The Rat Race


Homebrew and House Rules

Dark Archive

Okay, so a fellow Paizonian asked me to come up with a mouse-like character. I tried doing it as a tiny creature, but found it was just to difficult to do and not have it be seriously underpowered. So instead I came up with something along the lines of Splinter form TMNT. I hope that is okay.

Ratling Racial Traits
+2 Dex, +2 Wis, -2 Str; Ratlings are quick and have great instincts, but they are weaker then other races.
Small Size: Ratlings are Small creatures and gain a +1 size bonus to their AC, a +1 size bonus on attack rolls, a –1 penalty to their Combat Maneuver Bonus and Combat Maneuver Defense, and a +4 size bonus on Stealth checks.
Normal Speed: Base Speed for a Ratling is 30 feet.
Darkvision: Ratlings canm see in the dark upto 60 feet.
Keen Senses: Ratlings have very acute senses and get a +2 bonus to Perception checks.
Natural Weapons: Ratlings have claws which thy can use to inflict damage on the opponents. These claws inflict 1d4 plus their strength modifier damage.
Languages: Ratling characters speak Common and Undercommon. Ratlings with high Intelligence scores can select from the following: Dwarven, Gnome, Halgling, Goblin, Orc and Terran.


Hm. Other than the base movement bump and the claw attacks, it's pretty much a halfling with some perks to me. *shrugs*

Why not a bite and a chance to spread infection as if they were a carrier?

Dark Archive

I thought about the bite attack and infection, but the request was for something like the mice in Narnia or the Secret of Nimh. I don't recall them using a bite attack or spreading disease in either source. In fact, both groups prided themselves on their cleanleness.


Oh that's right. I did remember CJ saying that. What was the difficulty putting to a tiny template? Couldn't you model it off something like the pixie?

Dark Archive

I have never seen a pixie as a PC race. Tiny creatures, on average, tend to be very weak when measured against average races unless they have some pretty hefty magic to offset the advantages of being so small. Overall, I decided that the tradeoffs were less with a small race. In this case, they could be on the small end of a small race and work quite effectively.


The trouble with Tiny casters is that they are either woefully underpowered or massively overpowered, depending on class.

A Tiny ranged rogue? OMFG. +12 Stealth? Even if the base weapon damage is 0, that's sniping all day long.

Tiny spellcaster, with huge AC bonus and your touch spells are totally going to hit.

Tiny fighter? ... yeah, well.

Liberty's Edge

He could always play a ratkin from Tome of Secrets.

Barring that, I'd replace Darkvision with Low-light vision unless there's a good fluff reason for them to have Darkvision. Normal rats don't even have Darkvision, but they do have climb and swim speeds. Your ratlings could maybe have a bonus to climb and/or swim checks to reflect that (maybe Athletic as a bonus feat?) With Undercommon as a language, it sounds like these guys live very deep underground (so Darkvision makes a little more sense.) Just my opinion, but I think if you're just going for a sewer-dwelling or upper subterranean race, you should just go with Common and Ratling as starting languages. Undercommon, to me, implies races that generally live miles underground. It makes sense for Dwarves because their kingdoms usually extend into the deep regions of a planet. Terran is the only other language I'd drop unless you imagine the ratlings as a race which has a history trading or warring with xorns and their ilk.


David Fryer wrote:
I have never seen a pixie as a PC race.

Faen

Dark Archive

Velcro Zipper wrote:

He could always play a ratkin from Tome of Secrets.

Barring that, I'd replace Darkvision with Low-light vision unless there's a good fluff reason for them to have Darkvision. Normal rats don't even have Darkvision, but they do have climb and swim speeds. Your ratlings could maybe have a bonus to climb and/or swim checks to reflect that (maybe Athletic as a bonus feat?) With Undercommon as a language, it sounds like these guys live very deep underground (so Darkvision makes a little more sense.) Just my opinion, but I think if you're just going for a sewer-dwelling or upper subterranean race, you should just go with Common and Ratling as starting languages. Undercommon, to me, implies races that generally live miles underground. It makes sense for Dwarves because their kingdoms usually extend into the deep regions of a planet. Terran is the only other language I'd drop unless you imagine the ratlings as a race which has a history trading or warring with xorns and their ilk.

The idea that I had with these guys is that rats have worked their way down into the Darklands, just like they work their way into most human citys around the world. Then a few of them found there wa into the residue left behind after some drow fleshcrafting experements and gain humanoid form and sentience. Then they secretly devloped their society in the shadow of drow society and spread out from there.


Nezumi worked well from OA, no adjustment for size, but alot of good material....

How about

Fey rat

Tiny
speed 10
fly 30

Liberty's Edge

That all makes having Darkvision and Undercommon seem much more likely, DF. I'd probably still include the climb and swim bonuses as a carryover from being ordinary rats.

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