AU - What's good to play?

[Jefe Bergenstein]

Rites are not just about compensating for their attacks, its about true flexibility.

Ritual warriors can sneak attack, they can jack up their ACs when they need to, they can heal themselves as free actions, they can boost their speed in a tight spot, they can get an extra AOO without combat reflexes, they can boost their saves, they can get DR, etc.

Except all of that stuff is what feats and a better base HD would already accomplish. The rites really are just trying to push them up to what another class can already do, except they can only do it a few times per day.

 

[Turjan]

Except all of that stuff is what feats and a better base HD would already accomplish. The rites really are just trying to push them up to what another class can already do, except they can only do it a few times per day.

Sure, but as has been said above, you can have it all what is usually spread between different classes in one class for the cost of a higher maintenance.

 

[Plane Sailing]

You are of course, entitled to your opinion, but I think it's unfair to call them lame based on a criteria they weren't trying to meet, IMHO. If you're looking at the Litorian and Sibeccai and expecting "Cat" and "Dog", then you're bound to be disappointed, because they weren't meant to represent felines and canines, the AE book says as much. Of course something that's *trying* to be a "Cat person" is going to be a better "Cat person" than a race that just happens to have some cat-like physical characteristics. Appearance is only skin-deep.

Still, I don't think most people look at them and see anything different, given how many times I've seen Litorian players meow or be distracted by yarn or shiny objects in-character. *sigh* So I guess I shouldn't expect anyone to see them as anything but their surface "cat people" vibe... I just wish people could see them as their racial identity first and their physical appearance second.

Robert "Probably Overly Sensitive About This" Ranting

But the thing is - one of them is a dog-man, and the other is a cat-man. There isn't much of a way of getting round their appearance! Having cat headed people and dog headed people just strikes me as being lazy design. I didn't even read anything in the racial description that made them stand out to me either (in AU at least - I don't know if any of it was changed in AE).

Cheers

 

[Plane Sailing]

Well, I don't care much for dog and cat people, either, but I think that at least the sibeccai (dog people) have a cool background. They are a race of awakened animals, awakened by one of the other player races.

Oh, just like the Vargr dog people from traveller back in the late 70's then?

 

[GoodKingJayIII]

I liked 'em both quite a bit, and I think that's saying something coming from the player who never plays anything but humans. Of course I had very little experience with furry races prior to AU, so I don't have much to compare them to.

I will say, I think I'm the only person who likes the racial penalties (-2 Wis for Litorians, -2 Int for Sibeccai) as-is. It makes perfect sense to me that way, but everyone else seems to switch them.

 

[Turjan]

Oh, just like the Vargr dog people from traveller back in the late 70's then?

Okay, that point goes to you . Looks like this confirms the rule that nothing in fantasy gaming is original, but just a more or less clever mix of the same old ingredients.

 

[Plane Sailing]

Okay, that point goes to you . Looks like this confirms the rule that nothing in fantasy gaming is original, but just a more or less clever mix of the same old ingredients.

I'm sure it was just convergent evolution of thought, but I couldn't resist mentioning it

 

[Arkhandus]

I'm not a fan of the Litorians or Sibeccai either, myself. They had so very little useful description in Arcana Unearthed. They really didn't lend themselves well to being considered anything more than 'cat-people' and 'dog-people' from the get-go, because they had only 1-2 minor culture/personality-defining traits (like Sibeccai being grateful and loyal to the Giants; but then, loyalty is a natural canine trait, too).

I don't have Arcana Evolved yet, nor the Diamond Throne book (I'd prefer to have the original though, since I already had AU before AE was released, and I know some things were changed in the AE reprinting of both books in one, not necessarily for the better; I happen to like the way Mojh were treated in AU, but they were pushed to the wayside and altered in AE just to make the Dracha stand out more). So I don't know if those two actually give any real indication of how Litorians and Sibeccai are supposed to behave.

But the original AU book pretty much left folks hanging when it came to making sense of how to RP the races; Faens and Giants were the only ones who really had enough detail initially to give an impression of how to RP them. Verrik, humans, and mojh had enough for a decent guess about how to RP them, but Litorians and Sibeccai were pretty one-dimensional (litorians=plains hunters, sibeccai=loyal dog-men). Not really distinguishable from any random race of cat-folk or dog-folk in fantasy.

Children of the Rune, an anthology novel for the Lands of the Diamond Throne, gave a little bit of insight into how some races thought or behaved, but not a lot. I liked the novel though.

 

[Turjan]

I'd prefer to have the original though, since I already had AU before AE was released, and I know some things were changed in the AE reprinting of both books in one, not necessarily for the better; I happen to like the way Mojh were treated in AU, but they were pushed to the wayside and altered in AE just to make the Dracha stand out more.

I don't like all the changes, either (like Dracha), but some of them are pretty neat. If you stick to AU, you can always download the document with all the changes for free here. And I don't think that the change for the Mojh is only for the bad. The new version is much more synergistic with spellcaster classes . Before the change, the racial levels were quite detrimental for spellcasters. And in the end, it's up to you which version you use in your game. They work both .

 

[Varianor Abroad]

Here's a sidenote. Four years later, fans complain about the lack of detail in AU/AE. When it was first introduced, fans everywhere celebrated the fact that it didn't include every little detail.

Anyway, I don't see the litorian/sibeccai issue as that different from the elf/dwarf debate. Folks either like playing them or they don't. Makes for some great roleplaying though when a table full of guys at Gen Con suddenly make a sound like a bunch of great cats wailing at a loss.