Dinopriminals and Phantasy Prehistorium (Nym/Omarka)
Okay, so this thread is a bunch of stuff based off real prehistoric creatures but specifically intended for fictional campaign usage. It all relates to a campaign setting known as Nym which is linked to the outer plane known as the Beastlands, and has a similar ecology in addition to the fantasy races.
In addition to fictional elements, there is also a forum thread to discuss reviewing and revising previously posted dinosaurs and prehistoric wildlife HERE. This is probably the highest priority thing that someone could want to help on if they were willing to be involved. Rabbit is doing an awesome job helping out with the dinopriminals, below.
There was also a mention of a Uintatherium dinopriminal, and I suspect there are many other workable concepts. I have a few non-dinopriminal creature concepts I will have filling in some other cultural/ecological niches, such as the advance celestial gigantopithecus that will govern the simians and neo/hominids, and some insectoid critters. I also haven't really thought enough about underwater wildlife and invertebrates either....
All About Dinopriminals
Dinopriminals are a celestial race native to Nym and the Outer Plane extension of the Beastlands. These beastial outsiders are the same in every aspect as Guardinals except for their native plane and cultural background, and as noted here and in their entries. All spells/effects that affect Guardinals affect Dinopriminals in the same manner, although the reverse may not be true depending on your preferences. Dinopriminal is a subtype that is in some ways a subcategory of the Guardinal subtype.
The Beastlands of Nym/Omarka (Physical World) is the only Material Plane location where Dinopriminals have the Native subtype instead of the Extraplanar subtype (at least for the sake of this discussion). This means that on Nym dismissal and banishment effects do not affect Dinopriminals. Guardinals on Nym still have the Extraplanar subtype, as it is still a Material Plane world, albeit Divinely Morphic - and not their native plane. Except for this fact, guardinals and dinopriminals can represent almost the same thing ideologically, and are considered to be the same for effects that target guardinals. Effects that specifically target dinopriminals do not automatically target guardinals, unless your DM specifies otherwise.
Dinopriminals can speak, write, and understand Celestial, Sylvan, Anakim (of Serpentfolk), Faunar/Felynne (of Catfolk & Shapeshifters), and Omarkan (Nymian Common), although they can speak with most any creature thanks to their tongues ability. Many dinopriminals are adept in the use of Nymian Sigilry, and receive the bonus feat, Art of Sigilry [General] as a racial bonus. In addition to this feat, the skill Craft (Calligraphy, or Sigilry) becomes a class skill, as does Knowledge (Sigils/Signs/Glyphs/Runes). More talented sigil using races will also have the racial bonus feat, Truename Sigil [General], as well.
These traits are all common to Dinopriminals who are native to Nym/Beastlands, so if your game or campaign does not allow this, your DM may consider changing the traits to suit their own campaign instead. Dinopriminals not native to Nym speak Common, Celestial, and Sylvan, and do not gain the bonus feats/skills for Sigilry (unless the DM uses the same concepts as Nymian Sigilry in their campaign - often under another cultural naming convention).
Dinopriminal Traits: Dinopriminals have the following traits (unless otherwise noted in a creature's entry).
Type (Subtypes): Outsider (Dinopriminal, Extraplanar/Native, Good) - native to Nym/Omarka Material Plane world only, and to the Beastlands outer plane (or any other good-aligned plane for other purposes)
Variable natural AC bonus by race (always an improvement on the base prehistoric animal race)
Variable spell resistance and damage reduction (some have none)
Scent (Ex) - as MMI ability
Darkvision out to 60 feet and low-light vision
Immunity to electricity and petrification
Resistance to sonic 8, acid 8, cold 5, fire 5
Lay on Hands (Su): As the paladin class feature, except that each day a dinopriminal can heal an amount of damage equal to its full normal hit points. If performed on animals only, the damage healed equals 1 1/2 times the dinopriminal's full normal hit points.
+6 racial bonus on saves against poison, +2 racial bonus to saves against disease
+2 racial bonus to Handle Animal and Survival checks, +4 to Listen and Spot checks
Speak with Animals (Su): Dinopriminals can mentally communicate with animals as a free action. This ability acts like the spell speak with animals as cast by an 8th level druid, but requires no sound.
Tongues (Su): Dinopriminals can speak with any creature that has a language, as though using a tongues spell as cast by a 14th-level cleric.
Dimorphinal - done (revise?), Sigils Known
Raptorinal - done, Sigils Known
Tyrranal - done, Sigils Known
Sivanal - content (finish), Sigils Known
Parodinal - ideas, Sigils Known
Lycaenal - done, Sigils Known
Sabrenal - done, Sigils Known
Coelodal - done, Sigils Known
Ankylonal - review, Sigils Known
Pterinal - done, Sigils Known
Lambeonal - review, SLAs
Ceratopsinal - review, SLAs
Sigil lists done: None
I think I will go with bhu's idea of Preferred Classes over Favored when it comes to Class Level Adjusted PC Dinopriminals, too. My original choices are looking less satisfying, and some of your newest ideas make my originals seem lame or out of place.... So I am really flexible on this one. I guess flavor will just have to go with the flow.
More: Nymian Sigilry & Sentience Collars/Devices
Last edited by xidoraven; 6th October 2009 at 10:26 AM..
(Creature based on real-life Sivatherium) Large Outsider (Dinopriminal, Native/Extraplanar, Good, Incarnum) Hit Dice: 17d8+85 (153 hp) Initiative: +6 Speed: 50 ft. (10 squares) Armor Class: 21 (-1 size, +2 Dex, +10 natural); touch 11; flat-footed 19 (*+1 insight per point of essentia invested - see Soulbound Protection below) Base Attack/Grapple: +16/+20 Attack: Hoof slam or kick +23 (1d8+12), or gore +18 (1d6+4) Full Attack: 2 hoof slams or kicks +23 (1d8+12), or gore +18 (1d6+4) Special Attacks: Powerful hoof attack, spell-like abilities, crippling trample (2d8+24 - 2 hooves) Special Qualities: Damage reduction 6/evil or silver, darkvision 60 ft., dinopriminal subtype, essentia pool 7, immunity to electricity and petrification, lay on hands, low-light vision, resistance to acid 8/cold 5/fire 5/sonic 8, soulbound protection, speak with animals, spell resistance 18, tongues Saves: Fort +15, Ref +12**, Will +13+1 (**+1/point of essentia invested - see Cobalt Reflexes below; +1 from open crown chakra) Abilities: Str 26, Dex 15, Con 21, Int 15, Wis 17, Cha 13
Skills: (200, max 20/10)
Feats: Alertness, Cobalt Reflexes***, Improved Initiative, Improved Overrun, Improved Unarmed Strike (B), Open Least Chakra (Crown)***, Power Attack, Run, Art of Sigilry (B) (***New Feats from Magic of Incarnum - described below), (New Feat - see Nymian Sigilry) Environment: Beastlands of Nym/Omarka, or any good-aligned plane Organization: Solitary, or herd (3-8) Challenge Rating: ?? Treasure: No coins; double goods; standard items Alignment: Always good (any), usually neutral good Advancement: 18-28 HD (Large), 29-34 HD (Huge) Level Adjustment: +??
Standing nearly 15 feet tall, this bipedal monstrous humanoid has features of a massive prairie herd animal and a towering mystical spellcaster. With a massive oblong head mounted with four exotic ossicones, or skin-covered horn/antler structures, the rear two of which are more elaborate and sizable than the front two. On males, this antler-like ornamentation is larger and broader in width and curvature. Its fur is many color like the skins of giraffes, zebra, bison, okapi, and other ungulates and prairie beasts, and its eyes shine a vivid baby blue. When its incarnum abilities are activated by its Crown Chakra binding ability, a haze of wispy blue strands issue forth from its ossicones and its eyes deepen to a bold cerulean hue. Light seems to come from its body when it accompanies those of good hearts and pure souls. It is wrapped in an elaborate and decorative cloak of hewn silks, and features a gold medallion with a decorated and refined etching of a beastial prehistoric creature upon it, which it wears just over its left breast region.
Content, Creature, Culture
Combat
Descr
Powerful Hoof Attack (Ex): A Sivanal applies 1-˝ times its Strength modifier to damage rolls with its hooves.
Spell-like Abilities (Sp): at will - aid, commune, continual flame, detect evil, detect magic, dispel magic, remove curse, remove disease, remove fear; 3/day - command, dimensional anchor, flame strike, invisibility, light; 1/day - dimension door, lesser restoration, see invisibility, slow, waves of fatigue. Caster level 13th. The save DCs are Wis-based.
Crippling Trample (Ex): A Sivanal's trample attack is a gruesome use of its hooves, speed, and mass that deals double a typical slam damage result on a charge using double the creature's speed. Trampled opponents may make attacks of opportunity against a trampling Sivanal at a -4 penalty if they do save against the attack. A Reflex save DC 26 halves damage. The save DC is Strength-based (10+1/2 HD+Str bonus). The Sivanal may make this attack action while charging on two feet or on all fours, and the damage and effects remain the same.
Essentia Pool (Ex): A Sivanal has an essentia pool of 6+1 (6 racial - HD/3 - and 1 for the Incarnum Feat, Cobalt Reflexes). The creature can use this pool of spiritual energies to affect its AC, Reflex saving throws, and other actions as listed in the abilities and feats described here (Soulbound Protection, Cobalt Reflexes).
Lay on Hands (Su): As the paladin class feature, except that each day a Sivanal can heal an amount of damage equal to its full normal hit points (153 for the average Sivanal). If performed on animals only, the damage healed equals 1-˝ times the Sivanal's full normal hit points.
? Soulbound Protection (Su) ? === basic effect unarmed attacks cause additional 1d4 electricity damage to aberrations, undead, evil creatures, and outsiders with the evil subtype = +1 on all saves against spells/SLAs, soulmelds, incarnum effects, and any effect that targets incarnum (ie, Incarnum Dragon's Consume Soulmeld) for every 2 points of essentia invested to good- and neutral-aligned creatures within a 15 ft./point of essentia radius (including self, Will save DC 16 negates - harmless); bound to crown chakra - basic effect unarmed attacks cause additional 2d4 electricity damage to aberrations, undead, evil/outsiders, and antler/gore attacks also do additional 1d4 cold damage = +1 per 1 point of essentia as above (same range/radius), plus +1 per point insight bonus to personal AC
?
Speak with Animals (Su): Dinopriminals can mentally communicate with animals as a free action. This ability acts like the spell speak with animals as cast by an 8th level druid, but requires no sound.
Tongues (Su): Sivanals can speak with any creature that has a language, as though using a tongues spell as cast by a 14th-level cleric.
Racial Bonus to Skills & Feats: A Sivanal receives a +2 bonus to Charisma-related checks including Diplomacy, Intimidate, and Charisma ability checks (but not Bluff) with any creature that perceives the Sivanal's spiritual power - the incarnum energies and the effects they create - or any use of its incarnum-related abilities. Simply seeing the Sivanal and its signs exhibited by a Crown Chakra-bound Soulbound Protection effect is enough to put this bonus into effect. This is not an aura effect, and only affects Cha-based checks made to influence others who can see, feel, and otherwise sense with their ordinary senses the experiential byproducts of the Sivanal's spiritual energy manifestations. Any creature who is blind, numb, or otherwise incapable of experiencing these effects for themselves, or who lacks an Intelligence or Wisdom score is not affected by this bonus to skill checks and Cha-based ability checks. This bonus increases to +4 when Soulbound Protection is bound to its Crown Chakra. They also receive a racial bonus of +2 to Handle Animal, Heal, and Survival checks. Bonus feats include Alertness and Improved Unarmed Strike, as well as the standard bonus feat for Dinopriminals native to Nym/Omarka, Art of Sigilry.
Description on Incarnum-related Feats and Abilities: "Incarnum is an amorphous magical substance made up of the soul energies of all sentient creatures - living, dead, and, it is theorized, those even not yet born."
Sivanals have access to the powers of incarnum energy through their feats (some chosen from Magic of Incarnum) and racial abilities. They enact these ability effects through the use of daily-allotted points of 'essentia' which give them access to their own spiritual energies as a supernatural power source. They can invest these points of power into their supernatural, essentia-using racial traits (such as Soulbound Protection), as well as their Incarnum feat, Cobalt Reflexes. Creatures and characters with class levels in standard classes from Magic of Incarnum often shape this energy into 'soulmelds', and are referred to as 'meldshapers'.
"Essentia is a [creature's] personal store of incarnum. Most [beings] can't access this pool of energy, though certain classes and feats open up this potential. Essentia can be invested into [incarnum effects and abilities] in order to enhance their effects. Essentia can be reinvested each round to augment soulmelds and other effects as the meldshaper wishes."
"Once shaped (a daily process much like prepping spells), a [soulmeld or other incarnum effect] lasts as long as its creator wants it to."
Sivanals have a racial essentia pool equal to 6 plus 1 point of essentia granted by its Incarnum feat - Cobalt Reflexes - which they can invest or reinvest once every round. Each ability that is enhanced by this invested essentia lists how it is benefited from the soul energies in its description.
"Chakras are the [body's centers] of power: crown, feet, hands, [and others]."
"[An incarnum effect] can be bound to a single chakra in order to gain a secondary (and often more potent) effect from doing it. Doing so cuts off the the corresponding body slot from magic item use - binding a [soulmeld or incarnum effect] to your feet chakra means you can't wear magic boots, for example."
Sivanals have access to one of their least chakras (the crown chakra: which is located above and around the head area, corresponding to the creature's large antler-like horns and the item slot where helmets, headbands, phylacteries, etc. are placed) because of the Open Least Chakra feat. They can bind their Soulbound Protection (or any other soulmeld or incarnum effect) into this energy center of their body to change or enhance the effect, as noted in its description. If the Sivanal takes any levels in a meldshaper class (such as Incarnate, Soulborn, or Totemist - from Magic of Incarnum), they may also bind other soulmelds and effects not related to their racial incarnum abilities to this location as well. Meldshapers with class levels of this sort gain the ability to bind soulmelds and effects to the ten chakras listed in Magic of Incarnum as their progressive class abilities describe.
"After resting, [an incarnum shaper] must meditate for one hour. During this time, [he/she] selects and shapes all [his/her soulmelds and incarnum effects, as well as chakra-bindings] for the day, simultaneously unshaping any current [soulmelds, incarnum effects, and chakra-bindings that they] choose not to retain."
These incarnum melds and abilities are supernatural, semi-permanent effects (except for when the incarnum user chooses to unshape or modify them as allowed), and last for a full day, or else as long as the shaper chooses. Sivanals often keep their shaped effects and bindings the same through each day, although changing them around or when used in tandem with other incarnum effects, soulmelds, magical items, etc. is quite common as well - especially with those Sivanals who are also meldshapers, such as Totemists and their variants.
Soulmelds and similar effects cannot be unshaped except during the shaper's daily meditation, or by use of a spell or spell-like ability that affects it in this way (or, as some soulmelds are made to have a specific effect - such as a damaging blast effect - which is specific and unique to that soulmeld).
According to Table 2-1: Essentia Capacity, in Magic of Incarnum, (and treating the Sivanal's equivalent Outsider racial HD as its class levels) the Essentia Capacity for any of the Sivanal's feats, incarnum effects/abilities, and/or soulmelds is 3 - so the total essentia it can invest into Soulbound Protection is a maximum of 3, and with the feat Improved Essentia Capacity (Soulbound Protection) it is improved to a maximum of 4. Essentia can be reinvested once per round on the creature's turn - though there is no limit as to how many points of essentia are moved around in this way.
A Sivanal's meldshaper level is equal to 1/3 its HD (round down), for the purposes of caster level checks made using soulmelds and incarnum effects. Sivanals who take on future levels in a meldshaper class use their racial meldshaper level or their class level, whichever is higher. ?? [[Meldshaper level - caster checks - etc.]] ??
"Any creature with incarnum-based powers has the incarnum subtype. An incarnum creature can be born with the subtype or can gain it during its life.
"A creature meeting any one of the following criteria has the incarnum subtype:
The creature has an essentia pool. This category includes characters with levels in a character class that grants an essentia pool or creatures with feats that grant essentia.
The creature has one or more preshaped soulmelds (that is, soulmelds are automatically shaped on it without any effort on its part).
The creature was created through the use of incarnum or from raw incarnum.
"Traits: Creatures with this subtype have no specific shared traits other than those given above. The incarnum subtype merely identifies creatures that might be vulnerable to spells and effects that target incarnum creatures."
(- "italicized quotes" are transcribed from v3.5 Magic of Incarnum, 2005)
Location: My happy place. It's OK, they know me there.
Posts: 166
Raptorinal and Tyrranal
Let me start by reposting the two I had made and posted on the Wizards forums.
Dinopriminal, Raptorinal Medium Outsider (Dinopriminal, Extraplanar/Native, Good)
Hit Dice: 9d8+45 (85 hp) Initiative: +3 Speed: 50 ft. (10 squares) Armor Class: 24 (+3 Dex, +11 natural), touch 13, flat-footed 21 Base Attack/Grapple: +9/+14 Attack: Kick +14 melee (1d8+5) Full Attack: Kick +14 melee (1d8+5) and 2 claws +12 melee (1d6+2) and bite +12 melee (1d8+2) Special Attacks: Pounce, shriek, spell-like abilities Special Qualities: DR 10/evil or silver, darkvision 60 ft, immunity to electricity and petrification, lay on hands, low-light vision, resistance to sonic 10, acid 10, cold 5, and fire 5, speak with animals, spell resistance 23, tongues Saves: Fort +11 (+17 vs. poison, +13 vs. disease), Ref +9, Will +8 Abilities: Str 21, Dex 17, Con 20, Int 14, Wis 14, Cha 17 Skills: Concentration +9, Craft (sigils) +8, Diplomacy +15, Handle Animal +15, Hide +19, Intimidate +15, Jump +17, Knowledge (Nymian sigilry) +8, Listen +18, Move Silently +15, Sense Motive +14, Spellcraft +14, Spot +18, Survival +18 Feats: Ability Focus (shriek), Multiattack, Run, Scribe Rune/Sigil (B), Track Environment: Beastlands of Nym/Omarka, or any good-aligned plane Organization: Solitary or pack (7-12) Challenge Rating: 9 Treasure: No coins; double goods; standard items Alignment: Always good (any), usually neutral good Advancement: 10-18 HD (Medium), 19-24 HD (Large) Level Adjustment: —
Raptorinals are moderately strong warriors among the dinopriminals. They are not the most powerful, however. They serve as rangers and support troops, moving in after the dimorphinals have scouted the area to hunt down and eliminate evildoers. Although they are jovial and almost playful when on their home planes, they are absolutely fearless in combat.
A raptorinal is about 7 feet tall and relatively humanoid. It has a raptor's head, large hands with three clawed fingers, long legs with clawed feet, and a stiff tail. Raptorals have a coat of white feathers that covers many parts of their body, with a crest of tall plumes upon the head.
Raptorinals speak Celestial, Sylvan, Anakim, Faunar/Felynne, and Omarkan, although they can speak with most any creature thanks to their tongues ability.
Combat
Although raptorinals don't actively seek out combat, they do take pride in defeating villains. They prefer to open combat by announcing their presence with their shriek ability, then charging in and tearing their foes apart. When fighting in a pack, one raptorinal leads with a shriek while the others are preparing for combat with their spell-like abilities, then the pack works together to eliminate the foes, taking the most dangerous ones first.
A raptorinal's natural weapons (and any manufactured weapons they may wield) are considered to be magic and good-aligned for the purposes of damage reduction. Raptorinals have no need of manufactured weapons, for Nature has equipped them with all the weapons they need.
Pounce (Ex): If a raptorinal charges, it can make a full attack.
Shriek (Su): A raptorinal can emit a piercing cry up to three times per day. Each roar releases a blast in a 60-foot cone that duplicates the effects of a holy word spell and deals an extra 2d6 points of sonic damage (Fortitude DC 18 negates). The save DC is Charisma-based.
Spell-like Abilities (Sp): At will – command (DC 14), detect evil, detect thoughts (DC 15), dimension door (DC 17), hold monster (DC 18), magic circle against evil (self only); 3/day – cone of cold (DC 18), greater magic fang, prayer. Caster level 9th. The save DCs are Charisma-based.
Lay on Hands (Su): As the paladin class feature, except that each day a raptorinal can heal an amount of damage equal to its full normal hit points (85 for the average raptorinal). If performed on animals only, the damage healed equals 1-˝ times the raptorinal's full normal hit points.
Speak with Animals (Su): Dinopriminals can mentally communicate with animals as a free action. This ability acts like the spell speak with animals as cast by an 8th level druid, but requires no sound.
Tongues (Su): Raptorinals can speak with any creature that has a language, as though using a tongues spell as cast by a 14th-level cleric.
Skills: A raptorinal has a +2 racial bonus on Handle Animal checks, a +4 racial bonus on Craft (sigils), Hide, Jump, Knowledge (Nymian sigilry), Listen, and Spot checks, and a +10 racial bonus on Survival checks.
Dinopriminal, Tyrranal Huge Outsider (Dinopriminal, Extraplanar/Native, Good)
Hit Dice: 22d8+154 (253 hp) Initiative: +3 Speed: 40 ft. (8 squares) Armor Class: 31 (-2 size, +3 Dex, +20 natural), touch 11, flat-footed 28 Base Attack/Grapple: +22/+40 Attack: Bite +30 melee (3d6+10) Full Attack: Bite +30 melee (3d6+10) and 2 claws +28 melee (2d6+5) Space/Reach: 15 ft./15 ft. Special Attacks: Crunch, great roar, improved grab, spell-like abilities Special Qualities: Damage reduction 15/evil and silver, darkvision 60 ft., immunity to electricity and petrification, lay on hands, low-light vision, resistance to acid 10, cold 5, fire 5, and sonic 10, speak with animals, spell resistance 34, tongues Saves: Fort +20 (+26 vs. poison, +22 vs. disease), Ref +16, Will +15 Abilities: Str 30, Dex 16, Con 25, Int 15, Wis 15, Cha 19 Skills: Concentration +17, Craft (sigils) +22, Diplomacy +24, Handle Animal +26, Intimidate +24, Knowledge (nature) +24, Knowledge (Nymian sigilry) +22, Knowledge (the planes) +22, Listen +24, Search +22, Spellcraft +22, Spot +24, Survival +24 (+26 in aboveground natural environments, +26 on other planes, +26 following tracks, +28 any two, +30 all three) Feats: Awesome Blow, Improved Bull Rush, Improved Natural Attack (bite, claw), Multiattack, Power Attack, Run, Scribe Rune/Sigil (B), Track Environment: Beastlands of Nym/Omarka, or any good-aligned plane Organization: Solitary, pair, or gang (3-4) Challenge Rating: 19 Treasure: No coins; double goods; standard items Alignment: Always good (any), usually neutral good Advancement: 23-33 HD (Huge), 34-44 HD (Gargantuan) Level Adjustment: -
On their home plane, tyrranals are gentle giants, but they are among the most powerful of the dinopriminals. They are both potent combatants and adept users of Nymian sigilry.
A tyrranal resembles a vaguely humanoid tyrannosaurus with arms of a more proper size for its proportions. Its hands possess three short, clawed fingers. A tyrranal's scales are pebbly and olive green or brown in color, sometimes with striping on the back and flanks. A tyrranal is about 15 feet tall.
Tyrranals can speak Celestial, Sylvan, Anakim, Faunar/Felynne, and Omarkan, although they can speak with most any creature thanks to their tongues ability.
Combat
Despite being the most fearsome-looking of the dinopriminals, tyrranals prefer to avoid combat. They will usually use their great roar to scare off any potential foes, or use their spell-like abilities to take care of lesser foes. When faced with the worst of evildoers, they will bring to bear their full combat prowess, giving their enemies no quarter. Against such foes, they use their spell-like abilities on themselves (or each other) to make themselves as powerful as possible before charging into combat and eradicating their enemies with their devastating natural attacks.
A tyrranal's natural weapons (and any manufactured weapons it may wield) are considered magic and good-aligned for the purposes of overcoming damage reduction. Tyrranals will occasionally wield giant axes designed to look like a tyrannosaur's head; these are treated as Huge +3 wounding greataxes made of either silver or cold iron.
Crunch (Ex): If the tyrranal is holding a Medium or smaller creature in its Improved Grab, it deals automatic bite damage each round the grapple is maintained until the creature escapes or dies, or the tyrranal is killed.
Great Roar (Su): The tyrranal's roar can shake the resolve of even the bravest warrior. Three times per day, the tyrranal can unleash a frightening roar as a standard action that does not provoke attacks of opportunity. The roar is a 30-foot cone that affects all creatures other than dinopriminals with 21 HD or less, causing them to be panicked for 4d6 rounds unless they succeed on a Will save (DC 26), and even then they are shaken for 1d4 rounds. DC is Cha-based. This is a sonic, mind-affecting fear effect.
Improved Grab (Ex): To use this ability, a tyrranal must hit an opponent of up to one size smaller with its bite attack. It can then attempt to start a grapple as a free action without provoking an attack of opportunity. If it wins the grapple check, it establishes a hold and begins dealing crunch damage to Medium or smaller foes in the next round.
Spell-like Abilities (Sp): At will - detect evil, fireball (DC 17), greater dispel magic, greater magic fang, holy aura, holy word (DC 21), magic circle against evil (self only); 3/day - mass hold monster (DC 23); 1/day – meteor swarm (DC 23). Caster level 20th. The save DCs are Cha-based.
Lay on Hands (Su): As the paladin class feature, except that each day a tyrranal can heal an amount of damage equal to its full normal hit points (253 for an average tyrranal). If performed on animals only, the damage healed equals 1-˝ times the tyrranal's full normal hit points.
Speak with Animals (Su): Dinopriminals can mentally communicate with animals as a free action. This ability acts like the spell speak with animals as cast by an 8th-level druid, but requires no sound.
Tongues (Su): Dinopriminals can speak with any creature that has a language, as though using a tongues spell as cast by a 14th-level cleric.
Skills: A tyrranal has +2 racial bonus on Handle Animal, Listen, Spot, and Survival checks.
__________________ Hunger: A Haiku by InsanePsychoRabbit My stomach's growling.
Does that mean it's time for lunch?
I want to eat NOW!
Last edited by InsanePsychoRabbit; 4th September 2009 at 05:51 PM..
Reason: corrected armor class for tyrranal
Location: My happy place. It's OK, they know me there.
Posts: 166
Gorgonal (Gorgonopsian Dinopriminal)
Dinopriminal, Gorgonal Medium Outsider (Dinopriminal, Extraplanar/Native, Good)
Hit Dice: 8d8+32 (68 hp) Initiative: +2 Speed: 30 ft. (6 squares) Armor Class: 22 (+2 Dex, +10 natural), touch 12, flat-footed 20 Base Attack/Grapple: +8/+13 Attack:+2 heavy pick +15 melee (1d6+7/x4) or bite +13 melee (1d6+7/19-20/x3) Full Attack:+2 heavy pick +15/+10 melee (1d6+7/x4) and bite +8 melee (1d6+2/19-20/x3); or bite +13 melee (1d6+7/19-20/x3) Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft. Special Attacks: Augmented critical, spell-like abilities, spells Special Qualities: Damage reduction 10/evil or silver, darkvision 60 ft, immunity to electricity and petrification, lay on hands, low-light vision, resistance to sonic 10, acid 10, cold 5, and fire 5, speak with animals, spell resistance 24, tongues Saves: Fort +10 (+16 vs poison, +12 vs. disease), Ref +8, Will +8 Abilities: Str 21, Dex 14, Con 19, Int 14, Wis 16, Cha 19 Skills: Concentration +15 (+19 casting defensively), Craft (sigils) +17, Handle Animal +6, Intimidate +15, Knowledge (arcana) +13, Knowledge (Nymian sigilry) +17, Knowledge (the planes) +13, Listen +16, Spellcraft +15, Spot +16, Survival +16 (+18 on other planes)
Feats: Alertness, Combat Casting, Eschew Materials (B), Scribe Rune/Sigil (B), Track Environment: Beastlands of Nym/Omarka, or any good-aligned plane Organization: Solitary, pair, or gang (3-4) Challenge Rating: 9 Treasure: No coins; double goods; standard items Alignment: Always good (any), usually neutral good Advancement: 9-12 HD (Medium), 13-16 HD (Large) Level Adjustment: -
Gorgonals are the magi of the dinopriminals, drawing their strength from 'the magic within.' They fight with heavy picks to supplement their fangs and magical powers.
Gorgonals are powerfully built beings, standing 7-8 feet tall, even though they are hunched over at the shoulders. A gorgonal has the head of a large gorgonopsid on a humanoid body, human-like hands with small claws, and animal-like paws for feet. Their thick, rust-colored hides occasionally have bristle-like hair sprouting from the muzzle, chest, and upper back.
Gorgonals speak Celestial, Common, Draconic, and Sylvan, although they can speak with most any creature thanks to their tongues ability.
Combat
Gorgonals vary widely in their fighting styles. Some prefer to stand back and destroy their foes with their magic, while others use their spells solely to protect themselves and their allies. Others charge into battle and mix spell and fang with deadly efficiency. These differences in tactics allow gorgonals to work effectively in groups, as each individual has a chosen role.
A gorgonal's natural weapons, as well as any manufactured weapons it wields, are considered to be magic and good-aligned for the purposes of overcoming damage reduction. Gorgonals traditionally wield a large pick-axe in the shape of a fang, these weapons are treated as +2 heavy picks.
Augmented Critical (Ex): The fangs of a gorgonal strike with deadly precision. A gorgonal's bite attack threaten a critical on a roll of 19-20, dealing triple damage on a successful critical hit.
Spells: A gorgonal cast spells as an 8th-level sorcerer.
Typical spells known (spells per day 6/7/7/5/4, save DC 14 + spell level):
A gorgonal's spells known depend on its fighting style. Gorgonals who stand back and cast spells rather than enter combat prefer the 'blaster' and 'support' styles, whereas gorgonals who plunge into battle prefer the 'combat' style.
'Blaster' style: 0 – acid splash, detect magic, flare, mage hand, mending, open/close, ray of frost, read magic; 1st – burning hands, color spray, magic missile, obscuring mist, ray of enfeeblement; 2nd – eagle's splendor, Melf's acid arrow, scorching ray; 3rd – fireball, lightning bolt; 4th – ice storm.
'Combat' style: 0 – detect magic, detect poison, disrupt undead, flare, mage hand, read magic, resistance, touch of fatigue; 1st – chill touch, mage armor, shocking grasp, shield, true strike; 2nd – bear's endurance, bull's strength, false life; 3rd – keen edge, rage; 4th – greater invisibility.
'Support' style: 0 – detect magic, disrupt undead, mage hand, mending, message, read magic, resistance; 1st – hold portal, mage armor, magic missile, protection from evil, shield; 2nd – bear's endurance, resist energy, see invisibility; 3rd – haste, protection from energy, 4th – stoneskin.
Spell-like Abilities (Sp): At will – command (DC 15), detect evil, detect thoughts (DC 16), hold monster (DC 19), magic circle against evil (self only); 3/day – divine favor, heroism. Caster level 8th. The save DCs are Charisma-based.
Lay on Hands (Su): As the paladin class feature, except that each day a gorgonal can heal an amount of damage equal to its full normal hit points (68 for the average gorgonal). If performed on animals only, the damage healed equals 1-˝ times the gorgonal's full normal hit points.
Speak with Animals (Su): Dinopriminals can mentally communicate with animals as a free action. This ability acts like the spell speak with animals as cast by an 8th level druid, but requires no sound.
Tongues (Su): Gorgonals can speak with any creature that has a language, as though using a tongues spell as cast by a 14th-level cleric.
Skills: A gorgonal has a +2 racial bonus on Handle Animal and Survival checks, and a +4 bonus on Craft (sigils) and Knowledge (Nymian sigilry) checks.
I have a great drawing of one, I'll post it here as soon as I finish cleaning it up.
__________________ Hunger: A Haiku by InsanePsychoRabbit My stomach's growling.
Does that mean it's time for lunch?
I want to eat NOW!
Last edited by InsanePsychoRabbit; 2nd September 2009 at 11:31 PM..
Reason: Adding the picture, changing Mystics to Magi - you're right, 'mystics' is too religious-sounding
Location: My happy place. It's OK, they know me there.
Posts: 166
Special Bonus: Sabrenal (Smilodon Dinopriminal)
Dinopriminal, Sabrenal Large Outsider (Dinopriminal, Extraplanar/Native, Good)
Hit Dice: 13d8+65 (123 hp) Initiative: +3 Speed: 60 ft. (12 squares) Armor Class: 26 (-1 size, +3 Dex, +14 natural), touch 12, flat-footed 23 Base Attack/Grapple: +13/+25 Attack: Claw +20 melee (1d6+8) Full Attack: 2 claws +20 melee (1d6+8) and bite +15 melee (1d8+4/x3) Space/Reach: 10 ft./10 ft. Special Attacks: Augmented critical, improved grab, pounce, rake 1d6+8, roar, spell-like abilities Special Qualities: Change shape, damage reduction 10/evil and silver, darkvision 60 ft., immunity to electricity and petrification, lay on hands, low-light vision, resistance to acid 10, cold 5, fire 5, and sonic 10, speak with animals, spell resistance 28, tongues Saves: Fort +13 (+19 vs. poison, +15 vs. disease), Ref +11, Will +10 Abilities: Str 27, Dex 19, Con 20, Int 14, Wis 16, Cha 17 Skills: Balance +24, Concentration +12, Craft (sigils) +18, Diplomacy +9, Handle Animal +9, Hide +24, Intimidate +12, Jump +20, Knowledge (Nymian sigilry) +18, Listen +19, Move Silently +22, Sense Motive +19, Spot +19, Survival +21 Feats: Ability Focus (roar), Art of Sigilry (B), Dodge, Mobility, Spring Attack, Track Environment: Beastlands of Nym/Omarka, or a good-aligned plane Organization: Solitary or pride (4-9) Challenge Rating: 13 Treasure: No coins; double goods; standard items Alignment: Always good (any), usually neutral good Advancement: 13-18 HD (Large); 19-36 HD (Huge) Level Adjustment: —
Sabrenals are the prehistoric equivalent of leonals, as majestic and powerful as the great cats they resemble.
Like all guardinals, sabrenals frequently leave their home planes to track down and destroy evildoers, which they call “stalking their prey.” Sabrenals that leave their home plane often take the form of a smilodon and join with a wild pride, granting them several strong allies and affording them some anonymity while they track their prey. If this is not possible, such as if they are tracking villains in a more civilized area, they usually take the form of a humanoid.
Sabrenals are 8 to 10 feet tall and are humanoid in shape, but have the head of a smilodon. A sabrenal's fur is brown, with a ruff around the neck that lengthens to a mane or mantle upon the shoulders.
Sabrenals speak Celestial, Sylvan, Anakim, Faunar/Felynne, and Omarkan, although they can speak with most any creature thanks to their tongues ability.
Combat
Sabrenals like their battles as straightforward as can be. They begin with a roar to put their foes off balance, then follow up with a frenzy of claw and bite attacks. They closely coordinate with others in their pride, watching one another’s flanks and setting up devastating attacks.
A sabrenal’s natural weapons, as well as any weapons it wields, are treated as good-aligned for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction.
Augmented Critical (Ex): A sabrenal's bite deals triple damage on a successful critical hit.
Improved Grab (Ex): To use this ability, a sabrenal must hit with its bite attack. It can then attempt to start a grapple as a free action without provoking an attack of opportunity. If it wins the grapple check, it establishes a hold and can rake.
Pounce (Ex): If a sabrenal charges a foe, it can make a full attack, including two rake attacks.
Rake (Ex): Attack bonus +20 melee, damage 1d6+8.
Roar (Su): A sabrenal can roar up to three times per day. Each roar releases a blast in a 60-foot cone that duplicates the effects of a holy word spell and deals an extra 2d6 points of sonic damage (Fortitude DC 21 negates). The save DC is Charisma-based.
Spell-Like Abilities (Sp): At will—detect evil, detect magic, detect poison, detect thoughts (DC 16), hold monster (DC 18), ice storm (DC 16), wall of force; 3/day—cat's grace, cure critical wounds (DC 17), neutralize poison, pass without trace, remove disease; 1/day—dispel magic, heal (DC 19). Caster level 10th. The save DCs are Charisma-based.
Change Shape (Su): A sabrenal can assume the shape of a smilodon (use the same statistics, but its reach drops to 5 feet) or a Medium humanoid. Changing shape or reverting to its normal shape is a standard action. In humanoid form, a sabrenal loses its claw and bite attacks, but tends to equip itself with arms and armor to compensate. A sabrenal can remain in a form for as long as it wishes. True seeing reveals a sabrenal's true form.
Lay on Hands (Su): As the paladin class feature, except that each day, a sabrenal can heal an amount of damage equal to its full normal hit points (123 for the average sabrenal). If performed on animals only, the damage healed equals 1-˝ times the sabrenal's full normal hit points.
Speak with Animals (Su): Dinopriminals can mentally communicate with animals as a free action. This ability acts like the spell speak with animals as cast by an 8th-level druid, but requires no sound.
Tongues (Su): Sabrenals can speak with any creature that has a language, as though using a tongues spell as cast by a 14th-level cleric.
Skills: Sabrenals have a +2 racial bonus on Handle Animal and Survival checks, and a +4 racial bonus on Balance, Craft (sigils), Hide, Knowledge (Nymian sigilry), and Move Silently checks.
I have not added sigilry feats yet.
__________________ Hunger: A Haiku by InsanePsychoRabbit My stomach's growling.
Does that mean it's time for lunch?
I want to eat NOW!
Last edited by InsanePsychoRabbit; 13th September 2009 at 02:23 AM..
Reason: missed updating a DC
Not only are you fast and creative, but you pay wonderful attention to details. As soon as I saw the name Sabrenal, my heart fluttered for a moment in joy - quickly followed by, 'omg, I wonder if she saw the part about...' - and then I saw your concept. I like it. I want to take it one step further, but for now let's leave it at that.
Okay, so I have to admit I have been refining my knowledge of Utahraptor (N America) and Megaraptor (S America) and I think I can clearly state that we want the Raptorinal to be a Dromeosaurid, which is like that of Utahraptor, Deinonychus, Velocirator, et al. This is in stark contrast to the monster Spinosaurid-like front-clawed Megaraptor we have in our MMIs. After a lot of thought, and now seeing that size reference chart online I am a lot more inclined to produce a large-sized iconic representative of that variety.
I will make you a deal to compensate: We retain the original Raptorinal as the 'base' creature, and develop a large-sized advanced 'general' caste creature with further abilities, and the 'Companion' of this race (should there be one in the end - and by this I mean a racial paragon or leader of this type of dinopriminal) would be an even further huge-sized advancement beyond that. I think our Generals should have paladin-like traits. I forget the Favored Class I had in mind for them atm, but that is my thought on it.
I will have to return to Sabrenal - my mind was not set on that concept yet, but I can see you did a great job with it. I will run over it again later.
Also, you mentioned a concept you were working on for Psittacosaurus (Parodinal) - but I never saw it. I would love to even see a draft at this point, and get your input on the other things I had written down for them, such as the mind blade idea.
I am still open to new naming ideas for sure, but is there any way to make the Gorgonopsian variety sound any less like Gorgon, so there is no mistaking the identity for that of the scary bull-like creature from MMI/mythology?? Gorgonal does that to me when I hear it, so I suspect anyone using or hearing this for the first time might also make that assumption without some sort of precedent to compare it to... (aka, your DM looks at you after snagging this off a web page and says rather bluntly and semi-educated, "Well, after your initiative and spot checks, you can plainly see you're fighting a GORGONAL," and holds up a picture... Is it related? Should you not make that guess? Should I look it up when I go home?) That's really my only beef on the current name. It should also somehow embody the spirit of most therapsids in general, but I know where your inspiration is coming from... The only restriction to naming conventions for these creatures is that they end in 'al' - all guardinals share this name segment alone.
Gorgosinal, Gorgonopsinal, Gorgontheranal, Gorgothenal, Therapsinal, Therapsidal, Therapsal, Thernal are all possibilities in that sense, and really many more. I know anything with Gorgon in it will run the risk, but we are only fighting against the naming of that one species as it is - and we both know that it has the same lore as the mythological creature of real-life Earth... So I am pretty flexible on it - but Gorgonal just runs that line really close. I think maybe even Gorgosal has less of that feeling and still keeps the letters of Gorgonopsian/Gorgonopsidae/Gorgonopsina section of Therapsida.
I really want your honest input on the Sivanal write-up and what your feelings are on the Incarnum stuff. Is it approachable from knowing nothing about Incarnum? Do you perhaps know stuff about Incarnum or not? I'm also really enjoying making the drawing for it, and hoping to do the same for all the rest of these and many dinos/prims as well (potentially a publication?)....
Location: My happy place. It's OK, they know me there.
Posts: 166
I'm sorry, I know absolutely nothing about Incarnum. I was never interested in it. I know more about Psionics than Incarnum.
Personally I'm really attached to the name Gorgonal. However, if you really want a different name for it, maybe you could try "Lycaenal" - after Lycaenops, since you mentioned that specifically as a basis.
After thinking about it for a bit I kinda like your idea of a Large raptorinal general. I imagine a charismatic leader with an aura that empowers its pack members in battle.
I have a new idea for the Parodinal; I want it to use the mind blade and some psi-like abilities instead of spell-like abilities. I still want it to be smallish, about 3-5 HD.
The one I'm working on currently, though is the Coelodinal. My vision for it is of a small and very sneaky creature with Sneak Attack and Uncanny Dodge.
__________________ Hunger: A Haiku by InsanePsychoRabbit My stomach's growling.
Does that mean it's time for lunch?
I want to eat NOW!
Last edited by InsanePsychoRabbit; 2nd September 2009 at 11:30 PM..
Location: My happy place. It's OK, they know me there.
Posts: 166
Coelodal (Coelophysis Dinopriminal)
Dinopriminal, Coelodal Small Outsider (Dinopriminal, Extraplanar/Native, Good)
Hit Dice: 4d8+4 (22 hp) Initiative: +3 Speed: 30 ft. (6 squares) Armor Class: 19 (+1 size, +3 Dex, +5 natural), touch 14, flat-footed 18 Base Attack/Grapple: +4/+1 Attack: Bite +9 melee (1d4+1) or throwing dagger +9 ranged (1d3+1) Full Attack: Bite +9 melee (1d4+1) and 2 claws +4 melee (1d3), or throwing dagger +9 ranged (1d3+1) Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft. Special Attacks: Sneak attack +2d6, spell-like abilities Special Qualities: Damage reduction 5/evil or silver, darkvision 60 ft., evasion, immunity to electricity and petrification, lay on hands, resistance to acid 10, cold 5, fire 5, and sonic 10, speak with animals, spell resistance 13, tongues, uncanny dodge Saves: Fort +5 (+11 vs. poison, +7 vs. disease), Ref +7, Will +6 Abilities: Str 13, Dex 19, Con 13, Int 14, Wis 14, Cha 16 Skills: Bluff +10, Craft (sigils) +8, Diplomacy +5, Disguise +9 (+11 acting in character), Gather Information +10, Handle Animal +5, Hide +17, Intimidate +5, Jump +5, Knowledge (Nymian sigilry) +8, Listen +12, Move Silently +13, Open Lock +10, Search +9, Sleight of Hand +13, Spot +12, Survival +5 (+7 following tracks) Feats: Art of Sigilry (B), Improved Feint (B), Track, Weapon Finesse Environment: Beastlands of Nym/Omarka, or any good-aligned plane Organization: Solitary or squad (2-6) Challenge Rating: 5 Treasure: Standard coins; double goods; standard items Alignment: Always neutral good or chaotic good Advancement: 5-8 HD (Small), 9-12 HD (Medium) Level Adjustment: +6
Coelodals are tricky rogues who perform “secret” business for the dinopriminals, such as the recovery of objects, gathering information, and/or dispatching the occasional minor villain. They tend more towards chaos than other dinopriminals since they have a penchant for stealing things (but only from evil beings or very good friends) and pulling pranks on other dinopriminals.
Coelodals look like gaunt, long-limbed, long-necked, halfling-sized humanoids with reptilian heads, large eyes, and long, whiplike reptilian tails. Their hands feature three long fingers, each of which ends in a small but sharp claw, and their feet are bird-like with the ankle carried off the ground. A coelodal's fine scales are greenish in color. Coelodals tend to wear purses or satchels to carry their equipment and anything they might have pilfered.
Coelodals speak Celestial, Sylvan, Anakim, Faunar/Felynne, and Omarkan, although they can speak with most any creature thanks to their tongues ability.
Combat
Coelodals sneak around in the shadows and pop out to ambush their foes. If injured, they activate their invisibility spell-like ability and either heal themselves with their lay on hands ability or beat a hasty retreat.
A coelodal's natural weapons, and any manufactured weapons it may wield, are considered magic and good-aligned for the purposes of overcoming damage reduction. Coelodals do have opposable thumbs, but their hand anatomy makes wielding weapons in melee somewhat awkward. However, they often carry and use throwing daggers.
Sneak Attack (Ex): Whenever a coelodal catches an opponent unaware (any time the foe would be denied a Dexterity bonus to AC), or whenever it is flanking an opponent, a coelodal deals an extra 2d6 damage with its attack. If the coelodal makes a full attack, the sneak attack damage is only added once.
Spell-like Abilities (Sp): At will – detect evil, detect magic, disguise self, protection from evil (self only), see invisibility; 3/day – invisibility (DC 15), magic missile; 1/day – entangle (DC 14), magic fang. Caster level 4th. The save DCs are Charisma-based.
Evasion (Ex): If a coelodal makes a successful Reflex saving throw against an attack that normally deals half damage on a successful save, it instead takes no damage. A helpless coelodal does not gain the benefit of evasion.
Lay on Hands (Su): As the paladin class feature, except that each day a coelodal can heal an amount of damage equal to its full normal hit points (22 for the average coelodal). If performed on animals only, the damage healed equals 1-˝ times the coelodal's full normal hit points.
Speak with Animals (Su): Dinopriminals can mentally communicate with animals as a free action. This ability acts like the spell speak with animals as cast by an 8th-level druid, but requires no sound.
Tongues (Su): Dinopriminals can speak with any creature that has a language, as though using a tongues spell as cast by a 14th-level cleric.
Uncanny Dodge (Ex): A coelodal retains its Dexterity bonus to AC (if any) even if it is caught flat-footed or struck by an invisible attacker. However, it still loses its Dexterity bonus to AC if immobilized.
Skills: A coelodal has a +2 racial bonus on Handle Animal and Survival checks, and a +4 racial bonus on Craft (sigils), Hide, Jump, Knowledge (Nymian sigilry), Listen, Move Silently, and Spot checks.
Edit: 150th post! Yay!
__________________ Hunger: A Haiku by InsanePsychoRabbit My stomach's growling.
Does that mean it's time for lunch?
I want to eat NOW!
Last edited by InsanePsychoRabbit; 9th September 2009 at 10:24 PM..
Dinopriminal, DIMORPHINAL Size/Type: Small Outsider (Dinopriminal, Extraplanar/Native, Good) Hit Dice: 3d8 (16 hp) Initiative: +3 Speed: 25 ft., fly 50 ft. (average) Armor Class: (+1 size, + Dex, +4 natural) Base Attack/Grapple: +3/-1 Attack: Claw (2 talons) +6 melee (1d4-1), or bite +6 melee (1d6-1) Full Attack: 2 claws +6 melee (1d4-1) and bite +6 melee (1d6-1) Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft. Special Attacks: Spell-like abilities, pounce, wailing raucous Special Qualities: Damage reduction 3/evil or silver, darkvision 60 ft., dinopriminal traits, immunity to electricity and petrification, lay on hands, low-light vision, resistance to acid 8, cold 5, fire 5, & sonic 8, speak with animals, tongues, spell resistance 12 Saves: Fort +3, Ref +6, Will +4 (+2 vs. disease, +4 vs. sonic effects, and +6 vs. poison) Abilities: Str 9, Dex 16, Con 11, Int 11, Wis 13, Cha 15 Skills: (48) Balance +8, Climb +6, Concentration +6, Diplomacy +6, Escape Artist +7, Handle Animal +7, Hide +1, Knowledge (planes/cosmology) +3, Knowledge (nature) +3, Listen +5, Move Silently +8, Spot +5, Survival +6 Feats: Flyby Attack, Run, Weapon Finesse (B) Environment: Beastlands of Nym/Omarka, or any good-aligned plane Organization: Solitary, pair, or patrol (3-6 Dimorphinals, 1-2 Pterinals) Challenge Rating: 3 Treasure: Standard Alignment: Usually neutral good Advancement: 4-7 HD (Medium), 8-12 HD (Large) Level Adjustment: +5
This small reptilian saurian humanoid has winged arms with a membranous layer of skin from a long finger extending out from its clawed upper appendage. A long spaded tail juts from the creature's backside with skin between it and the creature's legs, but neither of these is as distinguishing as the aerial creature's large, multi-colored, uniquely shaped beak-like mouth. Like a Dimorphodon's signature facial profile, this pterosaur-simile has one of the most recognizable schnozes in the prehistoric fantasy world. Its pebbly skin is vibrantly colored in dynamic and exotic textured hues like a fine tropical bird; a Dimorphinal represents the crossover reptilian creatures verging on the change between land- and air-oriented lifestyles and physiology.
Dimorphinals are guardians of the prehistoric aerial creatures not quite fully fitting in with other reptiles, birds, or mammals - but in the states between where colors are wild and the high winds are the trend within evolutionary cycles. They are small reptilian humanoid outsiders with winged upper appendages, a thin body, and large beak-like facial features like that of a Dimorphodon. They do not have typical humanoid hands with opposable thumbs, but have avian wings instead of arms. They are brightly colored in multi-textured patterns, and each creature's markings and coloration are unique.
Dimorphinals stand at around 3 1/2 feet tall and have an 8-foot wingspan; they are around 9 - 9 1/2 feet long from nose to the tip of the tail. They are often sent to scout and relay messages of a diplomatic, tactical or sensitive nature. They have surprising dexterity with their lower talons and upper wing claws, though not enough to properly use precision tools, weapons, or devices. They can climb very well, and can maintain their direction underwater while fishing and flying.
Dimorphinals are generally friendly and feel welcome and at home in large natural areas. They are protective of wildlife and participate in many of the same common activities as other dinopriminals, as well as enjoying sailing on the warm coastal evening breezes at sunset and enjoying the setting sun and the sounds of the jungle and seaside noises. They speak all typical dinopriminal languages, although they are not known to commonly utilize the above noted Nymian Sigilry - though advanced Dimorphinals who study under other dinopriminals who use them have been known to exist.
Combat
Dimorphinals - like most dinopriminals - do not go out actively seeking battle for any reason, and typically feeds on diminutive & tiny insects, fish and soft fruits & berries only. If confronted, they utilize their spell-like abilities and wailing roucous ability to ward off foes, and attempt to make a hasty retreat. If put to the test, during aerial battles they are best suited to making quick darting attacks using the Flyby Attack feat.
Dimorphinals are not typical humanoids and do not have humanoid opposable-thumbed hands, so they are unable to hold typical hand-held weaponry in their claws; natural weapons are their primary melee attack methods, including bite attacks and using their two lower talons to make claw attacks during flight. Their claws are more adept than a typical prehistoric dimorphodon, and even appear much more menacing and disproportionally large.
Spell-Like Abilities: At will - detect evil, detect magic, detect poison, faerie fire, obscuring mist, magic missile, protection from evil (self only), and see invisibility; 3/day - aid, 1/day - invisibility, shield other, consecrate. Caster level 5th. The Save DCs are Wis-based.
Pounce (Ex): If a Dimorphinal dives upon or charges a foe, it can make a full attack, including a bite and two claw attacks.
Wailing Raucous (Su): Every 2d4 rounds, a Dimorphinal may make a loud, piercing cry which mildly deafens and stuns weaker creatures. Creatures with less than 7 HD must make a Fortitude save (DC 10) or else be stunned for one round and take a -2 penalty to Listen checks for 1d6 rounds. Stunning effects are not cumulative, but Listen penalties do stack, including between multiple cries from a single creature or by multiple creatures. Dimorphinals are immune to their own cries as well as the cries of others, and receive a +4 racial bonus to all saves against sonic effects.
Skills: Dimorphinals receive a racial bonus to their skills (+1 Balance and +3 Climb), in addition to the racial skill bonuses granted by dinopriminal subtype traits. They take a -4 penalty to Hide checks because of their vibrant coloration, though the patterns make location in jungle forests more difficult, granting no penalties or bonuses.
Okay, whew... Let's see if I can get through all this in one post. :P
Sabrenal critique will come later. I see a few tweaks that can be made, including more powerful usage of Nymian Sigilry. I will help you understand the feats/skills (you got it so far, but my naming conventions changed when I began writing the paper on it).
I like Lycaenal for the current Gorgonal. I think it keeps the style and flavor, and still stands for what we both know it is supposed to stand for, in terms of the Therapsids and our favorites from that lineage.
"Gorgonals [Lycaenals] are the mystics [magi, or sorcerers] of the dinopriminals..." Technically, the more divine-oriented races like the Sivanals and other druid-like effect-makers would be more like mystics than these ones. The Gorgonal sounds like a definite mage of inherent power, and we should really call that out for what it is. The term mystics really applies much better to other types. If you have a better name than the two I put down, that would be fine too. Just not Mystics. :P I know, I am so nitpicky, right?
Coelodal is an excellent name change. I like the write-up. I will likely review it and Sabrenal at the same time, although they will not require Nymian Sigilry to the extent that some of the others do. I also just now realized that I gave Dimorphinal a bonus feat and it wasn't anything to do with Sigilry... So I actually did something I didn't think I would do.... Again. :P
Quote:
Originally Posted by InsanePsychoRabbit
I'm sorry, I know absolutely nothing about Incarnum. I was never interested in it. I know more about Psionics than Incarnum.
Personally I'm really attached to the name Gorgonal. However, if you really want a different name for it, maybe you could try "Lycaenal" - after Lycaenops, since you mentioned that specifically as a basis.
After thinking about it for a bit I kinda like your idea of a Large raptorinal general. I imagine a charismatic leader with an aura that empowers its pack members in battle.
I have a new idea for the Parodinal; I want it to use the mind blade and some psi-like abilities instead of spell-like abilities. I still want it to be smallish, about 3-5 HD.
The one I'm working on currently, though is the Coelodinal. My vision for it is of a small and very sneaky creature with Sneak Attack and Uncanny Dodge.
This was the Gorgonal/Therapsinal/Lycaenal/whatever picture I was talking about:
Okay, well - Psionics is excellent for some of these, for sure. I will also be painting a little incarnum into a select few of them, and some Truename and/or pact magic into a few of them as well (Tome of Magic). I will keep this last bit to a minimum (mostly just for flavor and to supplement those 3.5 concepts), and most anything dealing with Truenames can also be dealt with by the use of Nymian Sigilry. I will have to develop a few examples of Sigils to show you, so that we can give the ones that use this a few sample known/imbued Sigils.
I will stick with the Incarnum stuff and try to make it legible for newcomers. If you get a chance to look it over and review, let me know how approachable it is as a snippet instead of the whole book - not as much for flavor, but for being understandable to people who don't use it currently.
Don't be afraid to use psionics as you feel - they are OGL materials (except for Complete Psionics) and should be easy to use for anyone who can find a web page and print it. In any case, if you feel that a Psi-like ability, etc., is something that might need a spell-like equivalent, I am totally okay with extra write-ups for variants of the main creature. In this case, it would be like the same process but backwards as changing an Aboleth to a Psionic Aboleth, by giving spells/effects to put in place of psionics. Don't include Mind Blade in this category, though. There is enough information about it in the ability description that it doesn't really need a whole publication to describe its usage - and it doesn't have or need an equivalent.
Okay: one more point, and then I will be done for a bit. :P Nymian Sigilry requires as a basis the Feat, ART OF SIGILRY [General], and the two skills - Craft (Calligraphy, or Sigilry), and Knowledge (Sigils & Seals, or Runes/Symbols). For creatures who are a natural talent or whom are native to Nym, I prefer the names Craft (Sigilry) and Knowledge (Sigilry). For anything/anyone else, it is sort of a mish-mash of cultural naming conventions and therefore a little more up for grabs. I made it as a system that could be used by just this campaign setting, or else for players wishing to integrate it into their own system/campaign.
I really like the picture - especially since it will help me envision the final rendition of these creatures when I end up doing revised artwork for all of them. And I don't know if I say it elsewhere, but I really do like your homebrews - they have style, flavor, balance, and power. And in this particular project, those make all the difference. Both Coelodal and Sabrenal look good with a quick scan, but I will go back over them both. The more "important" of the two to have a great flavor is the Sabrenal - that is, they are more powerful and tend to have greater influence over the dinopriminals as a culture. The 'Companion' for this race will likely be an amazing Sigil user, probably a paladin/cleric.... And there will be a major version of one of them that has divine rank (that is, s/he will be a lesser deity).
Location: My happy place. It's OK, they know me there.
Posts: 166
Pterinal (Pterosaur Dinopriminal)
Dinopriminal, Pterinal Large Outsider (Dinopriminal, Extraplanar/Native, Good)
Hit Dice: 12d8+72 (126 hp) Initiative: +6 Speed: 40 ft. (8 squares), fly 60 ft. (average) Armor Class: 25 (-1 size, +2 Dex, +14 natural),touch 11, flat-footed 23 Base Attack/Grapple: +12/+25 Attack: Bite +20 melee (1d8+9) Full Attack: Bite +20 melee (1d8+9) and 2 wing buffets +18 melee (1d6+4); or bite +20 melee (1d8+9) and 2 talons +18 melee (1d6+4) Space/Reach: 10 ft./10 ft. Special Attacks: Improved grab, spell-like abilities, wingstorm Special Qualities: Damage reduction 10/evil and silver, darkvision 60 ft., immunity to electricity and petrification, lay on hands, low-light vision, resistance to acid 10, cold 5, fire 5, and sonic 10, speak with animals, spell resistance 28, tongues, true seeing Saves: Fort +14 (+20 vs. poison, +16 vs. disease), Ref +10, Will +11 Abilities: Str 28, Dex 15, Con 22, Int 14, Wis 17, Cha 19 Skills: Concentration +21, Craft (sigils) +17, Diplomacy +19, Handle Animal +7, Listen +18, Knowledge (nature) +17, Knowledge (Nymian sigilry) +17, Knowledge (religion) +17, Knowledge (the planes) +17, Spellcraft +17, Spot +26, Survival +20 (+22 in aboveground natural environments, +22 on other planes) Feats: Art of Sigilry (B), Flyby Attack, Improved Initiative, Multiattack, Track, Wingover Environment: Beastlands of Nym/Omarka, or any good-aligned plane Organization: Solitary, flight (3-6), or patrol (1-2 plus 3-6 dimorphinals) Challenge Rating: 12 Treasure: No coins; double goods; standard items Alignment: Always good (any), usually neutral good Advancement: 13-18 HD (Large); 19-36 HD (Huge) Level Adjustment: —
Pterinals are a powerful variety of dinopriminal with a mystical connection to the wind. Pterinals are a deeply reverent people, believing that they derive their powers from the wind because they are a part of it. When not fighting evil or seeing to the inner activities of the dinopriminal lands and its inhabitants, pterinals most often spend time in high, windy areas “communing with the wind,” which is a part of their religious practices. A pterinal's spell-like abilities all manifest themselves with some sort of wind theme.
Pterinals often accompany the smaller dimorphinals on scouting missions, acting as bodyguards and sending information back to the other dinopriminals with whispering wind.
A pterinal closely resembles a true pterosaur such as a pteranodon, though its bright, expressive eyes betray its intelligence. A pterinal stands 6 feet tall at the hips and has a wingspan of up to 25 feet.
Pterinals speak Celestial, Sylvan, Anakim, Faunar/Felynne, and Omarkan, although they can speak with most any creature thanks to their tongues ability.
Combat
Pterinals rely heavily on their spell-like abilities in battle, perhaps more so than upon their beak and talons. They use haste and blur before entering combat, then break up their foes with their wingstorm attack. Following the wingstorm attack, they use call lightning storm and move to engage the closest target. Pterinals are never in one place for long; they tend to teleport around with dimension door to keep their opponents on their toes.
Pterinals that enter melee combat do so with their beak and talons if flying or hovering, or their beak and wing buffets if on the ground. Flying or hovering pterinals cannot use wing buffet attacks. Pterinals often pick up foes, fly or dimension door straight up, and drop them.
If on the verge of defeat, or if severely outnumbered, pterinals use whispering wind to send a message to the nearest group of allies and retreat quickly, using dimension door to put as much distance between themselves and their foes.
A pterinal’s natural weapons, as well as any manufactured weapons it wields, are treated as good-aligned for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction. Although they do have opposable thumbs, pterinals rarely wield manufactured weapons, as these would interfere with flight.
Improved Grab (Ex): To use this ability, a pterinal must hit with a talon attack. It can then attempt to start a grapple as a free action without provoking an attack of opportunity. If it wins the grapple check, it establishes a hold.
Spell-like Abilities (Sp): At will – blur (self only), detect evil, detect thoughts (DC 16), dimension door, ice storm (DC 18), magic circle against evil (self only), whispering wind, wind wall; 3/day – fog cloud, heal, neutralize poison, remove disease; 1/day – call lightning storm (DC 19), control winds (DC 19), haste. Caster level 12th. The save DCs are Charisma-based.
Wingstorm (Ex): A pterinal can create a powerful wind gust as a standard action that provokes attacks of opportunity. It affects a 30-foot cone and otherwise works like a gust of wind spell (Fort DC 22 negates). The save DC is Constitution-based.
Lay on Hands (Su): As the paladin class feature, except that each day a pterinal can heal an amount of damage equal to its full normal hit points (126 for the average pterinal). If performed on animals only, the damage healed equals 1-˝ times the pterinal's full normal hit points.
Speak with Animals (Su): Dinopriminals can mentally communicate with animals as a free action. This ability acts like the spell speak with animals as cast by an 8th-level druid, but requires no sound.
Tongues (Su): Dinopriminals can speak with any creature that has a language, as though using a tongues spell as cast by a 14th-level cleric.
True Seeing (Su): This ability is identical with true seeing (caster level 14th), except that it has personal range and the pterinal must concentrate for 1 full round before it takes effect. Thereafter the ability remains in effect as long as the pterinal concentrates on it.
Skills: Pterinals have a +2 racial bonus on Handle Animal and Survival checks, and a +8 bonus on Craft (sigils), Knowledge (Nymian sigilry), and Spot checks.
__________________ Hunger: A Haiku by InsanePsychoRabbit My stomach's growling.
Does that mean it's time for lunch?
I want to eat NOW!
Last edited by InsanePsychoRabbit; 9th September 2009 at 09:47 PM..
Also, I'm assuming that "Art of Sigilry" is the new name for "Scribe Rune/Sigil," so I used "Art of Sigilry" instead for this write-up.
Precisely.
Quote:
Dinopriminal, Pterinal Special Attacks: Improved grab, spell-like abilities, wingstorm Special Qualities: Damage reduction 10/evil and silver, darkvision 60 ft., immunity to electricity and petrification, lay on hands, low-light vision, resistance to acid 10, cold 5, fire 5, and sonic 10, speak with animals, spell resistance 28, tongues, true seeing Feats: Art of Sigilry (B), Flyby Attack, Hover, Improved Initiative, Multiattack, Track
The only concept I was considering that I don't see here is something to do with "shining radiance" of some sort - a connection to the sky and the sunlight above, as well as perhaps something to the night sky as well, or the winds that pass beneath the starry skies. I would love them to be in some way connected to both darkness (night sky) and light (sunlight). Not sure where it was going, but I was thinking at least that.
I am not a fan of Hover for this creature - perhaps Wingover instead. Multiattack seems okay, but not truly fitting unless it was needed for better stats somewhere...
Quote:
Pterinals are a powerful variety of dinopriminal with a mystical connection to the wind. Pterinals are a deeply reverent people, believing that they derive their powers from the wind because they are a part of it. When not fighting evil or seeing to the inner activities of the dinopriminal lands and its inhabitants, pterinals most often spend time in high, windy areas “communing with the wind,” which is a part of their religious practices. A pterinal's spell-like abilities all manifest themselves with some sort of elements relating to the wind, sky, sun, and starry night.
I edited this to fit a little better.
Quote:
A pterinal is tall and humanoid in form except for its arms, which resemble pterosaur wings, and its head, which resembles that of a large, beaked pterosaur such as pteranodon or quetzalcoatlus. A pterinal has fine, olive-colored scales. Pterinals are 9-10 feet tall.
Yeah, honestly, I was thinking that these could be less humanoid (like saurians) and more gaunt and looming (like true Quetzalcoatlus, which had a similar body setup/posture to something akin to an aerial giraffe while it was walking with wings folded). Though anthropomorphic in essence, I feel these dinopriminals should embody somewhat more of the beastial nature of life than their guardinal counterparts, especially physically in this specific case.
Though they would have a very alien mentality to other pterosaurs and more like that of an intelligent race, their physiology can remain much the same and still be valid - some changes could be made to make the structure more human in regard to the hand region and their demeanor and actions. They would still be able to draw sigils and hold a weapon or hold onto a bar with an opposable thumb if necessary - not that they are openly involved in weapon use.
Quote:
True Seeing (Su): This ability is identical with true seeing (caster level 14th), except that it has personal range and the pterinal must concentrate for 1 full round before it takes effect. Thereafter the ability remains in effect as long as the pterinal concentrates on it.
Not that I am arguing because I think it is helpful and very balanced, but what prompted True Seeing as a Su ability - or really at all? I would love to know what thoughts caused that to be a final choice.
Also, I would add fog cloud and/or gaseous form to their (Sp) list.
Looks good - I would love to give them another sigilry feat, especially if we can swap out one of the other ones.... Plus, you can tell I am a fan of bonus racial feats... :P I am such an unbalanced DM.
+5 natural (all dinopriminals should be more badass in natural AC than their animal counterparts, and these little guys need to be able to stick it out when they're in trouble spots)
Special Attacks: Sneak attack +2d6, spell-like abilities
Add Touch of Weakened Evils (Su): ability drain/damage to evil outsiders and undead, touch attack, Con based, caster level 2xHD
Skills: Bluff +9, Diplomacy +5, Disguise +8 (+10 acting in character), Gather Information +9, Handle Animal +5, Hide +17, Intimidate +5, Jump +5, Listen +12, Move Silently +13, Open Lock +9, Search +8, Sleight of Hand +12, Spot +12, Survival +4 (+6 following tracks),
"+10 acting in character"? Why and where from? If it is racial, it is not listed in racial skills yet. Perhaps a synergy from a Profession? None is listed. Is it from at-will disguise self?
Feats: Improved Feint (B), Track, Weapon Finesse
Yeah, go ahead and give them Art of Sigilry (B)... :/ I need to add it to Dimorphinal too. I considered it after realizing that I did not give it to them in the first place and it would culturally irresponsible for them not to know it.
Level Adjustment: +6?
Sounds about right, I would say +5 or +6 - leaning closer to the 5, but only because I fear no strange PCs... I could be biased.
Coelodals are among the lesser dinopriminals and thus do not commonly use Nymian sigilry. Advanced coelodals may be more knowledgeable in its use.
No, let's let them be real dinopriminals like all the rest. :P
Spell-like Abilities (Sp): At will – detect evil, detect magic, disguise self, protection from evil (self only), see invisibility; 1/day – invisibility (DC 15), magic fang. Caster level 3rd. The save DCs are Charisma-based.
Let's make invisibility 2/day, add magic missle 3/day, and give them entangle 1/day.
Edit: 150th post! Yay!
I don't usually do in-quote edits but it was easier than scrolling back and forth. If some of the offensive actions seem like too much, than I can handle losing one of the ones I suggested, preferably a (Sp) effect.
Sigils known for this one will be easy (3): Identify, Identify (Dual), and Truename of Haste (as the spell, caster 5th) I will write a little more later to help you understand the structure of sigil information in the stats, but for now don't worry. Let's just say we have got it, and it's done and easy to work with. Trust me - you have no choice. :P ;D
I am totally okay with that name change. I know I did not do the greatest with making them easy or fun to say... Was focused on too many other elements.
Add Truename Sigil, Action Sigil (lower tier) and/or maybe Augment Sigil or Complex/Compound Sigil (middle tier) - either as (B) feats or in place of Dodge/Mobility (replace with Evasion), change Spring Attack/Track to (B) feats
Treasure: No coins; double goods; standard items Level Adjustment: —
items will be changed with new potential attacks, LA should be around +12-13
Spell-Like Abilities (Sp): At will—detect thoughts, hold monster (DC 17), ice storm (DC 16), wall of force; 3/day—cure critical wounds (DC 16), neutralize poison, remove disease; 1/day—heal (DC 18). Caster level 10th. The save DCs are Charisma-based.
Add detect magic, detect evil, detect poison, calm animals at will; cat's grace, hold animal 3/day (change hold monster to 2/day); pass without trace, soften stone and earth 2/day; and dispel magic 1/day
Skills: Sabrenals have a +2 racial bonus on Handle Animal and Survival checks, and a +4 racial bonus on Balance, Hide, and Move Silently checks.
No racial bonuses on sigilry skills? If the creature gets more sigilry feats, I won't press for the new (Sp) offensive stuff... But I think it would all be beneficial.
Ha, I quote thee, and rape it blind with my additions of verbal diarrhea!
Location: My happy place. It's OK, they know me there.
Posts: 166
Quote:
Originally Posted by xidoraven
Not that I am arguing because I think it is helpful and very balanced, but what prompted True Seeing as a Su ability - or really at all? I would love to know what thoughts caused that to be a final choice.
It's (Su) because I copied it directly from the avoral. I look at the other guardinals for inspiration on abilities and spells.
I had also been considering other spell-like abilities, but i was afraid I was giving it too many.
Quote:
Originally Posted by xidoraven
"+10 acting in character"? Why and where from? If it is racial, it is not listed in racial skills yet. Perhaps a synergy from a Profession? None is listed. Is it from at-will disguise self?
That's synergy from Bluff I believe.
Please give me a while to process all your critique-ing before I can create a more detailed response, edit the existing creatures, and start posting new dinopriminals.
__________________ Hunger: A Haiku by InsanePsychoRabbit My stomach's growling.
Does that mean it's time for lunch?
I want to eat NOW!
Not even a problem - I was inspired to review today. Take your time. I am no taskmaster, I swear.
I do have one other question for you: if I attempt to put together a publication about Nym / Prehistoria / and the Dinopriminals, would you have any concerns, considerations, or questions about it? It would be totally independent (since I can put together whole publications with images - which I can make - and everything, in MS Word and formatted in Adobe InDesign, which I can then put through a self-publishing printer like authorhouse.com, etc.) Before anything like this happens, I would make a similar posting to get the input of the other ENWorlders, Wizards forum members, and Mark Goodwin (Bathos Beastiary) to make sure no one would get on me about "stealing" their content.... I just want to put together a decent, player-made campaign setting that is something I have been working on for years and just decided it would be worth it to go for the gusto and ask questions when it is nearly completed.
I would make mention of helpful names/people, and make a point of saying that it couldn't be done without the help of many talented players and creators on the web, and give links to all the major web resources currently being used to post content like this.... The physical publication would feature campaign setting content that would not be openly viewable everywhere on the web (hence and incentive to get it) and I would most certainly make a pdf version available to anyone who wanted it when it was complete..... This is just a plan right now, but it gets closer and closer to fruition with every statistic of something prehistoric. I would probably publish under the name of xidoraven studios, since it is my business moniker and current doing-business-as title for my creative works, including websites, graphics media, and a potential billboard design ad campaign for the Detroit area for HIV/AIDS awareness and education (I pray I get that job).
Location: My happy place. It's OK, they know me there.
Posts: 166
I don't have any real concerns about you using my work in a publication as long as I'm credited and I keep rights to any of my intellectual property.
Well here's my responses to your responses:
I'm OK with giving the sabrenal one more Hit Die, better ability scores, and some more spells, but I'm not too sure about giving it hold animal or soften earth and stone. Why did you suggest soften earth and stone?
I didn't give it Sigilry skill bonuses because I gave it full ranks in the Sigilry skills. Would you like it if I gave it a +4 bonus to Craft (sigils) and Knowledge (Nymian sigilry), and shifted 2 skill points from each into Handle Animal?
Can I see the sigil feats before I add them?
I'm fine with everything you've suggested for the Coelodal, except the touch of weakened evils. If we boost its Hit Dice I'd boost it to 4 HD.
I had originally conceived of the Pterinal as looking like a Pteranodon with opposable thumbs, but I had changed my mind because I envisioned all the dinopriminals as humanoid or semi-humanoid. I suppose a non-humanoid Pterinal could be workable.
I'm fine with the feat changes. What would you suggest in place of Multiattack?
__________________ Hunger: A Haiku by InsanePsychoRabbit My stomach's growling.
Does that mean it's time for lunch?
I want to eat NOW!
Credit & rights are completely not an issue. We'll discuss it a little more when it's worth considering again, but that is not even a small problem for me.
When it comes to the Sabrenal and hold monster, my thoughts were that - living on a world with many many animals, and not only do the good guys have control (patronage) over animals, but so do the bad guys occasionally (domination) - it might help in moderating events where bad people had neutral but intelligent/dominated under their direction, and it would keep the playing field level when dealing with them (imagine the t-rex with a dominating warmage riding it against a party of adventurers with a dinopriminal ally). That was my thought anyway - nothing saying it was organized or well-planned. You know, I think the only thought in my head with soften stone and earth was to have something somewhat defensive and environment-oriented in their repertoire. Aside from that, no - no real plan. It could always end up being a sigil effect anyways. That's why I am not overly concerned with spell-like abilities as much as the other supernatural and extraordinary abilities as well as feats and similar traits... I would much rather lose a Sp than a feat with these ones - hence, the strength of using sigilry.
-- SIGIL STUFF --
Did you ever get a chance to view the drafted sigil document? It's still posted here: http://elftown.com/stuff/nymian-sigilry_01.pdf I haven't gotten the chance to include my latest written edits and re-export it as a pdf, but it will get bigger very soon. Moving on beyond the original concept of sigils and their use is Augmented Sigils, Compound/Complex sigils, and the facets of the specialized Truename, Action, Identify and Identify (Dual) Sigils.
To summarize the ideas:
Base sigils (Identify, Truename, Action, Dual Identify) work for a specific and inflexible purpose, and produce a spell-like effect. All sigil effects are supernatural abilities. Identification between sigil users is a prime facet of the cultural implementation of using sigilry, so every sigil has an Identify sigil that is their own that they show to other sigil users when meeting/greeting/tracking/identifying, etc. An Identify (Dual) sigil creates a second, third, or further identity that can be used to keep the trail difficult to "sniff out" both socially and in the use of truename-tracking. Action sigils simply state that they work upon the nature of the truenames of actions (like run, haste, fall, stand, walk, talk, move, etc). Truename sigils with no other descriptors are the truename sigils of any person, place, object or universal concept/idea (like love, honor, tyranny, death, etc).
Augmented Sigils are any of the above, but changed in such a way as to affect the nature of how the sigil operates, what it targets, affects, etc. This is not like metamagic feats, which heighten the variables of an effect in a way to make it more powerful - that is called Metasigil Augmentation, and cannot be done by less than epic characters. Augmentation changes the nature and outcome of a sigil's effects, but never its power, range, density, or variable statistics.
Compound/Complex sigils are maps within a sigil made up of the sigil subsets within it, and often carries out a variety of functions or else can create multiple effects under certain preset circumstances. Sigil maps and their usage are known as complex sigilry, where compound sigilry is the process of combining and applying difference sigil effects. This is more a difference of semantics and word usage rather than rules changes or different applications. One is active (creating compound sets which work together) and the other is receptive (opening up a sigil into its component parts and working with them either separately or as a whole).
Beyond this are epic feats, including Metasigil Augmentation (as above, and similar to a metamagic feat), and Spiritual Sigil (which is an epic feat granting the power of the sigils create to be drawn from divine energies and applied as Deific abilities, as well as making it able to change the nature of truenames, truename sigils, and their nature and application).
The first feat is the necessity to use sigilry at all, Art of Sigilry, and the other feat that often keeps them being productive in sigilry is Imbue Sigil, which allows the sigil user to create a base sigil with a specified effect and imbue it with their energies - hence, giving it the ability to be used, learned, passed on, and otherwise manipulated like other sigils. Art of Sigilry simply gives the sigil user the first set of sigils that they are taught by their mentor or during their studies when first learning the art, and Imbue Sigil allows them to make and imbue their own beyond the first set.
Other general feats for sigilry include Bonus Sigil (a one-time, get-a-free-sigil feat you can take multiple times), Fast Scriber (move action instead of a full-round action), and Experienced Sigilry Mentor (for those who teach sigilry to others).
-- end SIGIL STUFF --
My honest suggestion if you plan on changing out Multiattack (or any feat really) is a sigilry feat of some form, at least on the dinopriminals and other life-forms of Nym. I don't have the prerequisites worked out for all of them quite yet, but I certainly will soon. Allowing these creatures to showcase this system has been an idea of mine for some time, but only recently have I really had the time to balance and stat out the sigilry system... I was not even sure if I wanted such thing as metasigil usage for a long time... But I caved in and made it epic-only.
I am sad that Coelodal doesn't get to burn undead with his touch (which I thought was balanced by being a close-up attack without mage hand), but I guess I can live with it. I just think they would die quickly in a bad situation... Which is a little sad for the concept of dinopriminals in general, but I guess it is all in the eyes of the beholder. I just like to keep the good guys alive longer than the bad guys. Plus, demons and devils get to have all the fun!.... I say we give these guys the ability to have a little fun with it too.... But that's just me.
I'm really glad to have someone else who is interested enough in this idea to work on it with me. It's great to know that it interests you at all, let alone enough to have you being as productive as you have been with it. You quickly outshone even me as a creator... And I thought I was going to have to do the majority of the work for it too! :P I appreciate your help with my whole being.
I guess you'd have to know my life story or background to know why I so often try to make the Exalted Deeds outshine the Vile Darkness, but part of this is making these dinosaur/primitive celestials as cool as goodness can possibly muster. I want to make the guardinals look like last year's big story gone small... So I trust you........ But you should know how cool I want to see these guys (and gals, of course!) to end up. I've had a pretty rough life, and I want to see a day where good guys can even outshine the Fiendish Codices - that's all. Just doing my part for the fantasy angels of the outer realms on this little watery backwoods material plane world called Earth.
Yes, the dinopriminals will all have some or many humanoid traits being anthropomorphic, but not in totality (even keeping as much of the primal traits as they can) but enough to be humanoid enough to empathize with as a player or DM. Also, my drawings of creatures and beasties tend to have pretty human-like physiological properties (muscle structure, torsos, and eyes most often) so I think even trying to make them beastial will end up being anthro enough to satisfy most anyone. This is actually one situation where my drawing weaknesses might actually work in my favor; I have always been drawing people or creatures with people traits rather than animals or non-human physiology. I promise to try my hardest to best represent all the dinopriminal types when I finally get to each of them.
Last edited by xidoraven; 9th September 2009 at 08:50 AM..
Very good. I also see Pterinal still has Multiattack, and after considering it once more: if taking a sigilry feat instead of any other more fitting feat, it would be either Fast Scriber [General] or Imbue Sigil [Item Creation]. I think the final prereqs on the latter one will be very easy for the creature to meet (Con 12, Int 11, Cha 14, Art of Sigilry), and the former's prereqs are: Dex 13, Int 13, Concentration 4 ranks, Art of Sigilry. I think it should meet them all perfectly fine as is.
Any dinopriminals you know you don't want to have a hand at anytime soon (it will give me a better idea of my next priority creature)? Even one or two that simply doesn't inspire you? Also, I have a write-up in draft for a Seraphim that I am gonna want to have reviewed... Would that be totally out of place here? I know this is a prehistoric thread and not an angelic thread, but they are in the same campaign setting and I am mid-stats for it atm. I am still no good at guessing CRs and LAs... :/
Sivanal is totally not right, but I am seeing too many nitpicks about it to do them all right now... How lazy is that? :P Going camping this weekend, so might not get much done on here, but more on paper.
Linear Mode
And yet another word from our sponsors
