New Race The Thar , part Thoc part Majar

[Phasics]

Major Editting in Process see below for original old thread

The Majar
Small Humanoid: associated bonuses and penalties for a creature of that size

Land Speed 10 Legs have atrophied from a lifetime of being carried (The typical mount for a Majar is a Thoc)

Telepathic: A Majar have a powerful but limited form of Telepathy (Telepathy power check = d20 + Majar ECL + INT mod). The range for their telepathy is contact and that contact must be near the head of the creature. They can directly commune with the creature causing it to obey them completely. Willing creatures (Thoc are always willing they were bred to be that way) or creatures with an intelligence of less than 3 are automatically put under the control of the Majar. Creature with 3 or more intelligence can fight this control once per day if they wish DC = 10 + Majar ECL + INT mod. There are 5 levels of control
each day an unwilling creature fails the check it move 1 step along the Level Track towards 5. If it succeeds at a check and its on level 1 it breaks free of the mental control and can immediately turn on the Majar gaining a surprise attack.
Level 1: Majar Must make a DC10 Telepathy check to perform a move action, DC15 Std Action, DC20 Hostile Action, DC25 Hositle action against a member of the same race as the mount.
Level 2: DC5 move, DC10 std, DC20 hostile, DC25 Hostile v Race
Level 3: Move free, DC5 std, DC15 hostile, DC20 Hostile v Race
Level 4: Move Free, Std Free, DC5 Hositle DC20 Hostile v Race
Level 5: More Free, Std Free, Hositle free, DC15 Hostile v Race

The Majar can choose not to totally dominate its mount and commonly Majar allow the Thoc they ride much freedom to act and speak if they wish to do so, only imposing thier will when the situation calls for it, and even then the Majar are more like herders planting suggestions in a Thoc's mind rather than outright demanding obedience. The are however some Majar who totally dominate their mounts without question and these Majar typically have an evil alignment.

The Agony: Any Majar that does not have some from of mount that can not only carry him but he can commune with on a telepathic level suffers -4 to all mental stats until a new mount is found. The Majar will also risk falling into a despair and becoming catatonic Will DC1+1/day spent without a mount. a Majar who falls into despair is unconscious and cannot act until some from of telepathy is used to communicate with him which will return him to consciousness. He then must take a mount as soon as possible or risk becoming catatonic again (same DC as when he first fell).

Majar Mount: A Majar can use any creature as a mount however suffers a -2 to all mental stats with a creature that has less than 3 intelligence from the strain of trying to commune with it.

Sleep: a Majar does not sleep instead it communes with a creature while it sleeps entering and sharing its dreams on a subconscious level. This is also why the Agony occurs as Majar cannot fall asleep on their own without a subconscious mind to enter and rest in. This is a weakness formed from generations of dependence on mounts from Birth.

Avg Stats STR 6 DEX 6 CON 6 INT 16 WIS 16 CHA 16

PC Stats
-4 to STR DEX CON
+4 to one Mental attribute
+2 to a different mental attribute



The Thoc
Medium Monstrous Humanoid
STR 16 DEX 16 CON 16 INT 3 WIS 3 CHA 3
Land Speed 30
d10 Hit Die
Claw Attack 1d6
Thoc Varibility: The Thoc have been bred by the Majar to suit their needs as such a Thoc is a very versatile creature although only with the help of a Majar. a Thoc without a Majar does not gain any of the abilites listed below. it lives a simple life most commonly in a herd of Thoc. It Hit Die increases as it ages to a maximum of 5d10 at full adulthood. Its mental stats do not increase with age although it does suffer physical old age negatives to STR DEX and CON.
A Thoc with a Majar rider can be manipulated to acquire various physical qualities over time directed by the Majar tapping into the mind of the Thoc and directing the body to change to suit his specific needs. Thus no 2 riden Thoc are ever alike although many posses similar abilities
Path of Speed: TBA
Path of Strength: TBA
Path of Endurance: TBA
Developing Abilities: TBA
Implanted Knowledge: TBA

Not playable as an individual race, used in conjunction with a Majar character, in part controlled by DM.

[[Basically the Thoc will be like a customizable mount depending on how you want to play in a tactical sense. e.g. Delevop your Thoc for Strength and Speed and use him as a hit and run striker in combat. Develop your Thoc for endurance to be a wall in combat that you can excerpt your powers from. Or delveop specific traits like wings or chamelon like skin, thicker bone armor plates to surround you etc.]]

 

[Atanatotatos]

I find this very creative, and original. ut, to be honest, utterly unplayable. This would result either in horribly overpowered characters, or desperately unable to survive, depending on the dm and he degree of min/maxing.
Anyway, as I said I like the idea itself. I thin you have two options.
1- Make them a monster npc race and tie an adventure to them. Very interesting.
2- Make them two separate pc race choices, with ess extreme bonus and penalties. For example, two players could decide to play "together", one as a thog, the other as the majar. It'd be tricky, but would bring advantage, and inteesting roleplay applications.

 

[Phasics]

I find this very creative, and original. ut, to be honest, utterly unplayable.

hehehe you see my dilema

Actually your 2nd point has given me an idea. Instead of letting the player control both the Thoc and the Majar perhaps I should limit player to only being able to use the Majar and treat the Thoc more like a Monterous NPC or even Monterous Mount that the DM controls.

The Majar player could then have above avg mental stats and below avg physical stats but less severe and since the Thoc now wont get class levels perhaps just some monsterous levels it should fit alot better.

Will also give the DM some fun options to exploit the least of which is getting thrown from the Thoc. The DM can even have fun with giving the Thoc some limited dialogue in certain situations perhaps at a crucial moment in a diplomatic meeting MWHAHAHA.

Mmmm perhaps the player can choose some Thoc specific feats with monsterous levels tailor the Thoc to his style of play.

So Basically you can have an Armourd caster, with Thoc Shielding the Majar or
The Majar Buffer, boosting the Thoc to a Fighter equivalent in combat, teach him to use weapons heheheh

 

[Phasics]

Old Oringal Thread kept but moved out of the way of the Main post

The Thoc
Strong Fast and Tough as nails yet to stupid to act on thier own to actually accomplish anything.

The Majar
Weak Slow and Frail yet a truly superior intellect, savy and very polite

Somewhere in their history the telepathic although pathetically weak Majar came across a race of humanoids who were on the brink of being called humanoid instead of herd animals. The Thoc had just delveoped a very basic language and the begins of tools. The Majar saw in the the potential for a vessel to carry their superior intellect and in doing so giving the Thoc a massive leap ahead.

The Majar with their telepathic powers found the Thoc easy to control yet after centuries of a Utopian like society did not seek to enslave the Thoc merely to work with them. Although this is hotly debated that the Thoc wouldn't even know the difference between slavery and a partnership.

Further argument rages that the Majar although brining the Thoc to a point that they could be part of the civilized world are by default permanently preventing the Thoc from further mental devlopment and a destined to remain as the vessel of the Majar.

The Thoc
Medium Humanoid
Land Speed 30
Powerful Build: The Thoc make Half-Orcs look weak for a medium sized creature, they would easily be considered Large if they were only taller
Natural Armor: The Thoc are covered in living armored plates (TBD)
(more racial stuff to come)

STR 20 DEX 16 CON 20 INT 4 WIS 6 CHA 4

PC attribute Bonuses TBD

The Majar
Small Humanoid
Land Speed 10
Telepathic (Contact Only)
(more racial stuff to come)

STR 4 DEX 6 CON 4 INT 18 WIS 18 CHA 18

PC attribute Bonuses TBD
The Thar is the name given to the symbiotic race comprising the Thoc and the Majar. A Majar typically rides on a Thoc's neck between bone shoulder/arm plates which offer it some physical protection , a Thoc's head sit below the base of its neck, thus it must turn it torso to look more than 70deg left or right of straight ahead

The Thar is treated as one creature in most cases expect where specified below. The Thoc and the Majar track their Stats HP etc separately except where specified.

A player using the Thar as a race must think very carefully before making this choice as there are an infinite number of pitfalls that may be exploited by your DM.

Basics
As the Thar you are 2 creatures that play as one. That said you must choose one class for each at first level. They gain double XP as a single creature and split it between the 2 (i.e. they do not reduce party XP for 2 charcters)
You must keep in mind however the classes you choose only use attributes from one of the races, if you choose a class that uses both physical and mental stats you may find they function very poorly. Also note that the Majar are unlikely to every willingly leave the neck of a Thoc to perform tasks by themselves (more on that later)

The result of this is your most likely to choose a melee class and a caster class. e.g. Fighter and Wizard

Game play
The Thoc are slightly more intelligent than your average Golem they basically function by holding onto a few very basic instructions in thier head. These instruction are typically no more than a sentence and a Thoc can only maintain as many instructions as his INT score.
2 instructions have been bred/harcoded into the mind of a Thoc
1. Never separate a Majar from a Thoc while they both breathe
2. Look for a Majar to put on your neck if there is no Majar on your neck

These instructions do not follow priority they will try to follow all commands and only the first command will take precedent. The play may fill out remaining Instruction slots with thier own instructions.

(much like a wish spell these player instructions are open to interpretation by the DM who may create situations to exploit bad instructions)

Adventuring/Combat

The Majar and Thoc both get a Swift,Move and Standard Action taken simultaneously on their turn.
HOWEVER
If the Majar uses its standard action to make an attack or cast a spell the Thoc must use its standard action to focus on not disrupting the actions of the Majar. If the Thoc does not spend thier standard action in this way there is a 90% (roll 1d10) that the Majar action will completely fail/spell fizzle.
Conversely if the Majar does not spend a full round action focusing his telepathy on the Thoc through phsyical contact the Thoc will act according to the list of imprinted instructions as determined by the DM. This is where a poor choice of commands can result in unwanted behavior
e.g. If there is fighting attack the nearest enemy
The Dm may rule that the Thoc must roll a DC10 INT check or randomly attack the closest creature not really understanding what an "enemy" is.
Alterntivly the Thoc may attack the nearest enemy however he may forget to draw his sword before attacking if the Majar failed to instruct him to do so beforehand. its also highly unlikely the Thoc will remember how to class abilities, he may even pick up stray mental impulses from the Majar casting a spell and try to mimic the sounds and gestures.

Thus the Thar race really only gets 1 swift move and std action during a given round. with a 10% chance of getting 2 std actions , and even less of a chance of the 2nd std action being useful.

In any given situation the best between the Thoc and Majars modifer/skill is used so spot checks are done by the Majar, while STr checks are done by the Thoc.

The Majar can be targeted individually from the Thoc however the Majar has 90% concealment from any specially targeted attack or spell. This extends to spells like Magic Missle which have a 90% miss chance.

Atribute draining attacks are handled differently for the Thar. e.g. a Feeblemind spell targeted at the Thoc if it hits will not reduce the Thoc's INT attribute but will reduce the Majar's. Similairy a Shadow STR dmg attack aimed at the Majar even if it hits will be taken from the Thoc First. This atribute sharing only applies to attribute damage.

Thar Separation
An attack that deals more than 15% of a Thar's total HP causes a minor shock the Majar may be thrown from the Thoc. The Majar must make a DC10 STR check to stay on or fall to the ground and be dealt 1d6 dmg. An attack that deals more than 30% dmg of total HP requires a DC15 check to stay on.

While separated the Majar takes -4 to all mental attributes for the duration of the separation and must make a successful concentration check DC15 take any standard action.
The Thoc on the other hand takes -2 to all physical attributes and acts according to thier set of instructions mostly the become single minded in trying to find the lost Majar or a new Majar to replace them. A Thoc without a Majar can be influenced by other characters with a successful DC15 CHA they can make the Thoc focus on a specific instructions (i.e. get the to stop looking for a Majar for a while and help with something else) a character can also atemt to get a Thoc to follow a command not on thier list with a DC25 CHA check.

A Thoc can pickup a Majar within 5' doing so is a full round action.

And that about as far as I've got so far hopefully you get the gist of the idea lemme know your thoughts. There probably 100 odd pitfalls I haven't seen yet

 

[Atanatotatos]

That looks better but be aware that the Majar's telepathy power is awfully powerful for a low-level character. If it's just a means to get the Thogs to obey, limit it to that. Also, you may want to give the race some other trinket to make it more interesting, like skill bonuses and such (take the core races for an example). The mental collapse a Majar suffers is very severe. They're already crippled for their physical stats, rendering them completely useless without a thog is a bit unfair (they have to be able to find one, after all) so maybe it's better to further pealize them physically, like, dunno, exhaustion?
Also, you should find a mechanic to make the Thog grow more powerful, kind of like a druid's mount, but don't make it TOO powerful, as the Majar will surely enhance its capabilities with magic.

 

[Phasics]

That looks better but be aware that the Majar's telepathy power is awfully powerful for a low-level character. If it's just a means to get the Thogs to obey, limit it to that. Also, you may want to give the race some other trinket to make it more interesting, like skill bonuses and such (take the core races for an example). The mental collapse a Majar suffers is very severe. They're already crippled for their physical stats, rendering them completely useless without a thog is a bit unfair (they have to be able to find one, after all) so maybe it's better to further pealize them physically, like, dunno, exhaustion?
Also, you should find a mechanic to make the Thog grow more powerful, kind of like a druid's mount, but don't make it TOO powerful, as the Majar will surely enhance its capabilities with magic.

Ok well I agree telepathy as it stands could be considered quite powerful however it only works at touch range and touch of the head at that and with poor physical attributes its not like he can just walk up to any creature and swing onto their shoulders without them trying to stop the Majar.

The reason I didn't limit it to the Thoc was so that in a situation where the Thoc is out of the picture the Majar would need to ask another patry member to use them for a time or even the druids animal companion or find some medium sized animal in the forest and have a party member grapple it allowing the Majar to take control etc which I think is some nice flavour

I also wanted to leave it open so there is some opporunity for the Majar to control other creatures during a campagin but I'm trying to make it near impossible at low levels and difficult at high levels but still an option, perhaps a limit on creature HD/ECL it can control would temper it so its no more powerful than a Thoc would be, but could add some interesting flavour.

into a Campagin across a forest, Thoc dies tragically on the 2nd day, with no Thoc remotly close by. However the Party manage to grapple and hold an Orc that was left after a battle allowing the Majar to try and control it. Majar then spends the next few days mentally grappling with the Orc trying to get it to do his bidding, intally it would only move in combat and even then no always but after a week of good rolls the Orc was smashing heads with the best of them, however 7 days out from thier goal the Majar has a string of bad rolls and loses control of the Orc, it turns on him in the night and the party they kill the Orc but the Majar is now wounded and without a mount, so close to the end they dont have time to try and find and dominate a new mount, one fo the party allows the Majar to use it as a mount by doing so scraifces some actions in combat when the Majar' casting is required.