Here, I'm second-guessing some issues of race power balance in the Jade Stage, specifically as concerns the Boru. I'll post up some stat blocks for you all to tear apart, and we'll see where the discussion takes us.
I'll post along with each race a very basic bit of fluff: just enough to let you see the main points upon which I'm hanging the statblocks. There are other threads we can link you to that contain a much more in-depth discussion of the flavor aspects of these peoples-- so in-depth, in fact, I was floored by the complexity of the questions I was receiving.
There are eight playable races in dojh-oln-beh: dwarves, elves, gnomes, goblins, boru, simocs, liriss... and of course, the humans. Without further ado:
Dwarves
-2 Dexterity, +2 Constitution: Dwarves are stout and tough, but are not as lithe or graceful as many of their neighbors.
Medium-size: As Medium-size creatures, dwarves have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size.
Dwarven base speed is 20 ft. However, dwarves can move at this speed even when carrying medium or heavy armor, or when carrying a medium or heavy load (unlike other creatures, whose speed is reduced in such situations).
Stability: Dwarves are exceptionally stable on their feet. A dwarf gains a +4 bonus on ability checks to resist being bull rushed or tripped when standing on the ground (but not when climbing, flying, riding, or otherwise not standing firmly on the ground).
Darkvision: Dwarves can see in the dark up to 60 feet. Darkvision is black and white, but is otherwise like normal sight, and dwarves can function just fine with no light at all.
+2 bonus on saving throws against poison, spells, and spell-like effects. Dwarves are hardy, and are difficult to affect with poison. Additionally, they have an innate resistance to magic.
+4 bonus to any one Craft skill, chosen at first level. Dwarves are cunning and skilled artificers, and have a natural talent for making things with their hands. All dwarves learn a craft at an early age, and most pursue its mastery throughout life. This bonus also applies to related Appraise checks.
Automatic Language: Dwarven characters are able to speak, read, and write one regional language, in addition to any bonus languages they may learn from high Intelligence scores. Many dwarves speak Cardan or Tiburon, but they may choose any regional language from the following list: Bhast, Cardan, Chorr, dis-fal, Formerian, Istorian, Ithyrian, Lendhu, Tiburon.
Favored Class: Fighter. A multiclass dwarf's fighter class does not count when determining whether he takes an experience point penalty for multiclassing. Dwarven culture extolls the virtues of battle, and the vocation comes easily to most dwarves.
[note=Dwarven Changes in dojh-oln-beh]Mechanically, this race was changed minimally. Most significant are stat tweaks that guide a flavor change away from stereotypical dwarves as cavern-dwelling stonesmiths and toward more general ideas of builders and innovaters. Namely, they've lost Stonecunning and gained a bonus to any one Craft skill. I'm considering expanding this to include the choice of Knowledges or Professions (I can't really decide whether it's thematically appropriate, and Knowledges are easier for a player to abuse), but for the most part, I'm really happy with these stats.
Also note that their knack for the sciences is not intended to imply they're all exploding tinkers. They're noted for things like agricultural sciences (terraced farming, irrigation, crop rotation, hybridization), astronomy (they invented the calendar used by almost everyone on dojh-oln-beh), and so on.[/note]
If dojh-oln-beh has a dominant culture, dwarves are it. They're the oldest and most prestigious civilization that still exists (though one dwarven nation seems in danger of crumbling under the weight of overexpansion and decadence, and the other is currently occupied by a hostile nation.) Dwarves thrive because they're hearty folk. They're tough, stalwart, and unafraid of hard work, and their analytical mindsets have given them a knack for the natural sciences that serves them well. Many of the greatest inventors and innovators of dojh-oln-beh are dwarven.
Elves
+2 Dexterity, -2 Constitution, -2 Wisdom: Elves are quick and graceful, but tend to be somewhat frail. Their strange approach to emotion also denies them certain insights.
Medium-size: As Medium-size creatures, elves have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size.
Elven base speed is 30 ft.
Low-light Vision: Elves can see twice as far as humans in starlight, moonlight, torchlight, and other conditions of poor illumination, and retain the ability to distinguish color and detail under these conditions.
Weapon proficiency: At first level, elves receive the Martial Weapon Proficiency feats for the longsword, rapier, longbow, and shortbow.
+2 racial bonus to Listen, Spot, and Search checks.
+2 racial bonus to Bluff, Diplomacy, Sense Motive checks. Elves are as fond of verbal fencing as they are of conventional swordplay, and have considerable skill in crafting and detecting deceptions and constructing persuasive arguments.
Immunity to magic sleep effects, and a +2 racial bonus to saving throws against spells with the [mind-affecting] descriptor. Elves do not sleep, and are unaffected by magical effects that induce sleep. They have a natural resistance against mind-affecting effects, including spells from the Enchantment school of magic.
Spell-like Abilities: Elves with Charisma 10 or greater can cast Mending, Know Direction, and Prestidigitation, once each per day. Elves with a Charisma score of 11 or greater can cast Lesser Confusion, once per day. The save DC against the Lesser Confusion effect is 10 + 1/2 HD + Charisma modifier. These work as spell-like abilities with a caster level equal to the elf's hit dice.
Automatic Language: Elven characters are able to speak, read, and write one regional language, in addition to any bonus languages they may learn from high Intelligence scores. Many elves speak dis-fal, but they may choose any regional language from the following list: Bhast, Cardan, Chorr, dis-fal, Formerian, Istorian, Ithyrian, Lendhu, Tiburon. Elves and only elves may learn dis-beh, and most do so, whether by selecting dis-beh as a bonus language for high Intelligence, or by investing skill points to learn the High Elven tongue.
Favored Class: Face. A multiclass elf's face class does not count when determining whether he takes an experience point penalty for multiclassing. Elven culture is steeped in formality, casual mind games, and emphasis on the creative use of language. The development of fine-tuned social skills within elven individuals is almost second nature.
[note=Elves]Can't decide whether I'm happy with these stats or not. This is one of the ones that's most likely to change.
I've worked hard to seperate these elves from the standard "elf cliché", but I can't really decide if this is overpowered or not, if it makes internal sense, or if the SLA's fit the flavor I want. I'll call attention to the unbalanced stat adjustment (-2 Wisdom? What the heck!), the spell like abilities a la gnome, and the favored class of Face (a homebrew diplomat/social-style class of my own devising) and let you draw your own conclusions.[/note]
Elves are an anomaly. Every other race in dojh-oln-beh participates in the global theme I've set up: some sort of search for home, belonging, and understanding. It's a natural drive, a versatile theme, and one that resonates with just about everyone. Not elves.
Elves are devoid of all traces of empathy. They feel no love or fondness for others, no friendship (just a concept of mutual usefulness, perhaps), and no longing for the company of people. The emotive prompts that drive them are varied and wild: anger, lust, curiosity, passion, and so on, but they are all very self-centered motivators. Elves may practice and learn the ability to see things from other points of view in a purely academic and cerebral capacity. They do this not out of genuine caring, but out of a desire to better anticipate and manipulate others' actions. In a word, elves base their social interactions around the goal of personal convenience.
Gnomes
-2 Strength, +2 Constitution: Gnomes are not as strong as most larger species, but are especially hale and hearty.
Small-size: As Small-size creatures, Gnomes receive a +1 bonus to attack rolls and AC and a +4 bonus to Hide checks due to their size.
Gnomish base speed is 20 ft.
Low-light Vision: Gnomes can see twice as far as humans in starlight, moonlight, torchlight, and other conditions of poor illumination, and retain the ability to distinguish color and detail under these conditions.
+2 bonus on saving throws against illusions. Gnomes are innately familiar with illusions of all kinds.
+1 racial bonus to save DCs of Illusion spells: Gnomes are so familiar with Illusion magic that gnomish spellcasters' spells of that school are harder than usual to resist.
+2 racial bonus to Listen checks: Gnomes have keen ears.
+2 racial bonus to Craft (Alchemy) and Profession (Cooking) checks: Gnomes' sensitive noses allow them to monitor alchemical processes and culinary creations by smell, and their innate prestidigitation talents are an asset when flavoring food.
+2 racial bonus to any one Knowledge skill, chosen at first level. Curious and studious, most gnomes have a great love of learning, and acquire a great store of information on a favorite subject.
Spell-like Abilities: Gnomes with Charisma 10 or greater can cast Dancing Lights, Ghost Sound, and Prestidigitation, once each per day. These work as spell-like abilities with a caster level equal to the gnome's hit dice.
Automatic Language: Gnome characters are able to speak, read, and write one regional language, in addition to any bonus languages they may learn from high Intelligence scores. Many gnomes speak Lendhu, but they may choose any regional language from the following list: Bhast, Cardan, Chorr, dis-fal, Formerian, Istorian, Ithyrian, Lendhu, Tiburon.
Favored class: Expert. A multiclass gnome's expert class does not count when determining whether he takes an experience point penalty for multiclassing. Gnomish individuals' curiosity, fascination with technical detail, and logical nature make them excellent scholars and sages.
[note=Gnomes]I want to cut the illusion stuff from here, but I'm not sure what to replace it with. Halflings got the axe in this setting, and gnomes and goblins inherited certain of their racial characteristics.[/note]
The gnomish spin on the themes of home and belonging is played out with overexaggerated inclusiveness. Gnomes value their families highly, and extend their boundaries of family far past immediate relatives to include whole communities. Gnomes' concept of home is defined not by a physical location, but by the presence of friends and family; gnomish individuals are at their most comfortable when surrounded by these loved ones. Consequently, while gnomes may remember the towns of their birth, the true gnomish "homeland" is a state of mind.
In many ways, gnomes are the thematic opposites of elves; their hypertrophic sense of family and charity contrasts with elves' total lack of empathy. In an abstract, symbolic sense, gnomes as a culture represent innocence, generosity, and selflessness. Naturally, it's a little more complicated than that, but not by much. Gnomes are my one straightforward culture; my one optimistic sunbeam in the Jade Stage.
Goblins
-2 Strength, +2 Dexterity: Goblins are quick and dextrous, but their small size makes them physically weaker in comparison to larger races.
Small-size: As Small-size creatures, goblins receive a +1 bonus to attack rolls and AC and a +4 bonus to Hide checks due to their size.
Goblin base speed is 30 ft. Goblins are surprisingly fast for their size, and can move much more quickly than other small races.
Darkvision: Goblins can see in the dark up to 60 feet. Darkvision is black and white, but is otherwise like normal sight, and goblins can function just fine with no light at all.
+2 racial bonus to Ride and Handle Animal checks. Goblins have a natural skill with animals, and are skilled at training and riding them.
+2 to Listen checks. Goblins have keen ears.
+1 racial bonus to saving throws. Goblins possess an uncanny knack for surviving danger.
Track: All goblins receive Track as a bonus feat at first level.
Automatic Language: Goblin characters are able to speak, read, and write one regional language, in addition to any bonus languages they may learn from high Intelligence scores. Many goblins speak Lendhu or Bhast, but they may choose any regional language from the following list: Bhast, Cardan, Chorr, dis-fal, Formerian, Istorian, Ithyrian, Lendhu, Tiburon.
Favored Class: Rogue. A multiclass goblin's rogue class does not count when determining whether he takes an experience point penalty for multiclassing. Goblins excel at artifice, wordplay, and stealth, and the rogue class comes naturally to them.
[note=Not the Monster Manual cannon fodder you thought you knew!]Again, massive changes. Goblins aren't physically grotesque in dojh-oln-beh the way they are in most settings (I'm working to avoid characterizing any race as "monstrous" right off the bat), but they're tricky, and sometimes savage or borderline feral. I'm not sure how to characterize that with stats, honestly.[/note]
Goblins are the new kids to come out of the trees and join society. They've lived for millenia as savage, nomadic tribes, raiding towns and suchlike. In only the past few centuries, after the human immigration, they've got a written language and something resembling a sophisticated culture, and they're moving to the cities to become productive contributors to society. They've got a huge amount of "goblins steal our livestock and kill our travelers" stigma to overcome, though; to this day, some urban goblins still view the cities as a new kind of hunting ground.
Boru
-2 Dexterity, +2 Constitution, -2 Intelligence: Boru are stoic, tough, and enduring, but tend toward a ponderous slowness of both thought and action.
Medium-size: As Medium-size creatures, Boru have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size. However, see the Powerful Build ability below.
Natural Armor: Boru' tough, leathery skin gives them a +1 natural armor bonus to AC.
Boru base speed is 20 ft. However, Boru can move at this speed even when carrying medium or heavy armor, or when carrying a medium or heavy load (unlike other creatures, whose speed is reduced in such situations).
Powerful Build: The physical stature of Boru lets them function in many ways as if they were one size category larger. Whenever Boru is subject to a size modifier or special size modifier for an opposed check (such as during grapple checks, bull rush attempts, and trip attempts,) the Boru is treated as one size category larger, if doing so is advantageous to him. A Boru is also considered to be one size larger when determining whether a creature's special attacks based on size (such as imrpoved grab or swallow whole) can affect him. A Boru can use weapons designed for a creature one size larger without penalty. However, his space and reach remain those of a creature his actual size. The benefits of this racial trait stack with the effects of spells and abilities that change the subject's size category.
Fist of Stone: Boru gain Improved Unarmed Strike as a bonus feat at first level. In addition, Boru' unarmed attacks do 1d4 damage, rather than 1d3, the standard unarmed damage for medium-sized characters.
-2 penalty to initiative checks: Boru' bodies are massive, cumbersome, and slow to react.
+2 racial bonus to saving throws against disease and poison: Boru' vigorous health is seldom weakened by sickness or toxins.
+2 racial bonus to Survival checks: Boru have a natural affinity for the wilderness, and can survive there with ease.
+4 racial bonus to saving throws against severe weather and extreme temperatures: Boru thrive in the outdoors, partly because their tough skin gives them resistance to many natural hazards. The bonus applies only against natural conditions; it will help keep a Boru from freezing to death in an arctic climate or succumbing to heatstroke in a desert, but will not help him avoid damage from a mage's chill metal or fireball spell.
Automatic Language: Boru characters are able to speak, read, and write one regional language, in addition to any bonus languages they may learn from high Intelligence scores. Many Boru speak Chorr, but they may choose any regional language from the following list: Bhast, Cardan, Chorr, dis-fal, Formerian, Istorian, Ithyrian, Lendhu, Tiburon.
Favored Class: Hunter. A multiclass Boru's hunter class does not count when determining whether he takes an experience point penalty for multiclassing. Boru' patience, determination, independance, and ability to survive far from civilization make them ideal for seeking a variety of goals, especially in a wilderness environment.
[note=Boru and Powerful Build]Okay, here's the thing. I really like the idea of Boru having powerful build; flavor-wise, it fits them like a glove. However, I really don't like the idea of so strongly conditioning them toward being combat monsters. Powerful Build is a pretty ridiculous ability, and I'm trying to avoid giving any race an LA because I hate dealing with them, so my dilemma is clear.
I'm toying with other ways to use stats to really illustrate their massiveness. I think an "invisible" bonus to Strength (say, +4) that affects only carrying capacity and Str checks to move or break things would be appropriate. Alternately, a toned-down version of Powerful Build that affects only things like Grapple and Bull Rush checks by changing effective size category, without actually giving Boru access to absurdly large weapons. (A crit from a Large greataxe (3d6 x3) is never a pretty sight.)
I love the Boru. They're neat. But their stat block is giving me migranes.
P.S. Their favored class, Hunter, is my heavily-altered ranger variant. No magic, no animal companion. The idea here is about tracking; hunters make ideal assassins, detectives, and the like, because of the way the hone in on one target, sometimes over a period of several days.[/note]
Boru are the gentle giants of the setting: tough and stoic, massive and patient. Their resilience, slow deliberation, and infinite patience has other races often comparing them to stones: the nickname "rockling" is fairly commonly encountered. Boru have no problem living in the wilds, even in conditions others would consider unlivably harsh. They trust the spirits of ancestors and the great Rock Dragon to keep them safe. But the times, they are a-changin', and more and more young boru are forsaking the traditional nomadic ways to seek work in the cities. Is it a dying way of life?
Simoc
+2 Strength, -2 Intelligence: Simocs are immensely strong, but their thinking skills are inferior to those of most other races.
Medium-size: As Medium-size creatures, simocs have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size.
Simoc base speed is 30 ft.
Combat training: Simoc society is very combat-oriented, and simocs gain a bonus feat at first level. This feat may be any Martial Weapon Proficiency or Exotic Weapon Proficiency feat that the simoc character qualifies for.
Superior stamina: Simocs gain the Endurance feat as a bonus feat at first level.
Automatic Language: Simoc characters are able to speak, read, and write one regional language, in addition to any bonus languages they may learn from high Intelligence scores. Many Simocs speak Bhast or Lendhu, but they may choose any regional language from the following list: Bhast, Cardan, Chorr, dis-fal, Formerian, Istorian, Ithyrian, Lendhu, Tiburon.
Favored class: Rager. A multiclass simoc's rager class does not count when determining whether he takes an experience point penalty for multiclassing. Simocs glory in the thrill of battle, and are natural warriors who learn to fight with passion and intensity.
[note=Simocs]This is very straight-forward. Simocs are my truly martial race, and the stat block is uncluttered. Rager is a barbarian variant without all the cultural "me smash yor hed!" baggage that I so strongly dislike. A fighter fights with training and skill born of long hours of practice. A rager fights with luck and instinct, and maybe because he is so damned pissed at you right now.[/note]
The simoc culture is also a lot of fun. They're warlike without really being savages. Honor is a big deal to them, and dying of any other cause than glorious combat is rather embarrassing. (I did a short vignette on the simoc importance of Cro Amil, their term for death-in-battle, and I think it really came out quite well.)
My big concern with the simocs is that they have a tendency to come off as one-dimensional. I know this will be less and less true as I write more and more about them, but it bothers me.
Liriss
+2 Constitution, -2 Wisdom: Liriss are tough and resilient, but have a tendency toward poor perception and common sense.
Medium-size: As Medium-size creatures, lirisss have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size.
Liriss base speed is 30 ft.
Cold-Blooded: Liriss' cold-blooded nature makes them more vulnerable to extreme cold, compared to mammals whose metabolisms produce their own body heat. In an environment cold enough to cause nonlethal damage each hour (below 40 degrees F), liriss suffer a -2 penalty to Dexterity and a -2 penalty to all saves. In an environment cold enough to cause lethal damage (), both of these penalties increase to -4. These penalties persist as long as the liriss individual remains in the cold environment, and for one hour afterward. Effects that protect from the cold, such as a nearby bonfire or an endure elements spell, negate these penalties. Since cold-blooded creatures produce no body heat, heavy clothes are useless to liriss in cold conditions. Fortunately, liriss also enjoy an increased ability to survive in hot climates. They treat hot temperatures as 30 degrees cooler than they actually are, for purposes of determining whether they take damage from exposure to heat.
Slow Metabolism: Because cold-blooded creatures waste no energy on unnecessary functions like body heat, they conserve nourishment. Liriss eat far less frequently than other races, consuming about as much food in a week as a human eats in one day. Liriss individuals can eat small amounts each day, if they wish, but are comfortable going for most of a week with no food, then eating one large meal. Furthermore, the slower metabolism of liriss means that the intervals of time between the ability damage caused by poison and disease are doubled. The liriss need for water is not reduced; lirisss need to drink as much water as other medium-sized creatures to avoid dehydration.
+1 racial bonus on Initiative rolls: While liriss are not notably quick or agile compared to other races, they have an uncanny ability to react quickly to threats.
+2 racial bonus on Climb and Balance checks: Liriss' clawed fingertips are especially adapted for climbing, giving liriss an advantage when scaling vertical surfaces, and their tails make balancing a simpler task.
Swimming aptitude: Liriss are natural swimmers and enjoy a +4 racial bonus to all Swim checks. They can hold their breath twice as long as normal without danger of drowning.
Hypnotic Vision: Once per day, a liriss with a Charisma score of 11 or greater can cast Hypnotism as a level 1 shaper. This counts as a Spell-like Ability. The save DC against this effect is 10 + 1/2 HD + Charisma modifier.
Automatic Language: Liriss characters are able to speak, read, and write one regional language, in addition to any bonus languages they may learn from high Intelligence scores. Many liriss speak Formerian, but they may choose any regional language from the following list: Bhast, Cardan, Chorr, dis-fal, Formerian, Istorian, Ithyrian, Lendhu, Tiburon.
Favored Class: Fencer. A multiclass liriss' fencer class does not count when determining whether he takes an experience point penalty for multiclassing. Liriss' quick reaction times and sharp reflexes make them natural students of quickness-based fighting.
[note=Liriss are driving me crazy]This stat block is a wreck, an absolute wreck. This is partly because I have no idea how to convincingly portray a cold-blooded race with mechanics, and partly because I wrote this before I knew where the liriss were going thematically. Check me out: the stat block indicates that I can't even decide if I want them to be desertlike or pseudo-amphibian.
I don't like how I'm handling the temperature stuff. I don't even feel comfortable with +2 Con, -2 Wis for them. It is very likely that I'll swap the favored classes for elves and liriss, leaving liriss with the Face and elves with the Fencer. What I really ought to do is scrap this liriss stat block entirely and rewrite it.[/note]
Liriss were the chosen people of the now-departed dragons. Dragons taught them language, craftsmanship, and magic, then departed when the crush of civilization began to make them feel uncomfortable. Dwarves and simocs and boru had declared open season on anything big and dangerous, and such an organized beastslaying force is enough to make even dragons think twice. Liriss still revere the memory of dragons, and hope for the day they return to appreciate the accomplishments of their chosen people.
Liriss are withdrawn, for the most part, into their homeland: the desert empire of Formeria. Imperial to the core, Formeria has expanded its borders by conquering nearby lands, although these conquests are primarily political, economic, and cultural, rather than violent. The Empire is disgustingly rich and influential, and Emperor Shirich is clearly, from the way he manages his lands, some kind of genius.
The liriss themselves are cold, calculating, patient, and clever. They exist within a kind of castelike system, and the four pillars that support their power are breeding, accomplishment, magical aptitude, and seniority. So there is built-in fluidity: a liriss from an excellent bloodline has an advantage, but doing deeds useful to the Empire is sure to raise anyone's station. Even non-liriss in Formerian lands can play along, although their obviously inferior bloodlines are a severe handicap in the liriss power-game.
Liriss often see themselves, collectively, as the only really enlightened culture on dojh-oln-beh. They send diplomats and ambassadors to other nations to spread their superior wisdom, efforts that are often received with a mixture of appreciation and annoyance. These diplomatic efforts have gone a long way towards strengthening the Empire's efforts to annex surrounding lands, and it's quite possible they aren't benign at all.
[note=A brief word on dojh-oln-beh's dragons:]These are not your standard Monster Manual multicolored fare. Dragons in dojh-oln-beh are large, reptilian, ancient, and clever. They are low-bodied and winglessly landbound, and breathe no fire (nor anything else.) Their bite is deadly poisonous. That's about all the detail I have right now, which is fine, as they have departed. Their primary importance lies with their past influence on liriss culture.
I imagine dojh-oln-beh's dragons along these lines: excessively large iguanas, who could probably beat you at chess. Perhaps that helps.[/note]
Humans
[note=The Humans' Stat Block]There isn't one, because I haven't changed them from their PHB presentation.
If I can find a way I really like to alter their stats interestingly, I'm not adverse to it. I just haven't come up with it yet.[/note]
Humans are the true foreigners to dojh-oln-beh. They found the place by accident five hundred years ago, and a small group immigrated from their homeland of Indirai, located in what amounts to an alternate material plane. With the death of the human mage who discovered dojh-oln-beh, the arcane pathway between Indirai and dojh-oln-beh has never been recreated, and so the human settlers in dojh-oln-beh are cut off from their homeland.
Humans call themselves Indrist, meaning "people who are from Indirai." The Cardan dwarves, who first befriended them, named them umani in their own tongue ("those who are lost"), and the Indrist mangled the pronunciation of "umani" until it sounded like "human." The name stuck.
The plight of the umani is easy to predict. They arrived at dojh-oln-beh late in the game, and they have no real homeland of their own. They are forced to integrate themselves into existing society that doesn't always appreciate their presence.
[note=Identifying with the Umani]As humans playing a game, we tend to identify with other humans as being familiar, baseline, being like ourselves. Most settings are set up, consciously or not, with this racial measuring stick in mind. Dojh-oln-beh doesn't work quite that way.
The humans here are not a baseline, culturally. They are foreigners, they are often mistrusted. They are sometimes seen by others as mysterious travelers from another land, who bring good (or bad) fortune. They are sometimes seen as useful, in their way. They are sometimes seen as vermin who breed too quickly and eat too much. Mostly, they see themselves as exiled, homeless, not fitting in.
It is tempting for a DnD player or GM to use humans as a baseline, dominant race. In dojh-oln-beh, that is what dwarves are for.[/note]
Long post, I know. But I'd be glad to hear your thoughts on these things.
QuoteNamely, they've lost Stonecunning and gained a bonus to any one Craft skill. I'm considering expanding this to include the choice of Knowledges or Professions (I can't really decide whether it's thematically appropriate, and Knowledges are easier for a player to abuse), but for the most part, I'm really happy with these stats.
really[/i] reward crafting of mundane items. even craft (alchemy) is kind of a wash, imo. Profession is just horrible, useful only for background justification, unless you try to use it as a knowledge skill.
On elves--the +2 bonus to 6 skills is kinda pushing it, although i'd say the SLAs are nothing to worry about. I guess the penalty to wisdom does counter some of the skill bonuses...
QuoteMost settings are set up, consciously or not, with this racial measuring stick in mind. Dojh-oln-beh doesn't work quite that way.
hate[/i] how humans are the default and most populous race in
every setting, ever. good job :)
EDIT: Totally forgot to mentions I really love this stuff. Great takes on the old races, and the new ones look facinating. Awesome stuff here, Crayon. :)
I'll go down the list and do Dwarves and Elves first.
Dwarves look fine mechanically to me. I like the change, and I would definitely change the bonus to include all craft, knowledge, and profession. Sure, knowledge is powerful, but at the same time a massive bonus to a knowledge skill is never going to be a game breaker, as it will still be limited to use only during that one skills area of expertise. Maybe limit the selection of knowledge skills to knowledge Architecture and engineering, Dungeoneering, History, and possibility Nobility and Royalty, since the first fits with their inventiveness, the second fits dwarves (I need to read Jade Stage to know how well that fits dojh-oln-beh), and the last two fit their status as the oldest, dominant culture.
Elves: Mechanically, they look ok to me. The +2 on six skills, as brainface put it, is kind of pushing it, but the unbalanced ability scores that work against the Elves is a balancing factor. Elves are too weak to be LA +1, and they are on the high end of LA +0, but not overpowered. You did a good job moving from the stereotype of elves, and although I dislike the flavor you have for elves (making a player race unable to feel certain emotions really limits the options a player has, though it could make for some really fun RP â,¬' so long as you donâ,¬,,¢t mind playing a socially adept bastard) I think you really did an overall good job with race. :)
Boru absolutely need a racial bonus to Strength. It doesn't make sense that an average "gentle giant" only beats an average human in arm wrestling 50% of the time.
Surely arm-wrestling is covered by powerful build. If not, i declare that a major rules oversight.
I would think arm wrestle would be grapple, which would mean powerful build would cover it.
Quote from: brainfaceSurely arm-wrestling is covered by powerful build. If not, i declare that a major rules oversight.
Seems logical, but then again, I didn't design the Powerful Build ability. I found it in some book or another and said, "hey, that looks like Boru!"
The problem with Boru stats is that I'm trying to use them to describe a contradiction: a race that is physically strong without being combat monsters.
What I'm tempted to do, because I still don't like Powerful Build on a 0 LA race, is to split up the functions of Strength, and give Boru what amounts to a virtual strength bonus for certain functions only. Not sure how best to word it, but effectively a +2 or +4 strength that applies to skills, Str checks, and carrying capacity, but not to attack rolls or weapon damage. I've not felt out the implications of such a thing, though, so we'll see.
As for elves, their stats are very unsettled. Elves, liriss, and boru are the ones I'm really uncomfortable with right now, so they'll see definite change. I had thought little of the six skill bonuses because they got very little else to compensate for unbalanced stats, but it's apparently a more problematic thing than I'd thought.
Back to the drawing board I go!
you could give the boru bonus to strength checks involving break dcs. so they could, you know, break things better?
Except for the name boru, the content of this post is Open Game Content, as defined in the Open Game License version 1.0a Section 1(d).
You could give the boru powerful build, a big racial bonus to Strength checks, and something like the following:
-4 racial penalty to attack rolls and weapon damage rolls: born pacifists, boru are instinctively uncomfortable wielding weapons or otherwise engaging in combat.
P.S. My earlier mention of 'arm-wrestling' was a metaphorical reference to opposed Strength checks.
Don't really like that approach. Seems to be taking the long way around the issue, and painting the boru much more strongly as pacifists than I really care to do.
I've done a lot of brainstorming, and as of today, here are the things I came up with:
Dwarves: Expand "+4 to any Craft skill" to include Knowledge and Profession skills as well.
Change favored class from fighter to expert. Never really did feel comfortable with fighter as anything but a sort of default, and expert fits the race's characterization better.
[note=Revised Elves]I'm liking these better, but still not quite satisfied with them. I need to give the SLAs a good hard look, but I feel like this is progress. They're significantly more bladey than before, I think. For what that's worth.[/note]
Elves: Change the PHB standard elven weapon proficiencies to one martial proficiency, chosen at first level from any light or one-handed weapon that deals piercing or slashing damage.
Remove skill bonuses to Search, Diplomacy, and Sense Motive. You're right; those were a bit excessive, and frankly didn't fit.
Change favored class to fencer.
[note=Gnomes]Something needs to be added here. I feel like gnomes are a quart low, as-is. Also, need to reconsider SLAs.[/note]
Gnomes: Remove the bit with illusions. Not happy with that anymore in a low-magic setting like this.
Change favored class from expert to face. Leans a little less towards the tinker-gnome cliche, and a little more towards the dojh-oln-beh archetype of a welcoming, gregarious gnome.
Goblins: No changes.
[note= The Boru Strength Bonus]Jury's still out on this one, as far as I'm concerned. I like the concept, but I'm not sure whether the amount is too much, or the places it's applied are right. I'm sure I don't want it to apply to attack or damage rolls, or to skill checks. Not sure about using it to satisfy feat prerequisites. Opinions welcomed.[/note]
Boru: Removed Powerful Build.
Implemented a +8 virtual bonus to Strength, which applies only in the following instances:
- Strength checks (including arm-wrestling, moving/breaking things, resisting trips and bull-rushes, etc.)
- Grapple checks (same effect as Powerful Build anyway, a +4 bonus)
- Carrying capacity (roughly tripling carrying capacity)
Simocs: Improved Unarmed Strike added as a feat option instead of Martial or Exotic Weapon Proficiency.
[note=Liriss]I find that this new block end up being significantly more interesting than the old one. The -2 Con without any other stat adjustments still looks very weird to me, though, and I'm not sure the race is balanced as-is. However, I'm much more comfortable with it thematically than it was before, and balance can follow from there.[/note]
Liriss: Basically rewritten from the ground up. Previous one is years out of date, anyway. Here's the new block:
-2 Constitution: Liriss are markedly less hearty than warm-blooded creatures of comparable size and strength.
Medium-size: As Medium-size creatures, liriss have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size.
Liriss base speed is 30 ft.
Cold-Blooded: Liriss' cold-blooded nature makes them more vulnerable to extreme cold, compared to mammals whose metabolisms produce their own body heat. In an environment cold enough to cause nonlethal damage each hour (below 40 degrees F), liriss suffer a -2 penalty to Dexterity and a -2 penalty to all saves. In an environment cold enough to cause lethal damage (), both of these penalties increase to -4. These penalties persist as long as the liriss individual remains in the cold environment, and for one hour afterward. Effects that protect from the cold, such as a nearby bonfire or an endure elements spell, negate these penalties. Since cold-blooded creatures produce no body heat, heavy clothes are useless to liriss in cold conditions. Fortunately, liriss also enjoy an increased ability to survive in hot climates. They treat hot temperatures as 30 degrees cooler than they actually are, for purposes of determining whether they take damage from exposure to heat.
Slow Metabolism: Because cold-blooded creatures waste no energy on unnecessary functions like body heat, they conserve nourishment. Liriss eat far less frequently than other races, consuming about as much food in a week as a human eats in one day. Liriss individuals can eat small amounts each day, if they wish, but are comfortable going for most of a week with no food, then eating one large meal. Furthermore, the slower metabolism of liriss means that the intervals of time between the ability damage caused by poison and disease are doubled. The liriss need for water is not reduced; liriss need to drink as much water as other medium-sized creatures to avoid dehydration.
Quickstrike: While liriss are not notably quick or agile compared to other races, they have an uncanny ability to perceive danger and react swiftly to threats. They gain a +1 racial bonus to Initiative checks and Reflex saves. In addition, a liriss may draw a weapon as a free action as if he had the Quick Draw feat. This ability is only usable with light weapons, and with any weapons affected by the liriss individual's Weapon Focus feats. A liriss loses the use of the Quickstrike ability while suffering the Dexterity-reducing effects of cold temperatures.
Trick of Logic: Draconic thought-techniques insulate liriss' minds against deception, magical tampering, and other intrusion, granting them a +1 bonus to Will saves.
Mind and Body: In the heat of combat a liriss' mental discipline makes its effects on physical skill plain. This ability has two uses, offensive and defensive, but a liriss may never call upon Mind and Body more than once per day.
Defensive: The liriss may activate this ability when struck by a melee attack that threatens a critical hit, before the attack roll to confirm the critical hit is made. The liriss makes a Concentration check and uses the check result in place of AC for the critical confirmation attack roll only. The Concentration check result must be used regardless of whether or not it is favorable.
Offensive: The liriss may activate this ability when striking an opponent with a melee attack that threatens a critical hit, before the attack roll to confirm the critical hit is made. The liriss makes a Concentration check against the target's AC in place of an attack roll to confirm the critical hit. The Concentration check result must be used regardless of whether or not it is favorable.
Infinite Patience: Liriss patience affords them a +2 bonus to Diplomacy checks, helping them ease social interaction-- even with particularly difficult members of lesser races.
+2 racial bonus on Climb and Balance checks: Liriss' clawed fingertips are especially adapted for climbing, giving liriss an advantage when scaling vertical surfaces, and their tails make balancing a simpler task.
Automatic Language: Liriss characters are able to speak, read, and write one regional language, in addition to any bonus languages they may learn from high Intelligence scores. Many liriss speak Formerian, but they may choose any regional language from the following list: Bhast, Cardan, Chorr, dis-fal, Formerian, Istorian, Ithyrian, Lendhu, Tiburon.
Favored Class: Fighter. A multiclass liriss' fighter class does not count when determining whether he takes an experience point penalty for multiclassing. The structured training regiment of the warrior and the balance between mental and physical prowess it promotes makes the fighter class ideally suited to liriss' mindsets and cultural values.
Hot off the presses, this revision was just finished this afternoon. Behold: boru.
[spoiler=Boru flavor text]Renowned for their willful, stubborn patience, boru are the great, immovable forces among dojh-oln-beh's people. Slow to act, slow to anger, and slower to forgive, they cherish a simple lifestyle that has changed almost not at all since the dawn of history. Rugged, self-sufficient and nomadic, they covet neither homes nor valuables to protect, and they avoid the worries and fears that concern their more modern, urban neighbors. Much like the stones they are sometimes compared to, they weather storm and hardship without fear, confident that the boru people will endure all things as they always have.
Boru are the largest humanoids on dojh-oln-beh, averaging seven or eight feet tall and roughly twice the width of a human. Their bodies are layered in thick, slablike muscle, giving them an air of massiveness, inertia, and coiled strength. Boru hands and feet seem disproportionately large even on their massive frames, and their rounded heads are set directly atop muscular shoulders, often giving the impression of a head and torso melded together into one shape. Boru's muscular frames are further encased by thick hide, creased and hairless, ranging in color from pale grey and tan to very dark shades of brown and charcoal. Their eyes are dark brown, black, or rich green, set within broad, flat faces. One theory concerning the origin of the nickname "rocklings" is that boru at a distance are easily mistaken for boulders if they aren't moving, a suggestion that is more humorous than actually likely.
Needing little protection from the elements, boru dress simply and wear little. They favor ppractical garments: belts or vests with pockets to hold their possessions, toughened leather armor for battle, simple loincloths to preserve modesty. It is rare for boru clothing to serve any decorative purpose, though boru who travel in cities tend to imitate local styles of dress in an attempt to draw minimal attention to themselves.
Boru are blessed with long lives, a gift which explains much about their personalities. They reach physical maturity at age 30, and can live to be up to 450 years old, adding long, slow memories throughout their lives. This lengthened perspective makes boru patient and stoic, secure in the knowledge that they have plenty of time to make decisions. They therefore tend toward careful, deliberate thought and action, a quality that people of other races sometimes mistake for mental slowness and deficiency. This stereotype is quite untrue, however; the memories stored over long years and the insights gained from patient thought bless boru with respectable wisdom. They are enduring, capable, pragmatic, and unafraid of hard work.
The City and the Tribe
Boru society is shaped by their ruggedness. Because they can survive comfortable in environments that would prove dangerous or deadly to other races, they do so, traditionally traveling in nomadic hunter-gatherer tribes through the most remote reaches of dojh-oln-beh. Natural disaster means little to most boru, since they rarely have houses and cities that can't be easily rebuilt if destroyed, and they seldom hoard material possessions to be damaged or lost. Boru's fearlessness of natural disaster and their ability to endure harsh climates and weather conditions enable them to live comfortably in areas most other races would never even consider habitable.
This ability to roam seldom-traveled areas has afforded boru tribes the luxury of avoiding the growing trends of urbanization that preoccupy other races. Most tribes do precisely this, staying well clear of cities until they need to trade with other races for the occasional goods and services they can not produce themselves. Boru tribes' deliberate distancing from urban life is due in part to a general inability to understand the drives and desires of the urbanized races and an accompanying distrust that usually stops well short of actual hostility, but there is also a defensive attitude toward culture that cannot be ignored.
As a group, boru have seen no need to alter the wilderness habits that have served them so well, but increasing numbers of younger boru are beginning to heed the siren song of the cities. Discontent with the ways of their ancestors, some boru are trickling out of the hills and away from their tribes, joining the bewildering new wilderness of urban economics in search of success. Their great strength and patient, uncomplaining attitude toward menial work makes them excellent tradesmen, and young, strong boru command top wages among bricklayers, dock workers, porters, and other varieties of strong laborers. Less fortunate boru may find that they are the most expensive slaves in Ithyria, Narenine, or dam-il.
Boru elders worry about the slowly but undeniably growing trend of youths leaving their tribes for city life. Concerned that the ancestral ways may eventually vanish altogether, they work to minimize their tribes' contact with cityfolk, and many tell their young ones chilling tales of urban life, far from the safety of the tribe. Rare boru who do take up city life despite their elders' advice are often surprised to learn that these stories of urban peril were exaggerated, or on occasion, horrified to realize that they were all too true.
Grun Thah and Gahm Hratha
Most boru tribes are remarkably similar in structure, language, and tradition, suggesting that modern tribes, whether they roam Degawan mountains or the deserts of Entáme, trace their roots to an ancient mother-tribe now lost to history. Tribes tend to be small, ranging from thirty to eighty members, and organized matriarchally. The eldest female in the tribe carries the title Grun Thah, meaning "wise mother" in the Chorr language, and sits at the head of the Gahm Hratha, the Council of Elders. The Gahm Hratha is a group of men and women generally accepted by the tribe as being the wisest, and varies in size from three members in smaller tribes to almost a dozen in larger ones. While the Grun Thah holds final authority, the Gahm Hratha leads the tribe by consensus, guiding its nomadic path, serving as mentors and spiritual guides for the young, and determining the sort of reception with which visitors to the tribe are met.
Although boru spellcasters are rare, it is extremely uncommon for a boru tribe's Gahm Hratha not to include one. These mystics hold the title of Mareb, the only named position on the council with the exception of Grun Thah. A tribe's Mareb is a highly-respected individual who serves as the last word on all spiritual matters that affect the tribe. With a few notable exceptions, all Mareb are channelers of the Cho. Their magic is pictoral and heavily ceremonial; they reinforce their spells with runework and designs painted with specially mixed clays, traditional mixtures of mud, ash, and plant pigments, believed to focus the power of the spirits and anchor it in place. Important tribal events are decided around a spirit fire ringed with clay-painted symbols, and when boru tribes are moved to war, the sight of a group of massive boru warriors with runes of strength, courage, and victory painted on their bodies causes most foes trepidation.
The Spirits and the Cho
Boru mythology is heavily concerned with the Cho, or Rock Dragon, whom boru believe to be the progenitor of their race. Unrelated to the reptilian dragons sacred to liriss, the Cho is massive beyond comprehension; the stones and mountains are its bones, and the earth is its flesh. The boru believe that the Cho lies coiled encircling the world, keeping watch over its boru children.
Boru beliefs further assert that the spirit persists when the body dies and returns to the soil. Spirits of the dead retain the memories and personalities they had in life, but as spirits are free to serve the Cho. The Cho uses spirits as messengers to convey wisdom to boru they were close to in life, so many boru seeking guidance spend time in wild places their ancestors loved, hoping for a vision.
Walking the Path of Earth
As a coming-of-age ritual, young boru participate in the Path of Earth, a trial involving weeks spent alone in the wilderness. Walking the Path of Earth serves several purposes. Most superficially, it is a practical lesson in wilderness survival; boru who are forced to return to the tribe for sustenance, or worse yet, who die of hunger, thirst, or animal attack while attempting the Path of Earth are considered disgraced (although completing the Path on a subsequent attempt, when possible, ameliorates the disgrace of failure somewhat.) In a more spiritual sense, walking the Path of Earth is a spiritual rite. The boru walking the Path travels alone until he receives a vision of wisdom from an ancestral spirit, which may take weeks or even months. After receiving such a vision, he returns to his tribe, now an adult in the eyes of the Gahm Hratha (and presumably a bit wiser.)
Boru Adventurers
Boru who travel apart from the tribe do so either with the blessing of the council, or as outcasts who have forsaken their ancestral ways. Tribally sanctioned adventurers are commonly scouts and explorers, messengers to other tribes or non-boru cities, sent to retrieve items or information the tribe may need, or warriors sent to deal with the tribe's problems, particularly raiders or dangerous wildlife. Increasingly, many tribes are assigning designated ambassadors to permanent or semipermanent positions in cities located near their roaming patterns, to help promote comfortable relations with their urban neighbors. Boru who leave their tribes against the council's wishes have the luxury of traveling in pursuit of more personal goals, and many pursue fame, fortune, and success in ways that are more familiar to those outside the tribal structure. Even away from the tribe, boru tend to be relatively unmotivated by avarice. They are practical about wealth, rarely tempted by the lure of money, and much more likely to prize useful tools and other items that serve a purpose. Many travel simply for the experience of seeing lands far from their birth.
[/spoiler][spoiler=Boru Stat Block]
Boru Racial Traits
-2 Dexterity, +2 Constitution, -2 Intelligence: Boru are stoic, tough, and enduring, but tend toward a ponderous slowness of both thought and action.
Medium-size: As Medium-size creatures, boru have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size.
Natural Armor: Boru's tough, leathery skin gives them a +1 natural armor bonus to AC.
Boru base speed is 20 ft. However, boru can move at this speed even when carrying medium or heavy armor, or when carrying a medium or heavy load (unlike other creatures, whose speed is reduced in such situations).
Uncanny Strength: Boru move slowly, but with inexorable momentum. In certain situations, boru enjoy a virtual +8 bonus to Strength due to the unstoppable steadiness of their actions. This bonus is never applied to attack rolls or damage rolls. It is applied to Strength checks such as those employed to move or break objects, to grapple checks, to Strength checks for special combat maneuvers such as to bull rush an opponent or to avoid being tripped, and when calculating carrying capacity.
Fist of Stone: Boru gain Improved Unarmed Strike as a bonus feat at first level. In addition, boru's unarmed attacks do 1d4 damage, rather than 1d3, the standard unarmed damage for medium-sized characters. Boru who further increase the lethality of their unarmed strikes (for example, by taking the Brawl feat) follow the standard damage tables; they gain no further edge in damage compared to other medium-sized creatures.
-2 penalty to initiative checks: Boru's bodies are massive, cumbersome, and slow to react.
+2 racial bonus to saving throws against disease and poison: Boru's vigorous health is seldom weakened by sickness or toxins.
+2 racial bonus to Survival checks: Boru have a natural affinity for the wilderness, and can survive there with ease.
+4 racial bonus to saving throws against severe weather and extreme temperatures: Boru thrive in the outdoors, partly because their tough skin gives them resistance to many natural hazards. The bonus applies only against natural conditions; it will help keep a boru from freezing to death in an arctic climate or succumbing to heatstroke in a desert, but will not help him avoid damage from a mage's chill metal or fireball spell.
Automatic Language: Boru characters are able to speak, read, and write one regional language, in addition to any bonus languages they may learn from high Intelligence scores. Many boru speak Chorr, but they may choose any regional language from the following list: Bhast, Cardan, Chorr, dis-fal, Formerian, Istorian, Ithyrian, Lendhu, Tiburon.
Favored Class: Hunter. A multiclass boru's hunter class does not count when determining whether he takes an experience point penalty for multiclassing. Boru's patience, determination, independance, and ability to survive far from civilization make them ideal for seeking a variety of goals, especially in a wilderness environment.[/spoiler]Reactions to this or anything else in this thread are welcomed and encouraged, particularly if you have anything to suggest about balancing out gnome stats, or comments on the new liriss stat block.
Addendum: minor update to the liriss stat block. I'm still trying to illustrate some sort of synergistic logical rigidity in both mind and body with the liriss, and I think I'm still moving in the right direction here.[spoiler=Liriss Text]Here we have a race fundamentally different in physiology from any of its fellow sentients. The liriss are reptilian humanoids, not mammals. They are scaled and hairless, cold-blooded, and physically less hearty than some mammals. They walk on two legs, but are equally comfortable lounging iguana-style on their stomachs. Their hands are clawed, too small for effective combat, but an aid in climbing; their tails are thick and short, a boon when balancing. Their faces are elongated, lizard-style, with large, dark eyes.
Their scales in particular are of interest (liriss are often called "scales" as a racial slur by insensitive warmbloods), ranging in color from dusty tan or olive to a deeper shade of brown. Unique patterns are picked out on the scales of each liriss individual in shades of gold, grey, emerald, mahogany, or bright orange. These scale patterns can be used to identify an individual like a fingerprint, but they also display similarity in related individuals; it is possible to tell whether two liriss are blood-relations by simply observing their scale patterns, provided the observer knows how. It takes an educated observer to tell many things about liriss, including, for warmbloods, an individual's gender. As reptiles, liriss lack distinguishing mammalian sex characteristics (facial hair, breasts, and so on), so mammals, whose underdeveloped senses of smell can not properly register pheromones, find the remaining cues are much subtler. Many liriss are patient with their primitive warmblood neighbors, taking pains to introduce themselves using titles that specify gender rather than leaving the warmbloods guessing.
Liriss' cold-blooded nature is also important. Since they are not burning metabolic fuel just to produce heat, their bodies are more efficient, and they need only eat once a week (though many liriss prefer to eat very small meals each day, rather than large, infrequent ones. They survive just fine either way.) Furthermore, since metabolism is not constantly upping body temperature, they survive well in extremely hot environments, while cold temperatures handicap them severely.
The Chosen of Dragons
Liriss legend claims that the race was created by the dragons, to be their servants. The partnership between the two races was one of master and servant, teacher and pupil, something symbiotic and strange, foreign to the warmblood races. The dragons' disappearance during the great scouring caught the liriss very much off guard; they miss their mentors and advocates, but appreciate their newfound autonomy. The current condition of the liriss race is as it has been since the scouring: that of a race of servants now masterless, searching for their place in the world now that they have no one to guide them. The training wheels are off, so to speak. The chicks have been pushed out of the nest, and are forced to fly or fall on their own.
Some liriss resent the warmbloods for their part in driving off the dragons, but logically, most recognize that this same act won them their freedom from something of a benign dictatorship. It is a complex issue, and therefore some (though not all) liriss still bear a minor, lingering resentment. As a rule, the liriss tend to regard themselves as superior to the warmbloods, driven by a special destiny, gifted and talented, a chosen race; this conceited attitude drives their interactions with other races, from a good-intentioned diplomatic guiding to conquest by right of superior ability to rule.
The Cold Shapes of Thought
Liriss tend to be deliberate, forceful, cunning, logical, and patient, willing to wait for years if necessary for their plans to unfold. They are generally cool-headed and confident, a demeanor which often causes others to view them as calculating and arrongant. Contrary to the most superficial of appearances, liriss do not live in absence or denial of emotion; they acknowledge a dual nature of the mind, composed of reason and passion, where reason must ultimately govern action. In the eyes of the liriss, failure to incorporate either component of thought indicates deficiency. Reason untempered by passion creates an incomplete and unsuccessful person, the lobotomized, sociopathic elves being a prime example. Passion untempered by reason creates a dangerous person, ruled by impulse and not to be trusted.
Uncontent with the widespread warmblood notion that the mind and body are seperate aspects of an individual, liriss contend that the mind and body are inextricably linked, and that strength or weakness of one is sure to correspond with a matching state of the other. Accordingly, most liriss choose to be physically active while thinking, practicing meditation techniques where clearly proscribed movement, often rehearsal of combat maneuvers, accompanies each mental action. This insistence on physical regiment for the sake of mental acuity, and on mental precision for the sake of physical strength, molds many liriss into formidable and well-rounded individuals.
The Web of Rank
Liriss society is a complex, tangled mesh of command, where most individuals are both servants of higher-ranked liriss and masters of lower ranked ones. Power is based on a complex formula involving seniority, bloodline, magical ability, and achievement. Liriss individuals can increase their status by gaining fame and power, although removing an immediate senior from the community is also a common method. Liriss disdain overt combat between members of their race, so guile, deception, and manipulation are often used by lower-ranked liriss to discredit and humiliate higher-ranked ones. Even without murder and politics, a surprising amount of social mobility exists in the rigid power structure of liriss society, and even nonsaurians can rise to moderate power, although their achievements are limited by their obviously inferiour mammalian bloodlines.
Liriss cities are generally collections of single-story adobe buildings, often unimpressive to the casual observer. A closer examination usually reveals surprising symmetry, a geometrical precision both within each building and in overall layout of the city. Viewed from above, liriss cities look like carefully arranged concentric squares, elaborate sunbursts, or other geometric designs. Each city is governed by the highest-ranking member within, the Rasha Dahn, who is generally a middle-aged liriss spellcaster from a noble bloodline. The system of social rank provides a natural set of governmental checks and balances, and large cities exert significant political influence on nearby smaller ones.
Liriss society and the Empire
The phrases "liriss society" and "Formerian Empire" are all but interchangeable. Aside from fairly well-established liriss colonies in Thaaros and a notable presence in some of Attu's free cities, Liriss living outside of Imperial lands can be assumed to be outcasts, exiles, or misfits. Liriss individuals are free to live wherever they choose, but those who elect to live outside of their cultural lands do so with the knowledge that they will likely face prejudice from their neighbors and scrutiny from Imperial forces.
The liriss hail from the Formerian Empire, a sprawling, multicontinental power that has grown and spread from their origin in the deserts of northern Entáme to cover half of that continent, a sizeable chunk of Attu, and scattered islands in between. The Empire is an expansionist power, but its increase is accomplished slowly, in accordance with typical liriss patience. Surely even now, plans are in place that will not see fruition for several generations; liriss masterminds think in terms of the long-term benefit to their race, rather than themselves as individuals. New territories have been added to the Empire most rarely by conquest and occupation, and most commonly by various shades of economic enticement and/or strongarming. Some territories submitted themselves willingly to Imperial rule, although the unspoken threat of economic sanctions or imminent violence is a subtle yet powerful persuasive device.[/spoiler]
[spoiler=Liriss Stat Block]
Liriss
-2 Constitution: Liriss are markedly less hearty than warm-blooded creatures of comparable size and strength.
Medium-size: As Medium-size creatures, liriss have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size.
Liriss base speed is 30 ft.
Cold-Blooded: Liriss' cold-blooded nature makes them more vulnerable to extreme cold, compared to mammals whose metabolisms produce their own body heat. In an environment cold enough to cause nonlethal damage each hour (below 40 degrees F), liriss suffer a -2 penalty to Dexterity and a -2 penalty to all saves. In an environment cold enough to cause lethal damage (), both of these penalties increase to -4. These penalties persist as long as the liriss individual remains in the cold environment, and for one hour afterward. Effects that protect from the cold, such as a nearby bonfire or an endure elements spell, negate these penalties. Since cold-blooded creatures produce no body heat, heavy clothes are useless to liriss in cold conditions. Fortunately, liriss also enjoy an increased ability to survive in hot climates. They treat hot temperatures as 30 degrees cooler than they actually are, for purposes of determining whether they take damage from exposure to heat.
Slow Metabolism: Because cold-blooded creatures waste no energy on unnecessary functions like body heat, they conserve nourishment. Liriss eat far less frequently than other races, consuming about as much food in a week as a human eats in one day. Liriss individuals can eat small amounts each day, if they wish, but are comfortable going for most of a week with no food, then eating one large meal. Furthermore, the slower metabolism of liriss means that the intervals of time between the ability damage caused by poison and disease are doubled. The liriss need for water is not reduced; liriss need to drink as much water as other medium-sized creatures to avoid dehydration.
Quickstrike: While liriss are not notably quick or agile compared to other races, they have an uncanny ability to perceive danger and react swiftly to threats. They gain a +1 racial bonus to Initiative checks and Reflex saves. In addition, a liriss may draw a weapon as a free action as if he had the Quick Draw feat. This ability is only usable with light weapons, and with any weapons affected by the liriss individual's Weapon Focus feats. A liriss loses the use of the Quickstrike ability while suffering the Dexterity-reducing effects of cold temperatures.
Trick of Logic: Draconic thought-techniques insulate liriss' minds against deception, magical tampering, and other intrusion, granting them a +1 bonus to Will saves.
Mind and Body: In the heat of combat a liriss' mental discipline makes its effects on physical skill plain. This ability has two uses, offensive and defensive, but a liriss may never call upon Mind and Body more than once per day.
Defensive: The liriss may activate this ability when struck by a melee attack that threatens a critical hit, before the attack roll to confirm the critical hit is made. The liriss makes a Concentration check and uses the check result in place of AC for the critical confirmation attack roll only. The Concentration check result must be used regardless of whether or not it is favorable.
Offensive: The liriss may activate this ability when striking an opponent with a melee attack that threatens a critical hit, before the attack roll to confirm the critical hit is made. The liriss makes a Concentration check against the target's AC in place of an attack roll to confirm the critical hit. The Concentration check result must be used regardless of whether or not it is favorable.
Infinite Patience: Liriss patience affords them a +2 bonus to Diplomacy checks, helping them ease social interaction-- even with particularly difficult members of lesser races.
+2 racial bonus on Climb and Balance checks: Liriss' clawed fingertips are especially adapted for climbing, giving liriss an advantage when scaling vertical surfaces, and their tails make balancing a simpler task.
Automatic Language: Liriss characters are able to speak, read, and write one regional language, in addition to any bonus languages they may learn from high Intelligence scores. Many liriss speak Formerian, but they may choose any regional language from the following list: Bhast, Cardan, Chorr, dis-fal, Formerian, Istorian, Ithyrian, Lendhu, Tiburon.
Favored Class: Fighter. A multiclass liriss' fighter class does not count when determining whether he takes an experience point penalty for multiclassing. The structured training regiment of the warrior and the balance between mental and physical prowess it promotes makes the fighter class ideally suited to liriss' mindsets and cultural values.[/spoiler]