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OK, maybe it's not an artifact. But the magic item I need is mucho powerful, and I'm not going to worry about its cost. These 6th-level PCs won't be stupid enough to contest with an admittedly minor goddess -- but still, a goddess -- over its possession. However, I do need to stat the thing out, because the PCs will undoubtedly find it -- and PCs do the darnedest things!
Now, I keep throwing the word "Disintegration" around, but I know it's not really the same effect. The spell has to go up against a specified target, while I'm conceptualizing this plate as destroying anything that touches it. The spell is a ray; even if you could make it permanent, it would still be a ray. Obviously, I want a 2D, circular plate; no matter how many rays you stacked side by side, liquids would still slip through the cracks to get stinky. (I'd say plane, but that implies infinite dimensions to me.)
Maybe there's a better word for the effect I want?
As it stands, this is probably best described as a magical trap, never mind what conniptions it took to create it. Let's say that spotting that the "bottom" looks like energy takes a DC 15 Perception check, while interpreting what you see as a Disintegration effect takes a DC 20 Spellcraft check. That is trivially confirmed, though, with any bit of rubbish thrown in. Avoiding it is trivial, too -- just don't climb in! But the DC for dispelling the effect is "Mythic." And I'm pretty much done -- except for describing disabling it.
Now I could say, "you can't." Except that the space below the Disintegration plate makes for a hauntingly powerful cache for a buried treasure! And the party is in fact searching for a mystic artifact that the (non-Mythic) creature currently using the magical privy has stolen and wants to secrete away...
So what? Do I just put in a boring On/Off switch, and set a DC to spot it? Can permanent spells be given an On/Off switch? (I'm betting not.) Or instead do you have to tunnel through 20 feet of snow to find a door into the bottom area? Or what?
Anyone who is NOT playing in my game is authorized, of course. :) I'll very much appreciate it if I can get a collaborator or three on this!
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Rednal, thank you for your guidelines and suggestions. I'm musing over them as I type.
Once she got her hands on a Talisman of the Sphere, my thieving gatekeeper could certainly manage to control the Sphere -- quite possibly better than the Queen expected. Certainly, it's plausible that she could lift it quickly in order to have an accomplice chuck something into the cache, then put it back the next round. Wonderful, just wonderful.
A sphere of annihilation is a globe of absolute blackness 2 feet in diameter. Any matter that comes in contact with a sphere is instantly sucked into the void and utterly destroyed. Only the direct intervention of a deity can restore an annihilated character.
A sphere of annihilation is static, resting in some spot as if it were a normal hole.
Well, the party will indeed have a deity nearby if direct intervention is called for... Good to have a backup plan.
Now, the PCs open the lid and look inside the privy, and what do they see? First it says that the item is a "globe of absolute blackness." Then "as if it were a normal hole," as if it's invisible. And hole in what? Can it "rest in some spot" in mid-air? I don't see why not. Specifically, why couldn't it rest halfway down the chute inside Her Majesty's privy? :) But I'd like to be sure how to describe the view.
And I really do need some reason why the gatekeeper doesn't just fling this thing at the PCs, or die trying...
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I added the idea of a difficult requirement in the edit.
...
...
... what will the heroes doooooooooo~!?
Have it be a "lesser" sphere.
Your question was, "how many does the queen have" and my answer, "She just had the one, and it sucked, and was worthless, so she used something to make lots of little ones instead."
Backstory set-up:
CONCEPT: Take a mythic problem and make it more mythic.
SET UP:
1) let's say she had a problem she couldn't deal with, even with an orb (there is exactly zero chance that it wouldn't get better, what with the divine intervention thing).
2) she needs to save her people through "any means necessary" - oh, hey, isn't it convenient that a divine entity "heard [her] prayers" as, it were, (or this one, both are okay for this sort of thing); either way, the dude used to be a specialist in these sorts of things, and so knew what's up, and had the skills to make it happen. How'd he get mythic? Who knows, who cares - maybe he fell into a mana well and got lucky or something. Lots of ways, choose what you like.
3) Queeny is a devil-hating crafty bard with glibness and skill focus and trait (or alt if you go a different route), and has powerful sages and mages (or whatever, it doesn't matter, as long as it's "enough") in her thrall. She thus accomplishes the impossible: she kids a kidder and deceives the devil his own self (well, at least the one she makes a binding contract with). The contract is resolved when her twelve problems are entirely taken care of.
4) So! Queensalot allows Hutijin (or whoever) to take care of her (now "little") problem of a Tarrasque, and gains a potent force of loyal devils (or whatever - again, it doesn't really matter). She then has a unique problem of finding a method of extracting souls and lost resources from an orb of annihilation (possibly the little thing that had somehow roused the first big problem, and discovered in its former layer after the fact) - something that an actual "god" (eh, kind of, with that mythic path power) like the devil-creature should be able to do. The first step, of course, is to break the power of the artifact, which is done by applying terrible curses into it. Secretly and subtly, this is also placed into Hellboy (not the comic character). Maybe the artifact's power is promised to be "delivered to <devilishly handsome>" at the resolution of this contract.
5) The actual trick occurs, now: Hutjin has the power "delivered to him" in the course of the resolution and destruction of the artifact, and he is put inside, shattering it, and him, into dozens of pieces.
6) These pieces work like a normal sphere', but at much less potency (as most of it is keeping devil's own from reforming), and periodically rain ashes (from the continual disintegration of the reforming devil inside). No one can really be allowed to know what, exactly, these things are, so... toilets. After all, how valuable could they be?
7) Stuff passes through, is turned to ash, and a periodic prestidigitation is used to clean up that side-effect, while create water(+)bless water allows the toilets to be flushed with only the finest of holy water (weakening the prisoners further). (One alternate or tandem possibility is using the grease spell to create a constant internal-coating, or something. I don't know.)
8) Because of that... how does it not get destroyed? Well, we'd said it was disintegrate, but maybe, instead, it's a combination acid, fire, negative energy damage; note dragon hide and how useful that is. Let's say that somehow or another (the specifics are irrelevant), the flesh was peeled from said devil prior to its imprisonment (or, perhaps, even as part of its imprisonment). Heck, maybe even the master was divided into <it's hit-dice worth of> lemures (22, in Hutijin's case) - leading to the kind of hilarious thought of mythic lemures with, perhaps, the giant simple template (or something). These can be kept in separate pits around the kingdom - mostly harmless (relatively speaking), but only able to be truly disposed of by a special ritual and/or by chosen heroes once a century. Maybe these are kept harnessed by the queen to generate power, even allow her to answer prayers, but things are kind of... twisted, or intermittent, or some such drawback. Or something, I don't know, that's just a side-thought.
9) (but still secretly 8), Anyway, all of that was to say that, perhaps, the flesh of the very beast that was slain was forged with, say, gold and cold iron to seal the deal, and thus made personally immune to the destructive power of the orb. Alternate possibilities are Elysian bronze (for opposing alignment), Hellstone (this may instead be growing, like crystals, in the toilet) or dreamstone or something. This makes the tubes quite sturdy, yes, but not as sturdy (or necessarily as expensive) as some other options, especially if it's just a thin coating that's been magically reinforced, or something.
10) And then the toilets were distributed to various places to make it really, really difficult for anyone or anything to burrow holes into various ones and move the orbs, and no one was ever told, ever.
... and so there are about fifty of these things (two for each hit dice, and two for each mythic tier) spread around secretly powering the kingdom while acting as a literal dumping ground (I'm totally not sorry) that also imprisons and weakens one of hell's formerly most powerful creatures.
As to what Mephistophiles (or, alternatively, Mammon, or whoever) is doing during all of this? Letting it abide. Why? Their dude was getting too uppity - dangerously, so, in fact. So, yeah, he's just allowed to cool for a while. Sure, an attempt is made - unstable or stupid devils are "promoted" to "special assignment" to free the doofus, or whatever - but really it's a half-hearted effort, at best, meant to both keep jerkface indebted to Meph (or whoever), keep the law of trust ('cause a subordinate requires soemthing - probably technically exceeds the requirements, just to make trapped dude owe more, but carefully balanced to be unlikely to succeed), and to keep those heroes also indebted ("Why, look at that, you happened to face challenges you could handle them, exactly when you could handle them. How... extraordinary. Almost like someone planned it that way. By the way, that'll be 5,432 souls, please. Oh, you don't want to pay that owed debt? Sure, let's make a deal..."), and to keep the queen indebted (the contract has yet to be fulfilled, and yet she's receiving far more "assistance" than originally requested), and all of it is "legal" and none of it harms the big dawg, and all of it keeps the jerk in line.
But then there's a meddling corrupt guardsman what get's his grubby mits on a talisman of the sphere...
Oh, and as to why he does't just use the thing on them: it won't go through the toilet seat, and he makes the whole system work by having a small "tunnel" (hole) to the <right, or whatever> of the tunnel - he pushes it aside there, and back into place after. It'd take <arbitrary number of rounds> to go into that hole and dig up - after all, he burned a stone shape wand getting down there to drill the hole the first time, before using it again to hide the evidence...
Incidentally, the old queen could have died, so new queen (the current one) is unaware of this whole thing...
... or whatever. That's just one possibility, and a template to build ideas off of.
Hope that helps!
** spoiler omitted **
Or this! This is also a really good idea! XD
(And much easier/more simple than mine!)
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I didn't notice a character level, so your PCs might have access to things like dimension door to just skip past it. Now... more enterprising players might see this as an opportunity and try to stone shape a stone donut around it and create a portable annihilation circle. With the right mounting, could be a great shield, and even better when you try to bash with it.
To me, that sounds awesome, and you can get rid of it with dispel magic after they've had a bit of fun with it.
** spoiler omitted **Or this! This is also a really good idea! XD
(And much easier/more simple than mine!)
Let's look at requirements, intermittent functions, and drawbacks!
With these, it's important to keep in mind which could motivate PCs and why. Also, there is nothing preventing you from applying multiple requirements/intermittents/drawbacks to the thing - it's a decent way of saying, "Not for you guys, sorry." in cases like this, though it can still be used in the way the bad guy was using it.
- Requirement
- Character must discard all other magic items
- Character must change her name to a specific name. The item only works for characters of that name
- Character must add a specific class at the next opportunity if not of that class already
- Character must have a minimum number of ranks in a particular skill
- Item must be
cleansed withholy water each day
... so that's several off of the basic list of normal requirement things that may be powerful tools to dissuade PC interest. Note especially how the things function with each other, and how different aspects can build off one another.
- Intermittent
- Out of direct sunlight
- Underground
- In the hands of a non-spellcaster
- Within 10 feet of a spell-caster
- On holy days or during particular astrological events
... look into the possibility of how the different intermittants can dictate either story elements or help you understand or justify certain NPC behavior or plans.
- Drawbacks
- Character's hair grows by an inch every hour
- Temperature around item is 10 degrees F <cooler/warmer> than normal
- Character’s <<hair/skin> color/gender/kind> changes
- Character now bears some identifying mark (tattoo, weird glow, or the like)
- Character’s alignment changes
- Character is stunned for 1d4 rounds once item function is finished (or randomly, 1/day)
- Character’s vision is blurry (–2 penalty on attack rolls, saves, and skill checks requiring vision)
- Character gains two negative levels
- Character cannot cast <arcane/divine/any> spells
... these are just a powerful list of "do not touch" signs waiting to happen. These are some of the most punishing aspects toward any who might try and use it, or could harm character concepts or identity - one reason I left "changes into a specific creature" off the list is that could wreck entire builds, depending on the creature type. Think carefully before applying these, as they're pretty painful and can wreck things quickly.
Finally, there's the, "just make your own" list, like so:
- the item does not function, unless it's being used as part of a toilet
- the item does not function for 1d4 rounds if prayers to <insert name here> are recited out loud within 10 feet
... that pretty much solves your problem, and you've got a story that functions for you instead of against you.
The great thing is that this functions for whatever final effect you're looking for - whether a violet 'wall, or sphere of annihilation, it's a solid investment that permits what amounts to a useful toilet that could also be not very dangerous.
Speaking of the 'wall, it could simply be a function of the magic of the toilet. It's pretty daggum ostentatious and stupidly expensive - and exactly the kind of excess if, say, you had a bound pit fiend -, but the toilet automatically repairs and use permanency on the violet 'wall every time its destroyed. That means that it keeps getting better, and they dispel it, but it comes back. The shield idea, thus, would work, but doing so makes it a one-shot, while the toilet... the toilet is forever. ;D
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I love you guys! Tacticslion, I especially want to name my next-born child after you. <kiss> Wait, the only children I can have at this point in my life are my character creations... so I guess I have to come up with an interesting NPC, now! Luckily, this is a "furry" world, where animals talk & walk on two feet. I have snow leopards rather than lions (since lions like the heat way too much for a land named "Winter"), but a shivering foreigner from "Summer" named Tactics is quite possible... What class would you like to be? :)
You put sooo much creative flair into this, I have to explain things further. As I mentioned in my OP, the PCs are 6th level.
The PCs' continent on the Material Plane is called "Winter" for good reason -- it's subarctic running up into the arctic. So it does have normal seasons, although winter has been gaining an unnatural hold on the year. The PCs are on a quest to regain the Radix, an artifact that helps summer return annually to their land. They have found out that the Queen's gatekeeper, a winter hag, stole the Radix with the aid of her changeling daughter and some kobolds who the hag compelled to serve her. (The PCs have also agreed to bring the hag's head back to said vengeful kobolds, and to return the changeling -- preferably alive -- to her foster tribe for judgement.)
Luckily for the PCs, they befriended some yeti and were able to arrange a conversation with Her Majesty (appearing on the Material Plane by remote image). She brought them into Her demesne, Her personal plane, with the explicit agreement that they will find this minor irritation that has been introduced without Her leave and remove it. She clearly is willing to let them deal with the gatekeeper & her daughter summarily. In exchange, the PCs agreed not to harm Her Majesty's intelligent subjects, take more than half the value of what they find in the gatekeeper's house, or explore other areas of the demesne, like the Queen's own palace or the yeti village. Finally, in return for the permission to enter Her demesne and leave again, they've agreed to do Her Majesty a trifling service... after, of course, they get the Radix back in time for the winter solstice ritual!
And now back to the topic at hand...
Unfortunately, much of Tacticslion's long story doesn't fit the world. Very unfortunately! :) However, the line that stuck with me was...
Your question was, "how many does the queen have" and my answer, "She just had the one, and it sucked, and was worthless, so she used something to make lots of little ones instead."
Great idea! She had one Sphere of Annihilation, but was really distressed at needing so many privies in Her beautiful, white-as-purest-snow demesne. So She broke it into pieces. How Her Majesty managed that trick is not really all that important. She's the Queen of Ice and Darkness! She can do these things! (She certainly has Void as one of her domains. You can tell, I'm running with GM Rednal's urgings here.)
So She was left with tiny shards of a Sphere that She stretched so each fit in a circular frame that a craftsman yeti could put in a privy. They still work, but on nothing larger than a baseball. Anything bigger... what? ...gets disassembled, but very slowly? Sounds good to me!
So now we're sadly looking at a mechanism that can be safely installed or uninstalled by a knowledgeable craftsman. Oh well, there won't be that many times that the bearbarian gets to use his Knowledge (engineering). With that as an Aid Another, the rogue-type should be able to remove the frame without much drama. {wording edited.}
Of course... the PCs do have to figure out first where the Radix was hidden. Depending on the outcome of events, they may be able to question the changeling. They may think to cast their Detect Object right over the john. (They already know it's located "down" a bit.) They may try tunneling under the house through the snow, led by the first Detect Object. At that point, they'll find a blemish-free canister. Or they may... who knows? PCs do the darnedest things, don't they? :D
Too tropical (though his color is right)
Looks like the kind of piecemeal armor I'd cheese, even though he's a lynx
This has nothing to do with your game, but I'm putting it here, just because
Snow tiger! ... is still wrong.
Am Barbarian? ... still snow tiger.
I'll get back to you on classes
... also, he should have a constant sneeze as a quirk, considering I'm allergic to cats in real-life... XD
EDIT: not saying you should use those - I'm too fat and unkempt for most and I've no idea if any of them fit into your world's aesthetics. These are just pictures that are kind of cool. They are basically there for quasi-cool inspiration. :)
I apologize: I'm on a phone, and have just enough time to look stuff up but not enough to properly for at, so copy/pasting is ugly, and no real links. Sorry!
- bard, inquisitor, or wizard...?
- cleric with animal (fur) and war (tactics) domains (or reincarnating Druid that has those?)
- adept so I don't outshine the PCs?
- maybe a good lich (or good psychic lich for the story aspect), no matter what?
The first ideas I came up with:
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/prestige-classes/advanced-players-guide/bat tle-herald/
- battlefield tactics?
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/prestige-classes/core-rulebook/pathfinder-c hronicler/
- because I wrote a lot?
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/prestige-classes/other-paizo/i-m/lion-blade /
- basically just for the name...
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/prestige-classes/other-paizo/s-z/winter-wit ch/
- in theme with your world!
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/psionics-unleashed/
- tactician or telepath...
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/animals/cat-great/mythica l-lion-tohc/
- awaken spell and bipedal template (see below for template "link")
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/magical-beasts/lammasu/
- reflavored as a be a olent nature spirit
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/outsiders/agathion/agathi on-leonal/
- reflavored as a benevolent nature spirit
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/templates/animal-lord-cr- 2/
- immortal animal lord from an age long past guarding the sleeping remnants of his lost guardianship
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/templates/
Anyway, any of those could be fun or interesting character concepts! Or not! Either way; enjoy!
Take what you like and dump the rest!
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Now, the PCs open the lid and look inside the privy, and what do they see?
More importantly, what do they smell?
They smell excrement. Going to the loo is messy business and not everyone is going to have *ahem* perfect aim, and eventually someone will eat something that disagrees with them, etc. etc.
It's going to smell because some of that waste is not going to make it to the bottom. And if you were the cleaning staff and knew what was down there, would you try to clean up around it?
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** spoiler omitted **
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Tacticslion, I too am a great friend of the spells you mention! The hag WILL be capable of casting one or the other, I assure you.
John, if you recall, I had already mentioned the possibility of needing a spell like that on a regular basis in my OP. But thanks for reminding me of the necessity! I'm still statting the characters out, so it's timely.
Meanwhile, for your character, I focused in on the Tactics subdomain, probably for a druid, since this world really doesn't have much in the way of clerics or organized religion. And this pic looks perfect for how I envision your character back at home on the continent of Summer far, far away. (Down by the equator.) But you've traveled to the continent of Winter, in the dead of winter, to witness the Radix awaken the spirits of summer at the winter solstice... Why? (At least you only had to go as far north as the sub-arctic!)
Incidentally, you'll have a homebrew race. While I can do a slight tweak on the cat-kin race I did for the snow leopard, I'd love to know if there's any specific traits in the Race Builder that call out to you. I'll give you in a separate spoiler the race description for cat-kin; it's an Advanced race! Note that you'll have a "Summer-bred" SQ which gives you a hefty -4 penalty on Con checks for enduring cold conditions, while making you exempt from them for enduring hot ones. Even here in the sub-arctic, you are COLD! Bundled in furs, carrying a small fortune in heatstones that you use up at the rate of 3 a day, and eager to get back to Autumn-port, no doubt. At least in a dwarf- & halfling-built town, you can huddle next to a stove while you wait for the first in your series of ships needed to get you halfway down the globe.
The continent of Autumn, lying to the southwest of Winter, is temperate, and populated not by furries but by dwarves, halflings... and undead. There's reasonable trade between the northeastern coast of Autumn and the southwestern coast of Winter. There's also reasonable trade down the eastern coast of Autumn. And finally, there's reasonable trade between the southeastern coast of Autumn and the northwestern coast of Summer. That's at least three ships you took to get to this festival! (All crewed by halflings, btw.) Likely, it took you five months to reach Winter's Autumn-port, and then you were committed to staying until spring. But at least the townsfolk are civilized, and have solid walls and stoves. (Not that you're used to such things back home, it's just that they're so very welcome in the bitter cold.) Largely because of how strenuous the trip is, there is very little communication between Winter and Summer. Very little. Many Winter-kin don't really believe there even is a land of Summer!
Sub-digression: Winter-kin are only loosely organized, which must be much like summer-kin. Each race (cat-kin, dog-kin, etc.) functions as a tribe, divided into clans that are nomadic and come together only for holidays. Only the rat-kin are completely non-nomadic, maintaining narrow, crowded warrens and an outdoor camping-ground for all the other tribes for those holidays. They also serve as traders, and in summer do journey to Autumn-port to trade. (Rat-kin grow truck gardens, but no winter-kin debase themselves enough to mine or farm grains. I feel certain that no lion-kin would, either! So the rat-kin trade luxurious furs trapped by fox-kin & fine crafts created by dog-kin & bear-kin for metals and grains. I'm sure there are rat-kin in Summer who happily trade... what? spices and hard-woods, perhaps... for metals & grains at their Autumn-port, too.)
Rat-kin can certainly claim to be the key to this society (and yours in Summer) functioning as a whole, with all of these disparate races cooperating. But so can bear-kin, who are the smiths and hunt monsters and big game. Arguably, it's the cat-kin -- these snow-leopard cousins of yours -- who are key because they feed everyone through the winter with their more consistent hunting, however. But then it's the fox-kin who trap for the furs that get traded for necessities. Or the raven-kin who travel hither and yon, delivering messages.
But probably the tribe with the greatest claim to be the linchpin to this society as a whole are the dog-kin. They have books, you see. (Well, so do the rat-kin, but their interests are different.) They raise goats & ponies, and so travel slowly from meadow to meadow in wagons. Small wagons, too small to live in or for a hulking big lion-kin to sleep in. But big enough to carry books and a large assortment of other belongings. (Far more than your people would consider necessary, of course.) The big thing is that it's the dog-kin who are asked to arbitrate disputes between two clans, and even more so if the disputants are of different tribes. It's the dog-kin who record agreements, and make copies to trade amongst themselves, so that whichever dog-kin matriarch is appealed to will know what agreements had been reached, even generations earlier. End sub-digression
There's got to be dog-kin of Summer, too. And it's only reasonable to assume that they're the diplomats and arbitors there, too, for all that lions might strut about. Maybe Tactics is here to guard a diplomat? And come to think of it, the elders of all the tribes around here are muttering about how long winter lasts these days. The season seems to last longer over the course of the year, and night lasts longer over the course of the day, than it did twenty years ago -- although the gains are modest every year. It's also reasonable, now that I think about it, that Summer would be having the converse problem: the season of summer is lasting longer, and daytime is lasting longer as well, in your land. It's less of a problem, granted, but too much heat is ultimately just as bad for even vegetable farming & hunting, given that prey must browse. So perhaps you've come north on your own to seek some clues -- or perhaps to guard a very curious and elderly dog-kin matriarch? hmmm.
My party is hopefully going to be returning home soon, Radix triumphantly in hand... Who will they meet, and why have they arrived at Golden Falls? Does this spark ideas to give me?
And if you think of Tactics as a young but brilliant male lion-kin (ie, you don't have a pride yet) who has been chosen to guard a fairly helpless but important personage on a vital mission into unknown lands, what classes do you think of? Druid with the War (Tactics) domain is not by any means locked in.
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This thing is going to need a name. I suggest calling it "Lack".
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Here's my cat-kin race. Others might be interested, I suppose, although some adaptation for a different world would be necessary. I didn't really like the Paizo catfolk, you can tell, although I certainly consulted the write-up. Besides having some philosophical disagreements, I wanted an advanced race. Although I got to write the fluff, Debnor & I collaborated on the race design.
In addition to feeling an urge to hunt and to satisfy their curiosity, nearly all cat-kin enjoy being the center of attention. Thus they value even quirky expressions of their strong individuality, and cat-kin performers are often the most artistic of all. However, only the unkind whisper that it is for the attention they crave that cat-kin are so notably generous to their family and friends; cat-kin themselves know that they value the individuals around them as much as their own individuality. At cat-kin celebrations, the guest of honor gives gifts to the guests. In fact, cat-kin can be even unwilling to barter for the goods they need; they often simply offer someone a gift, and wait with curiosity to see what gift will be proffered in return.
Physical Description In general, cat-kin are as lithe, slender, and tall as elves. While clearly bipedal humanoids, they possess many feline features, including pale green or grey eyes with slit pupils, long whiskers about their mouths, and ears that are pointed in a slightly rounded and catlike way on the top of their heads. Their soft fine fur is of smoky gray to yellowish tan, notably both front & back, although the fur on their fronts is much paler than that on their backs. It is all marked with grey (in front) or black (in back) open rosettes. (The snow leopards they resemble in animal shape have a whitish underside, but animals don’t present their bellies to the world!) They have an incredibly long and graceful tail – but thick and densely-furred rather than slender. They have normal humanoid hands with long, graceful fingers tipped with small and sadly non-retractable claws. These claws are not powerful enough to be used as weapons, but some cat-kin keep them sharp enough to scratch.
Society As with the other tribes (races), cat-kin society is defined primarily as clans traced through the mother's line. However, self-expression is such an important aspect of cat-kin culture, that it is easy to miss the fact that cat-kin even have clans. One rarely sees more than a couple and their young offspring moving through the forest at a time. Yet, as the saying goes, where you see one cat-kin, there's a dozen not that far off. It is a mystery to other races, however, how all these discrete individuals can maintain enough cohesiveness to function in the off-hand, cat-kin way as a clan. Certainly, a clan’s eldest female is more of an advisor than ruler, since the cat-kin are the least prone of all the animal-kin to following orders -- or indeed, to giving them.
Alignment Given their frequent indulgence in individuality and curiosity, almost all cat-kin are chaotic. Not only are they not interested in following orders, they often forget the promises they made yesterday in pursuit of the mystery they've spotted today. But they are so charming, they are usually forgiven! And with such generosity and appreciation for the individuals around them at the center of their culture, most cat-kin tend toward good alignments. They are far happier to ask questions first and perhaps make a new friend than to strike first and thus certainly make a new enemy. Even as hunters, they offer their prey respect.
Typical Names
Male: Carruth, Drewan, Ferus, Gerran, Nyktan, Rouqar, Zithembe.
Female: Alyara, Duline, Hoya, Jilyana, Milah, Miniri, Siphelele, Tiyeri.
Clan: Rock-walker, Tree-jumper, Mastodon-slayer, Lightning-flinger.
Cat-kin Racial Traits
(4 RP) +4 Dex, -2 Con, +2 Int/Wis/Cha: Cat-kin are curious, perceptive, sociable, and extremely agile, but not as hardy as others. {Hopefully, identical for lion-kin.}
(0 RP) Type Cat-kin are humanoids with the animal-kin & shapechanger subtypes. {Identical for lion-kin.}
(0 RP) Size As Medium creatures, cat-kin have no bonuses or penalties due to their size. {Identical for lion-kin.}
(0+1 RP) Speed Cat-kin have a base speed of 30 feet, and can move through natural difficult terrain at their normal speed while within hilly or mountainous terrain. Magically altered terrain affects them normally. {Lion-kin would need a different terrain, or would drop Terrain Stride altogether.}
(2+1 RP) Athletic Cat-kin hunters excel at hunting prey from trees and other high vantage points; they possess a climb speed of 20 feet (along with the +8 racial bonus on Climb checks a climb speed affords), and are always considered to have a running start when making Acrobatics checks to jump. {Lion-kin would definitely need to replace this!}
(1 RP) Low-Light Vision In dim light, cat-kin can see twice as far as those with normal vision. {Identical for lion-kin.}
(1 RP) Cat's Luck (Ex) Once per day when a cat-kin makes a Reflex saving throw, he can roll the saving throw twice and take the better result. He must decide to use this ability before the saving throw is attempted. {Identical for lion-kin.}
(2 RP) Natural Armor Cat-kin gain a +1 natural armor bonus to their Armor Class. {Identical for lion-kin.}
(2 RP) Nimble Faller Because cat-kin have an amazing sense of balance and keen knowledge of their own center of gravity, they land on their feet even when they take lethal damage from a fall. Furthermore, they gain a +1 bonus to their CMD against trip maneuvers. {Lion-kin might need to replace this.}
(1 RP) Weapon Familiarity Because cat-kin are trained from birth in certain cat-kin weapons, they are always proficient with the cat-kin claw gauntlet (Lt Ex; see below), cat-kin knives (functionally identical to kukri, Lt Mar), and hand crossbows (regular & repeating; Rgd Ex). In addition, they treat bolas (Rg Ex) as a martial weapon, although they prefer not to need them. {See discussion of Leonine Hooked Hammer, following.}
Cat-kin Claw Gauntlet This is a Light Exotic gauntlet of thick leather or metal that has short curved blades protruding from the upper fingers and sharpened viciously on the inside edge, allowing you to slash with the force of a punch, as an armed attack. The cost and weight given are for a single gauntlet. You can cast spells, hold objects, reload crossbows, etc. with a gauntleted hand, but the weight of the blades causes you to suffer a -4 penalty on attacks you make with any other weapon wielded in a gauntleted hand, as well as on all precision-based tasks requiring a skill check that involve that hand (such as opening locks). Your opponent cannot disarm you of cat-kin claw gauntlets. Characters with proficiency in cat-kin claw gauntlets are considered to fill the prerequisite for the Rending Claws feat, and may gain its benefit if wearing two of them and using two-weapon fighting.
Cat-kin Claw Gauntlet ~ 20 gp ~ 1d4 Small ~ 1d6 Med ~ x2 Crit ~ n/a Rg ~ 2 lbs ~ B/S
(0 RP) Languages Cat-kin begin play speaking Common and Felinese. Those with high Intelligence scores can choose from the following languages… {TBA for lion-kin.}
SQ Change Shape (su; (snow) leopard, Beast Shape I). {lion, Beast Shape II}
Beastspeech (su; speaks normal leopard dialect of Felinese in leopard shape). {speaks lion dialect in lion shape; understandable to winter-kin who know Felinese with a DC 15 Linguistics check.}
Winter-Bred (ex; no Constitution checks for cold conditions, but at a –4 penalty for hot conditions). {Summer-bred; no Constitution checks for hot conditions, but at a –4 penalty for cold ones.}
And then...
To go with the pic some more, and given that I'm giving weapon familiarity as a racial feature, I'm thinking that lion-kin train in the "Leonine Hooked Hammer," which is basically identical to the Gnome Hooked Hammer. What I then have to figure out is whether all lion-kin get familiarity with leonine weapons automatically, or if it's just a martial weapon for them (instead of exotic). The latter approach would make easier to restrict such weapons to males, if females would be urged to take up simple-proficiency classes like druid. But in that case, if Tactics is a druid anyway, he'd have to burn a feat to get the weapon familiarity.
Of course, if sex segregation for class is typical (which is NOT true for leopard-kin, btw), why would they send a wimpy guard? So it looks like either all lion-kin get the familiarity, OR Tactics isn't a druid. I'm fine with the latter possibility, and I'd prefer to work with the picture as inspiration.
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This thing is going to need a name. I suggest calling it "Lack".
Wonderful! Simply wonderful! Yes!
1) reminds me of me (Southern boy who lived off-and-on in Lithuania for most of a decade)
2) I love ~! (I'll totally guard that.)
3) this is feeding my already dangerously-large ego... I thought my wife put up signs about that! XD
(Though, to be fair, she sneaks it way too many snacks...)
I don't know about anyone else (and it may just be because I've a vested interest, now), but I'm intrigued to see where this game goes, in the future...
Awesome cat-kin stats, bitter lily! Caught up, and (hopefully) all concepts well-communicated...
Anyway!
digression, pictures:Thank you ever so much for the links! The many, many, many links. LOL. I've sent the two sets of snow-leapard-kin to my sister for her perusing pleasure; I hope she can find a suitable pic for her character! How'd you like to be repaid with more requests? Is there a batting-eyelashes emoticon? I know, I'll try =) The thing is, I'd adore having some images to browse through for a black bear, white fluffy sheepdog, and rat...
First of all: I mostly just Google Image search whatever it is.
Second of all: no promises (exactly zero, in fact), but sure! Sorry about the lateness...
So, as it turns out, the internet lurves them some polar bears, but really doesn't have that much on black bears?
Brown/Grizzly
Polar
I dunno, but hard core(+)adorabawesome!
Eye patch polar general
Look, his face is technically black - partial credit?
Wait, this isn't a bear at all, how'd this get in there?
A "grizzled" warrior... get it?! GET IT?! ... I'llseemyselfout
Polar bearbarian (or general or something)
Also a polar bearbarian (or general or something)
Brown Usai
Polar power!
For that "inevitable" d20Modern game?
Also for that "inevitable" d20Modern game?
Also, also for that "inevitable" d20Modern game?
Look, internet, polar bears are awesome, but I'm looking for black bears (this one is awesome, though)
I might've done this already, but I don't know anymore
Da bears
I suspect looking for lycanthropes will be promising
Did I already do this one?
This could be cool? But he looks like a fighter...
Bear folk - anatomy study!
The most dangerous predator of all...[/url]
[spoiler=Other Stuff]
You didn't ask for a gnoll, but I found it, so...
This guy is probably wise and charismatic - because of his "rhi" sense of humor~! A-hah~!
This is total bullogna!
Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo. What? It's grammatically correct!
Eeeeeek, vampire wolf (look at those canines!)
Wolf among us
Bird guy!
Redwall squirrel
Redwall otter
(no seriously, check out Redwall)
This search looks promising, but I totally ran out of time, with just these, and it's nothing like what I'd have liked to do. Mmmmmmmmmmmaybe sometime later?! XD
Sorry!
Hope that helps!