses, as they seem to be into really into that psychic guru self-improvement thing.

Nothing indicates that they're physically stronger than a human, but it'd make sense that their warriors would be physically fit (read: no strength bonus but their zealots typically put a high-ish score into it).

In my opinion, the only difference between the zealots and templars are the stats/class loadout they emphasize. Much of protoss combat superiority really just stems from technology.

[Limos]

I would agree on the strength and constitution bonuses. When you see Artanis (Who I think is the only almost naked Protoss ever seen) he is really very frail looking.

They are very imposing while wearing the power armor, but without it they are kind of spindly.

I would say give them a -2 Str, -2 Con, +2 Wis, -2 Cha. Then give them a Natural Proficiency with Power Armor. Which would be like an Exotic Armor. Then the power armor could give +3 Str, +3 Con, -2 Dex. Also I believe in the Lore that Zealots need to be wearing Power armor in order to focus their Psi-blades. So rather than needing to disarm the Zealots an enemy would need to Sunder the armor.

I know that the whole armor thing basically cancels out my base stat modifiers but it would more accurately portray the Zealots. Also it would mean that they always have to be wearing Pre-enchanted Armor in order to be of any use. Which (from the look of it) would take up nearly all the armor slots.

[Magnor Criol]

I would have actually gone the opposite route with charisma myself. They seem like they're forceful to the point of arrogance and have a high degree of self-confidence and conviction. They just typically step over the line from "assertive" to "outright belligerent" So I'd give them Charisma and Wisdom bonuses, as they seem to be into really into that psychic guru self-improvement thing.

This centers on the inconsistency with which WoTC defines exactly what Charisma is. Across all the 3.5 splatbooks, there's never a solid, unified agreement of just what it is.

Sometimes (for instance, the usual justification for why it gets used for magic stats) it represents force of personality, force of will, force of mind. Sorcerers, for instance, supposedly have high charisma because they have strong, forceful personalities and use that to bend their innate magic to their whims.

Other times, for instance the usual justification for charisma penalties in racial stats, it represents a creature's ability to interact with others - they're terse, ugly, socially inept. Dwarves, for instance, are penalized in Cha because traditionally they're a gruff and antisocial people.

Still other times, it's not a measure of that creature at all, but how others react to that creature - for instance, a Warforged receives a Cha penalty not because they're weak-willed, or because they're necessarily bad at social interactions as a race, but because others are unsettled by them - so a community full of nothing but Warforged is penalized as a group when they interact with each other because other races think they're ugly.

Yes, there's bleed-over (a forceful personality is more likely to get its way, so an increased Diplomacy check makes sense with the personality definition) but overall it's a disputed score.

By the force-of-personality definition, Protoss should definitely get a bonus - they're very forceful. But by a social definition, there should be a penalty, as they're both unsettling for other races and not particularly good at dealing with...well, anyone, including each other.