| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I'm thinking of allowing "talking animals" as a possible racial option. However, the Race Builder does not allow for magical beast characters. So here's what I've come up with:
Magical Beast (4 RP)
Magical beasts are similar to animals. They usually have supernatural or extraordinary abilities, but are sometimes merely bizarre in appearance or habits. A magical beast race has the following features.
Magical beasts have the low-light vision and darkvision 60 feet racial traits.
Magical beasts breathe, eat, and sleep.
Special Subtype: Augmented Animal (2 RP)
An animal is a living, nonhuman creature, usually a vertebrate with no magical abilities and no innate capacity for language or culture. An augmented animal has increased intelligence and possibility even the capacity for speech. An augmented animal race has the following features.
Augmented animals have the low-light vision racial trait.
Augmented animals breathe, eat, and sleep.
I'm not sure how to handle the various disadvantages such a creature might have, such as lack of hands, lack of speech, etc.
I'm not sure how to handle the various disadvantages such a creature might have, such as lack of hands, lack of speech, etc.
For the magical beasts, they could have access to the Lesser Change Shape ability, so they could assume a humanoid form for hands/talking (though I think you might just be able to let them talk regardless).
As for augmented animals though, I'm not really sure...
I think Magical Beasts would have a base of 3 RP since they have Darkvision 60 feet and Low-light vision.
The specification for Animals require they have an INT of 1 or 2, and the Awaken spell mentions that animals affected by it become magical beasts as a result.
So Talking Animal subtype:
These Magical Beasts look like normal animals but are capable of understanding and speaking common. They are often larger and hardier than normal animals of their kind. To create a Talking Animal use the stats for a regular animal and give it 3d6 Intelligence, +1d3 Charisma, and +2 HD.
Talking animals, however, are still limited by their normal means of interacting. A talking horse, for instance, does not have hands and must grasp things with its mouth. Though they could still use armor if trained for war, a Talking Animal would be incapable of putting the armor on or taking it off unless it had the appropriate appendages (the 'hands' on a simian or raccoon or squirrel, for instance).