Physical Description
Created from mysterious illusion magic and some unknown artistic craft, toons are a race humanoids born from the 2nd Dimension. Toons come in many shapes and forms, some with animal-like features, some with looks akin to other humanoids or even machines. However, all toons are distinguished by their brightly-colored bodies and clothing, usually composed of solid primary colors.
Society
Toon society tends to be comic reflections or mockeries of other humanoid societies. Adapting to their environments, toons tend to create "toon towns", sectors in cities where they can thrive and interact without bothering the rest of the city. Whether good or evil, all toons are naturally funny, even when they may not mean to be. Toon relationships and reproductive processes are as various as they are absurd.
Relations
Toons tend to get along famously with gnomes and other fey-related creatures for their shared chaotic whimsy. Elves and humans appreciate their creativity, but tend to run out of patients for their constant antics. Half-Orcs and dwarves view them with a grim disdain, but will work with them if necessary.
Alignment and Religion
Toons gravitate toward chaos, as it provides them with constant inspiration. In matters of faith, even the most devout toon struggles with the concepts of "reverence", as such virtues are not compatible with their comedic nature.
Adventurers
Toons are curious and outgoing to the extreme, making them apropos adventures. Although many gravitate toward the entertaining vocations of bards, most toons almost seem born into the myriad of classes they become.
Ability Scores (Standard) +2 Con, +2 Cha, -2 Wis. Toons are amiable and full of pep, but often lacking in focus and willpower. (0 RP)
Humanoid (0 RP)
Medium Toons come in multiple sizes, but most tend to be as tall as a human. (0 RP)
Speed Toons have a base speed of 30ft. (0 RP)
Funny Toons have a +2 racial bonus to Perform (Comedy) checks. (2 RP)
Vulnerable to Acid Toons take half again as much damage from acid. (-2 RP)
Presto! Toons can cast Prestidigitation at will. (2 RP)
Toon Damage Resistance Toons treat all damage done to them as non-lethal unless it is acid damage or magical in nature. Toons can still die of excessive non-lethal damage. (8 RP)
Total RP: 10
Seems pretty cool, but I think it would be better if you added something about how they move. They should have some disadvantages and advantages because of their 2 dimensionality in movement.
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Quite an interesting idea. Most of it seems quite appropriate. However, I think Toon Damage Resistance is way too powerful. While appropriate, it basically makes them invincible because nonlethal damage goes away if the character receives any healing. Magical weapons and acid damage don't occur frequently enough. I honestly think it would be better to have this be a once per day ability to convert all damage from an attack to nonlethal.
Nonlethal damage doesn't go away from healing. It heals at the exact same rate.
Non-lethal damage is healed at a rate of 1 per hour character level. So, a 5th level character is healed of 5 points of non-lethal damage per hour. Also, when a creature receives magical healing, it heals an equal amount of non-lethal damage. The ability to convert lethal damage into non-lethal damage is very handy.
... Hello Toon Invulnerable Rager. Or, alternatively, an Undead Bloodline Sorceror. Grab some acid resistance or the like, and boom. You become an amazing damage sponge.
Okay, for balance purposes I'll pull straight from the book.
These racial traits replace Toon Damage Resistance:
Toon Recovery Toons have Fast Healing 1. (6 RP)
Toon Damage Resistance Toons have DR 5/Magic. (4 RP)
This brings the RP total up to 12.
Fast healing and damage reduction turn Toon into a Monstrous tier race because those are not Standard abilities. You need to remember that a player race needs to have abilities appropriate for a 1st level character.
I do think the premise is interesting and can be accomplished in some way.
I hated that movie.
I'm guessing the vulnerability to acid was meant to represent "the dip"?
Fast healing and damage reduction turn Toon into a Monstrous tier race because those are not Standard abilities. You need to remember that a player race needs to have abilities appropriate for a 1st level character.
I do think the premise is interesting and can be accomplished in some way.
Thank you for the correction, Cyrad. How about incorporating the mechanics of "Outsider (native)", "Fiendish Resistance" and "Hardy", like so...?
Outsider (native) (3 RP) Due to their ties to the 2nd Dimension, toons count as native outsiders.
Toonish Resistence (3 RP)
Toons have cold resistance 5, electricity resistance 5, and fire resistance 5.
2nd Dimensional Hardiness (3 RP)
Due to their ties to the 2nd dimension, toons have a +2 racial bonus on saving throws against poison, spells, and spell-like abilities.
This brings the RP total to 11.
I hated that movie.
I'm guessing the vulnerability to acid was meant to represent "the dip"?
Yep :)
I guess that works but that kind of ruins the flavor.
I've actually seen people create (non TTRPG) toon characters based on Who Framed Roger Rabbit and wrote worlds on how it all works. They commonly had toons be creatures that can withstand physical punishment, but lack emotional fortitude where they can literally die from a broken heart. This contrasted with humans, who are physically fragile but can tough out despair.
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the 2nd dimension could be an interesting thing for a summoner to think about. Adventures in the 2nd dimension are not just relegated to the toons, but also the variable masses of the Illustrated, beings created from the minds of mortals and immortals, formless until the first drawings and sketches came to be. from then on, the illustrated- including the toons- took on the form of whatever creation that mortals so provided, be it the more comedic and more free, or the more hard-set and restricted.
For the Illustrated, their understanding of the world is born from the forms that they are given, and the roles they are called to fill.
when an Illustrated escapes into the mortal realms, the curious and out -of-their-element being often searches for ways to adhere to their given role, while attempting to create their own place in the world. The Illustrated are almost always beings that follow their role first, their emotions second, their logic third and then the logic of others, often creating tensions between the more regular mortals and citizenry of the mortal realm.
I like the idea of a toon or illustrated race, and it opens the doors for both more comedic and serious games. after all, how DOES a toon cope with the idea of mortality, the idea of dead that you cannot just bounce back from.
Non-lethal damage is healed at a rate of 1 per hour character level. So, a 5th level character is healed of 5 points of non-lethal damage per hour. Also, when a creature receives magical healing, it heals an equal amount of non-lethal damage.
The latter actually becomes fairly useless if you're taking almost no lethal damage, though. It comes up about as often as it would if lethal damage was being dealt normally. :P
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The Illustrated are similar in idea to the toon, but cover a wider spectrum of variations, including the realms of art, the forms of pictorial story telling, and even darker, more cautionary tales that have the role of scaring people into correct behavior.
Lord help the kingdom assailed by a Illustrated army, with the chaotic cartoons, the skilled and natural looking simple illustrated, the near unidentifiable scribbles/doodles, and the horrific and surreal creations from illustrated horror and art.
Fortunately, the majority of Illustrated in the mortal realm are relatively harmless, with some very rare exceptions.
The Illustrated are similar in idea to the toon, but cover a wider spectrum of variations, including the realms of art, the forms of pictorial story telling, and even darker, more cautionary tales that have the role of scaring people into correct behavior.
Lord help the kingdom assailed by a Illustrated army, with the chaotic cartoons, the skilled and natural looking simple illustrated, the near unidentifiable scribbles/doodles, and the horrific and surreal creations from illustrated horror and art.
Fortunately, the majority of Illustrated in the mortal realm are relatively harmless, with some very rare exceptions.
I started this thread as a bit of a gag, but I really love the creative zone you are in, Jester. Might I suggest calling all 2D beings Illustrati? They can come in a variety of races such as cartoons, portraits/paintings, sketches... I dunno. Just a thought :)
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I hated that movie.
I did not know such people existed.
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These racial traits replace Toon Damage Resistance:
Toon Recovery Toons have Fast Healing 1. (6 RP)
Toon Damage Resistance Toons have DR 5/Magic. (4 RP)This brings the RP total up to 12.
I say go with this and Outsider (native), I don't find such unbalanced and is more fitting then the more recent idea.
It would be a total of 15 RP points, which is high, but the Aasimar is that many RP points as well.
Honestly, I think toons might be more fun as a monster with proper damage immunity that can be played as a PC around 3rd or 4th level, but what you have seems balanced enough.
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I started this thread as a bit of a gag, but I really love the creative zone you are in, Jester. Might I suggest calling all 2D beings Illustrati? They can come in a variety of races such as cartoons, portraits/paintings, sketches... I dunno. Just a thought :)The Illustrated are similar in idea to the toon, but cover a wider spectrum of variations, including the realms of art, the forms of pictorial story telling, and even darker, more cautionary tales that have the role of scaring people into correct behavior.
Lord help the kingdom assailed by a Illustrated army, with the chaotic cartoons, the skilled and natural looking simple illustrated, the near unidentifiable scribbles/doodles, and the horrific and surreal creations from illustrated horror and art.
Fortunately, the majority of Illustrated in the mortal realm are relatively harmless, with some very rare exceptions.
That sounds fine. Illustrati it shall be.
Another thing that might be a surreal element is if a portrait Illustrati ended up meeting the person who's portrait it was based off. What I think is that the Illustrati that are like that are almost like a caricature or slightly overblown version of the original. A famous figure is portrayed in an image, and then an Illustrati comes to be, drawing on some of those traits to form a personality, that can be as close to or as far removed from the original as possible
And this could tie into the summoner class as well. With an Illustrated Summoner, limited to summoning Illustrati, but able to create new Illustrati on the fly. Potentially overpowered if i get the balance wrong, but potentially really funny when the summoner at later levels brings pictorial dragons and other creatures into being. At the relevant levels though, as i doubt the early levels would be balanced if a Illustrati Tarrasque could be brought into existence at any time.
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I feel like you could represent toons well with regeneration 1/acid. Balanced? Probably not.
To me a Toon is better represented by an Eidolon.
I don't think all Toons should have the Funny racial ability. Because they aren't all natural comedians - they run the gamut of exaggerated emotions and over-the-top personality. Even being shy and withdrawn can take up a hell of a lot of space if powerful enough.
Being able to engage in Slapstick would be on theme however. And I'd guess slapstick would be inflicting egregious amounts of non-lethal damage. Or lethal if you want grittier, darker Toons...
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I don't think all Toons should have the Funny racial ability. Because they aren't all natural comedians - they run the gamut of exaggerated emotions and over-the-top personality. Even being shy and withdrawn can take up a hell of a lot of space if powerful enough.
Being able to engage in Slapstick would be on theme however. And I'd guess slapstick would be inflicting egregious amounts of non-lethal damage. Or lethal if you want grittier, darker Toons...
In their Home dimension, Toons are very difficult to kill. this is generally the main result of cartoon logic being the primary laws of physics. If you don't think about how some it works, then it is amazing what you can achieve by accident.
As for slapstick, i think it also risks the possibility of accidental injury to the user, as the universe secretly conspires to make a joke at the expense of the toon in question. when you attempt to use slapstick, you and all participants must make a check (dc 20-25) use the relevant statistics to the main aspects of the joke(be it wisdom, strength, dexterity, charisma, intelligence, or constitution). Anyone,Including the toon, that fails the test takes either 2d6 non-lethal, or d6 lethal damage with no damage reduction. success avoids damage entirely. Remember it is generally the people that are under the anvil that get hit by it, but the universe WILL endevour.
This is a once per day thing though so be careful.
either that or...
A universal redirection ability for toons based on a similar idea(make a check, if you succeed, you succeed, if you fail it hits you. Also limited to once per day). success redirects all damage from ONE source towards one individual within 10 feet+ Toons level. the Toon Must be aware of the source of the damage and an relevant target or they will automatically fail.
it does not work against additional attacks on grapples, but it does work on the grapple itself. because Toons love to tie people in knots. It does work with melee attacks and ranged attacks, though you must succeed in a dc 30+ check to redirect things like pertification gazes and majorly dangerous status effectors (along the lines of save or die).
Basically, Check to see if Bad stuff happens to you, or other people. And therefore Who shall get the last laugh.
So, in a toon party with this ability and an orb of annialation, its a hot potato game of devastating proportions. One fail, and the person dies horribly. Though the ability also results in redirected fireballs, lightning hitting, and self frozen gorgons thanks to toon hijinks.
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Honestly...not digging the 'Toon' name or some of the modern-based abilities (aka the dip).
The term 'Toon' or 'Cartoon' does not fit a medieval-style game. If your concept is based on the idea of living illusions, I would suggest a term based on the words 'illusion', 'figment', or 'phantasm'.
As ErisAcolyte-Chaos jester commented, Illustrati does not sound too bad.
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In a medieval-style game, i'm not exactly certain that the 'Toons' would exist(considering that those kind of forms would be unlikely to exist in that media(unless we invoke the rules of magical transfer from earth to Golorian, or that other races had cartoons before golorian. and that is at a strech). The Illustrati that would exist as a part of the second dimension(or the painted realm) would be the kind found in wood cuts, paintings, glyphic carvings, illustrations in story books, and the earliest forms of sequential art(Japanese in nature).
As the styles change to suit with peoples tastes, and more experimentation with the medium comes to pass, the first cartoon characters and art style begins to form. And lo, the first true toons come to be.
The Majorty of Illustrati up until now have been very natural in their style and actions (with some exceptions as par the course with fairy-tales). They were initially the guardians and servants of powerful mystics and illusionists who would grant them physical bodies in return for serving their wills. That was until the Illustrati learned how to master the secrets of their creators, creating gateways into the realms of reality and fashioning their own bodies.
Then again, we can't hardly assume that every fantasy world is trapped in a Medieval/Renaissance era with regards to art. Culture and technology don't move on the same wavelengths. An otherwise medieval society might be a huge fan of surrealist, expressionist, or caricaturist art. Especially in a setting like Eberron or Golarion.
Honestly...not digging the 'Toon' name or some of the modern-based abilities (aka the dip).
The term 'Toon' or 'Cartoon' does not fit a medieval-style game. If your concept is based on the idea of living illusions, I would suggest a term based on the words 'illusion', 'figment', or 'phantasm'.
As ErisAcolyte-Chaos jester commented, Illustrati does not sound too bad.
we at little red disagree about the name, hell we made it a class
Then again, we can't hardly assume that every fantasy world is trapped in a Medieval/Renaissance era with regards to art. Culture and technology don't move on the same wavelengths. An otherwise medieval society might be a huge fan of surrealist, expressionist, or caricaturist art. Especially in a setting like Eberron or Golarion.
considering silent is a thing, I could totally buy something like Morty Marmoset entertaining the children of a magical setting