Master of Orion Conversion

Wow, people replying to this thread. I'm surprised.

gamecat:
Well, dwarves are medium, yet gnomes are small. I'm more inclined to give them medium, as, iirc, the instruction booklet called the gnolams "dwarf-like," and they're profile picture made them look rather pudgy. They may not have height, but they got length.

Wolf:
I don't have MotP with me, so I have no idea (exactly) what linked minds does. Sounds appropriate, if there aren't any surprised along with it.

However, this racial list was scrapped (for the most part), as I made a new one that seemed more "balanced."

Still haven't really playtested any of these, as my group favors "powergaming," (sadly) and thus I dunno if I can trust their opinions.

Oh, and I know the "Item Lore" ability for the Psilons is now way too powerful, thanks to the Epic Level application of...I forget what skill it is (Spellcraft?). But I'll just ignore that at the moment.

Thanks for the feedback!

hay mucho cool! (downloaded) ...

Linked minds: (very basic) ... creatures with linked minds can not be flanked unless every creature in that group within 300' is flanked ... and if one is not flat-footed, none are.

silicoids: give them a breathless ability? (no need for air or breathing). a burrow speed?

sakkra: a burrow speed?

alkari: a glide speed (same as your featherfall but maybe ... glide 20' (poor) ... only standard move (ie 20').

bulrathi: that's a mighty powerful claw attack! (um no critique, just an observation ... at least they have something now ... Moo2 drove me crazy when ever I tried to use the bulrathi ... not enough command points for the necessary troop carriers)

elerians: my favorites!!! ... probably something to do with blue skinned babes ...

klackons: you have -2 will power, I assume that's suppossed to be -2 wisdom? swap combat ability with linked minds (that description is pretty much on the money).

okay ... good stuff!

Thanks for the feedback, wolf.

I dropped the damage on the Bulrathi to 1D6. I didn't realize it was at 1D8. Although the brown and polar bears were 1D8, the black bear is 1D4, so I dunno what to do. I figured 1D6 isn't THAT much damage, but it's still sizeable.

It never occurred to me to just say "burrow x feet" instead of writing up all that junk for subterranean. I feel that the Silicoid are powerful enough, what with their natural armor. I also increased the Swim penalty to -8 for them, since...well...rocks sink amazingly well.

Thanks for the Willpower/Wisdom typo.

I didn't know how to properly quote the whole "glide" thing, so here's what I came up with:

Glide: Although the alkari’s wings have devolved from their primitive days, when they were just a race of large avians, they are still capable of using their vestigial wings to float down from high places. This effectively gives them a permanent featherfall. A Reflex save (DC as DM’s choice) may be necessary if the alkari did not anticipate the fall. Also, the alkari may glide 20 feet a round while floating down, with poor maneuverability, as a full round action. Note that since the alkari’s wings are attached to its arms, its arms would be preoccupied during a glide.

Dunno if that's the proper text.

Could you tell me what page that linked mind thing is on, so I can make a note to check it at my friend's house?

Thanks a lot for all your help and feedback, man.

"Linked Minds", MotP; p197.

burrow stuff: cool beans! glad I could help. speeds? 10' for sakkra, 20' for silicoid?

glide: if an alkari jumps/falls from a height greater than xx ft (30?) s/he can harmlessly glide down at a speed of 20 ft.

bulrathi: awww didn't need to change the claw dmg ... but I guess 1d8 is better than many weapons. How about giving them a free toughness feat? That way they'd have more hp at lvl1 and still seem to have that double hits thing for infantry.

mecklars: any way to convert that so it's more 3e rather than dragonstar? (I'm having trouble mentally fitting them in ... then again they may not fit very well at all.

elerians: for combat you could just give them combat precognition at will up to 3x/day (like the psionic template, same with the other powers).

mrrshan: okay I was thinking of something a little more useful for assault ... but then their favored class is ranger ... never mind! ... I might take out the penalty to Dex, that way it'd be a cool version of pounce.

silicoids: change or add: their physical attacks do normal damage rather than subdual (or they automatically get the unarmed strike feat for free and deal normal damage).

dragonstar to 3e ... err DnD: dragonstart is mucho cool, but you wouldn't by any chance feel like giving 3e equiv's where needed would ya? (ie mrrshan's get +2 gunnery, you could change that to +2 on use of siege weapons ... which would make them naturals at it compared to everyone else).

it's your fault!! you opened up those long lost Moo/2 memories!

doh! anything about ECL's?

most seem like they'd have none, but some seem like they'd be +1 (at most) ...

http://www.webspawner.com/users/enbsoldarin/index.html

Whoa, didn't see that ECL calculator.

I'm gonna have to retool a couple things to make it fit with those calculations.

As it stands, by my calculations:
Alkari: +0.4

Bulrathi: +0.5

Darloks: +0.5

Elerians: +0.4 or 0.5 (after taking out their telempathic projection and lesser mindlink, and replacing it with just "communicate telepathically within 30 feet). Combat Precognition instead of what they already have seems, to me, to be more powerful, thus adding to the ECL.

Gnolam: +0 (this will probably be adjusted by giving a larger bonus to diplomacy, for purposes of bartering/trading or whatnot, a la Star Wars's Illicit Barter. Or something. Come to think of it, they kinda sucked in MOO, too).

Humans: If they aren't balanced, that's not my problem

Klackons: +0.4, although I'm not sure how much to "take off" for the fact that they possess no favored class. And also, I'm not exactly sure how much to add for the free Endurance feat (not that Endurance is a big deal or anything).

Meklar: I have no idea. The idea was to make them "stick" with the suit, so to speak. The skill bonuses and the "Untiring" ability are a +0.6 on its own, but they (effectively) have a permanent 10% arcane spell penalty on them. They receive 2d10 extra hit points, and a +4 armor bonus (but that's average, and really nothing special), so I really have no idea. They also effectively "dry out" when they're out of their suits. And for a regular D&D campaign...uh...Magic suits instead of technological suits? I'm not too sure They're ECL is lower in a non-Dragonstar setting, as a result of their numerous Dragonstar-ish skill bonuses.

Mrrshan: +0.5 or +0.6 Not too sure where their attack bonus fits in. I always felt like pounce was a rather...powerful ability, so I was hesitant to give it to a PC race to use and abuse, which is why I came up with the "watered down" pounce. And I did give that +2 attack bonus to siege weaponry in a minor revision that I don't think I posted.

Psilon: Item Lore is supposedly an "Epic Level" thing, which I do not have since it's 40 dollars for something I'd probably use once. However, to convert that to Epic Level standards, I'd probably just give a flat +8 or +10 bonus to [whatever skill] for purposes of identifying items. I dunno. They read out as +0.6 or +0.7 for me.

Sakkra: +0.5

Silicoid: +0.4. Again, not knowing what to do with the No Favored Class thing. And I didn't give them burrow, as they didn't have Subterranean in MOO2.

Trilarian: +1.1, which I need to change. Arg. Of course, the Trilarians usually owned in MOO. I'll probably take out the whole Aquatic thing (which is something I made up, as I have no idea how to settle "underwater combat") and the swim bonus, instead just giving them a Swim move of 40, or something. I dunno.

Thanks for the calculator, and the advice, as always.

IMO stuff

trilarians: keep them aquatic! check out the MM or DMG for what it says about them. Keep them as is and they become a solid +1 ECL race.

*remember to round down, so those +.0X's are just fine as is for ECL

mecklars: yup, keep them in dragonstar

Elerians: I'd go for +1 ECL, keep telempathic projection and give them a charm person ability (at will 3x/day, manifester lvl = HD ... psi template). telepathy should be 100 ft (Psi template). For males I'd just keep them with the stat modifiers and telepathy. (telempathic proj and charm person just remind of them taking over ships ... my favorite tactic!)

Psilons fine as is: maybe change to free use of identify 1x/day

Silicoid: no favored class is fine, ... agreed with the burrow, completely forgot about that.

gnolams: yeah, but at least they were luck! sheesh ... my sakkra got decimated over and over again by the antarans!

btw, Gnolams made a cameo in the online game in my sig...

I'm not really sure about the Mrrshan -4 CON. I mean, the Psilons are much more frail than the "cats".

To be honest, I just had no other way to balance that out. Maybe I'll take away their strength bonus, and have it +2 dex, -2 con, or some such.