Elan Template

[Cabral]

Rather than having the Elans be humans reborn as psions, I'm thinking of expanding that to any race and having Elan be a template added on during play ...

So, core abilities of an Elan are:
-2 Cha
type changes to aberration (no darkvision)
Gains 1 power point
may spend 1 pt in lieu of eating and drinking for the day
may spend 1 pt to revent 2pts of damage
may spend 1 pt to gain +4 on saves until begining of next turn

so, just adding that to a standard race might be LA +0.5 ... but at LA+1, some of that is a bit weak ...

What about the process of becoming an Elan? I was thinking of taking a feat to be able to perform the ritual. Then, when the ritual is complete and the charcter becomes an Elan, the ritual feat is replaced with a bonus feat.

 

[Nyaricus]

my 15 second answer

hmmm, not too terribly familiar with Psionic Races (yes, i do own the EXP though) but here's my say. Give them their full 2 power points, abberation template doesn't do anything except negate a few spells and they don't even get darkvision out of it, and they have -2 Cha.

this template is an easy +0

as for Rituals, Savage Species has rules for that, IIRC.

later!!

 

[Rystil Arden]

If you make this cost a feat and skill points, you can probably give all the Elan powers and keep it LA +0. Remember, Elans born from humans are missing a bonus feat and some skill points.

 

[Cabral]

If you make this cost a feat and skill points, you can probably give all the Elan powers and keep it LA +0. Remember, Elans born from humans are missing a bonus feat and some skill points.

Not this version ... Say, the ritual could be performed at level 3, a human would take the ritual feat at level 3. After performing the ritual, the human would acquire the template, lose the feat used for the ritual and replace it with a feat they meet the prerequisites for ...

... Hmm, in retrospect, I should skip the feat and just make it a ritual or something...

I can try to balance the template as LA +0 but then use the LA reduction xp from Unearthed Arcana as an XP cost for the ritual ...

 

[XeviatTranion]

Add in darkvision and I think it would be fine as a LA +1 template, with no changes to the base race. I don't like the charisma penalty for elans, I think a diplomacy, bluff, and intimidate penalty vs. humanoids would be more appropriate: they aren't described as being weak willed, just odd.

Then again I don't think dwarves deserve their charisma penalty either, because I think dwarves can be pretty intimidating.

 

[Nyaricus]

If you make this cost a feat and skill points, you can probably give all the Elan powers and keep it LA +0. Remember, Elans born from humans are missing a bonus feat and some skill points.

. . . but templates don't take away bonus feats and bonus skill points. A half-dragon half fiend reptilian dwarf still has Stability and +1 to attack roles vs orcs and goblins and everything else. My point was that the drawbacks overshadow any bonuses from this template - hence +0 LA

as for the feat swapping - you are talking about making a completely new mechanic here. Go with the rituals from Savage Species. It is 3.0, but i doubt there is truely much that is needed to be updated.

the example in the book is an ogre being tranformed into an elf - but i am sure you could just apply what they say there.

 

[Cabral]

After reading up on Rituals in Savage Species ... ugh. Not wuite what I'm looking for and just generally unpleasant ...

Alright, so let's shoot for a +1 LA for the Elan template
It will require a ritual and costs 3,000 xp (same as using the Unearthed Arcana system to reduce a +1 LA at 3rd level = (ECL 4-1) * 1,000 xp = 3,000 xp

I think I'll make the "ritual" an Incantation ...
I was hoping I could sneak it in under Necromancy as a reincarnation effect, but alas, reincarnate is a transmutation spell

Transmutation: DC 32; Range Medium; Target: one creature; Duration Rounds; Saving Throw: Fortitude; Spell Resistance: Yes
Skill Check: Knowledge(Psionics), Heal [multiple skills -1 DC, skill not on wizard class skill list -1]
Casting Time: 1 hour between checks [-4 DC]
Range: Touch [Medium to close -2 DC, Medium to touch -2 DC]
Target: Willing, pisonicly active only [guesstimated -4 DC]
Duration: Instant [(this is where it hurts) rounds to minutes +2 DC, minutes to hours +4 DC, hours to days +6 DC, days to instant +10 DC]
Focus and Material Component: Undecided
XP component: 3,000 xp [-10 DC because of 1,000 xp cap]
Extra Casters: Considering requiring a group, if so, I was thinking it would be a group initiation thing and may require a change to target [+0 DC, +4 DC if multiple targets]
Backlash: Undecided. (if the group initiation option is chosen it will affect secondary casters)
Failure: Undecided.

Currently that's a DC of 32-1-1-4-2-2-4+2+4+6+10-10 = 30 DC ... not bad.

Reincarnate is a 4th level effect but incantations have a minimum "level" of 6. so it requires 6 sucesses. Hmm... If we call it a Persistant (+4 levels) Reincarnate (I know it doesn't make sense) it would be an 8th level effect, require 8 successes but the duration should qualify for the "hours" entry to start off at, reducing the DC by 6 to a DC of 24. Independant of the dubious validity of a Persistant reincarnate, I like the DC 30 version better. Perhaps current Elans can mentor (Aid another) aspiring Elans ...

 

[dvvega]

The template should be LA+0 but be restricted to Human only.

It would require a feat to be taken before become an Elan (any level at all it shouldn't matter) - this would "eat up" the bonus human feat. At that point you simply have to account for the bonus 1 skill point (4 at first level) they would have received by the time they got the template.

Which feat? Wild Talent. It will be rendered useless by the template but that is the idea ... ensure that the templated human = the natural Elan.

(note that Wild Talent gives you a reserve as does the Elan template so they nullify each other - or you can just say that Wild Talent is what the Elans have naturally so the feat explains it).

The only thing here is skill points. It probably isn't a big deal having bonus skill points. This is the hardest thing to "balance" however I'm not sure how.

D

 

[Evilhalfling]

Huh - I seem to be running into you a lot Cabral.
this would have been a good thread when I was running my shortlived Elan focused PbP game.
If I remember we had 2 elans, (rebelling against the Elan Secret Society) and one human who would have made a good Elan.

One of the things that always bugged me about Elan as a race is that they are reborn (at 1st lvl). How do you decicide if a 1st lvl char is worthy? [high Metachloriies in blood?]
it just bugs me. If canidates were higher than first do they loose their memories along with thier skills?

If you want to make starting as Elan similar, then the ritual should cost most of the subjects skills, money and memories. - Thats the way I played it and it made great plot hooks.

If you are departing completely then I would probably have it cost the Wild talent feat suggested earlier and handwave the mechanics of the ritual. (although require lots of RP to be accepted)

If you are goint to make it a +1 LA the please change the +2 psp to the far better +1 psp/per level that Kalishar get, it is a much better mechanic.

 

[Cabral]

Well, I've got some time off and I've been spending much more of it than I should on these forums so it's no surprise

With the Elan template, I'm deviating from the published Elan making Elans a psionicly ascendant cabal that spans several races as oposed to simply transmographied humans. Also, while the Elan background is nifty as written, it causes a problem if you want to become one mid-campaign. Thus, this templated version does not cause you to reset to level 1. (Though, the XP cost could result in a level lost)

While with some pretty skillful building and some really lucky rolls, a character could probably succeed at the incantation early on in level, the XP cost is killer. One thing that bugs me about the Incantation is the heal skill. The incantation represents a ritual the future Elan performs to become an Elan. While, the heal skill is nifty for representing the transformation, the DC is too high for something that is going to be cross-class for most psionic characters. I think I will replace heal skill with Concentration. Because Concentration is on the Wizard class skill list, the DC goes up by 1.

As far as when should a character be allowed to acquire this template at character creation. Option 1: when taking 10 on the prerequisite skills can meet the DC of the incantation. or Option 2: Any time, but the template is LA+1 instead of LA+0.

Here is the provisional Elan template:
Creating an Elan
Elan is an acquired template that can be added to any psionic humanoid (or monstrous humanoid?), referred to hereafter as the "base creature". An Elan uses all the base creature's statistics and special abilities except as noted here.
Type: The creature's type changes to Aberration and it gains the psionic subtype. It retains any subtypes the base creature posesses.
Psi-like Abilities: Mindlink (1/day) as a psion of 1/2 the Elan's Hit Dice (minimum of 1). This can only affect other Elans. (alternative: Expanded Knowledge (Mindlink)... and yes, I swiped this from Kalashtars. )
Special Qualities:

Naturally Psionic: Elans gain 2 bonus power points. If the base creature was already naturally psionic, use the bonus power points of the base creature or 2, whichever is greater. (Alternative: replace naturally psionic with Psionic Talent as a bonus feat)​

Repletion: By expending 1 power point, an Elan does not have to eat or drink for 24 hrs.​

Resilience: As an immediate action, an Elan may reduce the damage he is about to take by 2 points for every 1 power point spent.​

Resistance: As an immediate action, an Elan can spend 1 power point to gain a +4 racial bonus on saving throws until the beginning of his next turn.​

Mentor Elan (tenative): An Elan may use the Aid Another action to give a character attempting the Elan Transformation Incantation a +3 circumstance bonus on all checks for the ritual. This leaves the Elan exhausted at the end of the ritual.​

Abilities: +2 Int, -2 Cha
Challenge Rating: As base creature +1 or as base creature?
Level Adjustment: +0*
Favored Class: Psion, this replaces the base creature's favored class.

* This assumes you allow for the "buying off" of LAs as proposed in Unearthed Arcana, if not, reduce the XP cost of the Incantation to 1,000 xp and set the LA to +1.

The Mentor Elan ability is both kinda nice in a fostering-community sense and also counter thematic in the sense that the Incantation is a test of the applicant's worth.