Bastards of Blood by Green Ronin

[Lalato]

Things that came to mind after reading B&B...

Orc/Nixie (Orxie)
Humanoid/Ethereal Filcher
Dwarf/Ravid
Orc/Hell Hound (Hell Orc)
Dwarf/Grimlock

and there were several others... I just can't remember them now...

--sam

 

[Protosift]

Wrapping One's Mind Around Halfbreeds

I am incredibly surprised that the concept of adding magic as a means for the creation of these half-breeds was not suggested. While I do not own the book yet, and don't ant to do Owen a disservice here, if you're the type who has trouble reasoning with the concept of certain races interbreeding I really believe the addition of twisted magic may just help you overcome this.
There is also an additional benefit behind this, at least in my perceptions: It may help add some mystery back into the magic scene for those of us uncomfortable with designing our own spells. Imagine the glee of finding just how twisted practitioners of magic can be as to subvert nominally good races and fusing them with twisted evil beings. I believe the addition of such creatures along with judicious description can really add a bizarre Lovecraftian sort of feel to the nemesises of your PCs, perhaps implanting the dreadful elements of fantasy that seem to disappear in generic D&D as long as they are not overused.

 

[Lalato]

Another good explanation is Divine Intervention...

--sam

 

[Owen K.C. Stephens]

Re: Wrapping One's Mind Around Halfbreeds

I am incredibly surprised that the concept of adding magic as a means for the creation of these half-breeds was not suggested. While I do not own the book yet, and don't ant to do Owen a disservice here, if you're the type who has trouble reasoning with the concept of certain races interbreeding I really believe the addition of twisted magic may just help you overcome this.

I did use several arcane and divine magics for various breeds. Blinklings, a halfling/blink dog crossbreed, were the result of a druid's prayer for help. Lurkers (gnome/cloaker crossbreeds) are the result of shadow magic gone awry. Mind rippers (half mind flayers) require some nasty rituals I touch on. There are others.

I also talk a little about how things like teleportation and shapeshifting magic can change what seems "reasonable" in a crossbreed.

 

[seankreynolds]

My design theory was that an ECL had to assume the most min/maxed character design to avoid power-creep.....
When I couldn’t decide between 2 ECLs, I went with the higher of them. Part of this was simple caution (I often worry what happens when rules I write for d20 games mix with the rules someone else writes - the result is almost never a less-powerful character). Part of this was because getting to be a green folk already has a "cool factor" attached to it - such characters should be -at best- on par with more typical characters, not -at least- on par with them....
Also, I assume there’s a range in race power level as it is. I’m simply not convinced a half elf is on par with either a human or an elf. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it does mean it’s difficult to decide if a given race is on the high end of +1 ECL or the low end of +2.
And finally, in my experience players never complain when a GM decides to make something from a sourcebook more powerful, but act like the world has ended if he has to weaken it....

As one of the guys who hashed out the details of the ECL system for the FRCS (which has since been adopted for core D&D), I have to say that all of Owen's thoughts quoted above are spot-on.

Hello, Owen, by the way. Good to see you.

 

[TalonComics]

LOL. Yeah, I?m twisted, and since Monte already did the Book of Vile Darkness, I felt liberated to pull no punches. Seriously, a lot of ideas came from long running games, and a lot came from looking at races with an average Int of 8 or higher and pondering how I could work a half-breed of them into the book. The rest you just have to chalk up to me being a sicko.

As I was sitting in my most comfortable chair on the porch the other day, low and behold, I saw my old friend Bingles. Bingles hadn't been around for the past few months so I just assumed he had been out with some of our other Dwarven friends adventuring. Curious to catch up on what had been happening I called him over.
"Bingles, my good Dwarf! How are you?" I yelled.
Bingles didn't seem to hear me as I called so I yelled a second time even louder. "Bingles! It's me! Your good friend Tripnor!"
At this point Bingles had the look of a Dwarf who might have heard the faint sounds of a cave tunnel colapsing. He stopped, turned all away around and scratched his head. I began to wave my arms frantically which apparently did the trick as Bingles began to walk slowly my way.
When he got to my porch I noticed Bingles had what appeared to be large earmuffs over his ears and what looked to be some kind of pack bundled on his back.
"Bingles! Why are you wearing earmuffs on your ears?" I yelled.
"You'll have to talk louder as I'm wearing earmuffs!" Bingles yelled back.
"What's that on your back?" I yelled as loud as I could.
"It's a back pack!"
I should point out at this point that Bingles wasn't the sharpest axe in the kingdom. He could follows orders though.
I replied, "What's in the pack, Bingles?"
Bingles turned a shade of red I didn't think was even possible and gave me one of the strangest expressions I've ever seen on a Dwarf.
"It's me son." He replied sheepishly.
"Wha.. What? Your son? When did you have a son?"
Bingles removed the backpack, opened it up and pulled out the ugliest thing I had ever seen. At first I thought I was looking at a potato carved in the shape of a Dwarf but then it's eyes opened suddenly and it's arms slowly began to move.
Taken aback, I lost my balance and fell backwards onto my chair. The potato Dwarf looked surprised and then scared at my reaction.
It's gets a little fuzzy at this point in the story as the potato Dwarf opened it's mouth and began to scream the most horrific sound. I clamped my hands over my ears trying to block out the noise but I knew it was a lost cause. As I started to black out I heard the words I shall never forget coming from Bingles. "I'm so sorry, Tripnor! I should have warned you his mother is a Shrieker!"
Unconsciousness had never been more welcome.

~D

 

[BigFreekinGoblinoid]

First, let me say that while I appreciate everyone being polite and professional, feel free to call me "Owen." If you're writing directly to me in a forum, or sending me an e-mail, or even run into me at GenCon, I'm much more comfortable with Owen than “Mr. Stephens,” which always makes me think my father's around somewhere. ...

Hey Owen - you still there? I was wondering why you seem to have avoided the idea of racial HD, or bonus HP for your half-breeds. Somehow it just doesn't seem right to have a 10 foot tall ECL 8 half-Jovian Cleric lvl 1 with a 24 Strength and ... 10 hp.

Any suggestions for modifications to rectify this? I do not think that adding a hit die ONLY is worth a +1 Level Adjustment..

Other than this oddity, I'm loving the book. What's your next project?

Thanks,

BFG

 

[Owen K.C. Stephens]

I was wondering why you seem to have avoided the idea of racial HD, or bonus HP for your half-breeds. Somehow it just doesn't seem right to have a 10 foot tall ECL 8 half-Jovian Cleric lvl 1 with a 24 Strength and ... 10 hp.

Generally, I find racial hit dice both confuse players (the players I mostly deal with, anyway), -and- weaken character races. Keep in mind that adding a racial hit die does increase a race's effective level (look at the rules in Savage Species). So, if my ECL of +7 for a fire jovian is correct (and I've aleady talked about where those ECLs came from and why GMs may want to change them for their own games), then adding a racial hit die means a 1st level cleric fire jovian would be effectively a 9th rather than 8th level character. Since giants only get d8s and cleric attack progression anyway, this is universally inferior to having no racial hit die and taking 2 levels of cleric.

No, obviously cleric is not the maximized class for fire jovians. A jovian barbarian does -much- better, though admittedly he's still at a disadvantage in an 8th level game due to low hit points. However, he'll easily be able to manage a 32 Str, meaning with a huge greataxe he can get a +12 attack bonus and do 2d8+16 damage. That's tough for other 8th level fighter types to match. If he goes into rage, things just get worse.

In my experience, players making characters from high ECL races manage to compensate for their weaknesses with magic items, tactics, or spells from allies. And if these classes don't make people pause before taking them, then the ECL is clearly too low.

Bonus hit points is an interesting idea, and I suppose you could do it without unbalancing things, but it doesn't really match how creatures and races are written up in 3e. You could give a race a bonus Toughness feat, but I don't know that'll really satisfy anyone.

For the most part, don't play an ECL +7 character unless you're in at least a 12th level game.

Other than this oddity, I'm loving the book. What's your next project?

I'm glad you're enjoying B&B!

I'm doing a lot of work for the EverQuest line, and have another Star Wars project lined up for Wizards, but none of it can be talked about yet. I haven't chosen a new independent solo book yet, though I do have some discussions ongoing. Sorry to be so mysterious.

 

[BigFreekinGoblinoid]

Thanks for the feedback Owen! If you or anyone else are interested in taking a look at a half-goblin gladiator I just put together, check out my write up for "Kromak" near the bottom of my Gladiator thread:

http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/showthread.php?s=&postid=862484#post862484

Cheers,

BFG