New PC Race: Shadow Imp

[G'baal]

Hello again there people. I finally decided to get my race checked out and tried by the public. This race seems pretty good to me but Id like some others to try it out to and see for themselves. Ok, here it goes.

Hidden within every city, living within every forest, flying high upon the air watching those below, scouting the land. The shadow imp are a mysterious creature with a long complex history or evolution behind them with relatives from other planes. The live upon the world surviving as best they can anyway they can.
Personality: Shadow imps are usually very quiet often keeping to their own kind even though they often live miles apart. They travel where they wish with whom the wish and usually only treat one within a group with any real reverence. Shadow imps are simple and like simple things. They seek no luxury and care little for wealth though they love to pilfer items.
Physical description: The shadow imps are somewhat similair to their relatives from the nine hells save for the years of evolution on the material plane. The shadow imps first real change is the color of their skin which has become a smoky black. Their bodies have also become more stream-lined and more aerodynamic then before. The shadow imp has no horns and is more sleek in design and is plenty more dexterious.
Relations: Shadow imps are very quiet and keep much to themselves. In a group they usually choose one person usually a sorcerer or theif. They care little about good and evil law and chaos and care even less about race. They can get along with most because they do not cause alot of disturbance within a group of beings as they prefer to be much more like shadows than true companions or enemies.
Alignment: Shadow imps tend toward neutrality as they are animalistic in nature doing what they need to survive.
Shadow imp lands: Shadow imps live anywhere. They can be found flying through the country sky or hiding atop a building within a massive city. The thing about shadow imps is that their exsistance is mostly unknown by the average people even though they share the same lands with them at all times.
Religion: Since shadow imps tend to be animalistic they believe in no god. They have no religion and are impossible to assimilate.
Language: Shadow imps naturally speak common and infernal as it is their mother tongue. Most often though, shadow imps take the time to learn other tongues that they constantly here depending on their location.
Adventurers: Shadow imps are constantly adventuring as they travel from place to place honing their rogue skills and practicing the art of survival. If they happen upon a group of somewhat appealing adventurers they may join them if one of the group members (a sorcerer or theif) appeals to them.
Shadow imp racial traits:
- +4 Dex, -4 Str: They are very quick and agile but are not so strong
- Tiny: +2 size bonus to AC, +2 size bonus on attack rolls, +8 hide bonus, needs smaller weapons, smaller weight to be carried
- Speed 40ft., fly 80ft. (perfect): They are faster than the normal imp both on the ground and in the air
- Spider climb (Ex): Climbs as though affected by a spider climb spell
- +4 to any skill based on dexterity or intelligence: Their skill prowess is their true mastery
- Class restrictions: Paladin, Fighter, Cleric, Barbarian, Monk, Ranger, Druid, Wizard, Psychic warrior, Bard
- See in darkness: They still retain their relatives ability to see in all darkness...including magical as they constantly meet nightfall and use this ability alot
- If they have an intelligence of 10+ they can use invisibility 1/day
- +2 to listen, spot, and search checks: They have keen senses
- Hidden in shadows: See chart
- Favoured class: Rogue
- Bonus language: Infernal

Hidden in shadows chart (If a shadow imp is within some form of shadow it may hide in plain sight)

darkness level miss chance hide bonus
moderate 30% +3
Dense fog 40% +4
Dense foliage 50% Invisible
Near total darkness 50% Invisible
Total darkness 50% Invisible

Ok, there it is in a sort of hack form. Anyways, it seems good. The thing about it is try to avoid melee comabt with it as a tiny creature is horrid at it. Make use of the numerous skill capabilities availiable as a rogue. They are very skilled rogues but are extremely weak elsewhere needing the protection of the group in a fight. If they see a fight they cant win...they hide. Try it out.

 

[Kahuna Burger]

hrm... ecl?

kahuna burger

 

[G'baal]

Im new to the lingo there...ecl? Anyways, I have tried the race out on numerous occasions and I like it alot. Avoid melee...stick with the skills. Try it out as a character (a rogue is best).

 

[Spatzimaus]

ECL = Effective Class Level (or Effective Character Level, or Eat Cheese and Live, or a lot of other acronyms)
It means, how many levels does this cost you? A Human has ECL 0, so a Human Fighter 4 is Character Level 4. A Drow gives extra abilities, so he might be ECL 1 or 2 depending on which version you use; he'll have less class levels to compensate.

If you're aiming for ECL 0 (balanced with the PHB classes) then no, it's WAY too strong. Mind-bogglingly overpowered. Incredibly, staggeringly overpowered. Forget Rogue, I'd take one as a spellcaster (Wizard, Psion, Sorcerer).

It's a Tiny creature (gaining the AC and hit bonuses) but with the ground speed of a Large creature and 80' perfect flying.
+4 to all DEX or INT-based skills? That's practically every Rogue or Wizard skill in the game. Between this bonus and the +8 size bonus to Hide, you'll never see one. Plus Invisibility 1/day (you didn't list caster level, either, so unless you want it to default to caster level 1 you need to change this) is just way too useful.

Darkvision that works even in magical darkness? That's Blindsight.

There are no class restrictions in 3E. Every race can be every class. Now, I'd assume your list is the classes they CAN'T be, since you didn't list Rogues. But that leaves them a grand total of three classes: Rogue, Psion, and Sorcerer, any of which get all the benefits of the other abilities without suffering from the ONE drawback you gave (low STR).

Let's feed it into Soldarin's ECL calculator, though:

+1 for each size different than Medium (remember, being small is a benefit to non-melee classes) = +2

Speed: +0.2 for each 50% above standard for the size. Let's say Tiny was 20' base movement (it isn't, but I'm being generous), that's +0.4
Flight: +0.5 just for being flight. There should be even more due to the higher speed.

Spell-like abilities: Invis 1/day is +0.2 I think, but you could argue up to 0.5

Blindsight: +0.2
The Hide in Shadows thing is probably another minor ability, +0.2
Spider Climb is another +0.2 (as it's effectively a full-time movement mode), although you could give this as a freebie since he already flies.

Ability Scores: 0.0

Skills: +0.05 per bonus rank. That's 0.3 for the Spot, Listen, Search combo.
The DEX and INT skill bonus, no, drop it right now. It'd add about 2 or 3 to your ECL in its own right, so I'm going to assume you remove it from the class and calculate around it.

That brings your total to 4.0 even, making it an ECL 4 race. That sounds pretty much right.

So, if you tell someone to make a level 6 character, they could be a Human with 6 class levels, or a Shadow Imp with 2.

 

[G'baal]

I knew someone would think like this. This is what I was expecting. You listed alot of the good things about the being but I think you forgot lots of the bad stuff that comes along with a creature of such size. Yes, he is great at skills and very adept at hiding (attempting to remove himself from situations that he would not have much of a chance in). Being a tiny creature he has alot of restrictions already such as a very limited carrying weight (so that he can carry like about 20 lbs. or less), also being limited in the weapons he can weild (a dagger to a shadow imp is like a rapier to a human), and not to mention being extremely useless in melee situations (as they grant numerous attacks of opportunity to their opponents and they are particularily weak). All of these put together imposes some really restrictions on the shadow imp, not to mention wind is nasty to them. Lets check this all through...Horrid in melee (which is why they attempt to hide and disappear rather than stay and be a moving target), have little options for weapons as they cannot carry weapons easily, they have weight carrying restrictions (greater than light load and they will suffer when it comes to flying). Need I go through each class to say why the shadow imp would not ever be one of them? I can if I have to as I have thought it out before. Now, since they are bad in combat, I have made them particularily useful as rogues (basing alot on skills) or sorcererous spell casters, or psions. Now, add these in and I think your numbers would be different. I have played as a shadow imp numerous times before and there have been no complaints about the ecl. It has both good and bad parts to it, thus it is more balanced than it looks. Try one out in all situations for a play test out of interest, they are fun little beings. Anway, thank you for posting and I hope to hear from you or others soon.

 

[karn smackdrim]

Ok first off like the man sad who cares about your size of weapon if you don't need to attack, second of all who cares what size weapon a rogue has because their damage is based on their sneak attack, who cares if they get attacks of oppertunity, in the first place how? because there is no way you would ever see them. Furthermore I am surprised that no one in your group got pissed when the dm would say make a skill check and you would overkill it by 20 points every time, get rid of the +4 bonus to dex and int skills that is totaly insane, better yet add a +2 to their int and -2 cha which would make a lot more sense for their offstandish nature and give them that extra boost on their skills. Furthermore perfect flight is meant for things that fly magicaly in their nature or have both wings and magic because perfect would mean can the imp fly upside down? Also carry weight OH NO, wait that's what bags of holding and Handy Haversacks are for or better yet a barbarian or fighter carry the junk around. With wings that would be damn immpossible and the base speed is also quite crazy. And wind would only be a major hindering factor if your overpowered character was annoying the dm and he wanted to mess with you a whole bunch, plus it's not like their's a whole lot of wind in dungeons.

 

[Oni]

I have to agree with the previous posters, this thing is way overpowered and would deserve a hefty ECL penalty. In order for this to be remotely comparable with the core races it would have to toned way, way down.

Before i offer any suggestions, I ask this. What ECL do you want them to be?

 

[Soldarin]

Let's feed it into Soldarin's ECL calculator, though:

+1 for each size different than Medium (remember, being small is a benefit to non-melee classes) = +2


Blindsight: +0.2

---
Actually, the size is bigger than M or smaller than S, so +1.
But Blindsight (60 ft.) is at least +1, so that evens out.

Edit: typos

 

[Spatzimaus]

Oops, you're right about the size thing, subtract 1 from what I said.

And it's not exactly Blindsight, since it still requires you to use vision (a blindfold stops it), it's more like an always-on Vigilance power... with extended range and can't be suppressed... okay, that's +1. But I was mainly just trying to be nice. No matter how you count it, you're somewhere between +3 and +4 ECL. Given that he has no real drawbacks I was leaning towards the +4. A spellcaster would be practically impossible to hit, he's still got the CON of a medium-sized creature so plenty of HP, and an inherent movement mode that makes many adventures trivial (to the point where one campaign I was in, the DM removed all flying magic).

Subtracting STR is nothing. It's like subtracting CHA; for some classes it may be limiting, but for others (in this case, Sorcerer, Psion, or a Rogue who likes Weapon Finesse) it's just a dump stat. Low carrying capacity isn't important if all your equipment weighs less by the same fraction. Get the STR 20 barbarian to carry the loot. You lose 2 to your melee attack roll (unless you took Weapon Finesse, in which case you gain 2), but you gain that back from size. You lose 2 damage, but gain 2 AC to compensate. And that's only for melee attacks, for ranged ones you lose nothing.

 

[G'baal]

Ok, well, I came here for a reply and I got some...this is a good thing. Anyways, that is the race but now I will need help to lessen this ECL if you could. Personally, Id like to make him ECL 0 so that he could be chosen by other players instead of a human, elf, halfing...(yawns). Ive gotten bored of them so I wanted to create something new. So, seeing as you know more than I do in this category...what suggestions do you have in mind? I do not mind re-writing him (as races are the hardest things to create equal in this game). Im all ears. Also, a note to others...if your here to rant...theres the exit. Thanks.