Though this was posted in the Race Builder thread, I am reposting it here for discussion purposes. Do you think this is a good example of what the new races subsystem can do? Does it appear balanced? etc.
Myconids are race of humanoid fungus who hail from the most remote of underground caverns. As a society, they are reclusive and extremely cautious in their dealings with other races, and as such are rarely seen by any other than their neighbors. Most individual myconids are diligent workers that singlemindedly spend their entire lives working for the colony, but they do have a sense of individualism - no matter how small - and occasionally decide to become adventurers.
Play a myconid if you want...
- To play a race with an unconventional method of communication.
- To play as a creature from a subterranean background.
- To be a member of a race that favors the cleric, druid, and monk classes.
Physical Qualities
Myconids are stocky humanoids with bloated, spongy flesh. Their skin tones tend towards shades of grey and tan, but occasionally include dull shades of red and purple. Their heads are topped with a fungal cap, which is usually a darker shade of the same colour as the rest of their skin. Their heads are barely separate from their body, and their faces are only distinguishable as such by a pair of large eyes. Myconids have no mouths and no visible ears. They eat by standing on their food, usually while they sleep, and prefer their food slightly rotten.
Young myconids are immobile and mature rapidly, reaching their equivalent of adolescence within a year. Once they reach this point they begin to move about and work for the colony, and slowly grow to full size in the next four or five years. After this point, their aging is unpredictable: they grow as needed to fill roles missing in their colony. Myconids typically live about forty years before showing any signs of age. At this point their movement begins to slow and within five years they become immobile and begin to decay. A decaying myconid releases spores that grow into new myconids.
Playing a Myconid
Myconids are quick to listen, slow to talk, and even slower to act. Although they are willing to act without planing, they are much less willing to act without a firm grasp of their surroundings and situation. Recklessness is unknown to them. Those who have adventured for some length of time will learn to act with less information if the situation forces them to, but a myconid straight from the colony is likely to be cautious to a fault.
Myconids, especially those removed from their colony, are hard workers, and prefer to finish an entire day's work in one continuous action. When the day's work is done their preferred form of recreation is a type of telepathically shared hallucination, but without other myconids to share the experience with they are likely to attempt to join in whatever form of recreation is common among those hosting them.
Myconids consider most people to be their friends, and enjoy large gatherings. Though loyal, they will not fight to help a friend unless to defend that friend. An enemy of a friend is not an enemy to a myconid, but someone who attacks that friend is.
Myconid Characteristics: Cautious, diligent, pacifistic, reclusive, calm, fatalistic
Names: Myconids have no language of their own, and thus have no name in the conventional sense. Adventuring myconids typically choose a name from the first culture they visit.
Myconid Adventurers
Most myconids never leave their colony, but instead spend their life working. However, though most never visit the outside world, they still prefer to keep track of events outside the colony. Colonies occasionally send scouts to explore the world and come back with stories; these scouts often join groups adventurers and spend most of their lives abroad before returning with what they know. Not all myconid adventurers are scouts - myconids have free will independent of their colony and on occasion get wanderlust. These individuals typically stay with their colony until a season where they are not needed, then strike off on their own.
Breakdown
+08 RP, Plant type
----- RP, low-light vision
----- RP, immunity to mind-affecting effects
----- RP, immunity to paralysis, poison, polymorph, sleep effects, and stunning
----- RP, no need to sleep
+00 RP, small size
-01 RP, slow speed
-02 RP, mixed weakness modifiers (-2 Dex, +2 Con, +2 Wis, -4 Cha)
+00 RP, xenophobic array (Sporespeech*; Common, Sylvan, Treant, Undercommon)
+01 RP, spore cloud (as 1/day obscuring mist spell-like ability)
+02 RP, cave dweller
+02 RP, darkvision 60 ft.
=10 RP, STANDARD RACE
* Sporespeech: Myconids are physically incapable of speaking and instead communicate with others that have been exposed to their spores via a limited form of telepathy called "sporespeech." Mycanids may still cast spells with verbal components and/or make use of bardic music abilities (and any other effect that requires audible communication) using sporespeech just as well as a speaking creature can. Their passive spores travel as far as a voice can carry and a mycanoid can choose who "hears" their sporespeech about as well as a normal person can (in a manner similar to adjusting the volume of one's voice). Sporespeech can be "overheard" with a Perception check just as easily as a normal voice can. Mycanoids who are sufficiently bound cannot use sporespeech as it prevents the spread of their spores. A mycanoid may still use Silent Spell to cast spells while so bound, or without anyone "hearing" the verbal component of their spells.
Vital Statistics
Myconid Random Starting Ages
Adulthood; Simple; Moderate; Complex
8 years; +1d4; +1d6; +2d6
Myconid Aging Effects
Middle Age; Old; Venerable; Maximum Age
10 years; 18 years; 24 years; +2d6 years
Myconid Random Height and Weight
Gender; Base Height; Height Modifier; Base Weight; Weight Modifier
Male; 2' 8"; +2d4; 30 lb.; × (1) lb.
Female; 2' 8"; +2d4; 30 lb.; × (1) lb.
EDIT: I'm thinking I'm going to really like this new races subsystem. Though it could use a few minor tweaks and a LOT more options, its starting quality seems to be above and beyond what we've seen in previous playtests. :D
Myconids have genders?
Please let them be genderless, if just because I don't want to see the female myconid in a pin-up pose.
And the male myconids, the less said the better.
Myconids have genders?
Please let them be genderless, if just because I don't want to see the female myconid in a pin-up pose.
And the male myconids, the less said the better.
Technically no, since they propagate asexually (something explicitly mentioned in the above body text). I take it you didn't notice that the numbers are the same for both genders as well.
It's just a formality so the table looks like all the other tables for other races (mycanoids can still be masculine or feminine in nature and personality, if not in actuality).
I sort of wonder about an asexual race falling into gender roles designed for other species that have gender. We're not talking angels who are supposedly asexual but are obviously cross-dressers if you look at the iconography, but some sort of alien mushroom people.
Well, they DO have myconid KINGS, which leads me to believe that they do have an understanding and acceptance of the myriad roles of the sexes, even though they are technically asexual themselves.
Appearance of gender in nongendered races tends to make sense if they are constructed or they are able to direct their own morphology. It can help them fit in amongst other humanoids more easily. In cases of constructed races, look at how often people in real life make robots that look like women. It's not surprising that wizards (with exceptionally low charisma, cooped up in their lonely towers) would build constructs that appear attractive to them.
But... none of this really applies to Myconids.
Appearance of gender in nongendered races tends to make sense if they are constructed or they are able to direct their own morphology. It can help them fit in amongst other humanoids more easily. In cases of constructed races, look at how often people in real life make robots that look like women. It's not surprising that wizards (with exceptionally low charisma, cooped up in their lonely towers) would build constructs that appear attractive to them.
But... none of this really applies to Myconids.
No, no it does not.
I would assume it slowly filtered its way into their society through the stories of other cultures/races brought back from their scouts.
What do you think they do at the end of the day when they go into that hallucinogenic state? They're all dreaming about other cultures and alien (to them) races! j/k :P
In that case, I think that myconids who decided on gender roles would start dressing like drag queens.
While a myconid dressed in false eyelashes and a padded bra is vaguely amusing (especially if drawn by Erol Otus) after a moment's reflection it's too campy to fit into most games.
I'd prefer to keep the myconids asexual and vaguely alien with their drag queens either kept off stage or at most indulged in for a yearly carnivale.
In that case, I think that myconids who decided on gender roles would start dressing like drag queens.
While a myconid dressed in false eyelashes and a padded bra is vaguely amusing (especially if drawn by Erol Otus) after a moment's reflection it's too campy to fit into most games.
I'd prefer to keep the myconids asexual and vaguely alien with their drag queens either kept off stage or at most indulged in for a yearly carnivale.
"they grow as needed to fill roles missing in their colony"
Who needs a padded bra?
Seriously though, the idea of gender in an asexual race can be explained as a cultural practice of role designation. In an (entirely imaginary) evolutionary sense, it is possible that certain roles could be attributed to certain myconid who come to fill certain types of societal roles, such as hunter, child-rearer, politician, etc.
Basically, inverse sexism, if that makes sense.
Myconids have genders?
Please let them be genderless, if just because I don't want to see the female myconid in a pin-up pose.
And the male myconids, the less said the better.
Technically no, since they propagate asexually (something explicitly mentioned in the above body text). I take it you didn't notice that the numbers are the same for both genders as well.
It's just a formality so the table looks like all the other tables for other races...
If it's just a formality, I'd leave off the Male and Female designations. Or if absolutely necessary for consistency, switch them out with Hunter and Gatherer (or other roles).
...(mycanoids can still be masculine or feminine in nature and personality, if not in actuality).
IMHO, societal roles are fine and probably necessary, like Hunter, Gatherer, Soldier, etc. like other colonial critters like ants. I would normally expect such societal roles to influence and shape their mindset. But I don't think they'd go so far as consider themselves Male or Female or anything else sex-based... I think the asexual "alien-ness" of their race should be played up to make them more interesting and memorable.
In that case, I think that myconids who decided on gender roles would start dressing like drag queens.
Drag queens can't exist in a culture without differing sexes. Drag requires a differentiation of sex. In such a society clothes are clothes and are determined by style and trends, not the sexes (if clothes are worn at all).
In that case, I think that myconids who decided on gender roles would start dressing like drag queens.Drag queens can't exist in a culture without differing sexes. Drag requires a differentiation of sex. In such a society clothes are clothes and are determined by style and trends, not the sexes (if clothes are worn at all).
I meant that myconids, not having sex themselves, would tend to dress like caricatures of sex.
And if they grew themselves into sexual forms based on their perceptions of what other species had for sex? I can't see them budding puffballs under Dolly Parton size.
If spore speech allows communication with any race with a language, then it is actually a powerful ability and needs to be worth a fair number of points. If it only allows communication with other creatures that have sporespeech, then OK. But that will mean that myconid player characters will have to have at least a 12 intelligence to communicate with the other members of the party.Though this was posted in the Race Builder thread, I am reposting it here for discussion purposes. Do you think this is a good example of what the new races subsystem can do? Does it appear balanced? etc.
** spoiler omitted **...
Sporespeech is just an alternative mode of speaking in the first place. The languages communication is possible in are still limited to what a given myconid knows.
So, you can only speak, say, common and undercommon, but you're using tiny slightly telepathic spores to do so rather than your nonexistent mouth.
If spore speech allows communication with any race with a language, then it is actually a powerful ability and needs to be worth a fair number of points. If it only allows communication with other creatures that have sporespeech, then OK. But that will mean that myconid player characters will have to have at least a 12 intelligence to communicate with the other members of the party.Though this was posted in the Race Builder thread, I am reposting it here for discussion purposes. Do you think this is a good example of what the new races subsystem can do? Does it appear balanced? etc.
** spoiler omitted **...
And I thought I got all the problems nipped in the butt already.
Allow me to clarify: Sporespeech is its own language. As such it can be learned (or not learned) by others, though other races will find it difficult to return communications in a similar manner.
It is also a racial ability which allows them to function just as speaking creatures would. In other words, it is primarily a fluff ability. A myconid will not be understood by anyone they are transmitting to unless they are transmitting in a language familiar to the receiver(s). This, of course, means that mycanids of average to low intelligence cannot effectively communicate with non-myconids, just like a normal speaking creature with incompatible languages.
I loved Myconids-- and vegepygmies-- back in the good old days. Thanks for bringing back memories. I love your interpretation of them.
Of course, now I want to play a game with a Myconid Monk, two warhammer-wielding Magi brothers, and a female noble Songhealer Bard.
You are quite welcome Viktyr, though I don't understand your reference. A novel?
Super Mario Bros.
I always saw peach as a really incompetent sorceress. What with the mystic vegetables and flying and all.
Toad struck me as more of a bard than a monk. :p
I'm surprised no one has mentioned this digital illustration of a fungus person. Recolor the blue to white or gray, and maybe the cap to something colorful, and you're pretty darn close.
I always saw peach as a really incompetent sorceress. What with the mystic vegetables and flying and all.
She's the party healer in Legend of the Seven Stars and she's been shown to have inspirational and emotional powers in other games.
Toad struck me as more of a bard than a monk. :p
He's got the fastest land speed and best grappling out of the party. I can see Bard, though.
If anything, I'm more hesitant about the brothers. Magus covers all of the right powers, but it's a spellbook class.
I'm surprised no one has mentioned this digital illustration of a fungus person. Recolor the blue to white or gray, and maybe the cap to something colorful, and you're pretty darn close.
Dude! That's a smurf!
I'm surprised no one has mentioned this digital illustration of a fungus person. Recolor the blue to white or gray, and maybe the cap to something colorful, and you're pretty darn close.Dude! That's a smurf!
You helped me realize something our next game needed... a party of smurfs!
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I meant that myconids, not having sex themselves, would tend to dress like caricatures of sex.
And if they grew themselves into sexual forms based on their perceptions of what other species had for sex? I can't see them budding puffballs under Dolly Parton size.
You do realise, you've just caused the Rule 34 site to explode, don't you?
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Though this was posted in the Race Builder thread, I am reposting it here for discussion purposes. Do you think this is a good example of what the new races subsystem can do? Does it appear balanced? etc.
** spoiler omitted **...
I can't get that link to work; it sends me back to the Flip-Mat Blog post.
But mark me down as one who'd love to see a playable Myconid, ever since I saw the Slavelords series as a kid.
In response to the gender debate, a case could be made that rather than one gender, or two (just to make the table fit), that each tribal role serves the purpose of a 'gender', with divergent development to fit its intended role.