Creating a Psionic Jellyfish Mermaid

[Aeolius]

I have a prospective player, for my undersea campaign, that wishes to play a "jellyfish mermaid" of sorts, as inspired by this Illustration at Elfwood and this picture of a mauve stinger jellyfish .

She wished to play a psion (telepath) and would like the "jellymaid", from a race henceforth known as the ephyra, to be a psionic race similar to those found in the Expanded Psionic Handbook.

While I am mulling over the possibilities for a background and racial traits for the ephyra, I would appreciate any feedback I could get. I know the player isn't as interested in a traditional stinging jellyfish but is intrigued by bioluminescence.

 

[Aeolius]

Here's the first draft: Ephyra

 

[Aeolius]

If +2 seems a bit extreme, I could always get rid of the +2 CON and drop it to a LA: +1. The CON bonus was meant to convey deep sea adaptations.

Otherwise, I could increase psionic daze 3/day and add energy stun (electrical) 1/day, then add either a phosphorescent attack (magic missle), defense (dancing lights), or both.

 

[Angel Tarragon]

It looks interesting enough and looks balanced.

One question; the creature can survive out of water, but how does it get itself around [out of water]?

 

[Nyaricus]

As a full-caster race, the +2 LA is a complete killer on this build.

Personally, as soon as I clicked on that link, I thought that this race should either get -2 CON or -2 STR, and personally while it might make sense that this race would be better adapted to the sea ocean, the +2 CON really isn't doing much. It's a nice thought, but it's just adding to much towards the +2 LA that we want to bring down a tad

Personally, I completely agree with the +2 CHA; this race is obviously very beautiful etc. However, as this really doesn't help the Psion aspect of this race, my opinion is that they should get -2 STR. Why? Because that means they get a +2 which doesn't benefit them as a caster, and a -2 which doesn't hinder them as a caster - whereas a CON penalty would be much too much of an Achilles Heel, IMO.

Also, I think the 5 landspeed is actually too much. Rather, their speed should be 5 (as a full round action). This, in all likelyness, won't come into play in an underwater campaign, but really the way that that races physical set-up is, they likely couldn't get around worth a hoot on land.

As for their swim speed, this race really doesn't come off to me as being very graceful or quick - beautiful, without a doubt, but not swift. Would a 30 swim speed, be reasonable?

With those changes in mind, I wouldn't blink at a +1 LA. The race is flavourful and the other abilities fit it perfectly. Great job!

cheers,
--N

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

One thing absent from this race is nematocysts. AFAIK, all jellyfish have them- hair-trigger cells that contain a tiny, poisoned harpoon. Its what they hunt with.

This could be done as a natural attack, or if you want to get fancy, some kind of Extraordinary, Supernatural, Spell- or Psi- like ability, possibly with limited daily uses (reflecting the discharge of the cells & time to "reload" them).

Given their sentience, the poison should be minimally powerful- a painful paralytic with a save DC similar to a 1st level spell, perhaps.