New Race - Penpens

[Thia Halmades]

Curse my failure still to have NGE!! CURSES I CRY!! I SHALL HURL THEM TOWARDS THE GREAT ... nevermind. Nice catch, btw, Merlion.

Other than the borrowing, the class seems 'balanced' in terms of what it does (i.e., create wizards). So you have cold-resistant Elves with all the grace of Flightless Waterfowl. Pass the pickled herrings.

By the by, has anyone assigned these puppies a Swim speed?

And, last but not least, I have read His Dark Materials, and the Polar Bears would have a screaming high ECL, as well as their own class, where their armor took the place of a Samurai's sword or, if you want to refer to the BOED, the Ancient Relic feat. The one you sink cash / items into in order to develop it into something greater. So without reinventing the wheel, you'd be looking at ways to buff up the armor within the limits ascribed by that ability. You could change costs as necessary, and then each suit of armor would be individually tailored to the sentient polar in question.

This would include granting of additional feats or spell like abilities, stat bonuses, etc. Favored Class should, obviously, be "Armorer" (insert appropriate flavor name here). I'd shudder to consider the stat mods, considering among other things they would be

Size: Large. As large creatures they gain all benefits and penalties thereunto.
Flavor Restriction: They're naturally bipedal and wield no weapons, other than their armor. That would be the big one. All of your gear would revolve around being connected in some way.
Stat Modifiers: This is intimidating off the top. I would, at least in part, use the Monster Level Rules introduced in Unearthed Arcana to gain levels in Polar Bear and thus ramp up to the appropriate stats. Far as I'm concerned, you're looking at a minimum +4 STR and +4 CON, with no inherent penalties to any other stat (as the race was detailed in the book, they were annoying smart AND wise.) I'd probably try to speed-mod one of the other large sized races to get this going the way you want. If I knocked any stats down, it would be -2 DEX (they're described as being deceptively fast; that's for a Polar Bear, and compared to, say, a Halfling, pretty slow) and -2 CHA, as they aren't exactly the friendly sort.

I would also roll Natural Armor in here, and my personal favorite, Scent for beast type races comes comfortably equipped early on in the racial level progression. It would only get more complicated from here, depending on which model you used and how deep you wanted to make it.

Armorer Class Notes:
d12 HD, to represent the absurd toughness that comes with the size.
Cleric Advancement for BAB? I would, based on the abilities we're looking at from the armor options, this is a defense-heavy class.
Spell Casting would be replaced with the armor & any SLA that you slap onto it. Additional armor bonuses, or defense-related abilities could be rolled in here. As far as where to start, again, I'd reference Samurai and switch it from an offensive model to a defensive model. I don't have the book at the office, so I'm going off the top of my head. I have no idea what they do without looking it up.

This is a first blush series of ideas, but you can see where I'd go with it. That's me, though. Feel free to run with scissors.

LCpt. Thia Halmades

 

[Merlion]

Curse my failure still to have NGE!! CURSES I CRY!! I SHALL HURL THEM TOWARDS THE GREAT ...

.....AT Field?


What did you buy the series then loose it? Has it not arrived yet?

I've had mine for a while

 

[Thia Halmades]

That should actually say "Not have seen" NGE. It's on my wishlist - I want the platinum ed. for (insert gift-giving winter celebration of your choice here), so I can have a multi-hour anime fest of it. The one I've been watching currently is Gilgamesh, which is so reminiscent of Ravenloft that I can't help but love it.

 

[Merlion]

~wanders completely off topic~

That should actually say "Not have seen" NGE. It's on my wishlist - I want the platinum ed. for (insert gift-giving winter celebration of your choice here), so I can have a multi-hour anime fest of it

I need to see the directors cut of the last few episodes, but even without that its great. Watch the series, then watch End of Evangelion. Dont worry about Death and Rebirth.

The one I've been watching currently is Gilgamesh, which is so reminiscent of Ravenloft that I can't help but love it

Netflix is supposed to have the first disk of Gilgamesh on its way to me now. What you say is interesting

 

[Thia Halmades]

It's a beautifully animated series that follows plenty of standard anime conventions: young people bereft of family are granted truly absurd powers as they're caught in a life & struggle over something that hasn't been properly identified.

What I love: The art & style are fantastic. Characterization is above average and the plot is intentionally poorly defined. The question of 'which side are you on?' is easy early in the series and gets increasingly complicated. The world is broken and twisted and tossed from high to low tech (I'll let the series tell you why). While it isn't 'sword & sorcery' fantasy it's definately monstrous.

Most of all, the combat sequences are truly impressive, but again, I don't want to spoil it. Seeing what these people can do, and how remarkably well it was handled, are both astonishing.

What I didn't like: I'm a writer and a storyteller. Some characters come off as derivitive and cliched. Relies heavily on use of archetypical character models which are more obvious when held against how much is inspirationally different. Easy to see how the choice was made given that the world is unique, but (as I said above) there's enough depth to their stories that it makes it worth it.

I own discs 1 & 2; I can't give a final score until they release the whole thing. Early review? 3.5/5.

LCpt. Thia Halmades

 

[Merlion]

I'm a writer and a storyteller. Some characters come off as derivitive and cliched. Relies heavily on use of archetypical character models which are more obvious when held against how much is inspirationally different

This doesnt bother me at all, so from what you've said it sounds like I'll be having great fun

 

[Brasswatchman]

Well, that didn't take very long to get off topic. Guess I was asking for it, what with ripping off Hideaki Anno and all.

Anyway, thanks for your comments, everyone. I have decided to get rid of the fire vulnerability, and instead just give the penpens a -4 to Fortitude saves against heat dangers. The polar bears from His Dark Materials? Been a long time since I read that trilogy. Hmm. Let me see if I can hunt down a copy again. If I can come up with anything, I'll let you know.

Okay, thanks for the comments.