New Race: Gemdrake

Gemdrake

• –2 Strength, +2 Dexterity.
• Small: As a Small creature, a Gemdrake gains a +1 size bonus to Armor Class, a +1 size bonus on attack rolls, and a +4 size bonus on Hide checks, but he uses smaller weapons than humans use, and his lifting and carrying limits are two-thirds of those of a Medium character.
• Gemdrake base land speed is 20 feet and flight speed is 40 feet (average).
• Dragon type: immunity to magic sleep and hold effects.
• Low-Light Vision: A Gemdrake can see twice as far as a human in starlight, moonlight, torchlight, and similar conditions of poor illumination. He retains the ability to distinguish color and detail under these conditions.
• Darkvision: A Gemdrake can see in the dark up to 60 feet. Darkvision is black and white only, but it is otherwise like normal sight, and Gemdrakes can function just fine with no light at all.
• Automatic Languages: Common and Draconic.
• Breath Weapon: 3/day — A ray of energy (type based on breed) projects from the Gemdrake's mouth. You must succeed on a ranged touch attack with the ray to deal damage to a target. The ray deals 1d3 points of damage.
• Favored Class: Sorcerer. A multiclass Gemdrake’s sorcerer class does not count when determining whether he takes an experience point penalty for multiclassing.

The five breeds of Gemdrake, their breath weapon type, and common alignment are:

• Gaget - Fire - Chaotic Neutral
• Ivory - Cold - Lawful Neutral
• Amber - Electricity - Neutral
• Coral - Acid - Neutral Evil
• Pearl - Sonic - Neutral Good

By the book, the Gemdrake has balanced ability stats and its' small size balances against its' sub-good manuveabilty flight. Do low-light vision, darkvision, draconic immunities, and a very limited breath weapon push this into +1 LA territory?

A commonly held view is that flight is automatically +1 LA on it's own. Personally, I would at least make it 30' to keep it in line with other races. Possibly reduce the maneuverability to Poor. Then if you wanted you could make racial feats that could improve that rating, requiring either a minimum character level or possibly Dex.

The breath weapon is essentially a cantrip 3/day. A little strong at the lower levels, but nigh useless once you start to get in levels. I don't particularly think it merits a LA increase.

Low-light Vision and Darkvision are fairly minor abilities, IMO, though I'm not particularly sure why you would need Low-light Vision when you have Darkvision.

I think I would be tempted to give them a bonus to saves against Sleep and Hold spells, as opposed to flat out immunity.

I think the change to the immunities and flight would bring this in line as a +0 LA race, but that's just my opinion.

LightPhoenix said:

A commonly held view is that flight is automatically +1 LA on it's own. Personally, I would at least make it 30' to keep it in line with other races. Possibly reduce the maneuverability to Poor. Then if you wanted you could make racial feats that could improve that rating, requiring either a minimum character level or possibly Dex..

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Good idea. I think a feat chain using the winged template's maneuverability/required dexterity table for the Dex requirement should do the trick. Maybe a feat chain that increases the breath weapon damage too, but with a Constitution requirement.

Low-light Vision and Darkvision are fairly minor abilities, IMO, though I'm not particularly sure why you would need Low-light Vision when you have Darkvision..

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Me either, but most dragons seem to get both. :\

I think I would be tempted to give them a bonus to saves against Sleep and Hold spells, as opposed to flat out immunity.

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Good call. I've changed it to +4 bonus, in line with the draconic template.

How's this look?

Gemdrake

• –2 Strength, +2 Dexterity.
• Small: As a Small creature, a Gemdrake gains a +1 size bonus to Armor Class, a +1 size bonus on attack rolls, and a +4 size bonus on Hide checks, but he uses smaller weapons than humans use, and his lifting and carrying limits are two-thirds of those of a Medium character.
• Gemdrake base land speed is 20 feet and flight speed is 30 feet (poor).
• Dragon type: +4 racial bonus against magic sleep and hold effects.
• Low-Light Vision: A Gemdrake can see twice as far as a human in starlight, moonlight, torchlight, and similar conditions of poor illumination. He retains the ability to distinguish color and detail under these conditions.
• Darkvision: A Gemdrake can see in the dark up to 60 feet. Darkvision is black and white only, but it is otherwise like normal sight, and Gemdrakes can function just fine with no light at all.
• Automatic Languages: Common and Draconic.
• Breath Weapon: 3/day — A ray of energy (type based on breed) projects from the Gemdrake's mouth. You must succeed on a ranged touch attack with the ray to deal damage to a target. The ray deals 1d3 points of damage.
• Favored Class: Sorcerer. A multiclass Gemdrake’s sorcerer class does not count when determining whether he takes an experience point penalty for multiclassing.

The five breeds of Gemdrake, their breath weapon type, and common alignment are:

• Gaget - Fire - Chaotic Neutral
• Ivory - Cold - Lawful Neutral
• Amber - Electricity - Neutral
• Coral - Acid - Neutral Evil
• Pearl - Sonic - Neutral Good

This is on the high side of +0:

Darkvision
Low-light vision
Flight (albeit slow and poor maneuverability)
Dragon type (immune to hold person, charm person, etc.)
+4 to saves vs. sleep and hold
Breath ray

It's the dragon type that really makes this too good. I'd suggest making it Humanoid [Draconic] or Humanoid [Reptilian] and explain the save bonuses as draconic heritage. I'd also suggest going with either darkvision or low-light vision, not both, but that's not a huge issue.

Sir Whiskers said:

It's the dragon type that really makes this too good. I'd suggest making it Humanoid [Draconic] or Humanoid [Reptilian] and explain the save bonuses as draconic heritage. I'd also suggest going with either darkvision or low-light vision, not both, but that's not a huge issue.

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I'm starting to come around to the idea of dropping low-light vision, but I'd really like to keep them as true dragons. I don't see the immunity to "person" spells and +4 against sleep and hold magic as being much better than the elves' immunity to sleep spells and +2 against all enchantment magic.