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So this is more or less version 3.0 in terms of threads, and lucky us, we've finally seperated and consolidated a bunch of the previous info into specific documents and thrown them into a nifty table of contents.
So some of ya'll may be wondering "Silus, what the devil is the 'Barrier World' and why should I care?" Well, the Barrier World (we'll just call it Coria from her on) is a homebrew setting I've been working on somewhat on and off for about the past year or so. The idea stemmed from a dissatisfaction with the fantasy kitchen sinkand the general medieval era stagnation. In short, Coria is different from more typical settings:
1. More prevelent technology. Pew pew rayguns.
1a. Problem though, 9/10 you'll have to scavenge for the good stuff.
2. No deities. They either vanished, died or retired.
3. No planar access. Nothing comes or goes from Coria.
I could go on, but most of the info should be in the "Fluff" document in the above link.
So now what this thread is about.
1. Looking for suggestions on either a) what we already have (bugfixing) or b) ideas on what to add.
2. Troubleshooting existing ideas (big problems is balancing out the current prestige classes)
3. A place to bounce ideas.
So as I'm currently posting this on my phone, I'll be updating the Table of Contents with the first of several maps and the WIP document for ideas that are curretly in the pipeline.
So, with that, let's get this trainwreck underway.
To see it, gotta log in. Sad pies.
Might consider signing up for it, especially as the players have accidentally been teleported into my Steampunk nation that's not fully fleshed out yet, and extra ideas are good.
I wanted to suggest changing the centaur's one of the centaur's ability score bonuses, to differentiate it from the orc. Same things for drow and harpies.
Change the wording in Kicks Like A Mule to "Lesser centaurs gain a +2 bonus to attack and damage rolls with hoof attacks against enemies that flan them."
Some of the races lack a skill bonus. Its not required of course, but I feel it adds to the flavor - particularly if the ability score bonus associated with the skill is not the same as an ability score they get a bonus to.
There are places where you use Corian and Barrier (or Barrier World) interchangeably. There is nothing wrong with this, but wanted to suggest it might be fun to use Corian in-game and Barrier World for the name of the setting and for meta purposes. Do any creatures in-game use the term Barrier World?
The Texhutu's ability score bonuses need some capitalization, their size entry is missing some info, and the font sizes change.
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I wanted to suggest changing the centaur's one of the centaur's ability score bonuses, to differentiate it from the orc. Same things for drow and harpies.
Change the wording in Kicks Like A Mule to "Lesser centaurs gain a +2 bonus to attack and damage rolls with hoof attacks against enemies that flan them."
Some of the races lack a skill bonus. Its not required of course, but I feel it adds to the flavor - particularly if the ability score bonus associated with the skill is not the same as an ability score they get a bonus to.
There are places where you use Corian and Barrier (or Barrier World) interchangeably. There is nothing wrong with this, but wanted to suggest it might be fun to use Corian in-game and Barrier World for the name of the setting and for meta purposes. Do any creatures in-game use the term Barrier World?
The Texhutu's ability score bonuses need some capitalization, their size entry is missing some info, and the font sizes change.
Me and some guys do a not-quite-weekly R&D thing for the setting, so we'll take a look at varying up the ability scores. What of +Con, +Wis and -Cha? Might be edging in on the Mana Wight scores though I'd like to think that the racial abilities are so different that it'd probably not really matter.
We'll surely look at adding in some skill bonuses to some of the races, or at least a "X is always a class skill" or something.
There was a bit of a fluff transition between "Barrier World" to Coria, but I get what'cha saying. Sometime in the near future I'll go back and switch up the terminology. This was mostly due to not really having an idea of what the name ought to be (also a fairly big reason there's no gods, 'cause coming up with pantheons makes my brain hurt XD).
Switched up the wording on Kicks Like A Mule and fixed the Texhutu entry. The size change was due to the sheer amount of text and wanting to keep it all on one page. If/when we get around to making race-specific feats, traits, etc. then we may switch the text size back and expand it to another page.
Also, added the first world map and some stuff to the WIP doc of things in the'ol pipeline.
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Now that this is back, does anyone have any ideas for the Prison? Also, I was considering to find some people and just play the campaign, unfinished as it is, but I need to get a couple of guys more interested in playing in such a setting.
Also, I like the changes, it really simplified things a bit.
Hey, thanks for unlocking this for those without accounts. Really appreciate it!
Will be checking it out in more detail soon.
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So one of the things I've been sort of pondering over was re-introducing Summoners, but changing them up so they fit.
The current idea pulls a little from the Gunslinger class in that Summoners start out with a heavily modded and jury rigged together Hologram Projector (liberated from some ruin no doubt). Replace the "Summon Monster" spells with some more tech-based spells, make the Eidolons subject to anti-tech measures, etc.
Just a thing I was pondering, was kinda wondering what ya'll thought.
You could have evoke (not conjure) life-like things formed of elemental matter.
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Well the summoner thing, as of now, is going to be put on the back burner.
For right now I think we're going to finish hammering out the current prestige classes and varying up the races a bit more. The current idea is to get that all knocked out and jump right into a campaign and give the material a real workout under actual conditions.
Changes currently include:
1) Switch up Dwarves a bit, look at changing the racial whatnot vs Giants (as Giants are sort of a non-issue on Coria)
2) Look into revamping the Harpy Talon Blades to be more akin to Lances upon charging
3) Work on changing Orcs to be a bit more universally viable. Been issues with them not being...unique enough.
4) Revamp the gun-branch of the Wyrm Hunter class. Some of the abilities, upon testing initially, were very OP (Targeted Bane and hinky wording)
5) Revamp Drow, look at alt racial abilities and tone down the excessive stuff.
6) Take a look at the Domestic Gnolls, as they were unusually tanky during the initial testing (though it might have been that one was a tanky Cleric and the other was a gunslinger)
If anyone here has want to, I urge you to do testing of your own with your group and relay any issues you may find. My current group is me and two other guys and that's not really conducive for playtesting I think.
I thought your idea of orcs (as described in the previous thread) is pretty unique.
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Decided to bring this up again, I do love the setting, and I was telling one of my mates...
Long story short, I decided to ask Silus for permission to use the setting in a game. It's also conveniently about the time I meant to start running a PbP game, so if a permission is given, I'll probably run a PbP game here on the forums, in the Coria setting.
Which is obviously an interest check from you guys and hoping that we can think of things faster when we're actually playing the game.
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Decided to bring this up again, I do love the setting, and I was telling one of my mates...
Long story short, I decided to ask Silus for permission to use the setting in a game. It's also conveniently about the time I meant to start running a PbP game, so if a permission is given, I'll probably run a PbP game here on the forums, in the Coria setting.
Which is obviously an interest check from you guys and hoping that we can think of things faster when we're actually playing the game.
*Gives the 'ol stamp of approval*
Edit: If there's anything that's unclear that's already written down, feel free to ask about it, and please, feel free to create your own stuff as well =D
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Okay so update thing 'cause I know this thread has been a bit dead.
We're currently in the process of reviewing and revamping the homebrew races, bringing them more in line with each other and changing up a few things to give them a more unique feel. There were more than a few times when we were doing the reviews where we went "Ugh but that [ability] already belongs to [race]" or similar. We've also taken a look at the Favored Classes and shortened up the lists for what we feel are the classes that work well with the race, at least with the ability scores (so taking out Int based classes for races with an Int penalty for example).
We've also added a new race called the Arctien (Ark-Ten), Solarborn and Noctite, which are currently the last entry on the Character Options document. After we finish the reviewing process, we're either going to be crafting feats/specific racial traits and reorganizing the lists in alphabetical order. In addition, we're going to be looking at increasing the fluff for the races to give a broader...feel? Look? for each races. Expand upon them so they're not so vague.
After that we're planning on going into the Equipment document, adding in a new Special Material or two and taking another look at the current gear, mocking up tables, setting prices, etc. After that is working on the handful of artifacts currently laid out (the Soul Vials will be extensive and rather tricky IMO). Grafts and Cybernetics are likely going to be in there somewhere as well.
And throughout all of this (as we only ever meet on Fridays or Saturdays depending on work schedules) I'll be trying to update the Locations document with the locations I've written up.
Edit: Oops, forgot to add a big thing: We will be, at some point in the future'ish time, making a new document that serves as sort of "Barrier World: Unchained" document with alternate optional rules. These will include more lethal combat systems of a sort of Fallout nature (i.e. breaking or losing limbs), a totally revamped economics system (currency value, exchange rates, etc.) among other things.
In the Kamakiri's entry, there is ambiguity about the claws. They have four arms, but it is unclear what they all are capable of doing. Two of them have claws, good for little more than combat. Does that mean they can or can not hold items in the claws? Can the claws wield a weapon? Thats combat. What about the other two arms. I assume these don't have claws. Do they function like a pair of arms belonging to a "normal" race?
Some kind of thing for langauges. Vague. It should state that they can speak and read their own language, and can understand and read common, but can not speak any others. As for "sign languages", you should give some thought to that. How many sign languages exist in Coria? A simple solution would be for kamakiri and common only.
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Come Saturday we'll go back and address the issues you brought up Ciaran. Some of the fluff does need addressing (had to go back and remove "Lesser" from the Centaur entries for example) so we'll see about clearing up the hands vs claws bit, and we'll see about expounding upon the languages and the issue of sign language.
To answer your questions though, the Kamakiri have two sets of arms, one set that end in hands (which function like hands of any other race) and one set that are essentially mantis claws. The claws may be used to grip and grab but provide no mechanical bonus and are not dexterous enough to manipulate items, tools, potions or, really, anything.
As for the languages, as a non-kamakiri you may either specifically take a racial sign language as per the bonus languages at character creation, or your become proficient in sign language of the languages you know after investing a given number of skill points into Linguistics (I believe the number was 5).
Kamakiri on the other hand can learn the languages in their entry, but can only SPEAK Kamakiri. Knowing a language for Kamakiri makes them proficient in understanding, reading and writing that language, and counts as knowing the signed form of the language. The Tongues spell gets around the language barrier as per normal though.
I would think that only a limited number of languages would have a sign language, at least in a fantasy RPG world.
Technically, sign language is its own language and will stand alone against any other language.
Someone proficient in sign language could communicate with anyone who knows it, what verbal language they know is actually irrelevant.
==Aelryinth
Technically, sign language is its own language and will stand alone against any other language.
Someone proficient in sign language could communicate with anyone who knows it, what verbal language they know is actually irrelevant.
==Aelryinth
In a fantasy world this could absolutely be true.
I would point out though that sign languages in our real world are mostly language dependent. There are english sign languages and german, etc.
A lot of symbolic signs are duplicated from language to language (like the one for love for example) but the alphabets and spelling when it comes to that ARE language dependant.
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In a fantasy world this could absolutely be true.I would point out though that sign languages in our real world are mostly language dependent. There are english sign languages and german, etc.
A lot of symbolic signs are duplicated from language to language (like the one for love for example) but the alphabets and spelling when it comes to that ARE language dependant.
Technically, sign language is its own language and will stand alone against any other language.
Someone proficient in sign language could communicate with anyone who knows it, what verbal language they know is actually irrelevant.
==Aelryinth
I get where both ya'll are coming from with this, and I'll talk with the guys about maybe cutting down on the sheer amount of sign languages we have. Perhaps have a base like Common and then a handful of dialects like Varisian and Ustlavian for Core Pathfinder, but for things like Elven Sign Language, High Lycan Sign Language, Kamakri Sign language (which is hella difficult to do 'cause it requires four limbs), etc.
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Right, so update: Races are at a place of balance stat-wise (at least in the eyes of the planning crew). Working on a feat for Harpies, Lizardfolk and Arctien (a new race based off arctic hares) that 1) must be taken at level 1 and 2) gives additional racial bonuses based on the tribe chosen. Expect the feat to be hammered out by the 6th of June.
Info to be updated on the WIP document.
Under the Table of Contents, Character Options has a smaller point size that the other entries. Also, I think changing the name of that entry to something like "Character Classes and Races" would make it easier to find what I am looking for.
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Under the Table of Contents, Character Options has a smaller point size that the other entries. Also, I think changing the name of that entry to something like "Character Classes and Races" would make it easier to find what I am looking for.
Text size was mostly to ensure the entry had its own line. Changed the wording though, may go back in and just lower the font size for all the links.
I'm speechless, this is AMAZING. Everything about it is great, the races, the fluff and the prestige classes, everything. I have one suggestion for the drow though, maybe add +1 Caster Level for Transmutation spells would be cool for drow, as they don't have many unique traits that make them different from normal drow (stat-wise).
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I'm speechless, this is AMAZING. Everything about it is great, the races, the fluff and the prestige classes, everything. I have one suggestion for the drow though, maybe add +1 Caster Level for Transmutation spells would be cool for drow, as they don't have many unique traits that make them different from normal drow (stat-wise).
We'll look at taking that under advisement (I'll text the guys later today about it). The SLAs though were kinda needed so the Coria Drow could meet the requirements for the Drow Noble feat tree. As they're a bit on the underwhelming side (compared to, say, Harpies, Texhutu and some others), I doubt a boost to Transmutation spells would be overpowering.
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Okay so update on stuff:
1) We are going ahead with the previous Drow buff and giving them a bonus to Transmutation spells.
2) The campaign should be starting this Saturday. Characters include an Arctien Gunslinger, an Orc Shaman, a Harpy Sorcerer, a Rat-Skinwalker Warden (Path of War) and a Solarborn Warlord (also Path of War). Initial tests on the Warden and Warlord show that they're a bit more powerful than expected which might skew encounters a bit.
3) Presented an ideas to the R&D guys about adding more dimorphism to the Kamakiri in the form of more insect types. Thinking about working it like the Tiefling and Aasimar varients. Current insect ideas are moth, scorpion, ant and spider (though may overlap with the Texhutu). Suggestions and opinions are, as always, appreciated.