Homebrew DesignRoll up your sleeves and get working: there's lots of homebrewin' to be done! Post your custom creation for critiques or review those of your peers.
You may have seen my recent Hero-Born bloodline which focuses on the children of great heroes. This here is a joke bloodline based on the heroes we usually see in D&D.
PC-Kin
You have your heroes, then you have your Heroes. One of them is the descendent of a long-dead warrior king fighting to free his land from oppression and upholding all that it good and just in the world. The other wants to get paid. Guess which one is more common?
Level
Minor
Intermediate
Major
1
Bluff +2
2
Bluff +2
Immunity to Fear
3
Charisma +1
4
Bluff +2
Immunity to Fear
Pyromaniac
5
Idiot Affinity +2
6
Charisma +1
Run Like Heck
7
Intimidate +2
8
Immunity to Fear
Pyromaniac
Evade Law
9
Dexterity +1
10
Idiot Affinity +2
Loot Sniffer
11
Idiot Affinity +4
12
Charisma +1
Run Like Heck
These Are Not the Droids
13
Sleight of Hand +2
14
Intimidate +2
Slippery Mind
15
Constitution +1
16
Pyromaniac
Evade Law
Can't Catch Me
17
Idiot Affinity +6
18
Dexterity +1
It was in the Chest
19
Hide +2
20
Idiot Affinity +2
Loot Sniffer
Too Cool to Die
Immunity to Fear: No one knows if the PCs are brave beyond belief or just stupid. But what they do know is the PCs do things that no rational person would. They gain Immunity to Fear.
Pyromaniac: "Kill it, kill it with fire". PCs like to watch things burn. A lot. They gain the ability to cast Produce Flame 1/day with a CL equal to 1/4, 1/2 or 1X their level, depending on bloodline strength. Save is Cha based.
Idiot Affinity: Some people are huge fans of the hijinks of PCs. Some are not. The PC-Kin gains a bonus to all interaction checks involving an individual that favorably looks upon their actions. This almost always includes children.
Run Like Heck: Plan B: Run. When the PCs find an opponent they honestly don't believe they can defeat (Which is rare) their first response is to flee. Flee as fast as they can. They can subject themselves to Expeditious Retreat 1/day with a CL equal to 1/2 or 1X their level, depending on bloodline strength.
Evade Law: It's hard to find a day where a PC doesn't break a law. But thanks to their wonderful contributions to society, including reducing monster populations and boosting the construction economy, their more minor transgressions are ignored. They are never convicted of crimes short of murder.
Loot Sniffer: PCs have a good nose for loot. At will they may spend a standard action to detect the presence of loot within a 60ft cone. A single round tells only the presence of something worth 10gp or more. A second round of concentration yields the number of items of value as well as the market price of the most valuable object. A third round yields the location and value of all treasure detected.
These Aren't The Droids: Players get in trouble a deal. Even with Evade Law. It's useful to be able to lie your way out of such situations. Or you can just enchant them. The PC gains the ability to cast Suggestion 1/day as a spell-like ability with a CL 1X their level. Save is based on Cha.
Slippery Mind: PCs have dangerous, volatile minds. It's quite difficult to control such a primal, instinctual thing. They gain Slippery Mind, as the Rogue ability of the same name. In addition, whenever they are subjected to an effect that would read their surface thoughts (Such as Detect Thoughts) the caster is instead blinded for one round.
Can't Catch Me: Players on the run always have problems with those pesky divinations. Until they learn how to beat them, that is. The PC-Kin may toggle a Nondetection effect on and off at will as a free action.
It was in the Chest: Having the right tool is always useful. When the PC-Kin is in a town, they may spend an amount of their wealth, up to 5,000gp, to buy undefined goods. This amount may not exceed the gp limit of the town and doing so takes a full day at the market. When need arises the PC may expend an amount of this to define an item which they need and retrieve it as a full-round action.
Too Cool to Die: They're the PCs, for crying out loud. It's not like their ever really dead. Once per day when they would usually be reduced to 0hp or less by an attack, they instead drop to 1hp. This ability may instead save the PC-Kin from a single Death effect per day.
Although a few of your entries, such as These Are Not the Droids, have some unnecessary bits. Specifically, These Are Not the Droids has the addendum, "with a CL equal to 1/4, 1/2 or 1X their level, depending on bloodline strength," which is unnecessary, since it can only be gained by the strongest bloodline.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ertier
A good background is like a skirt. Short enough to keep my interest, but long enough to cover the important bits.
Although a few of your entries, such as These Are Not the Droids, have some unnecessary bits. Specifically, These Are Not the Droids has the addendum, "with a CL equal to 1/4, 1/2 or 1X their level, depending on bloodline strength," which is unnecessary, since it can only be gained by the strongest bloodline.
Eh, yeah. I noticed that when I was typing it. But then it's all non-conform-y. I'll change it.
I have another Bloodline all written-up, I just need time to post it. This one is centered around the children/descendents of the highest nobles. Leadership at Level 2?
But thanks to their wonderful contributions to society, including reducing monster populations and boosting the construction economy
I LOL-ed at this bit. Some of the other stuff was funny too.
Last sentence of "It was in the Chest" needs the amount of time needed to define/locate an item in "the chest" defined, but you probably were already remembering that.
Last sentence of "It was in the Chest" needs the amount of time needed to define/locate an item in "the chest" defined, but you probably were already remembering that.
The name of the ability was actually a reference to The Gamers: Dorkness Rising. The stuff isn't necessarily coming out of a chest... But it would be a good idea for me to determine the time it takes to retrieve something using this ability. Full-Round action sound good? It's assumed that it's not readily at your disposal, but rather you need to rummage around a bit first.
The name of the ability was actually a reference to The Gamers: Dorkness Rising. The stuff isn't necessarily coming out of a chest... But it would be a good idea for me to determine the time it takes to retrieve something using this ability. Full-Round action sound good? It's assumed that it's not readily at your disposal, but rather you need to rummage around a bit first.
And I'm glad you liked that.
Actually, the whole thing about defining time to retrieve was based on a misreading of what you had written.
Don't let that stop you if you think it is a good idea.
I'm considering trying to rewrite some of the more prominent bloodlines from Unearthed Arcana, such as those for dragons and vampires. Mine are on a slightly different power level compared to those in the book, but I think that's required for them to actually be useful in play. As such, the old ones could use some updating. And why in the world do Major Dragon Bloodlines not give breathweapons?
Welknair, I'd thought you'd been 'brewing long enough to know that the answer to any 3.5 question beginning with those words is, "Because WotC can't design its way out of a paper bag."
I mean, honestly. Half of the free content on this board matches their quality; most of the rest exceeds it.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Chilingsworth
Wow! Not only was that awesome, I think I actually kinda understand Archeron now. If all the "intermediate" outer planes got that kind of treatment, I doubt there would be anywhere near as many critics of their utility.
Welknair, I'd thought you'd been 'brewing long enough to know that the answer to any 3.5 question beginning with those words is, "Because WotC can't design its way out of a paper bag."
I mean, honestly. Half of the free content on this board matches their quality; most of the rest exceeds it.
It makes me wonder why D&D has survived as long as it has. The more I play the more I realize some of the more fundamental flaws. Seriously, have they never heard of playtesting? Or common sense? If you can't imagine any player wanting to use an option, the option is either too uninteresting, or too underpowered. Or both. This is the case for... all of the default bloodlines, as far as I can tell. However, this is of course a perfect 'brewing opportunity.
I'm debating on whether or not to post my Morphic Bloodline. It's as weird if not more so than much of my other work. It focuses on drinking the blood of supernatural individuals or creatures to gain some of their powers for short durations. At lower levels, this is exclusively in the form of temporary bloodlines. At later levels, they gain the ability to polymorph. I'm afraid that it's too strong, however... And of course, just by typing this I had an idea as to how to balance it a bit. I'm going to see if I can salvage the Morphic, followed by some attempts at Draconic and Vampiric bloodlines, which I feel would be the most popular out of those given in UA.
Sidenote: So far my players are preferring my game to D&D 3.5e. Apparently it "Makes more sense". Good signs.
I love these kinds of jokes! Too bad they'd be a bad idea to actually play, but bravo for the effort of writing it!
Ehm.. I don't know if this is a running rule across the globe, but we always had the one with 'PCs are always stupid.' They seem to somehow not just escape mind control (read: railroading) but also any form of logic or deduction. :P
Either that, or they show a kind of idiot-savant-like understanding of reality, and solve the hardest mystery ever with the mental exercise equivalent of a box of baby blocks.
And why in the world do Major Dragon Bloodlines not give breathweapons?
...
I was going back through the original bloodlines to see what skills they used for the dragons as I was having problems choosing them for my Dragon Descendant Bloodline. It turns out that the Major Dragon Bloodlines do get breath weapons! Just very late and they don't scale.
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[3.5e Bloodline] PC-Kin (PEACH)
Derailed in the best way, thank you good sir.
