Groundlings

[Glade Riven]

A new race for my campaign setting. The previous races (Ebon dwarf, Living Golems) are ment for the bestiary. Groundlings are ment as a unique PC race.

Groundlings

Groundlings are a race largely native to the southern continent of Zantier, although they are occasionally found in other locations. Standing between 4 to 5 feet tall with brown skin and light hair, groundlings physically appear to be a bridge between halflings and elves. Groundlings have a slight frame and ears similar to a half-elf. Because of their physical similarity, groundlings can be confused for half-elves by the causal observer.

Most groundlings are found living in the countryside, living in underground homes dug out from under a hill. In urban environments, groundlings prefer basement apartments and often excavate a larger underground warren. A large enough groundling population often results in an entire underground city beneath the one above, hidden from the rest of the population.

A groundling can produce viable offspring with elves, half-elves, and humans. When paired with an elf or half-elf, the offspring is always a groundling. When paired with a human, the offspring is always a half-elf.

Groundlings as Characters:

• +2 Dex, +2 Wis, -2 Con
• Medium Size: A groundling recieves no bonuses or penalties for his or her size.
• Speed: 30 feet
• Burrow (SU): Groundlings have a supernatural ability to travel briefly underground through either soil or sand at one quarter their base movement speed. As there is no air underground, a groundling can only stay burrowed for the maximum amount of time that they can hold their breath. At the end of this time, a groundling is forced back to the surface. Transferring between the surface and underground takes a move action
• Tremor sense 30 ft: A groundling has the ability to make a perception check in order to accurately locate anything moving underground. The DC works as the track ability.
• Aquaphobia: Groundlings have a natural paranoia of water, resulting in a -2 to any swim check.
• Contortionist: Groundlings receive a +2 to acrobatic checks and escape artist checks.
• Dungeoneering: Groundlings receive a +2 to Knowledge: dungeoneering due to their tendency to live underground, whether or not they are trained in the skill.

Critique and critisism appreciated.

 

[Redbranch]

Interesting. But the name summons images of drunks betting on bear baiting and paying a penny to enter the Globe theatre to laugh at fart and sex jokes.

 

[Glade Riven]

Well, all the good (and some not-so-good) names were taken.

 

[Tovec]

Cross between elves and halflings, offspring with humans produce half-elves only? Also, why not call them Lings? How does such a race come into existence, seems fairly unlikely.

Another thing, all the qualities described about their behavior are fairly un-elf or un-halfling, and more dwarf or gnome(3.5) like. At least for that reason I would suggest perhaps not DEX but CON instead (or at least no penalty). I mean burrow does sound more dwarfy to me.

Also tremorsense? Really? No level adjustment that I can see and they get tremorsense 30, seems like a lot. Aquaphobia?

Just my two cents.

 

[Glade Riven]

Yeah, I need to rewrite the tremorsense to work more like scent. A groundling gets a DC check to locate a general location of where something is underground that is moving. Which is pretty much groundlings and bulettes. Oh, and gophers. Stupid giant gophers...always eating the flesh of humanoids. Especially gnomes.

I am considering giving groundlings (and halflings) an elfin ethnicity name (The elves already have alfari and telfari in my setting) with the fluff. Halfings and Groundlings are the common names attributed to the races because of the dwarves (Dwarven empire in this case = Fantasy Rome).

Groundlings are also a completely separate species. Think of...an offshoot from the same common ancestor on the evolutionary scale as elves and halflings. Granted, one thing that I'm going to work out is a bunch of DM charts on crazy fantasy cross-breeding for the setting. Mostly percentage rolls on which parent has the dominant traits (dwarves have a 75% chance that the result is another dwarf, unless they mate with a drow), with "bloodline" feats allowing for further customization (a bloodline feat could also be used as a substitution for taking two traits at first level).

Yes, it's crazy and weird, but it's fantasy. All par for the course.

 

[concerro]

Most of the posters are wary of Race Bloat. With that aside:
Why are they able to burrow. I get the underground reference, but I still don't see why this race would be underground and why they would be able to burrow.
Burrow is also an already used name for a movement type. I would suggest changing it to avoid confusion.
The chances of anything being underground makes their version of tremorsense not all that useful.
I think more fluff is need for their abilities/racial traits.
They also seem to be behind the power curve while your other race(the construct one) seemed to be even or a little ahead.

 

[Glade Riven]

As of right now, this is the only new player race (ebon dwarves and living golems fall into "monsters as characters" and a GM can always, ALWAYS say no to such things).

So drop tremorsense for it's awkwardness. I'm thinking that the burrow ability works somewhat like liquifaction, and it probably could use a different name. Maybe half speed instead of quarter speed?

I do need to think on this some more...

 

[Arkhandus]

Well, all the good (and some not-so-good) names were taken.

Since they seem to just be an elven subrace with minor similarities to halflings and dwarves, why not just call them Stone Elves, Cave Elves, Dust Elves, Sand Elves, or Brown Elves? Or perhaps for something a little cooler but less descriptive, Dusk Elves?

Aquaphobia should probably be -4 Swim or simply force a Will save (probably DC 15 or 20) to avoid being shaken (a fear effect) each time they enter water or travel over it.

"Groundlings" are a race of badgerlike cursed dwarves in The Forgotten Realms, detailed for 3rd Edition in the Monster Compendium: Monsters of Faerûn.

 

[paradox42]

Instead of Burrow, why not call the ability Earth Glide? It's closer to that than a basic Burrow speed, isn't it? Either way, you run into potential name confusion, since yours is Su and the standard version is Ex- but Earth Glide seems more accurate.

Perhaps Earth Swim, instead?

 

[Tovec]

Instead of Burrow, why not call the ability Earth Glide? It's closer to that than a basic Burrow speed, isn't it? Either way, you run into potential name confusion, since yours is Su and the standard version is Ex- but Earth Glide seems more accurate.

Perhaps Earth Swim, instead?

Isn't there an ability called Tunnel that is very similar?
I didn't even catch the burrow thing my first time through. I assumed it was burrow like the movement. I saw the term and moved onto the next thing.


My basic objection is that Groundlings are too ground-like but supposed to be related to both elves and halflings. Are halflings related to elves in a similar fashion?

If so the overarching family would be elf, hence why you get a half-elf if mating with human (which still seems off given the side). I guess that makes a little more sense. I would agree with Arkhandus, call them Cave Elves and make them small and do all the earth/ground related stuff you want. It is the connection with the haflings and elves of yore that always throws me.

I also agree on the -4 on swim, I was going to bring that up last time but decided to focus on the root cause of my ill