TheMightyTeebs's page

Developing this for a homebrew setting that I'll hopefully eventually be able to put online. Initially designed as a feat to allow Serpentfolk wizards to bind hobgoblin and ogre warrior-servants.

Please let me know what you think, and I hope you like it!

Arcane Thrall
Prerequisites
ability to cast 4th level arcane spells
Benefits
The character gains an NPC Thrall with whom they have an arcane bond. The Thrall,
willingly or not, undergoes a ritual lasting 24 hours in which they are bound
to the caster. Once this bond is created, the Thrall gains the following special
qualities:

Link
A spellcaster and their Thrall share a special link. When the caster and their
Thrall are within 100' of each other, the caster may, as a free action, give
orders to their thrall. When the caster and Thrall are within 1 mile, they
may communicate empathically, as per the description under Familiars. These
two aspects of Link are cumulative.
Share Spells
A spellcaster may cast a spell with the target of "You" on their Thrall, even
if the spell normally doesn't affect a creature of that type.
Devotion
A Thrall gains a +4 morale bonus on Will saves against enchantment spells and effects.
Arcane Lever
A Thrall automatically loses all Will saves against all of their bound spellcaster's
enchantment spells and effects.

The maximum level of the Thrall is determined as for Cohorts under Leadership, substituting
the modifier of the ability score from which the caster derives bonus spells and/ or spells per day in place of Charisma, and
applying none of the penalties or bonuses listed under Leadership.

Limitations
The Thrall must be of the type Humanoid or Monstrous Humanoid.
This Feat may be taken multiple times, but each new thrall incurs a cumulative -4
on the maximum level of the new Thrall.

Looking for some sources for generating rules for binding a warrior-type in service to a wizard, in a manner which is beneficial but tyrannical; I'm going for an (at best) grudging partnership where the spellcaster is undoubtedly the boss, with the ability to make it stick.

So far, the only thing I've found is the Thayan Knight prestige class, and about the only thing that I can really see taking from it is the tattoo which causes the Knight to automatically lose their saving throws against mind-affecting spells cast by a Red Wizard.

I'm looking at both the Leadership feat and the various Eidolon and Familiar rules vis-a-vis their connection to the Summoner and Wizard; I might even make this a feat that replaces the familiar for wizards.

Trying to put together some home-brew stuff, and hoped to pick the hive mind concerning more sources for what I'm trying to pull off here.

Thanks in advance.

Trying to keep my hand in while I don't have a group, I started to think about "strange" races to include instead of the standard races, and came up with the following. Let me know what you think, mechanically or flavor-wise.

Ability Score Modifiers
+4 Str, -2 Dex, -4 Wis, +2 Cha

Racial Abilities
Pipes of Pan
Like their namesake, Satyrkin are lovers of
wine and music, and can use hypnotism as a
Spell-Like Ability 1/day
Self-Centered
Satyrkin have a strong sense of what they desire
at any given moment, and gain a +2 bonus to saves
agains charms and compulsions.
Low-Light Vision
Satyrkin can see twice as far as humans in conditions
of dim light.

Racial Feats
Reach
Your reach increases by 5 ft. This feat may only be taken once.
Honeyed Words
You may use Suggestion 1/day as a Spell-Like Ability.
Prerequisite: Character level 4

Alternate Favored Class Bonuses
Any Class
Add +1/4 to the effective CL when using the Pipes of Pan
or Honeyed Words Spell-Like Abilities
Barbarian
Add +1 to the barbarian's total number of rage rounds/day
Bard
Treat the bard's level as +1/2 level higher when using the
Fascinate bardic performance
Sorcerer(Fey Bloodline)
Add once spell to the list of spells known; this spell
must be of a level the character is able to cast

General Description
Decidedly more beastial than, but still capable of much
of the charm of their namesakes, the hermaphroditic
Satyrkin are what Satyrs might have been had they
been birthed into a world that drove them to excel
physically. In such a world, their larger size
is matched by an even lesser ability, some would
say a survival trait, to contain their urges.

Although all satyrkin possess the ability to both sire
and bear children, they have a decidedly masculine frame,
and must nurse their young with skins filled with wine and
blood taken from their flocks.

Satyrkin begin the game speaking Common and Sylvan

Physical Description
Satyrkin tend to tower over other races at 7+' tall,
their heavily-muscled phsyiques giving them an imposing
silhouette. Two rams' horns sprout from their head,
framing what turns into a bushy mane going halfway
down their backs. Two powerful, animal legs end in
broad hooves.

Society
Arranging themselves into temporary nomadic bands
which coalesce and dissolve in ways that outsiders
find mystifying, Satyrkin live primarily as shepherds,
trappers, and hunters. Rarely forming permanent settlements,
Satrykin who have settled in civilized lands tend to
do so in larger cities, where they tend not to succumb
to the lack of variety in smaller communities.

Alignment and Religion
Satyrkin are no more likely to be good or evil than
other races, but they are creatures of passion, both
for good an ill, and skew very heavily to the Chaotic
alignments. Satyrkin tend to worship gods of nature
and caprice.

Adventurers
Adventuring comes naturally to those who are able to
wander, and Satyrkin are no different, viewing a life
on the road as a way to experience the new, and give
breath to their whims.

I'm moving to Hannover in a few weeks, and would like to begin poking around to see if anybody's down there (passing through Hamburg on my way there).

Sadly, my German is truly incomplete (e.g., I can only string together phrases which amuse me; "Darf ich deinen Clown reiten?" etc.), so for the first few months (let's be realistic!), I'd have to speak English. Apologies if that's a burden for everybody :-|

I'm coming off of a year of DM'ing a Pathfinder group, so I'd much prefer to come as a player, if possible :)

Reading over the Wikipedia entry for Sikhism, it occurred to me that that would be a really good non-European translation of the Paladin, which then led to me sketching out a southern/southwest Asian-inspired campaign world(still under construction).

As reincarnation is a strong element in religious traditions from India, I decided that I wanted some game mechanic for that, and so I've ginned up some Feats that I think are appropriate, with low- and mid-level offerings, with the idea that the 'capstone' feat is the only one that is really class-specific, so that the 'intermediate' feats in the tree are of general use to various character concepts.

My question to ye, the good folk of this board, is whether or not

1) the feats themselves are roughly balanced, and
2) whether or not they seem to cohere around the reincarnation theme in a game-mechanic-appropriate manner.

Apologies for any and all formatting issues; the 3 levels are Sleeper -> Echoes of the Past -> Awakened, if it's hard to read below; more Feats are, of course, bubbling away where only I can see, but feedback on what I have already is much needed.

Sleeper

Sleeper: Echoes of the Past
Prerequisite: Sleeper, Character level 5th

Sleeper: Awakened
Prerequisites: Sleeper: Echoes of the Past, Character level 9th

I'm starting an underdark campaign this week, and although I've managed to crib and modify a relatively sweet dungeon, one of my 2 players hit me with a necromancer, which throws a bit of a wrench in the works in that the primary enemies will be kobold skeletons (although it now gives me a great campaign hook, in that the big bad doesn't need to necessarily be defeated right away, because he owns a big shiny necromantic power source, so it's a blessing in disguise, really :) ).

I'm not worried that this will necessarily make the encounter too easy, as I had actually designed a few failsafes because I thought the encounters might be a bit overwhelming to a pair of 1st-level characters.

My concern is that the 2nd PC is a straight fighter, and may end up feeling like a 5th wheel (although there are a few non-undead encounters where he may shine, but the big one of those is supposed to be a super-run-away encounter that I would've hoped they would leverage to help deal with the undead hordes).

Is there any advice that folks can give about balancing necromancers vs. undead vs other players in this situation? Or am I worrying needlessly?

ETA: I'm allowing core/UM/UC to narrow down the scope here

TIA

PS - this is my first time DM'ing pretty much ever, so I'm accepting that I'll likely fumble a bit at first whilst feeling my way around balancing players/encounters/fun/TPKs/etc, so I'm willing to risk entertain new and strange ideas.