Can I play a Vegepygmy?

[Sanjiv]

The Game Master will probably let me, but does it make sense to play a Vegepygmy? I'm asking both in terms of lore, and in terms of mechanics. I expect to be making so many bad build decisions that I'll need to make up for it however I can.

Here's what I'm considering:

1: There are said to be advanced vegepygmy chiftans with class levels. And I hear there's precedent for vegepygmies who are mentally sophisticated enough to be real and persistent characters. But what're the limits of this? A vegepygmy wizard seems impossible, for example. But what about a fighter? Could a vegepygmy learn to use armor, or gain martial weapon proficiency?

2. Would a vegepygmy be too powerful for a playable race, if vegepygmy's 1/2 CR + 1 class level = 1.5 CR ? If so, what would I tweak to bring it down?

3. The Vow of Silence for monks seems like an appropriate fit for a character that likely won't be able to speak with the main playable races.

4.The True Primitive Barbarian archetype also seems like an interesting fit, as it includes illiteracy, as well as proficiency with weapons made from bone (vegepygmies sometimes keep bone remains of the body they rose from).

5. Are there certain dieties which might enable or preclude the advancement of a vegePygmy? Or would it more likely be the work of some researcher type?

[Obsidian]

You could be a vegepygmy deaf oracle of wood. Or a twf ranger with a quarterstaff.
Take ranks in linguistics to learn sign language.

[Sanjiv]

A vegepygmy can beat-box as a bard, right? How far can I level up in Bard without running into language-dependent problems? I expect I'd do crazy multi-classing with this character anyway.

EDIT: actually, I just thought about this whole sub culture or community of vegepygmy bards. I'm imagining one who has a wind instrument as part of its body, and whose "voice" is more like singing or song by virtue of that...Do vegepygmyies breath?

[Lisa Villegas]

I see this is a question from two years ago, but I have answers. I created an NPC guide in response to a very creative diplomatic solution from one of my players in order to pass through a Vegepygmy Society dungeon level. Her name is Meebee.

She began as a Vegepygmy Bodyguard (Monster CR3). As she traveled with the players she gained enough experience to also be a level 5 Fighter. I am treating her like a level 8 multi-classed character/NPC. She does not join in every fight and does not partake in all experience. This way she remains a weaker character that is helping the party. I also do not give her very much treasure. Even so, she is pretty buff.

My first suggestion is to look over the rules at the back of the Bestiary on using monsters for characters. Most of my know how came from there.

Meebee's weapons are a barbed whip (spiked chain mixed with whip), a bone spear, and her two claws. She has rending abilities from her claws so I built her feats up the rending and whip tree. When she got armor it was made of the special material Darkleaf.

Admittedly... I cheated on giving her a whip. I made her a professional weaver and harvested eel teeth from a river monster they fought. And being the GM I didn't want to let go of my concept of rending and tearing our enemies to bits so I cheated and gave her a made up weapon, and didn't spend the feat for an exotic weapon proficiency. :D I should fix that. :(

I also looked over the several different Vegepygmy monster builds and added these qualities:
When reach level 5 player character class: gain the Sub-chief ability immune to electricity.
When reach level 6 player character class: gain the Chief ability Spore Attack.

Yes, the Class slightly too powerful for a player character. I would compensate by slowing down the experienced gain by a percentage for the first 6 or 7 player character levels (after/on-top-of the 3 Vegepygmy levels). Perhaps 75%? For example: when regular player characters get 2000 xp a Vegepygmy would get 1500 xp. That's my advise based on how Meebee does in comparison to the player characters in my campaign.

Vow of Silence Monk would be awesome! An Oracle would also be awesome! A Druid or Necromancer might have some interesting possibilities as well.

Vegepygmy's have plant traits so they eat and breath but do not sleep. :) So yes, she can beat-box. ;p

[boring7]

Given Russet Mold's dislike of sunlight, it wouldn't be that unfair to say that a Vegepygmy away from it's home develops Light Sensitivity. Perhaps a weakness to extremes of heat since plants don't really sweat either.

Honestly though, I'm not sure whether immunity to electricity or immunity to mind effects is more powerful. They practically never have to make will saves, which is a pretty big deal for a fighter type.

[Andrew R]

1 Depends on who they can learn from. they are not stupid
2 depends on what others are playing but immune to mind effects is huge
3 I would never allow that as a DM, the vow is about sacrifice not a reward for what you already cannot do