Adapting Yami's Infamous Homebrew (Nekogami)

[Luminiere Solas]

here is an adaption of Yami's famous homebrew race from gleemax. the Nekogami. now pathfinder usable. hopefully this makes him proud.

NEKOGAMI RACIAL TRAITS:
+2 Dexterity, +2 wisdom -2 Constitution: Nekogami are graceful and perceptive, but frail
Fey
medium size, no bonuses or penalties due to size
Nekogami base land speed is 40 feet.
Low light vision, Nekogami can see twice as far as humans in conditions of poor illumination, such as torchlight, starlight, moonlight and the like.
Slight build; a nekogami may squeeze without the associated penalties. as long as they squeeze in a space that can accomodate thier size. (such as sharing a square with another medium creature, or moving through a ventilation sahft)
Ageless; a Nekogami, at any point in their life, may stop their aging in it’s entirety. Once they perform this, they cannot go back. (or forward) They also cannot magically age. Once they stop aging, age categories never again apply to them. They reach adulthood the same time as humans, but have elven age categories as long as they can age. They receive neither bonuses nor penalties from age.
Nekogami recieve +2 on perception, acrobatics and escape artist checks
Nekogami receive a choice of "one" of the following 6 features (Marked with a *)
*1 Weapon finesse as a bonus feat, also applies to 1/handed weapons
*2 improved unarmed strike as a bonus feat, but with the option to deal slashing damage instead
*3 silent image a number of times per day eual to 1/2 character level (round down minimum 1/day) CL1st DC11+cha mod
*4 cat form; may transform to and from a common housecat for a number of minutes per day equal to character level; broken up as desired
*5 2 weapon fighting penalties are reduced by 2
*6 1 extra skill point per level (as per human racial ability)
Automatic Language: Common, Sylvan Bonus Languages: Any (including secret languages such as druidic)

Height; as human
Weight; as elf or human (whichever is lighter)

Nekogami typically appear perfectly human, (60% of the population) though rare specimens (40% of the total population) have ears reminiscent of housecats, of those who have cat ears, 30% of the cat eared specimens also have tails (12% of the total population). They are the descendants of the many daughters of “The Father of all things feline” a fey lord of all things feline. A neutral evil aspect of Gozreh, who watches over the feline creatures of the world, as well as cat lovers, cat folk, feline art, Nekogami, Nekomata, Neko Musume and the like. Legends say the guy had 50 daughters, and that the youngest slew the older 49. The youngest daughter, with the collective absorbed power of the deceased 49 created the Nekogami race. Taking traits of humans with other traits of the Neko Musume. The youngest daughter recently took daddy’s position by force. This goddess goes by the poorly chosen name her father gave her while he was chewing catnip. “Shuriken Nekogami”. (“Cat God’s Thrown Dagger“, she prefers the translation “Cat God’s Shooting star”) most typical Nekogami prefer to end their aging at the ages of 12-14. Rarely exceeding 16. Their goddess stopped aging at 12 and a half. Though Nekogami can be any class, the norm seems to be rogue, ranger, swordsage, or cleric. The goddess “Shuriken Nekogami” offers the following domains; Trickery, Community, Luck, Charm, Healing and Chaos. Her alignment is chaotic neutral and her favored weapon is the shortsword. She is not very commonly worshipped. She might have a small shrine inside a temple of Gozreh, but it is less likely she even has one.

they tend to have feline personality quirks. hunter mentality, stealthy stalkers, moe appeal, lions courage, or even something as minor as milk addiction.

i need your opionions of this adaption. is it balanced?

Edit; Removed offhand damage bonus and changed slight build, added options for particular abilities.

[A Man In Black]

Untyped bonuses to hit and AC and movement and offhand weapon damage, non-humanoid type, and other bennies to boot, with no disadvantages save -2 con.

No. They are not balanced. Also, it bugs the heck out of me when a race looks exactly like humans except that they are more speshul, but I guess that's a problem you inherited.

[Luminiere Solas]

A Man In Black wrote:

Untyped bonuses to hit and AC and movement and offhand weapon damage, non-humanoid type, and other bennies to boot, with no disadvantages save -2 con.

No. They are not balanced. Also, it bugs the heck out of me when a race looks exactly like humans except that they are more speshul, but I guess that's a problem you inherited.

what can i remove? the creature type, and weapon finesse are essential. the reason it's mental bonus goes to wisdom is because there isn't a Dex/Wis race yet. i guess i can remove the offhand damage bonus and slight build (the hit, ac and stealth bonuses). the stopping aging entirely not only denies the penalties of aging, but the bonuses too. i guess it is an inherited problem. the race always had the fey type, low light vision, weapon finesse, ageless, and the speed bonus. only 60% of them look exactly human. with minor feature changes. i technically increased his number of cat eared specimens. (used to be 10%). humans have the advantage of choosing where to place the bonuses they get.

[A Man In Black]

Luminiere Solas wrote:

what can i remove? (Besides the weapon finesse)

Pick one of the small size thing OR fey type OR higher movement speed. Any one of these would be a big signature power.

[kyrt-ryder]

It would probably be easier to add things to them, to the point that they deserve a +2 CR rating (which eventually gets weakened to +1 at a certain point), such that they are basically an LA+ race, than to pull things away.

Honestly, this race looks fairly close to the Goliath's from 3.5, one of few races that were worth a +1 LA, but Pathfinder handed the base races a boost, so find a few more small items you feel match the theme and there you go.

[Luminiere Solas]

would they be +0 CR if i dropped the slight build, fey type, and ambidexterity

what's so special about the fey type? i don't own the bestiary.

they tend to have feline personality quirks. hunter mentality, stealthy stalkers, moe appeal, lions courage, or even something as minor as milk addiction.

[kyrt-ryder]

The Fey Type actually isn't the biggest piece. It's more or less a Wash, getting immunities to some effects, but some of them being good things.

Slight build, that off-hand effect, and the move speed are all awesome traits.

Given their flavor as I read it I'd be more tempted to drop the free dual-strike (remember right now your basically given them two free feats) than the slight build. Drop both feats and leave Slight build and the movement speed alongside the stats and I would guess it comes in about right.

[Luminiere Solas]

kyrt-ryder wrote:

The Fey Type actually isn't the biggest piece. It's more or less a Wash, getting immunities to some effects, but some of them being good things.

Slight build, that off-hand effect, and the move speed are all awesome traits.

Given their flavor as I read it I'd be more tempted to drop the free dual-strike (remember right now your basically given them two free feats) than the slight build. Drop both feats and leave Slight build and the movement speed alongside the stats and I would guess it comes in about right.

instead of dropping abilities, i nerfed a few. i dropped the offhand bonus. and a few excess skills. now they ignore the squeezing penalties. squeezing is rare.

the original theme was anime catgirl. hence the speed bonus, weapon finesse, fey type, low light vision, ageless, and the original skill bonuses. dexterity fit the theme, wisdom was to create a combination that was lacking. (charisma would've been the preffered 2nd stat but there are no Dex/Wis races)

[kyrt-ryder]

Luminiere Solas wrote:

kyrt-ryder wrote:

The Fey Type actually isn't the biggest piece. It's more or less a Wash, getting immunities to some effects, but some of them being good things.

Slight build, that off-hand effect, and the move speed are all awesome traits.

Given their flavor as I read it I'd be more tempted to drop the free dual-strike (remember right now your basically given them two free feats) than the slight build. Drop both feats and leave Slight build and the movement speed alongside the stats and I would guess it comes in about right.

instead of dropping abilities, i nerfed a few. i dropped the offhand bonus. and a few excess skills. now they ignore the squeezing penalties. squeezing is rare.

the original theme was anime catgirl. hence the speed bonus, weapon finesse, fey type, low light vision, ageless, and the original skill bonuses. dexterity fit the theme, wisdom was to create a combination that was lacking. (charisma would've been the preffered 2nd stat but there are no Dex/Wis races)

I know what the theme is, I'm quite familiar with Nekotama ^_^

But yeah, you were piling on too much at the time. (Also, I'd argue that the fey type and the ageless thing aren't actually Neko traits so much as traits some Neko as presented in some sources)

The weapon finesse really isn't necessary as if a Neko intends to focus on dex they'll take the feat anyway. (Not to mention that providing the feat tends to push the characters down that path, the dex bonus could be just as useful to a str based druid or Fighter or Monk as well, who's not specializing in it but appreciates the bonus.

I'm also not entirely sure where you got the dual-wielding thing from (probably the origonal write-up lol) but I've never seen that as a common trope. (More likely they'd have access to claws as natural weapons than double-strike or whatever the feat is called)

Hmmm... now that I think about it... what say you and I put together a second race as well. One can be the traditional human off-shoot Neko's that are baseline races, and the second can be the more mystical animalistic ones that tend along a higher baseline power (+2 CR)

[Luminiere Solas]

i instead of providing required weapon finesse made it an optional talent.

6 choices (player gets one option)

1st is a slightly better weapon finesse
2nd being claws (technically improved unarmed strike with the option of slashing damage)
3rd being a pool of silent images
4th being limited feline transformation
5th being reduced 2 weapon fighting penalties
6th being human bonus skillpoint option

[Luminiere Solas]

edited the options

now it is a limited pool of bonus feat options (most of which are chain starters)

heres the updated race

NEKOGAMI RACIAL TRAITS:
+2 Dexterity, +2 wisdom -2 Constitution: Nekogami are graceful and perceptive, but frail
Fey
medium size, no bonuses or penalties due to size
Nekogami base land speed is 40 feet.
Low light vision, Nekogami can see twice as far as humans in conditions of poor illumination, such as torchlight, starlight, moonlight and the like.
Slight build; a Nekogami may squeeze without the associated penalties. as long as they squeeze in a space that can accommodate their size. (such as sharing a square with another medium creature, or moving through a ventilation shaft)
Ageless; a Nekogami, at any point in their life, may stop their aging in it’s entirety. Once they perform this, they cannot go back. (or forward) They also cannot magically age. Once they stop aging, age categories never again apply to them. They reach adulthood the same time as humans, but have elven age categories as long as they can age. They receive neither bonuses nor penalties from age.
Nekogami receive +2 on perception, acrobatics and escape artist checks
Nekogami receive a choice of one of the following feats as a bonus feat at 1st level, Weapon finesse, Blind Fight, Improved Initiative, Improved Unarmed Strike, Agile Maneuvers, Dodge, Combat Reflexes Or Combat Expertise, these feats are also added to the lists of available bonus feat options determined by class. (such as ranger combat styles or sorcerer bloodline feats)
Automatic Language: Common, Sylvan Bonus Languages: Any (including secret languages such as druidic)

Height; as human
Weight; as elf

options (with simplest reasons) (some reasons may be repeated)
Improved unarmed strike amounts to a replacement for lacking claws. weapon finesse (it has stayed since the very original write up, kind of a sacred cow. came from 3.5 housecats.) blind fight, (your feline hearing allows you to reroll miss chances) Dodge (catgirls have amazing evasion) Agile Manuevers (a tribute to the nekogami sacred cow) combat reflexes (some of the nekos i've seen are quite twitchy getting free attacks on the poor mook, purely reflexively) Combat expertise (more evasive goodness)