Cultural Templates! [RENAMED]

[Knightfall]

Ok, here's an interesting concept inspired by prestige classes, prestiges races introduced in Oathbound: Domains of the Forge and from reading about Frost and Fur on MonkeyGods forums.

Cultural Templates (or Prestige Cultures)

Imagine having a specific template that you can add on to any race and/or intelligent monster that adds a cultural spin onto a character.

Instead of having a barbarian class, you could have a barbarian template or an amazon template or a celtic template or a ancient roman template or an aztec template.

Other real world possibilites:

Ancient Chinese
Ancient Japanese
Ancient Greek
Cossack
Viking
Pygmy
Egyptian
African (endless possiblities for dozens of unique cultures)
Aborginal (Austrailian)
Native (American)
Ice Age (Neanderthals)

Mythical:
Atlantean
Can anyone think of any other possible mythic templates?

Opinions? Threats? Concerns?

 

[Knightfall]

Not a good idea?

 

[Psyckosama]

Think d20 modern. Look at how they Profressions then apply that to your "Cultural Templates".

I think it could work.

 

[Yuan-Ti]

Not a good idea?

How does it work? A player chooses a class and then adds a template? Vice versa? And what does this template do? Determine feats, skills?

 

[Robbert Raets]

Think d20 modern. Look at how they Profressions then apply that to your "Cultural Templates".

I think it could work.

Mr. Psyckosama has a good point, there.

 

[Knightfall]

Think d20 modern. Look at how they Profressions then apply that to your "Cultural Templates".

I think it could work.

I'm going to take a look at the d20 Modern SRD later this week and see how professions work. I skimmed it when the SRD first came out and you might be right, that might be the best idea.

Cheers!

KF72

 

[Sir Whiskers]

If I understand your idea, I like it. It's always bothered me that some of the racial abilities are really cultural, not racial. For instance, why do all elves gain proficiency with bows - it's somehow instinct? Or rather, anyone raised in elven society would be taught the use of bows and, therefore, it's a cultural ability.

To implement this, you would have to strip away the abilities not truly racial in nature, then create the cultural template to apply - quite a bit of work (especially balancing), but something that could add considerable depth to characters (imagine said elf with an ancient chinese cultural template...)