Ok, I am trying to make a race of creatures that from visual appearance look like orcs, however I want to make them much much nastier.
Desired abilities:
Scaling Spell Resistance Like a Deep Gnome.
Fast Healing, I am thinking 10.
DR of three types 15/magic, 10/Cold Iron, 5/-
I want to have 4 basic types of these creatures, creatures type defined by the class levels I add to it:
Fire resistant: Fighter or Barbarian
Ice Resistant: Cleric or Druid
Acid Resistant: Wizard or Witch
Electricity Resistant: Rogue or Bard
I know this is a little vague, however I have been working on these for about the last 2 days and nothing I am doing is coming out to my satisfaction. I have tried advancing an orc by racial HD. I have tried building a monster from scratch. I have used my google-fu to no avail, so I come to these boards with my head low and my GM hat empty. Please help.
Ok, I am trying to make a race of creatures that from visual appearance look like orcs, however I want to make them much much nastier.
Desired abilities:
Scaling Spell Resistance Like a Deep Gnome.
Fast Healing, I am thinking 10.
DR of three types 15/magic, 10/Cold Iron, 5/-
I want to have 4 basic types of these creatures, creatures type defined by the class levels I add to it:
Fire resistant: Fighter or Barbarian
Ice Resistant: Cleric or Druid
Acid Resistant: Wizard or Witch
Electricity Resistant: Rogue or Bard
I know this is a little vague, however I have been working on these for about the last 2 days and nothing I am doing is coming out to my satisfaction. I have tried advancing an orc by racial HD. I have tried building a monster from scratch. I have used my google-fu to no avail, so I come to these boards with my head low and my GM hat empty. Please help.
So you are planning to create a monster race not, not one for players to chose from right?
If thats the case there is nothing stoping you here, fluff them any way you want, but it worked in LOTR so no reason not to go with the evil wizard tinkering with orcs concept.
About your abilities:
SR 11+class levels is fine.
Energy resistance is no realy problem too, but you might consider making colour coded subraces with slightly different racial mods (say the grey ones are the best wizards or witches, the red ones well suited für Barbarians ....)
The fast healing is kinda much especially considering it in combination with the damage reduction, this effectively means that a squad of them can whipe out a town if they do not have magic weapons, and even then...
You could end up with:
2 monstrous Humanoid HD, SR 13 + class levels, +4 to 1 ability score and + 2 to 2 others, Fast Healing 5, DR 10/Magic, 5/Cold Iron and 3/- as well as 5 points of energy resistance per 5 class levels+ hd
I would give it CR 5
Thank you for your response, I am planning to color code them via Tattoo-like natural markings that they are born with that defines caste. They are also a monster race yes not a PC race.
So, your suggestions are as follows, just restating so as to ensure I have them correct.
1.) SR 13+ Class levels
2.) 2 Racial HD
3.) +4 1 ability score, +2 to two others
4.) Fast Healing 5
5.) DR 10/magic, 5/Cold Iron, 3/-
6.) 5 Appropriate Energy resistance/ 5 class levels/HD
Setting this as a CR 5.
I am still on the fence about this thing having the lower DR and Fast Healing. This is simply because the idea I had for them is that they came in and conquered a duchy with an army 10-20 times their size.
The other reason I had for the higher defensive stats is that I am trying to challenge my group of level 12 PC's that are substantially overpowered. I was very generous with stat rolling they all did very well and I also out of a mistake gave 2 stat points at 4,8,12... and have decided to not change rules midstream.
Anyway to sum up I want this race to be a substantial threat to a large area and also one on one to the PC's. I had imagined them dealing with the chieftain and having a hard time with just him and his shaman at level 13.
SO with those caveats how does this sound?
1.) SR 13+ Class levels
2.) 2 Racial HD
3.) +4 1 ability score, +2 to two others
4.) Fast Healing 10
5.) DR 12/magic, 6/Cold Iron, 3/-
6.) 5 Appropriate Energy resistance/ 5 class levels/HD
Setting this as a CR 6.
Just an idea and thank you again for your help. :-)
I kinda think Tolkien elves would be Pathfinder Elves with the Celestial template.
What do you think of Orcs with the Fiend template? That would make them Urukai! :-)
Thanks for the idea Dire Hobbit.
I have already tried about 8-9 different templates on the base Orc race however and it just does not quite fit what I want.
I want the players to look and see,
"Oh its a bunch of Orc's no problem. Humm they are wearing armor well must just be because they have class levels. We will still steam roll em. Mount up everyone!"
Then I want terrible things to happen.
These are supposed to be a long running opponent of the PC's and the world. A new race that breeds slowly but has enormous potential.
Anyway just my idea's thanks again all.
Thank you for your response, I am planning to color code them via Tattoo-like natural markings that they are born with that defines caste. They are also a monster race yes not a PC race.
So, your suggestions are as follows, just restating so as to ensure I have them correct.
1.) SR 13+ Class levels
2.) 2 Racial HD
3.) +4 1 ability score, +2 to two others
4.) Fast Healing 5
5.) DR 10/magic, 5/Cold Iron, 3/-
6.) 5 Appropriate Energy resistance/ 5 class levels/HD
Setting this as a CR 5.
I am still on the fence about this thing having the lower DR and Fast Healing. This is simply because the idea I had for them is that they came in and conquered a duchy with an army 10-20 times their size.
The other reason I had for the higher defensive stats is that I am trying to challenge my group of level 12 PC's that are substantially overpowered. I was very generous with stat rolling they all did very well and I also out of a mistake gave 2 stat points at 4,8,12... and have decided to not change rules midstream.
Anyway to sum up I want this race to be a substantial threat to a large area and also one on one to the PC's. I had imagined them dealing with the chieftain and having a hard time with just him and his shaman at level 13.
SO with those caveats how does this sound?
1.) SR 13+ Class levels
2.) 2 Racial HD
3.) +4 1 ability score, +2 to two others
4.) Fast Healing 10
5.) DR 12/magic, 6/Cold Iron, 3/-
6.) 5 Appropriate Energy resistance/ 5 class levels/HD
Setting this as a CR 6.
Just an idea and thank you again for your help. :-)
Sounds nice, and now that I know more about what you want them for, you could upgrade Fast Healing to Regeneration 10 that gets supressed when the race is hit with an energy type opposite to their resistance.
That way you can get really tough as nails orcs with the power to conquer a small duchy. And just to allow them to use proper tactics (read unfair PC tactics) make them rather smart int 12 and above. That way the might effectively use hit an run tactics or allow a hurt orc to retreat to heal himself.
Just for kicks what classes are your players, maybe they lack something allowing you to use that as advantage. To teach them, that they are not always top dog. ^^
For a stronger subspecies of Orc I'd go with a Black Orc (aka large sized Orcs with light amounts of DR, SR, and Fast Healing).