Metallic Perfection (3.5 Template and Feats, PEACH)

Larkas · 02-28-2012, 11:33 PM

Mirran Creature Template

The world of Mirrodin was converted, or, more acurately, compleated into New Phyrexia just recently, finishing the transition from the metallic utopia of Argentum. What most people, even New Phyrexia's former and present inhabitants, don't realize is that the corruption started far before any Phyrexian even set foot on the plane. In fact, the roots of the invasion can be traced to a single drop of Phyrexian oil Karn, the plane's own creator, accidentally left in contact with Argentum's surface. That droplet was a sample of glistening oil, a kind of invasion weapon in the form of an engineered disease, created by Yawgmoth himself. That small, tainted splash would replicate itself uncountable times, corrupting Memnarch, Mirrodin's warden created by Karn, along the way and eventually sweeping the entire globe, infecting almost everything it touched, working towards the Phyrexian warped sense of perfection: true, compleat phyresis.

Along the way, though, the corruption wrought by the glistening oil had an unintended, strange side effect: the creation of a metallic, fungal organism called Mycosynth, which bloomed and flourished in most of the world's core. This organism released spores that spread throughout the plane, changing metal to flesh and flesh to metal, causing metallic growths in the skin of organic beings while converting artifact creatures into living things.

The result for these organics was their transformation into mirran creatures, beings not unlike their forefathers, but certainly unique in the sense that a considerable part of their bodies is covered, if not converted, into metal.

Sample Mirran Creature

Auriok, 1st-Level Warrior (Mirran Human)
Medium Humanoid (Mirran)
Hit Dice: 1d8+1 (5 hp)
Initiative: +1
Speed: 30 ft.
Armor Class: 20 (+1 Dex, +3 natural, +4 scale mail, +2 heavy shield), touch 11, flat-footed 19
Base Attack/Grapple: +1/+2
Attack: Glaive +3 melee (1d10+1/x3) or javelin +2 ranged (1d6+1/x2)¹
Full Attack: Glaive +3 melee (1d10+1/x3) or javelin +2 ranged (1d6+1/x2)¹
Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft.²
Special Attacks: None
Special Qualities: Human traits, mirran traits, reinforced skin
Saves: Fort +3, Ref +1, Will -1
Abilities: Str 13, Dex 12, Con 13, Int 10, Wis 9, Cha 8
Skills: Listen +3, Search +2, Spot +3
Feats: Alertness, Weapon Focus (glaive)
Challenge Rating: 3/2
Alignment: Any, sometimes neutral
Advancement: By character class
Level Adjustment: +1

¹Even though he's not proficient in unarmed combat, this human's unarmed attacks do 1d4 points of damage.
²If fighting with the glaive, the reach increases to 10 ft.

Creating a Mirran Creature

"Mirran" is an inherited template that can be added to any living, corporeal creature (referred to hereafter as the base creature).
A mirran creature uses all the base creature's statistics and special abilities except as noted here.

Size and Type: The creature's type remains the same, but it gains the mirran subtype. Size is unchanged.

Armor Class: Natural armor improves by +3.

Damage: Choose one of the base creature's natural attack forms. The damage for this natural weapon increases by one step, as if the creature's size had increased by one category: 1d2, 1d3, 1d4, 1d6, 1d8, 2d6, 3d6, 4d6, 6d6, 8d6, 12d6.

A weapon or attack that deals 1d10 points of damage increases as follows: 1d10, 2d8, 3d8, 4d8, 6d8, 8d8, 12d8.

Special Qualities: A mirran has all the special qualities of the base creature, plus the following special quality.

Reinforced Skin (Ex): When a critical hit or sneak attack is scored on a mirran, there is a 25% chance that the critical hit or sneak attack is negated and damage is instead rolled normally.

Abilities: Increase from the base creature as follows: Con +2.

Treasure: Same as the base creature, but metal might be salvageable from the body.

Challenge Rating: Same as the base creature +1.

Level Adjustment: Same as the base creature +1.

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I made this template with the metal-covered creatures of Mirrodin in mind, but it could be used in any setting with little modification. Any input would be greatly appreciated!

Larkas · 02-28-2012, 11:35 PM

Mirran Feats

The compound coating the vast majority of creatures born on Mirrodin is made of regular metals, like copper, iron, nickel and zinc, or even alloys, like brass, bronze and steel. A few extraordinary individuals, however, are born with their skin covered in rarer metals, which might give them further abilities or help them overcome damage reduction.

The feats below represent these individuals, detailing the abilities granted by those special metals. As they are born with the material on their skin, the base feats may only be taken at 1st character level. While some metals might confer special abilities even if they correspond to just a considerable minority of the alloys, others need to be the vast majority of the mass present in the "plating" to make an impact, which exclude the selection of any of the other metals and, thus, base feats.

Argentskin [Mirran]

You have considerable traces of silver on your body, which allows you to overcome the supernatural defenses of certain creatures with your natural attacks. That amount of silver also affects your mind, making your resolve stronger than most others'.

Prerequisites: Mirran, 1st level only.

Benefits: Your natural weapons and your grapple checks made to deal damage are treated as silvered weapons for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction. Furthermore, you gain a +2 on all Will saves.

Cold Ironhide [Mirran]

You have considerable traces of a rare alloy made mostly of iron on your body, which allows you to overcome the supernatural defenses of certain creatures with your natural attacks. That alloy also makes your body tougher than most others'.

Prerequisites: Mirran, 1st level only.

Benefits: Your natural weapons and your grapple checks made to deal damage are treated as cold iron weapons for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction. Furthermore, you gain a +2 on all Fortitude saves.

Mithralscale [Mirran]

An extensive part of the metal covering your body is mithral, which makes you nimbler than your peers.

Prerequisites: Mirran, 1st level only, must not take any other [Mirran] feat at 1st level.

Benefits: You gain a +2 racial bonus to Climb, Jump and Tumble checks, as well as on all Reflex saves.

Metallic Grace [Mirran]

You move as gracefully as only a body covered in mithral would allow, granting you the possibility to avoid the damage of some attacks in its entirety.

Prerequisites: Dex 15, Mithralscale, Dodge.

Benefits: You gain the benefits of Evasion, as the Rogue ability of the same name.

Mithral Mastery [Mirran]

You master the grace permitted by the mithral in your body, taking half damage even if you don't successfully dodge some kinds of attack.

Prerequisistes: Dex 17, Metallic Grace, Mobility.

Benefits: You gain the benefits of Improved Evasion, as the Rogue ability of the same name.

Adamantine-plated [Mirran]

An extensive part of the metal covering your body is adamantine, which allows you to overcome the supernatural defenses of certain creatures with your natural attacks. That also means you are somewhat sturdier and stabler, at the cost of an increased weight.

Prerequisites: Mirran, 1st level only, must not take any other [Mirran] feat at 1st level.

Benefits: Your natural weapons and your grapple checks made to deal damage are treated as adamantine weapons for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction. Also, you gain a +2 racial bonus on ability checks made to resist being bull rushed or tripped when standing on the ground (but not when climbing, flying, riding, or otherwise not standing firmly on the ground).

Special: You weigh roughly 25% more than another mirran creature of similar build. This doesn't incur further consequences for you, but may come in play when being carried by others or when determining the load of a mount being ridden.

Armored Skin [Mirran]

The adamantine in your skin hardens, granting you a bonus to armor class. You have also learned how to better balance your weight, further enhancing your bonus for standing firmly on the ground.

Prerequisites: Con 15, Adamantine-plated, Improved Toughness.

Benefits: You natural armor bonus increases by 1. Also, the racial bonus conferred by Adamantine-plated increases by 2, for a total of +4.

Impenetrable Hide [Mirran]

The adamantine in your skin hardens even further, to the point of letting you ignore some damage.

Prerequisites: Con 17, Armored Skin, base Fortitude save bonus +7.

Benefits: You gain a damage reduction score of 2/—. This damage reduction stacks with any other damage reduction of the same type.

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Spoiler

NeoSeraphi · 02-29-2012, 09:36 AM

What, you have Mirrodin but no Memnarch? Blasphemy!

The plates all look nice, though I think adamantine plate should give an AC bonus (You should look at the warforged plates from Races of Eberron to get some inspiration. In fact, if you do make this an inherited template, these plates would work a lot better as feats instead of templates)

Your example human should have a bonus feat.

I feel like this should turn them into constructs. You know? Not just metal humanoids. Robot humanoids. Or robot dire lions. Yeah, that's what I'm talking about!

Let's see...your mirran template does feel a little weak for LA +1, but not by much. Another small boon should do it. Oh, how about SR? SR 5+HD. That's a nice little boost (I have no idea if it fits with the Scars of Mirrodin lore, but metallic skin = reflect spells).

Larkas · 02-29-2012, 10:29 AM

Thank you very much for the input, Neo!

Oooh, those Warforged feats are very nice! I had never read them before!

On the plates as feats, I just fear severe balancing issues might arise. Mirran creatures are born, not made, and as such all these feats could only be selected at level 1. I could ease the restriction on both Argentskin and Cold Ironhide, making them non-exclusive (i.e.: you have enough traces of cold iron and/or silver in your knuckles to make them overcome DR), which would make them not unlike Silver Tracery and Cold Iron Tracery, but they would need some buffing, as you are spending a/the level 1 feat in something while you could be getting something more interesting, such as Mithralscale or Adamantine-plated. On the other hand, these last two would need serious nerfing: again, they would be level 1 feats, and as such could never have pre-requisites that might ease their power. Also, I can't make them like Eberron's Adamantine Body and Mithral Body as theoretically Mirrans can don armor (though they rarely do

). All that said, I'll give it a try!

Example human fixed!

I also thought about turning them to constructs! Problem is, they are pretty much simple organic creatures with metal covering some parts of their bodies, and there are lots of golems wandering Mirrodin's surface, who are real constructs. Also, I feel like Phyrexians should also be constructs. Better add some diversity :)

I thought about SR too, but at a much higher proportion, which seemed unreasonable to me. Yours is pretty balanced! I'll just have to check if that has any lore to it, though, even if it's a stretch. Anyways, what do you think of something like Warforged's "Light Fortification"? They DO have metal covering their skin, after all, and some of it just might get in the way of critical hits!

Oh, and on Memnarch, I just might give it a try and make it! I'll have to study him a little, though

NeoSeraphi · 02-29-2012, 10:36 AM

Sure, I could see Light Fortification being both flavorfully appropriate and useful.

Larkas · 02-29-2012, 02:09 PM

I've came up with these. Please, tell me what you think!

EDIT: I've also added "Reinforced Skin" to the template.

Larkas · 03-02-2012, 07:30 AM

Soooo... Any input? I really don't know if those feats are balanced, specially because I'm no big fan of feat chains. Besides, it would be nice to know what people think overall, this was done with a Mirrodin motif in mind, but can be easily used in other settings!

The-Mage-King · 04-07-2012, 01:11 PM

The feat chains seem balanced. I have to ask, though- does Impenetrable Hide's DR stack with other DR? As in, if you already have DR 5/-, would you have 7/- after taking it?

Also, pre-necro date, to those who'll react with rage upon seeing the last post was almost a month ago.

Larkas · 04-07-2012, 05:15 PM

Don't call it necroing, I was STILL looking for input over this, anyways

I intended the DR to stack. Impenetrable Hide and 19 levels of Barbarian, for example, would net you DR 7/-. Mechanics-wise, it is an unnamed bonus, so it should stack with everything

I guess it ISN'T very clear though. It just says you gain DR 2/-, not that you gain a bonus to DR or whatever. Frankly, I don't know HOW it should be written. Maybe if I add this line it would make it clearer?

Quote:

Impenetrable Hide [Mirran]

The adamantine in your skin hardens even further, to the point of letting you ignore some damage.

Prerequisites: Con 17, Armored Skin, base Fortitude save bonus +7.

Benefits: You gain a damage reduction score of 2/—.

Special: If any other source already gives you this kind of damage reduction, increase that damage reduction value by 2 instead.

The-Mage-King · 04-07-2012, 05:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Larkas

Don't call it necroing, I was STILL looking for input over this, anyways

I intended the DR to stack. Impenetrable Hide and 19 levels of Barbarian, for example, would net you DR 7/-. Mechanics-wise, it is an unnamed bonus, so it should stack with everything

I guess it ISN'T very clear though. It just says you gain DR 2/-, not that you gain a bonus to DR or whatever. Frankly, I don't know HOW it should be written. Maybe if I add this line it would make it clearer?

I would have added a "This DR stacks with any other DR of the same type." to the Benefit line, honestly.

And yeah. This was ALMOST a necro. A few more days, and... Well, I'd have PM'd the comment to you.

Larkas · 04-07-2012, 05:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by The-Mage-King

I would have added a "This DR stacks with any other DR of the same type." to the Benefit line, honestly.

And yeah. This was ALMOST a necro. A few more days, and... Well, I'd have PM'd the comment to you.

Your line is WAY clearer and much more elegant. If you don't mind, I'm adding it to the feat text right now

Anyways, thank you very much for the input and the help! I'm glad you think it's balanced

The-Mage-King · 04-07-2012, 05:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Larkas

Your line is WAY clearer and much more elegant. If you don't mind, I'm adding it to the feat text right now

Anyways, thank you very much for the input and the help. I'm glad you think it's balanced!

Feel free.

Anyway, I see a way to clear up Argentskin/Cold Ironhide/Mithrilscale a bit, and make 'em look a bit more professional.

In the first two, just replace "also" with "furthermore". Sounds better, means the same thing.

For the Mithrilscale line, I'd advise a rewrite like so...

Quote:

Mithralscale [Mirran]

[...]

Benefits: You gain a +2 racial bonus to Climb, Jump and Tumble checks, as well as on all Reflex saves.

For Grace and Mastery, I'd add a comma after "[...] Evasion ability", in both cases.

Solaris · 04-07-2012, 06:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NeoSeraphi

Let's see...your mirran template does feel a little weak for LA +1, but not by much. Another small boon should do it. Oh, how about SR? SR 5+HD. That's a nice little boost (I have no idea if it fits with the Scars of Mirrodin lore, but metallic skin = reflect spells).

Spell Resistance is good for monsters, but it's a double-edged sword for PCs. SR requires a standard action to lower each round. Sure hope you don't want your caster buddies to give you a quick buff or heal. 5 + HD isn't too bad, but 10 + HD really makes it a crap shoot.

toapat · 04-07-2012, 07:37 PM

You need to make a Darksteel Ascendancy prestiege for these guys

although i think DR and SR infinite would be a bit OP

Larkas · 04-08-2012, 09:47 AM

@The-Mage-King: Thanks a lot for that too, Mage King! I noticed that, when I'm homebrewing too much stuff at once, my creative side takes too much of my brain's processing power, and the part that takes care of all the writing suffers

It's good having someone to revise these things, thanks for that

@Solaris: Indeed. This template is mostly to be applied to monsters, and even outside of Mirrodin you could have a "metallized" creature with a completely different, easily explainable origin. But you can't discount the fact that Mirrodin does have metal-skinned humanoids, and SR could be detrimental to the gameplay, even though this value is fairly benign. Regardless, short of Darksteel-covered creatures, Mirran creatures don't seem to be specially resistant to magic, so thankfully this isn't an issue.

@toapat: You know, some creature enhancement involving Darksteel was actually the first thought I had

The problem, however, is mainly mechanical. While in MtG you do have ways to kill Darksteel creatures, however awkward, in D&D you'd have to resort mainly to "save or die" effects (and make the SR not apply to those). That's why I came up with all the "D&D metals" stuff: even if those don't really exist, or at least are never mentioned, in MtG, they are quite relevant in a D&D environment.

Thinking about it now, though, even if Darksteel can't be directly ported, maybe it can be adapted... A chain of feats that gives some big DR/darksteel and an SR that applies only to directly damaging effects, and a new, extremely expensive, material for weapons and armors (and constructs!), while not a direct translation of the "real" Darksteel, might do the trick. A Darksteel Golem would still be a terrifying sight, but at least it would be defeatable without bending the game rules. Hmmmm... That just might work, though I'll have to consider if this overlaps with the Adamantine feats too much. What do you guys think?

ChaoticBroth · 04-08-2012, 10:14 AM

If you want to use Darksteel, then I'd suggest using it as a weapon/armor template for gear/golems. Something along the lines of Darksteel-infused or something like that, with different levels of Darksteel used in the crafting process to improve the ability of the weapons/armor. Still, it would be a pretty expensive one.

Also, is it just me, or would Mirran grafts be totally badass? They'd be powerful, sure, but come with their own natural side effects. And maybe even corrupt you sufficiently into becoming a Mirran.

Otherwise, this is amazing. I can't even get started on how much I love this.

toapat · 04-08-2012, 10:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Larkas

Thinking about it now, though, even if Darksteel can't be directly ported, maybe it can be adapted... A chain of feats that gives some big DR/darksteel and an SR that applies only to directly damaging effects, and a new, extremely expensive, material for weapons and armors (and constructs!), while not a direct translation of the "real" Darksteel, might do the trick. A Darksteel Golem would still be a terrifying sight, but at least it would be defeatable without bending the game rules. Hmmmm... That just might work, though I'll have to consider if this overlaps with the Adamantine feats too much. What do you guys think?

i think the actual problem with darksteel porting isnt so much making it more powerful then adamantine, so much as the fact that darksteel objects grow larger as they age (Darksteel is Thran Metal from the Artifacts cycle).

i think reinforced skin should be renamed living metal, and also allow the character to receive 50% repair healing

I personally dont think though that the Mirran Template should be one singular template, but should instead be 5-7 templates, one for each skintype (Gold, Silver, Lead, Iron, and Copper), in addition to the mithral and adamantine forms.

as i said though, darksteel should be a Racial PrC, not a template itself though, a bit too powerful

Edit: Also, i doubt a few rules from the Chainmail Bikini book wouldnt be out of place here, consider this Girl isnt actually wearing anything from what we can tell

Larkas · 04-08-2012, 02:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChaoticBroth

If you want to use Darksteel, then I'd suggest using it as a weapon/armor template for gear/golems. Something along the lines of Darksteel-infused or something like that, with different levels of Darksteel used in the crafting process to improve the ability of the weapons/armor. Still, it would be a pretty expensive one.

This is a great advice. Come to think of it, there are no LIVING creatures covered in Darksteel on Mirrodin, just constructs, be they golem-like or animated objects, made of it. Great point, ChaoticBroth! I think there may be three types of "materials", in increasing levels of effectiveness: Darksteel-coated, Darksteel-infused and Darksteel proper. Getting the latter would be prohibitively expensive, and would require someone that could actually work the metal. It's a promising idea, I'll try brewing it. Expect an update soon

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChaoticBroth

Also, is it just me, or would Mirran grafts be totally badass? They'd be powerful, sure, but come with their own natural side effects. And maybe even corrupt you sufficiently into becoming a Mirran.

Oooooh, that's something I never even considered. Might be a great idea, specially for a campaign that doesn't really include Mirrodin! I'll see if I can come up with something!

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChaoticBroth

Otherwise, this is amazing. I can't even get started on how much I love this.

Hey, I'm glad you liked it!

Quote: