Pechs

[ferratus]

I would think a -2 penalty to strength, and perhaps -1 charisma with a bonus to +1 wisdom. They are small and rather timid, it seemed to me, but know not to make enemies.

They are small, but they have exceptional strength 18(50) in my 2e monster manual. So I gave them +1 to strength. No other races are taking penalties to abilty scores so far.

The problem with that is that they can walk through stone and shape stone. I could easily see putting a restriction on what stone; like only stone that has not yet been unattached to the ground (bricks for instance would be not allowed because they have lost their life in their separation). And as for over powered use, like shaping a long bridge or an ax, you could limit it to not able to leave the ground and only 10 cubic feet of stone per pech.

Well you can do what you like vis. walking through stone, but you're going to be sorry. Phasing through stone means they can essentially attack and retreat from a sanctuary of absolute security. Plus, I (if I was playing that character) would insist on exploring around outside the dungeon confines to see what I could find. It is a headache waiting to happen.

Making stone tools with stone shape isn't really all that overpowered. It is a neat ability, but anything he creates is going to be inferior to any steel tools or weapons the party might have.

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I would also give them blind sense 90 ft while on natural ground (tremor sense), darkvision 60 feet, but blind for 3d6 rounds in sunlight and half that time dazed.

That's fine, as long as you don't expect him to do any surface adventuring. If he never leaves the underdark, that's flavour text but not a penalty, and if he leaves the underdark he is a crippled unplayable character.

 

[Iapetus]

No other races are taking penalties to abilty scores so far.

Yes, but it may be needed to balance it's power and make it less effective in combat or social skills with out of race creatures.

Well you can do what you like vis. walking through stone, but you're going to be sorry. Phasing through stone means they can essentially attack and retreat from a sanctuary of absolute security. Plus, I (if I was playing that character) would insist on exploring around outside the dungeon confines to see what I could find. It is a headache waiting to happen.

As i said above, i'm attempting to make them next to useless in hand to hand combat. Also, I could make it a standard action to enter or exit stone moving through it only at normal speed using both move and standard actions. Lastly the dungeon would have to be made completely of stone with no change of depth, otherwise you could end up falling out a wall into a large cavern or a ravine.

Making stone tools with stone shape isn't really all that overpowered. It is a neat ability, but anything he creates is going to be inferior to any steel tools or weapons the party might have.

It's too finely detailed to do and it would have to leave the ground, something i would make a taboo.

That's fine, as long as you don't expect him to do any surface adventuring. If he never leaves the underdark, that's flavour text but not a penalty, and if he leaves the underdark he is a crippled unplayable character.

It's only for the first couple rounds of leaving under ground or a building and only during the day. It's a large disadvantage that must be faced (given a party of mostly surface races) but isn't a crippling effect.

 

[I'm A Banana]

Man, there is a big amount of nay-saying in this thread.

Here's how I'd do it:

Pech
In the lightless depths of the deep earth live a group of creatures who excel at cleaving it. Sometimes called an elemental, sometimes called a fey -- the distinction is largely academic at this point -- the pechs tunnel their entire life away, chiseling away at stone softer than their own flesh with their tools, and their bare hands.

Intimate with the Earth
While they are flesh and blood, pechs are also rock and stone -- their hard, granite flesh and immense striking power are testament to that. They are born of the rock, and this closeness also enables them to know the weaknesses of the stone from which they are born. They know also where to strike stones the hardest: the natural fault lines and soft points and air pockets invisible to most people are obvious to the pechs. Pechs are also able to shape and enchant stones, with numbers of them banning together to conjure it or to transform it to flesh.

A pech also spends his or her life tunneling. Pech clans wander far and wide through the tunnels of the underdark, expanding them and re-weaving them, opening new ones and digging eternally. They seem to do this out of a primal wanderlust, a need to explore and carve that drives them ever-deeper into the stone they are part of.

Reclusive and Shy
A pech is an elusive creature of the darkness. Mistrustful of outsiders, and not warriors by nature, they prefer to flee than fight. They work well together in a kind of reciprocal, communal relationship, but not so well with outsiders. Pechs are at their most powerful when helped by their allies, so few go anywhere alone.

Simple and Rustic
Pechs are not a people who enjoy a life of luxury or wealth. Though they find many gems and metals in their tunneling, they are resolutely uninterested in such things except as possible trade items. They rarely have more wealth than they can carry, and build little in the way of ornate goods. They are very capable of such things, but they are not very creative individuals, by and large, content to be practical with their powers and their intimacy.

Cultural Details
Alignment: Pechs easily band together and like to help each other, so they tend toward Good. They do rely on each other, rejecting the individualism of Chaos, but their reliance is one more of kinship than of heirarchy, making them poor candidates for Law. On the whole, Pechs are neutral good.

Religion: Pechs don't honor specific deities. Rather, they pay homage to the earth itself, considering themselves born purely of rock. If they are fey, they don't seem to belong to any over-arching court, so their beliefs certainly resemble the elementals more. Some pechs even join up with Sunnis, the Princess of Good Earth Creatures, out of a desire to protect all of their home. This relationship isn't worshipful, however, and resembles more of an alliance under a queen.

Language: Pechs speak Primordial, the ancient and secret language of the elements. Some learn the tongues of others whose lands they may travel through, such as Elven (for dealing with drow), Dwarven, or Gnome.

Names: Pechs take on names based on the rocks they resemble, such as Feldspar, Granite, Obsidian and Limestone. They may or may not translate these names through Primordial first, coming up with some very exotic sounding names that may mean nothing more than "Gravel."

Adventuring Pechs
Pechs who leave the intimacy of their clan and the privacy of their caverns are truly unusual individuals. Still, that wanderlust that drives them to burrow constantly leads some to want to "burrow where there is no earth." These pechs will frequently adopt their adventuring party as a de facto clan, soft and squishy though they might be.

Pech Racial Traits
The following stats are for adventuring pechs, who, having left their clan, have lost the ability to cast pech communal magic. Pechs who are still part of their clan may use more advanced techniques, and pechs PC's may eventually learn how to do that on their own, or with non-pechs, but it is not something they can do at first level.
Size: Small
Speed: 30 ft.
Darkvision: When you are in darkness, you can see up to 60 ft. This ability becomes inactive in areas of light.
Ability Score Adjustment: Your starting Strength score increases by 1.
Skin Like Granite: You have an AC of 13. If you wear armor, use the value of your armor if it is higher.
Stonesplitter: You have Advantage on all attacks against creatures made of rock or stone, or skill checks to work with similar materials.
Stone Shaper: Pechs can work stone with their bare hands, making items from hard rock as if it was soft clay. The rock is still rock (and is still hard and heavy to anyone other than the pech), the pechs are merely able to work it very well. They can create simple tools and items out of the stone, though intricate crafts require intricate craftwork.
Stone Speaker: Pechs can talk to rocks, and the rocks talk back to them. A pech can converse with a stone walkway or a statue or a brick just as one may talk to a neighbor or a friend. Being immobile, and having a very long view of time, the rocks don't often make very sterling conservationists, but pechs can learn information from stones (such as if anyone passed by recently, and a stone's eye view of what they were like).

 

[I'm A Banana]

PS: As a general guideline, you usually want to avoid game effects that are HUGE and require HUGE penalties. Such binary abilities are difficult to actually play with for a few reasons.

1. If they never come up, the character is effectively overpowered, leading to the player dominating the game.
2. If they DO ever come up, the character is effectively crippled, leading to the player not participating in the game.
3. An individual player will be automatically encouraged to maximize the area in which they are effective, and diminish the amount of time they are ineffective, leading to an encouragement of min/maxing.

They can be fine or even necessary in certain areas, but where possible, you kind of want to steer away from big, binary effects. It doesn't often create the best play experience.

 

[Iapetus]

Good idea but there are a few problems with that, like that their stone shape comes from their asking the earth to move itself, they would never fight creatures of stone if they could help it (so why train for it?), they are peaceful, and stone is alive, something they can speak to. Also I don't want them min/maxing, players are good enough at it as is.

 

[Raunalyn]

When I first read the playtest module and the pechs, the first thing that went through my head was Madmartigan...

Willow: Don't call me a peck!
Madmartigan: Oh, I'm sorry! Peck! Peck! Peck, peck, peck, peck, peck, peck, peck!

 

[I'm A Banana]

Good idea but there are a few problems with that, like that their stone shape comes from their asking the earth to move itself, they would never fight creatures of stone if they could help it (so why train for it?), they are peaceful, and stone is alive, something they can speak to. Also I don't want them min/maxing, players are good enough at it as is.

Their ability to fight creatures of stone in my mind comes from their knowledge, not their training. Y'know, we humans are generally peaceful with each other, but we murder each other every day, and we're generally better at killing each other than sharks or lions are. They are GOOD at fighting creatures of stone, because they detect the flaws with senses honed from a life of mining. That's how I see it, anyway. A pech might very well try to talk to an earth elemental before chiving it, but if they NEED to chiv it, they'll be good at it.

And min/maxing won't be a problem in my version, but it might be a problem in yours, what with the hiding in the stone and the useless in melee combat stuff.

 

[Iapetus]

Pech

Families
Among pechs families are formed by friendship and trust, not blood relation. This strengthens their communities, helping them work together to preserve the stone, themselves, and other creatures of the stone, such as elementals.

Cultural Details

Alignment: Pechs are usually lawful, and they tend toward good, though are often lawful neutral. Adventurers sometimes break that mold, however, since they are often more curious or do not fit well into their society.

Language: Pechs speak Primordial and Terran, the language of the stone and stone creatures. The pechs have no alphabet or writting, and most pechs never learn to right in any of the other languages they know, having no use for writing. Many dwarves also speak the languages of those who often live close to them, such as dwarves and gnomes. Some also learn Undercommon, the tongue of the Underdark.

Names: The pechs have three names a birth name, stone name, and family name. Their birth name is the name given to them by their parents before they join a family and is usually dwarven in nature, when they are accepted into a family, they take on it's name as a surname. Family names usually relate to stones or gems and often start as joking descriptions of a respected family member. Though many may know their birth and family names, only they and the stone knows their stone name and it is their most closely guarded, and possibly only secret. Their stone name is the name that they are called by the stone when they firth speak to it.

Male Names: Adrik, Alberich, Baer, Barendd, Brottor, Dain, Darrak, Eberk, Einkil, Fargrim, Gardain, Harbek, Kildrak, Morgran, Orsik, Oskar, Rangrim, Rurik, Taklinn, Thoradin, Theoin, Tordek, Traubon, Travok, Ulfgar, Veit, Vondal.

Female Names: Artin, Audhild, Bardryn, Dagnal, Diesa, Eldeth, Falkrunn, Gunnloda, Gurdis, Helja, Hlin, Kathra, Kristryd, Ilde, Liftrasa, Mardred, Riswynn, Sannl, Torbera, Torgga, Vistra.

Family Names: Coaleye, Diamondtongue, Gravleskin, Ironhead, etc.

Adventuring Pechs
Pechs who take up the adventuring life are almost always motivated by a love of excitement or curiosity of life beyond the stone. These usually occur because of meetings with surface adventurers.

Traits

As a pech, you have all the following racial traits.
Ability Score Adjustment: Your starting strength or wisdom score increases by 1.
Size: Small.
Speed: 25 feet.
Darkvision: If there is no light within 30 feet of you, you treat darkness in that radius as normal light.
Tremor Sense: Blind Sense 60 feet when on stone.
Light Sensitivity:When in daylight, or the spell daylight comes into effect within 30 feet of you, you are blind for 3d6 rounds and for the first half of that time you are dazed, by which point your eyes have mostly adjusted.
Sheltered: Living only with those much alike you you gain no Specialty at level 1, you instead get one starting at level 3.
Stonecunning: While underground, you know your approximate depth and how to retrace your path.
Stone Speech: You can speak to stone, and manipulate up to 10 cubic feet of stone at a time per pech, though the stone is unable to leave the ground. Starting at level 3 with 9 pechs (including yourself), you can create and control a large earth elemental. The amount of pechs needed is reduced by 2 at every next odd level (7 pechs at 5, 5 pechs at 7, 3 pechs at 9, and 1 pech at 12), to a minimum of 1, only the leader must be at least the required level level.
Illiteracy: You do not start knowing how to read or right in any language, though you later can learn to do so.
Languages: You can speak Terran, Primordial and Dwarven.

Note: Stone speech can be used to move through stone.

 

[Iapetus]

They are GOOD at fighting creatures of stone, because they detect the flaws with senses honed from a life of mining.

Pechs don't mine, they just ask the stone to move.

 

[I'm A Banana]

Heh!

Maybe THAT's why they're good at fighting rock creatures. They can ask the things that make up their bodies to move. It would be like fighting a supervillain who could manipulate your flesh, pushing your tissues apart as they fight you...hehehe, neat.