One of the players in our group recently wanted to play a character that looked half snake and half person, but on an actual human scale (the stats for Marilith and Lillend Azata both make it clear they're giants based on the stats of their weapons), as well as without having it be some kind of angel/demon. Using the Advanced Races creation rules from the beta document made available, and a standard race 10 RP point buy set up - as well only options that weren't in advanced or monstrous categories (monstrous humanoid is not the same as a monstrous category selection) - we were able to put this together:
JUNGLE SNAKE PEOPLE
Type: Monstrous Humanoid (Reptillian)
Size: Medium
Land Speed: 30 ft.
Climb Speed: 20 ft. (+8 Racial Bonus on Climb Checks)
Swim Speed: 30 ft. (+8 Racial Bonus on Swim Checks)
Ability Modifiers: +2 Dex, +2 Strength, -2 Intelligence
Languages: Draconic, those with high intelligence scores may choose from the following: Common, Orc, Gnoll, Giant.
Racial Abilities:
- Jungle Snake People have Dark Vision 60 ft.
- Jungle Snake People have a +4 racial bonus to CMD against Bull Rush or Trip.
- Jungle Snake People always have Stealth and Perception as class skills.
- Jungle Snake People get a 10 ft. Racial Bonus when using Charge, Run, or Withdraw.
- Jungle Snake People can hold their breath while swimming for 4 times their constitution before they are at risk.
- Jungle Snake People may carry objects with their tail, but never to wield weapons. They may use the tail retrieve small stowed objects on their personage as a swift action.
POINT TALLY: (includes justifications)
- 0 Points: Standard Abilities (chosen to best balance with other players races)
- 2 Points: Monstrous Humanoid (includes Darkvision 60, they definitely have a specific animal feature rather than being completely humanoidish)
- 0 Points: Xenophobic Language (they don't get out much)
- 1 Point: Stability (It's not impossible to knock them down, but harder than normal without legs)
- 1 Point: Climb (all other similar monsters in the book had one)
- 1 Point: Swim (various similar monsters in the book had one)
- 1 Point: Sprinter (While doesn't normally go faster than other player races, can speed up in certain circumstances)
- 1 Point: Stalker (They are a race that most often hunts for food in a jungle)
- 1 Point: Hold Breath (The race often swims in jungle rivers and are very good at holding their breath for distance swimming)
- 2 Points: Prehensile Tail (There's little point in making a race where the point is a snake tail unless it does something)
TOTAL: 10 Points
The general idea of the concept is something like a tribal village of hunter/gatherer people deep in the jungle that happen to have a snake tail instead of legs. We're currently in the process of writing up an official lore information section, but I was wondering if anyone had thoughts on this so far. The name given might not be the actual final name when we're done, and we are definitely open to suggestion. We are especially open to suggestion if someone has a better idea for the set of languages available.
I think that you should not make them monstrous humanoids. That makes them immune to a bunch of spell effects like charm person, hold person, or enlarge person. Dark vision 60 costs the same number of RPs and does not come with the baggage.
The Xenophobic Language array is bad for PC races. You don't want to have the character end up not being able to speak to the other PCs.
I think abilities like climb and swim are under-costed in the play-test. Having both of them makes you a super All-terrain vehicle. I think climb speeds on monsters are balanced by the fact that you only find them in their natural environments. The Snake People will be able to climb brick walls without making a check.
Don't be afraid to break the point caps, the play-test rules will change a-lot and you need to use your best judgment. I would replace the Xenophobic array with the standard and replace climb speed with a +2 racial bonus to climb. This pushes the total to 12RP, but is actually a drop in power.
From a flavor point of view, I am not a fan of sprinter. Snakes are not really much faster than mammals or other legged creatures. I'd replace this with either poison use or poison resistance.
Finally, you are not supposed to have both your ability pluses in either physical or mental stats. I'd swap them for +2 dex, +2 wis, -2 cha: Snakes are agile and cunning, but do not empathize well.
Other than these things, I like the race, there is a diverse set of racial abilities. It looks like a fun race.
Thanks for catching the part about Standard Modifiers. The rest of the suggestions are currently being looked into (such as replacing Sprinter with something else). As for the Monstrous Humanoid part, we had been having spells like this still work on them.
I think most people's fears with Climb Speeds come from not being very familiar with the rules and failing to apply them correctly:
http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/skills/climb.html
POINT 1: A creature with a climb speed has a +8 racial bonus on all Climb checks. The creature must make a Climb check to climb any wall or slope with a DC higher than 0, but it can always choose to take 10, even if rushed or threatened while climbing. If a creature with a climb speed chooses an accelerated climb (see above), it moves at double its climb speed (or at its land speed, whichever is slower) and makes a single Climb check at a –5 penalty. Such a creature retains its Dexterity bonus to Armor Class (if any) while climbing, and opponents get no special bonus to their attacks against it. It cannot, however, use the run action while climbing.
POINT 2: A rough surface, such as a natural rock wall or a brick wall, has a DC of 25. As this is clearly more than 10, they will have to roll for it. They do have a far better chance than normal of making it, but it s not a guarantee.
SIDE NOTE: We've found that if you actually enforce every last flight rule in the book, b#*@~y dice have a way of making fliers have flight technicalities all the time. They must always move more than half their speed every turn or roll a check (hovering can be bad), they can not fly up at more than a 45 degree angle without making a check, they must spend two movement units (rather than one) to go diagonally, turning 90 degrees is a flight check, turning 180 is an even bigger flight check, wind is a flight check every turn, getting hit is a flight check. Once you factor all that in, you have to ask yourself if the given situation is worth risking it.
Clovis15 wrote: I think most people's fears with Climb Speeds come from not being very familiar with the rules and failing to apply them correctly:
http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/skills/climb.html
POINT 2: A rough surface, such as a natural rock wall or a brick wall, has a DC of 25. As this is clearly more than 10, they will have to roll for it. They do have a far better chance than normal of making it, but it s not a guarantee.
Ah, but they still get to add their climb skill to that. At level 1, with 1 rank and +1 strength, you have +13, so get 23 when you take 10.
To Knight Magenta:
I did change the ability modifiers to your suggestion so they don't have the +1 Strength bonus anymore. It's now +1 Dex, +1 Wisdom, -1 Charisma to all skills, just as you suggested. I am still debating the other suggestions given heavily based on your arguments and the arguments of our group.
To Drejk:
We are aware of them, actually. Someone in our group is even playing a Kitsune Gunslinger, of all things. However, the Nagaji unfortunately were not what the person wanted at all. The person was specifically hard set on not a scaley person, but something more like a centaur except with a snake lower half.
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