Lizardfolks in Dragon #268

[Shade]

Lizard Man
Ability Score Adjustments: There are no adjustments to the basic ability scores.

We'll that's easy.

I would think that some stuff like:

can probably be left out as standard lizardfolk don't have that anymore.

Agreed.

Here's the breakdown of the ability score adjustments for 3e lizardfolk:
Lizardfolk (M): +2 Strength, +2 Constitution, –2 Intelligence
Poison Dusk (S): +2 Dexterity, +2 Constitution, -2 Charisma
Blackscale (L): +8 Strength, +4 Constitution, –2 Intelligence, -4 Charisma

Looking again at the variant lizardfolk, I'd recommend the following adjustments:
Agrutha: Str +4, Con +4, Int -4, Cha -4
Brute Crocodilian: Str +6, Con +4, Int -4, Wis -2, Cha -4
Master Crcodilian: No modifiers
Varanid: Str +2, Dex +2, Cha -4
Geckonid: Str -2, Dex +6, Con -2, Wis -2
Tokay: Dex +6, Wis -2, Cha -4
Iguanid: Dex +2, Int -2

 

[Maxxx26]

What would you say, which one of them shoudl have racial HD at all. I picture the Geckonid and Iguanids to have no racial HD at all, the Varanids as having 2 like the standard lizardfolk and the others as somewhere between normal lizardfolk and Blackscales.

As it looks the Agrutha and the Crocodilian also have no special abilities, except those already posessed by normal lizardfolk. This might pose a problem to make them two really distinct creatures, if both are medium or the crocodilian resembles the Blackscale if they are large.

As a related side note, does anyone has some suggestions for the names of poison dusk and blackscale lizardfolk to make them fit with the others?

 

[Maxxx26]

I thought I can not ask for a conversion, without helping in the process. So I started with the Geckonid. Its a first draft and I just wrote down the racial traits, as I think they won't have any racial hit dice.

Geckonid Characters:

Geckonids posses the following racial traits:

• -2 Strength, +6 Dexterity, -2 Constitution, -2 Wisdom.
• Medium size.
• A Geckonid's base land speed is 30 feet, he also gains a 30 feet climb speed.
• low-light vision, Keen Sight (see below).
• Racial Skills: A Geckonid character has a +4 racial bonus on Move Silently and a +10 racial bonus on jump checks. If he is wearing no armor, or other cloth that cover most of his body, he gains a +5 racial bonus on Hide checks thanks to his chameleon skin.
• Special Qualities: Wallcrawling (see below), Wall Fighter (see below).
• Automatic Languages: Common, Draconic. Bonus Languages: Goblin, Gnoll, Orc.
• Favored Class: Rogue
• Level adjustment: +1

Keen Sight (Ex): This works like the Kuo-Toa racial ability of the same name.

Wall Fighter (Ex): As long as the geckonid is adjacent to a square that contains terrain features the Geckonid could climb, such as a wall or a tree, he gains a +3 Dodge bonus to AC.

Wallcrawling (Ex): The geckonid need not make Climb checks to traverse a vertical or horizontal surface (even upside down). It retains its Dexterity bonus to Armor Class while climbing and opponents get no special bonus to their attacks against it.

 

[Maxxx26]

And another try with the Varanid:

Varanids As Characters
Varanid characters possess the following racial traits.

• +2 Strength, +2 Dexterity, -4 Charisma.
• Medium size.
• A varanid’s base land speed is 40 feet.
• low-light vision
• Racial Hit Dice: A varanid begins with two levels of humanoid, which provide 2d8 Hit Dice, a base attack bonus of +1, and base saving throw bonuses of Fort +0, Ref +3, and Will +0.
• Racial Skills: A varanid’s humanoid levels give it skill points equal to 5 × (2 + Int modifier, minimum 1). Its class skills are Balance, Jump, and Tumble. Varanid have a +4 racial bonus on Balance and Jump checks.
• Racial Feats: A varanid’s humanoid levels give it one feat. He also gains Two-Weapon Fighting as a bonus feat.
• Weapon and Armor Proficiency: A varanid is automatically proficient with simple weapons and one martial weapons of his choice.
• +3 natural armor bonus.
• Natural Weapons: 2 claws (1d4), bite (1d4), and tail (1d4).
• Automatic Languages: Common, Draconic. Bonus Languages: Goblin, Gnoll, Orc.
• Favored Class: Fighter.
• Level adjustment +1.

 

[Shade]

Let's tackle them one at a time.

Some good ideas, there. I've added them to Homebrews.

I like the keen sight ability, but not the 5th-level requirement. Let's just let them all have it...it's not too powerful an ability, and it helps differentiate them further from other lizardfolk.

Here's another ability to consider giving them:

Wallcrawling (Ex): The gacholoth need not make Climb checks to traverse a vertical or horizontal surface (even upside down). It retains its Dexterity bonus to Armor Class while climbing and opponents get no special bonus to their attacks against it.

I think they should get a hefty bonus on Jump checks, and a decent bonus on Hide checks due to their camouflage ability. Maybe +10 Jump, +4 Hide?

 

[freyar]

Wallcrawling sounds right, given

Since they can stick to almost any surface and leap up to 30 feet, geckonids often have the advantage of surprise. In combat they run along walls to throw off their opponents, dodge blows by leaping to the ceiling, and-if things go badly-scamper up a steep surface.

The skill bonuses look about right, too.

For bonus languages, I mostly agree with Maxxx26, but maybe I'd drop one of them. 3 just seems like a lot.

 

[Maxxx26]

Concerning the bonus languages, i stuck to the ones of the standard lizardfolk and eliminated aquan.

I made the hide bonus +5 and only unarmored as this is identical to the ability of the poison dusk. But you are right, I will increase the jump bonus and eliminate the 5th level requirement on the keen sight ability.

 

[Shade]

Maxxx26, to keep things straight, we usually add an entry for the monster we are converting to the Homebrews forum and I update it as we go. Feel free to keep updating your earlier entry, but if you don't feel like doing so, we've got it here as well.

Since no particular racial weapons were mentioned, go with short swords for the sample rogue?

Skills: 32
Climb 4, Hide 4, Jump +4, Move Silently 4?

Feats: 1 (Weapon Finesse?)

Organization: Solitary, X (2-8), or tribe (2-20 plus 2 rogues of 3rd–6th level and 1 rogue or wizard leader of 4th–10th level)?

Treasure: x (Since most have Type D, same as standard lizardfolk?)

Geckonids As Characters
Most geckonids are rogues, although some urban geckonids become wizards. Geckonid clerics worship x. A geckonid cleric has access to two of the following domains: xx.

 

[Maxxx26]

Ah..thanks for the heads-up shade, now I understand the system.

I have one question concerning the natural armor of the geckonid. Why did you gave him +2, the overview text mentions that both the geckonid and the iguana have AC 10, I thought that translates to no natural armor bonus in 3.5. This is not a critique, I would just like to know the reason as I am not familiar with 2nd edition rules.

All others thing look pretty good and I think they shoudl worship Semuanya, like normal lizardfolk and have acces to Animal, Plant and one other, perhaps luck or trickery

 

[Shade]

Ah..thanks for the heads-up shade, now I understand the system.

No problem, and we're glad to have you on board.

I have one question concerning the natural armor of the geckonid. Why did you gave him +2, the overview text mentions that both the geckonid and the iguana have AC 10, I thought that translates to no natural armor bonus in 3.5. This is not a critique, I would just like to know the reason as I am not familiar with 2nd edition rules.

Good question. Early in 3e, WotC put out a 2e -> 3e conversion guide. While it isn't flawless, it gives some good baselines. The suggested method of converting Armor Class is to subtract the 2e AC from 20 to get the 3e AC. Since the geckonid was AC 4, it converts to AC 16. With the +4 Dex bonus, we were short 2 points of AC. Since even the relatively weak poison dusk lizardfolk has +3 natural armor, I figured +2 would work for the geckonid.

All others thing look pretty good and I think they shoudl worship Semuanya, like normal lizardfolk and have acces to Animal, Plant and one other, perhaps luck or trickery

I just looked up Semuanya in Complete Divine, and it looks like his domains are Animal, Plant, Water, and Scalykind (not in the SRD). So I suppose we should stick with Animal, Plant, and Water, eh?