Need help on new type of orc

[Artos]

*responding to Technik*
The Constrict ability is really just an image in my head. These Orcs prefer ambush and surprise to dumb rushes (though they use those too). So, imagine a big humanoid hiding in the dark branches above you, or right behind someone stalking through, looking for him desperately. Suddenly, these arms shoot out, knocking the breath out of the person before they can scream and slowly smoothering the life out of the hapless adventurer.

I just picked up RoF before reading your post, so I know the race you're talking about. They're kinda close, but I'm bad at figuing up an NPC based on racial stats. (I love monster stat blocks, but I also can't deconstruct for racial mods from them). I still like the Greataxe. I imagine it slung across be back, with very litttle of it sticking around the body until combat when it's unslung and they just begin ripping up the victims. Javelin you're probably right on. I do like blowgun, but I also like Throwing Axes, so I'll keep them for the monster stat block.

I'm probably going to keep the higher Wisdom. I like them not having the normal mental capacity, but I still see them as very efficient hunters, good senses, and an almost animalistic knowledge of the world around them. The natural world.

Good idea on the climb. I'll probably do that. more later when I'm not at work.

-ChrisC

Thanks everyone.

 

[Nifft]

I understand that. I just don't see them getting spells from Druid easily, but Ranger might work.

The only issue with that is then Orcs overlap the Gnome's Favored Classes... maybe gnomes could have different Favored Classes, then?

Basically this is something I just
get the image of these creatures with these eally long arms being able to grapple and slowly crush their victim. Like a bear-hug.

It's a reasonable ability for a monster, but IMHO too strong for a PC race. Perhaps give them Improved Grapple or Improved Bull Rush for free instead? Those still grant the wrasslin' theme, but use standard Feats for the mechanism.

Don't mind at all. Do remember this, there wouldn't be a day/night cycle to define sleep cycles, so you'll have to figure out a way for that. I'm debating having all races not need sleep. Though magical forms of sleep work well. Maybe the Gods have a truly divine sleep spell roaming the world. You need to also remember that there would be no seasons, and no years. Also, most of my races are utterly terrified of complete darkness. However, the sun has a gigantic dark spot that circles the globe every 2 years. So, for two weeks, there is a period where it's almost completely dark (for the people who live there, that's terrifying).

1) Why no seasons? Even if all parts of the globe are always equidistant from the Sun, which need NOT be the case, you can still have gigantic macro-weather systems which periodically warm first this ocean, then that ocean, and the temperature differentials cause storms, high-altitude clouds, and other reasons for season-like effects to occur. If the Dyson Sphere isn't exactly centered on the Sun, you have an even better excuse for seasons.

2) Sun Spot: it's circular, right? So it's not going to affect much of the Sphere at all, is it? And remember, the reflected light from the interior of the sphere is going to be more than enough to give significant light to the blacked-out zone.

Moreover, remember that unless the sun spot is large enough to cover exactly half of the sun, it's not going to eliminate light -- it's just going to dim the sun a little bit. And if it is as large as half of the sun, it's going to be a very frequent and highly expected phenomenon.

Finally, you don't need a sunspot to give the world darkness: just say that, for no apparent reason, the sun "goes out" (shines no more brightly than Earth's moon) for a week or two (or three...). Some people think it's a divine test, and requires some sort of show of faith -- fasting, mass human sacrifice, etc.. In reality, it's when the nano-bots that maintain the Dyson sphere need extra juice to make a major repair. Warnings are broadcast (via FM Radio), but in a format and language none will ever understand.


3) Cloud systems: they could get really, really big. Even here on Earth, it can be quite dark at high noon, given thick enough clouds.

4) Dust clouds: if there are deserts, it's possible that very, very large dust clouds could form. One of these could easily block out the sun for a period of time.

Darkvision is useless for most races in this setting. Unless you're in the absolute lowest levels of the forest/jungle, there's ALWAYS light, so Orcs and Half-orcs don't have any reason to have Darkvision.

You're forgetting underground (or inside a tree). There are ALWAYS burrowing critters, and the earth has to be at least as deep as the largest tree's root system. There's plenty of space in which darkness rules, even if there's never a real night.

Finally, if a normal day on the surface of the Earth can get twilight-dark due to thick clouds, imagine how dark the depths of the jungle will be at that time... dark as moonless starlight, I'd imagine.

Anyway, what I plan to steal is the idea of long, very light days, and the resulting giant trees. I'm going to do it with a Jupiter-like planet, with a tilted axis, in an Earth-like orbit, with an Earth-sized moon. The moon will get light half the year from both the planet and the sun, and would suffer about a week of total darkness when the planet eclipsed the sun. Even then, though, the planet's rings would be bright lines in the sky.

-- Nifft

 

[Bean 2.0]

if you want good grapple feats see oriental adventures, masters of the wild, and sword and fist

 

[Artos]

*snip*
2) Sun Spot: it's circular, right? So it's not going to affect much of the Sphere at all, is it? And remember, the reflected light from the interior of the sphere is going to be more than enough to give significant light to the blacked-out zone.

Moreover, remember that unless the sun spot is large enough to cover exactly half of the sun, it's not going to eliminate light -- it's just going to dim the sun a little bit. And if it is as large as half of the sun, it's going to be a very frequent and highly expected phenomenon.

Finally, you don't need a sunspot to give the world darkness: just say that, for no apparent reason, the sun "goes out" (shines no more brightly than Earth's moon) for a week or two (or three...). Some people think it's a divine test, and requires some sort of show of faith -- fasting, mass human sacrifice, etc.. In reality, it's when the nano-bots that maintain the Dyson sphere need extra juice to make a major repair. Warnings are broadcast (via FM Radio), but in a format and language none will ever understand.
*snip*

-- Nifft

*grin* Well, actually, the spot isn't entirely a spot, it's more like a gigantic ovoid. It covers maybe 25% of the sun, but actually a little less than that. And, being as this is obviously (to us) an unnatural creation, I have my reasons for the world working this way. Basically, the Gods created the world hundreds of milenia ago, and left it alone for the last few thousand years. This band makes it about as dark as mid-twilight for us, but every culture in the beginning area of the globe has their own theories/superstitions.

The cloud/storm systems are gonna be mostly normal sized. _Mostly_ there will be those occassional uber-storms that are basically hurricane+ sized storm systems dumbing millions of gallons of water, along with strange lightning, etc.

Most of the common species have never _seen_ underground. Most people haven't even seen ground. They live _that_ high up, so they won't have much concept of true darkness. And part of the trick with storm systems providing darkness _is_ the reflection from other areas of the planet. I'm having to slice MAJOR portions of the MM so I have appropriate creatures.

On Dust clouds, I like it. I'll probably use it at some point.

I just don't see a world with truly equidistant points having huge seasonal variations. No problem with it, it just doesn't fit the feeling I have. Oh, and imagine how hard it would be for most people to say, "Well, he left *blank* long ago" when there are no days, hours, weeks, minutes, etc. They have no system to break down time as easily as we do. We have natural years, seasons, months and days. These are easy distinctions. Imagine telling time without them. We likely would never have developed hours, minutes, etc. Interesting ideas for me.


oh, one trick I'm playing on my players is that, as an odd effect of the construction of this planet, extra-planar spells don't work. There _are_ no celestials, devils, demons, etc. Elementals only exist because they're part of the land itself. And if I have the players ever meet another world. . . I could do anything. Imagine having a party of 12th level adventurers meet a group of Jedi examining this giant, life-less seeming ball that they can _feel_ teeming with life.

*evil grin* Fun.
-ChrisC

 

[Nifft]

I just don't see a world with truly equidistant points having huge seasonal variations. No problem with it, it just doesn't fit the feeling I have. Oh, and imagine how hard it would be for most people to say, "Well, he left *blank* long ago" when there are no days, hours, weeks, minutes, etc. They have no system to break down time as easily as we do. We have natural years, seasons, months and days. These are easy distinctions. Imagine telling time without them. We likely would never have developed hours, minutes, etc. Interesting ideas for me.

If you don't have tides, your world's ecology is going to be unrecognizable. A huge part of our planet's life developed in tidal regions, and quite a bit still depends on tidal forces.

Without some kind of regular cycle, plants don't get the rain they evolve to expect, and they die. You need water cycles -- seasonal, daily, whatever -- to have plants that don't act like cacti.

You could always throw in a Jupiter-sized planet, orbiting the Sun inside the Dyson sphere. That would allow some kind of tidal forces, and in turn some kind of seasons. Alternately, build the Dyson sphere around a binary star.

-- Nifft