Celirans [Was: prehensile tails and PC races]

I am currently working on the Celirans, a quasi-reptilian humanoid race; I am considering the possibility of giving them a prehensile tail (like that of a chameleon, which helps in climbing and could support the entire body's weight for short amounts of time). My three questions are:
1) What would be the game advantages of such a tail, apart from climbing (fighting with it? but remember that it's behind the back; pick-pocketing with it would be interesting, though )?
2) Could it be a balanced ability for level-1 characters or would it incur ECLs?
3) How would Celiran clothes fit the fact that they have a tail? I thought about Sari/Kimono style, but doesmn't it get in the way of climbing trees (which the Celirans, atleast in their more primitive cultures, like to do)?

Well, the most obvious benefit I think would be a bonus to dexterity. Probably give a bonus to climbing, and the ability to take 10 even under duress. Definitely shouldn't be a problem to make it balanced against any of the other standard races.

As for clothes, depending on how the tail is you could poke a hole (if it were thin, like say a monkey or cat's tail) or you might have to have assless chaps if they're much thicker, as I'm assuming the case would be. Might even go with loin cloths or kilts or something. In any case, I'd say they'd require specially made armor.

Asmor said:

As for clothes, depending on how the tail is you could poke a hole (if it were thin, like say a monkey or cat's tail) or you might have to have assless chaps if they're much thicker, as I'm assuming the case would be. Might even go with loin cloths or kilts or something. In any case, I'd say they'd require specially made armor.

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They have a tail similar to that of chameleons, opposums and lesser monkeys (not very thick, but prehensile and helps in climbing/grabbing stuff), as opposed to that of an alligator/gecko/desert swift/lizard man (thick and balancing) or that of a rat (thin and helps in ground movement).

Maximum benefits I'd allow for an otherwise very weak race:

+4 to Balance, Swim and Climb.
+4 to all Grapple checks, and +4 to avoid being Tripped or Bullrushed.
+4 to Escape Artist checks when your tail could possibly help.

3rd Hand: Your tail counts as a Hand slot. It cannot weild a weapon or hold a shield, but it could hold a Wand, Rod or Wonderous Item, a Focus component (including a Divine Focus), or a Scroll. You may not put a Ring, Glove or Bracer on your tail (unless you take the Epic feat: Extra Item Slot).


For a penalty: armor costs +50%. Maybe no Fullplate for you at all.

-- N

BS. If a horse can wear full-plate, so can a lizard-man. It just costs more, but the rules are right there in the PHB.

Baronovan said:

BS. If a horse can wear full-plate, so can a lizard-man. It just costs more, but the rules are right there in the PHB.

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A horse can wear plate barding, not full plate.

-- N

So, how about this for Celiran racial traits (I'll post the full racial description in a few days):
* +2 Dexterity, -2 Strength: Celirans are agile (and their prehensile tail adds to this nimbleness) but their slick, flexible bodies lack the physical prowess of other, stockier races.
* Medium-size: As Medium-size creatures, Celirans have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size.
* Celiran base speed is 30.
* Tree-dwelling: Celirans are built for treetop living, and have a prehensile tail to assit them in that; they recive a +4 Racial bonus to Climb and Tumble checks. They also treat these two skills as class skills regardless of their class.
* Natural Camoflage: +2 Racial bonus to Hide checks when against green or blue background (for example, in a dense forest) due to their greenish and scaley hide which tends to blend in such surreoundings.
* 3rd Hand: a Celiran's tail counts as a Hand slot. It cannot weild a weapon or hold a shield, but it could hold a Wand, Rod or Wonderous Item, a Focus component (including a Divine Focus), or a Scroll. A Celiran may not put a Ring, Glove or Bracer on her tail (unless she takes the Epic feat: Extra Item Slot).
* Tail Feint: A Celiran may add a +2 Racial bonus to her Bluff checks when (and only when) using her tail to pull off a combat feint.
* Armor Requirements: A Celiran's tail gets in the way of wearing standard armors; she must purchase Celiran-specific armor at 150% of it's base cost. Ofcourse, armorers in the many Celiran villages deep in the Renya Swamp sell such armor on it's standard cost, while other races' armor costs 150% of it's standard cost.
* Automatic Languages: "Common" and Ceran (a variant of Celiran).
* Bonus Languages: Draconic, Treeant, Goblin, Orcish, Old Dwarven, and Elven (each of the three variants is considered a seperate skill).
* Favored Class: Rouge. A multiclass Celiran's Rogue class does not count when determining whether she suffers an XP penalty for multiclassing.

Shades of Green said:

* Tree-dwelling: Celirans are built for treetop living, and have a prehensile tail to assit them in that; they recive a +4 Racial bonus to Climb and Tumble checks and may take 10 in Climb and Tumble checks even under duress. They also treat these two skills as class skills regardless of their class.

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This is the only problematic bit imho. You've just said, "Put one rank in Tumble and you can always succeed on a Tumble check" (assuming you don't have a penalty).

I wouldn't give a bonus to Tumble at all, nor would I make any skills class skills regardless of class.

YMMV, of course.

Problem remedied by removing the "take 10" part.

Baronovan said:

BS. If a horse can wear full-plate, so can a lizard-man. It just costs more, but the rules are right there in the PHB.

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Hey now leave me out of this...

I do agree the tail should give some support in all balancing issues and including climbing in those bonuses shouldn't be an issue either.