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I don't think that makes a difference as long as they're usable for attacks. I mean, a Kamakiri with 2 weapons could still roll the claw/claw/weapon/weapon fighting style, and it's the combat that they tend to care about in the rules. And thematically, you want them to have big mantis-claws (because that is generally how you define them as "mantis-like") and real hands (because intelligent tool-users need thumbs).
Not to mention Trox Grappling appendages or the like are pretty expensive too.
I'm still not sure how they eat. My first thought is that their adorable porcelain-doll mask hides far less-pretty insect mandibles under their chin.
I assume they have a home-brew feat that allows them to substitute verbal components with sign language.
I was more thinking the mandibles and mouth parts folded into the face, creating an apparent smooth mask like face.
I'm thinking just having a pair of claws and foregoing the Extra Arms thing would work, assuming the claws could not be used to wield weapons.
6 limbs, 2 big claws, 2 ending in weak hands, and four legs that can be used for climbing up the walls.
Isn't that eight?
As far as I know, the only real concern is multiattack. Doesn't matter that their little claws can't hold weapons, they still end up with the ability to get 4 attacks (2 arms with natural claw attacks, 2 arms with any regular PC attack) which (according to Paizo balancing theorycraft) is a hefty and expensive 8 RP. You could specify that they can't take multidexterity and multiattack because of something and thingy (Possibly "they lack the mental agility necessary to use both sets of limbs at the same time") but at that point we're getting awfully complicated.
Alternatively, you can just let 'em be a bit more powerful. I like the 4-armed monk or the gundancer who dual-wields pistols while claw-smacking enemies. It's cool and thematic and the best exploit of multiple arms is the sneak-attacker; rogues need all the help they can get as it is.
Yes, eight. So they have only 2 legs. Any extras like multiattack will require feats or a class like ranger or Monk.
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Right, so it's like 5AM here and I'm aaaaaaaalmost done with the revised race writeup.
Things completed:
Things still to do (for Races):
Things still to do in general:
Feel free to chime in if you've ideas, 9 times outta 10 I'll run with it if it's good =D
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Don't know much about the parody nation, but in terms of keeping them from being conquered by their more Darwinian neighbors I suggest the old "crouching moron, hidden badass" play. Aside from being surprisingly good at insurgency, they are a neutral ground between two expansionist powers that don't *really* want to go to war with one another.
So diplomats and ambassadors deal with their idiocy, each trying to maintain an upper-hand in the influence game over monarchy that may or may not be as confused and foolish as they seem.
Just like Lord Shojo's play.
Well the extended explanation of what I'd be trying to go for is...like someone taking the wrong view too seriously.
The theoretical nation (likely an island nation) would believe in the Tolkien/traditional D&D narrative so hard that it would be almost painful to try and comprehend for those on the Barrier World. All Orcs are evil marauding savages, all Drow are torture happy sexual deviants that worship spiders, dragons exist, all wizards have to be old, Paladins are always Lawful Good, etc.
Bonus points if they try to keep up appearances by sticking fake beards on anyone with arcane training. Also, built into the ruins of the Barrier World's Disney World equivalent XD
Right, so it's like 5AM here and I'm aaaaaaaalmost done with the revised race writeup.
Things completed:
Added the Texhutu to the list of races with all the pertinent info.
Added the Kamakiri to the list of races with all the pertinent info.
Added the Mana Wights to the list of races with all the pertinent info.
Did a little reorganizing of the racial writeups (Moving Languages to the bottom, keeping the beginning bits uniform, etc)
Set up a brief index of sorts with the races and a short blurb on each of the "unique" races. Things still to do (for Races):
Finish Drow writeup (Suggestions appreciated regarding ways to make these Drow feel like stock Drow, but toned down and fitting the "mad scientist" feel)
Begin work on some Alternate Racial traits (Harpy is more or less done in this regard)
Begin work on Racial Favored Class options (Again, Harpy is more or less done)
Brief writeup on the stock races and any "uncommon" races (Skinwalkers, Dhampires, etc.) and how they are different (if at all) from stock. Things still to do in general:
Location writeup for the Frozen Wilds, the Southern Jungles, the Kashana Desert, the Armageddon Cauldron, Xang-Tsan, and the Broken Isles.
Writeup for Ghost Stone Special Material
Writeup for Paladins
Writeup for notable factions (Suggestions welcome)
Brief blurb somewhere on the Kaiju and notable massive monsters
Begin working on archetypes (Aiming for at least one per class, maybe one per setting race)
Begin working on underground areas
Actually see if that parody nation (The one that takes the traditional fantasy setting thing too seriously) is actually viable. If so, begin work on it.
Chaotic neutral beachhead. I call them Free Spirits. They take the form of animals that act like people and strangely mutated humans. They act out absurd legends, over and over, often including dying, over and over. You can have half free orcs that look a lot like pigs. Half free elves that are obsessed with bowmanship and perfecting the perfect cookie recipe. Yeah, free spirits use awful grammar such as redundancies.
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Ok, working on the Drow, here's what we have so far:
Ability Score Racial Traits: Drow are naturally quick and unusually charming for being so mad, but their devotion to the sciences has begun to play merry hell on their health as a race. They gain +2 Dexterity, +2 Charisma and -2 Constitution.
Type: Drow are Humanoid creatures with the Elf subtype.
Size: Drow are Medium creatures and thus have no bonuses or penalties due to their size.
Base Speed: Drow have a base speed of 30ft.
Skill Bonus: Drow are, as a race, devoted to science and medicine. They receive a +2 bonus to Craft (Alchemy) and Heal, and Heal is always a class skill for Drow.
Darkvision: Drow have Darkvision of 120ft
Elven Immunities: Drow are immune to magic sleep effects and gain a +2 racial bonus on saving throws made against enchantment spells and effects.
Elven Magic: Drow gain a +2 bonus on caster level checks made to overcome spell resistance. In addition, they also receive a +2 racial bonus on Spellcraft checks made to identify the properties of magic items.
Poison Use: Drow are skilled with poison and never risk accidentally poisoning themselves when applying it to weapons.
Languages: Drow begin play speaking Common and Undercommon. Drow with high Intelligence scores can choose from the following: Dwarven, Elven, Halfling, Gnome, Laquetan, Harpy and Centaur.
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Ok, working on the Drow, here's what we have so far:
Ability Score Racial Traits: Drow are naturally quick and unusually charming for being so mad, but their devotion to the sciences has begun to play merry hell on their health as a race. They gain +2 Dexterity, +2 Charisma and -2 Constitution.
Type: Drow are Humanoid creatures with the Elf subtype.
Size: Drow are Medium creatures and thus have no bonuses or penalties due to their size.
Base Speed: Drow have a base speed of 30ft.
Skill Bonus: Drow are, as a race, devoted to science and medicine. They receive a +2 bonus to Craft (Alchemy) and Heal, and Heal is always a class skill for Drow.
Darkvision: Drow have Darkvision of 120ft
Elven Immunities: Drow are immune to magic sleep effects and gain a +2 racial bonus on saving throws made against enchantment spells and effects.
Elven Magic: Drow gain a +2 bonus on caster level checks made to overcome spell resistance. In addition, they also receive a +2 racial bonus on Spellcraft checks made to identify the properties of magic items.
Poison Use: Drow are skilled with poison and never risk accidentally poisoning themselves when applying it to weapons.
Languages: Drow begin play speaking Common and Undercommon. Drow with high Intelligence scores can choose from the following: Dwarven, Elven, Halfling, Gnome, Laquetan, Harpy and Centaur.Base Drow have a secret sign language that they developed to secretly communicate with each other without making predator-attracting noise or giving away their nature to the surfacers when on extended recon.
Since the CK-class restructuring, they've mostly abandoned state secrets and ambush hunting for Mad Science and publishing. So it seems like a section of their populace would use a version of Laquetan as mutated and twisted as their most egregious biological experiments to "tech-speak" to one another. Like 1337-speak but less annoying and adolescent.
Was actually considering switching out Elven Magic for the Elf alt of Envoy.
Envoy: Elves often have trouble relating to neighbors of other races, especially those with much shorter lifespans. As a result, some are trained in minor magics that are particularly useful when dealing with non-elves. Elves with this racial trait and an Intelligence score of 11 or higher gain the following spell-like abilities once per day: comprehend languages, detect magic, detect poison, and read magic. The caster level for these effects is equal to the elf's level. This racial trait replaces elven magic.
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SO BOYS AND GIRLS STUFF FOR FAVORED CLASS OPTIONS IS READY TO GO HIT ME WITH SUGGESTIONS.
Races are (for those following along at home): Orcs, Drow, Centaur, Harpy, Kamakiri (mantis people), Texhutu (Non-drider spider people) and Mana Wights (Entities of solidified mana).
All classes (barring Summoner) are open for suggestions for favored class options. Harpies are more or less done for everything but the ACG classes, so any suggestions for those would be helpful.
I've got Telepathy and Telekinesis in leveled mutations. If you could look it over and offer any suggestions, I would appreciate it.
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I'm back in the saddle again, woohoo.
I suppose the Poisoned Lands and Harpies are pretty much finished, need to find me another pet project.
Is someone working on the Southern Jungles? If not, I'd happily take them, as soon as I get Silus to give me the general concept.
Will probably read the updated guide as soon as I have internet on my PC at home, and give some organisations.
Also, about the playtest, any chances of that happening on roll20? I still want to take part in that, but I started my own homebrew Pathfinder campaign, so I don't think I'll be able to get the time to run another one. Also, ballistic harpies.
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Since apparently I can't edit the posts now, I'll have to doublepost, yuck.
Huge deserts with riding lizards? Medusas as prison wardens? Sand thingies? I'm going to post something about the Kashana desert. May think of an artefact as well.
I will try not to have any Riddick's Chronicles references, but no promises.
Again, some basic info on what Silus thinks the desert should be will be appreciated. But seriously, desert prisons. And riding lizards. And medusas. And lizard people. Like.
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Southern Jungles are untouched more or less save for like three cities and the Death World vibe.
As for the Desert itself, was thinking more Grand Canyon rocky desert instead of sand dunes (though parts could be Sahara type). Towns/cities not native (Principality or Queen settlements) would have a Old West feel. Tribal settlements, cities and ruins would I think have a Spirit Temple look to them. As always, I'm open to suggestions.
Edit: also, alternate racial thing need to happen D: still wanna do a wing-arm harpy variant D:
How about an isolated snake people city who view humans as the horrors?
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Okay, two ideas for locations and additions that I wanted to put to ya'll:
1. The Draconic Ecological Preserve. Pre-Barrier, it was an island for research of the more...mundane draconic species, mostly non-aquatic drakes. Think like...Jurassic Park but with better security. Barrier happens, the preserve falls into disrepair, the drakes escape and populate the island. Generally avoided by the general population of the world because, well, drakes. Also the only source of dragon blood and dragon hide.
2. An as-yet unnamed Scottish/celtic inspired land (probably in the faaaaaaaar south). Secluded dwarven nation inspired by the Wildhammer clan from Warcraft (Dwarven Griffon riders, because Dwarven Griffon riders are hella boss).
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Draconic Preserve: Need something keeping the critters from migrating off the island, (drakes can get pretty far, and if they can't make the trip why/how would anyone else?). My first thought is giant dome field (semi-permeable) with primary access being a mostly-defunct and infested tunnel system. Could rapidly become its own sub-location with flooded sections, a sub-race of Morlocks trying to appease the gods with ritual-like maintenance practices, security systems, and Drakey hybrids.
Wildhammer Peaks: Gryphons in PF are smart and riding them is either an alliance/cohort paradigm or enslavement. This can work, (Golarion already has Dragonriders of Pern in all but name, plenty of precedent) or you can roll Hippogriffs to neatly sidestep that question entirely. When I play the mental game of "Simcity Pathfinder" hippogriff air forces feature prominently. Also there's an interesting opportunity for rivalry with the harpy tribes. Do they hate each other and are completely different? Are they strikingly similar to each other with a Crips/Bloods or East side/West side theme? Some brand of rare, high-risk, but totally awesome to watch aerial rugby might be interesting.
Throwing hammers are kind of crap, so you'll need to homebrew a specialty throwing hammer or switch to something else, crossbows are fairly logical, and with the new Bolt Ace Class and the old Repeating Crossbow can work pretty well. Oh yeah, almost forgot: Flying, ranged-attacking dwarves would probably Natural-select for higher dexterity, so alternate racial traits are probably apropos.
Perhaps a sort of "genetic field" so non-drakes/draconic creatures (or at least those with sufficient draconic blood) cannot pass through, with a weakened section in the tunnels (I really like the idea of a mythic trial being to get onto the island, steal a drake egg and make it out in one piece). As I mentioned to Ninjaxenomorph, imagine going to Jurassic Park to get raptor eggs, but the island is dominated the things and have grown to fly and breath fire.
I could see the dwarves regard harpies in a general neutral "You leave us alone and we leave you alone" manner, and most of said dwarves being some variety of Hunter, Ranger, Druid or Shaman. Also, Mythic trial to get into the tribe's good graces and earn the right to fly a griffon/hippogriff.
Edit:
Okay, so special mounts for the Barrier World:
Riding Birds (CHOCOBOS)(Using the 3.5 stats with appropriate tweaks)
Riding Lizards (BOGA)
Griffons (GOTTA BE BUDDY BUDDY WITH THE WILDHAMMERS)
Drakes (HAHA GOOD LUCK)
Giant Ravens (REALLY hard to catch and tame)(3.5 stats with appropriate tweaks)
Dire Wolves (ORC MOUNTS WOOT WOOT)
Bears (BEAR CALVARY)
Dinosaurs (SKYBAX RIDERS ANYONE?)
Throwing hammers are kind of crap, so you'll need to homebrew a specialty throwing hammer or switch to something else, crossbows are fairly logical, and with the new Bolt Ace Class and the old Repeating Crossbow can work pretty well. Oh yeah, almost forgot: Flying, ranged-attacking dwarves would probably Natural-select for higher dexterity, so alternate racial traits are probably apropos.
Go to hammer_throw_world_record_progression.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Men%27s_hammer_throw_world_record_progression
What would be the damage on an Olympic hammer?
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Throwing hammers are kind of crap, so you'll need to homebrew a specialty throwing hammer or switch to something else, crossbows are fairly logical, and with the new Bolt Ace Class and the old Repeating Crossbow can work pretty well. Oh yeah, almost forgot: Flying, ranged-attacking dwarves would probably Natural-select for higher dexterity, so alternate racial traits are probably apropos.
Go to hammer_throw_world_record_progression.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Men%27s_hammer_throw_world_record_progression
What would be the damage on an Olympic hammer?
1d6 or 1d8 with a range of...15-20ft?
An Olympic throwing hammer is a two handed throwing weapon, so one handed throwing rules shouldn't really apply. Are giants hurling boulders similarly restricted?
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Sorry if I'm beating a harp with a dead horse, it's just the first thing that jumped to mind when I thought about the Thunderhammers of the Warcraft Gryphon Riders.
*Holds up the Warcraft D20 core rulebook*
I think I'd like to steer away from the whole "We're going to transplant the Wildhammer clan into the world" kinda thing. Certainly have there be some parallels, but try to steer them away from explicitly Warcraft'ishness.
I think the Gryphons would have an easier time compensating for the recoil of a crossbow.
Spinning around so you can release a hammer at double range should be left to the land based Dwarven Olympians.
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Well the D20 Warcraft stats for a standard Dwarven Throwing Hammer is:
[Hammer, dwarven tossing] 15 gp — Small 1d4, Med 1d6, x3 Crit, Range 20 ft., 4 lb., Bludgeoning
And the Stormhammer stats are as follows:
Stormhammer
Description: The Wildhammer dwarves’ signature weapon, this dwarven battle hammer is beautifully crafted, with a lightning bolt pattern carved into the polished wooden haft and clouds and lightning etched into the faceted metal head. Even the leather wrapped around the handle is mottled to suggest clouds and rain.Powers: The stormhammer is a +1 shock dwarven battle hammer. The wielder can swing the hammer can cause a copy of the weapon to appear and fly toward the target, allowing him to use it as a ranged weapon as well. When used in this way, the battle hammer has a range increment of 30 feet and a maximum range of 10 range increments (300 feet). The wielder is proficient in this use of the weapon if he is proficient with the battle hammer as a one-handed melee weapon. The ranged copies function just like the hammer, and the wielder adds her Strength bonus on damage rolls with them. Since she does not have to draw ammunition, she can make more than one ranged attack with the hammer in a round, even if she does not have the Quick Draw feat.
Moderate evocation; CL 11th;
Craft Magic Arms and Armor,
lightning bolt; Price 28,330 gp; Cost 14,220 gp + 1,120 XP.
Wouldn't be opposed to having a Stormhammer be a thing, but nothing near as prevalent as in Warcraft.
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I am currently working on The Gully, which is the prison.
The main idea is a plateau on the edge of a big cliff. The maximum security wing is in the middle of the canyon, connected with a always guarded bridge.
It's on a tall natural tower (since I can't explain it better, think WoW's Thousand Needles), and in case of emergencies, such as a wing-wide insurgency, just under the base of the wing there is a belt of explosives, sending everyone there crashing down nearly 900 feet.
NPCs and guard/prisoners behaviour will follow.
You could have it send a Spiritual Weapon-Hammer at the foe.
Have you considered to include stuff from the Technology Guide?
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Okay so late update on stuff, got a group together for a Saturday game to give the setting its initial run.
We have, at lvl 5:
A Human Magus who hates the Principality and wants to start a Merc company.
A Texhutu Brawler who wants to create a religion glorifying the Pre-Barrier Exile.
A Harpy Ranger who...I'm not sure of her deal just yet.
A Kamakiri Cleric who has been converted to the Texhutu's religion.
They're all Chaotic Neutral (in a "We go our own way" sort, not the "KILL ALL THE BABIES!!" way) and starting on a boat freshly arrived at Steamport. This game is gonna be...interesting.