[Not Suitable For Work] Build a Tiny Race: Final Builds

[EP]

Work is boring. Gaming is fun. Work should be more like gaming.

Not Suitable For Work is a new addition to Combat Advantage, the free 4e series of PDFs from Emerald Press PDF Publishing. Every month will have a theme to which any number of brainstorming exercises will be made. Each week or so, we will post a new thread for 4e material utilizing that theme and everyone is open to submit their concepts on EN World. The trick to this game is that you must rely on your memory of the game and cannot use any supplements, core rulebooks, or online references - simply use your innate knowledge of the game to create new material on the fly. Accuracy is not immediately required - these are brainstorms for new ideas, concepts, and add-ons to 4e. Throw in your ideas, no matter how crazy they are because you never know what they may lead to.

NSFW is not a contest and is designed solely as a recreational design exercise for those of you stuck at work, school, or anywhere else on your lunch breaks with nothing to do. Waiting for that report to come back from management? Homework? Eww. Check out the theme and post your ideas for this week’s exercise. There’s no voting, no deadlines, or bad ideas. It’s all about having a little bit of fun while the boss isn’t looking. Enough talk!

Build A Tiny Race​

Size has always run the full gamut in fantasy since the first bedtime story was told thousands of years ago. Giants, dwarves, hobbits, and pixies are the finest examples of different sizes in fantasy adventures, yet the smallest characters ever have been left to the side. Not any more!

This month we’re going to create a tiny player character race and for that we will need to look at how sizes work in 4e and develop material to allow a tiny-sized character to keep pace with any human, dragonborn, or dwarf in the party. Each stage of our exercise will involve open submissions posted on the forums of EN World or the Emerald Press PDF Publishing Facebook page to be put to a vote before continuing on to the next stage. By month’s end, we will have a complete race of tiny creatures to mark down on your character sheet.

Exercise #4: This is it - the final build of your tiny races. This final exercise of the month is the simplest. Post your final version of your tiny race, complete with any additional feats, rituals, and weapons designed exclusively for your race or tiny creatures in general.

To make this exercise simpler, a sidebar for playing tiny creatures is provided below. Any powers or features mentioning these facets of tiny creatures in combat shall not be needed, but do not have to be excluded.

BEING TINY
Tiny characters follow the same rules as Medium ones, with the following exceptions.

• You can't use two-handed or versatile weapons. You must wield a normal weapon with both hands unless it has the off hand property but you do not gain additional damage for doing so. You may use a versatile weapon with the small keyword, but otherwise must wield a normal weapon with both hands.
• A tiny creature has 0 natural reach, meaning you must enter the square of another creature to attack. You can move through a space small enough for a Tiny creature without squeezing. You can move through an enemy creature's space and leaving an enemy's space provokes an opportunity attack. A tiny creature can end its movement in a tiny creature's square as long as there are fewer than 4 tiny creature in that square.
• A tiny creature's normal, heavy, and maximum loads are halved.

Post your ideas below. Remember these are exercises built for enjoyment and mental exercise of the game. Accuracy is not required on every little detail and some mistakes are forgiveable. (See?) If you'd like to post a revised version of your entry, just be sure to type in which version under Reason for Edits. If you want to post more than one entry, go crazy. It's all just in the name of having fun while you're not supposed to.

 

[malcolm_n]

PEDLANS
Danger under foot

Racial Traits
Average Height: 1'4" - 1'11"
Average Weight: 38-65 lb.

Ability Scores: +2 Constitution, +2 Dexterity
Size: Tiny
Speed: 5
Vision: Normal

Languages: Common plus one other
Skill Bonuses: +2 Athletics, +2 Acrobatics
Encumbered Speed: Acts exactly like the dwarven racial trait.
Difficult to See: You gain a +2 bonus to AC against creatures that attack you while you occupy another creature's square.
Well Balanced: Although you are tiny, your feet certainly are not. Because of the support your oversized feet provide, do not halve your normal, heavy, and maximum loads like other tiny creatures. You are a master at distributing weight where it needs to be.
Padded Feet: You ignore difficult terrain when you shift (even if you have a power that allows you to shift multiple squares).
Quick Step: You have the quick step racial power.
--
Quick Step Pedlan Racial Power
Your tiny size adds grace at a moment where there may not otherwise be any.
Encounter
Free Action Personal
Effect: Until the end of your next turn, you can shift 1 square before, during, or after you take a move action. While the effect lasts, you can do this once per move action.
--

[sblock=Pedlan Racial Feats (and other feats they can take)]PEDLAN MOBILITY [pedlan]
Prerequisite: Pedlan
Benefit: You gain a +4 bonus to AC against opportunity attacks.
Special: This feat counts as Defensive Mobility, so you cannot also have that feat.

TINY BARBARIAN [barbarian]
Prerequisite: Tiny Size, Barbarian
Benefit: When you wield a one-handed weapon without the off-hand property in two hands, your weapon damage die increases by one size. This increase only applies to your basic attacks and barbarian attack powers.

VERSATILE TINY WEAPON PROFICIENCY
Prerequisite: Tiny Size
Benefit: You have training in a versatile weapon of your choice. You can wield that weapon in two hands, but you take a -1 penalty to your attacks when you do. You still do not gain additional damage for wielding the weapon in two hands.
Level 11: You no longer take the -1 penalty to your attacks.

WELL BALANCED REACH [pedlan]
Prerequisite: Pedlan, Well Balanced racial trait.
Benefit: When you wield a one-handed weapon in two hands, you have reach 1 and you threaten the squares within your reach. You also gain a +2 feat bonus to Athletics checks.

HALFLING HOME [pedlan]
Prerequisite: Pedlan
Benefit: You gain one halfling racial feat of your choice.
Special: You can take this feat more than once. Each time you take it, choose a different halfling racial feat.[/sblock][sblock=Pedlan Friendly Powers]Don't Tell the Elf Fighter Attack 1
You have an ally toss you at your foe.
Encounter * Martial
Standard Action Melee weapon
Prerequisite: Tiny Size
Requirement: You must be adjacent to a medium or larger ally when you use this attack.
Effect: You fly in a straight line up to 8 squares. At any time during that movement, you can make a charge attack against an adjacent enemy. You must land at the end of the movement, or you fall prone in an unoccupied square.

Giant Slayer's Rage BarbarianAttack 1
You go into a frenzy of strikes you've learned can cut down even bigger foes.
Daily * Primal, Rage
Standard Action Close blast 3
Prerequisite: Tiny Size
Target: Any number of creatures you can see in blast
Attack: Strength vs. AC; if a creature takes up more than one square in the blast, attack that target once for each square in the blast that it occupies.
Hit: 2[W] + Strength modifier damage
Effect: You enter the rage of the giant slayer. Until the rage ends, if you attack a large or larger creature with a close blast power, you can attack that creature once for each square it occupies in the blast.

Under Current Rogue Utility 2
You take advantage of your size to move safely.
Encounter * Martial
Immediate Interrupt Personal
Prerequisite: Tiny Size
Trigger: An enemy tries to push, pull, or slide you
Effect: Until the end of your next turn, you can instead shift the number of squares you would be forced to move.[/sblock]

 

[EP]

On that note, if anyone would like to provide additional text (physical descriptions, roleplaying/cultural notes), please feel free to do so.

Nice work, malcolm_n. I particularly like the AC bonus when sharing the same square - makes sense and can be quite the boon for these guys.

 

[chronoplasm]

Meecefolk
"Little mouse! The battlefield is no place for a little mouse. Stay in my helmet where you will be safe, little mouse."

Ability Scores: +2 Dexterity, +2 Charisma
Size: Tiny
Speed: 5
Vision: Low-Light

Language: Common, Elven
Skill Bonuses: +2 Thievery, +2 Diplomacy
Fey Origin You count as a Fey creature for purposes of effects that relate to origin.
Pocket Pal You may treat medium sized allies as mounts. You may treat backpacks as saddles. You must be in the same square as your ally to mount it. Your ally must be willing.
As a standard-action, you may allow a willing mounted ally to make a basic melee or ranged attack as a free action.
As a move-action, you may allow a willing mounted ally to move up to its speed or shift 1 square as a free action.
Scurry When you shift, you can make a stealth check.

Let's Go! Meecefolk Racial Power
"We are a train! Choo choooo!!"
Encounter. Weapon
Standard-Action
Reach 1 or Melee Weapon
Target: One creature
Attack: Strength, Dexterity, or Charisma vs. AC
Hit: 1[W] or 1d8 + Charisma modifier damage. If you are mounted, the mount can make a basic melee attack against the target.
Effect: You may shift up to your speed before making this attack. If you are mounted, you can shift up to your mounts speed instead.

 

[Minigiant]

Gremlin
Tiny gray destruction
Height: 2'0"-2'11"
Weight: 25-35 lbs.

Ability Scores: +2 Dexterity, +2 Charisma
Size: Tiny
Speed: 4
Vision: Low light

Languages: Common, Dwarven
Beastly Run When you have at least one free hand, add 3 to your speed.
Fast crawl You can crawl at your full speed.
Dismantle You have a +5 bonus to Thievery checks to disarm or delay traps.
Gremlin Grapple You gain Gremlin Grapple as an at-will power

Gremlin Grapple
You climb onto an enemies leg and sink your blade in for a better grip.
At-Will*Weapon Melee weapon
Strandard action
Target: One Creature
Attack: Strength vs Reflex, Constitution vs Reflex, or Dexterity vs Reflex,
Hit: Strength damage and the target is grabbed. You and every ally adjacent to the target gain combat advantage over the target (until escape). If the target is Medium or larger, the target is not immobilized. Instead when it moves, you move along with it and stay in the same portion of the creature's space.
Special: When you create your character, choose Strength, Constitution, or Dexterity as the ability score you use when making attack rolls with this power.

Heroic Feat
Greater Grappler
Prerequisite: Gremlin, gremlin grapple
Benefit: You gain a +2 feat bonus to your defenses when an enemy attempts to escape your grab.

Disassemble Magic
Prerequisite: Gremlin
Benefit: When you hit an enemy with a close arcane power, it must immediately make a saving throw. If it fails, destroy one conjuration, zone, or summoned creature it controls.

Paragon feat
Destoy Constructs
Prerequisite: Gremlin
Benefit: When you hit a contruct when you have combat advantage, you deal an additional 1d10 damage.

 

[EP]

chronoplasm: Picturing these guys gives me a smile and I'd love to see these guys in action some day. I do wonder how a player would be able to enjoy playing a character when another player is rolling the dice for him. Personally, I would allow the meecefolk player to make attack rolls using the mount's attack modifier. All the same, it's a very unique way to use a tiny character. Whenever anyone plays one of these, please share it with us.

Minigiant: Very nice work. I particularly like the grapple power. This is another one I'd like to hear about whenever someone plays them.

 

[77IM]

Consider this a work-in-progress. I haven't come up with any racial feats fro them or anything...


Pixie

Delicate, magical flower-dwellers, pixies are swift and tricky forces of nature.

Average Height: 0'9" – 1'2"
Average Weight: 1-2 lb.

Ability Scores: -2 Strength, +2 Dexterity, -2 Constitution, +2 Charisma
Size: Tiny (see below)
Speed: 4 squares, fly 6 squares (hover)
Vision: Low-Light

Languages: Common, Elven
Skill Bonuses: +2 Arcana, +2 Stealth
Pixie Weapon Proficiency: You are proficient with the dagger, short sword, pixie lance, and pixie bow. A pixie bow has the same game statistics as a shortbow, except it only does 1d6 damage, has a range of 10/20, weighs 1 lb., and can be used by pixies. It fires pixie-sized arrows, which have the same cost as regular-sized arrows. A pixie lance has the same game statistics as a short sword, except it is in the spear weapon group.
Darting: You get a +1 racial bonus to Reflex defense.
Fairy Folk: You have the fey keyword for effects relating to creature type.
Flight: You can fly 6 squares as a move action. You can fly in any direction, and can take double moves and use the run action while flying. Because you can hover, you can shift and make opportunity attacks while flying, and don't need to maintain a minimum speed or spend a move action to stay aloft. If you are knocked unconscious, you fall to the ground. If you are knocked prone or crash into something, you descend safely for six squares; if you don't reach the ground by then, you fall the rest of the way. You can't fly if you are carrying more than a light load.
Pixie Dust: You can use the wizard cantrip prestidigitation as an encounter power.
Tiny Size: Your small size confers additional traits.

• Medium space: Because pixies dart rapidly about during combat, you take up a 1 square space, just like a Medium or Small creature. You can make melee attacks and opportunity attacks against adjacent creatures, and can flank creatures normally. Like a Tiny creature, you can move through a space small enough for a Tiny creature without squeezing. You can move through an enemy creature's space, although you can't end your turn there, and leaving an enemy's space provokes an opportunity attack.
• Tiny weapons: You can only wield one-handed weapons with the off-hand property, but you wield them with both hands. You can wield a dagger with one hand. You can also wield weapons specially designed for pixies, such as the pixie bow and pixie lance.
• Carrying capacity: You carry one-half as much as a Medium-sized creature (your light load is 5x your Strength score).
• Specially sized equipment: Armor and equipment (including implements) sized for a pixie cost twice as much as normal and weigh one-quarter as much. Magic items have their normal cost but need to be resized using the Enchant Magic Item ritual.

Minuscule fey humanoids with insect-like wings, pixies are shy and reclusive, frolicking amongst the leaves and flowers of the feywild and rarely showing themselves to visitors or inhabitants. And yet, pixies are inquisitive, playful, and known for their trickery, which sometimes gets them into trouble with the larger races. Sometimes a pixie will leave their woodland home, to explore the world or battle threats to pixie-kind.

Play a pixie if you want...

• to resemble the classical image of a winged fairy.
• to be small, swift, and capable of flight.
• to be capricious, curious, and clever.
• to be a member of a race that favors the bard, rogue, sorcerer, and warlock classes.

 

[EP]

Good stuff, 77IM, but I do wonder about the ability scores. When it all adds up, the pixie is left with an overall ability score modifier of 0 versus the +4 overall to two ability scores. I can understand the Strength penalty (not the Constitution so much), but what if they received a +4 in one or an additional ability score bonus of +2.

Actually, the Strength score modifier can be removed altogether as they only carry half their Strength for loads.

Prestigidation is a nice touch too. Very faerie like.

 

[77IM]

Yeah, the ability score penalties are iffy, but I am standing by them. I really, really don't like the fact that "every non-human race gets +2 to two ability scores" and "races never get any penalties to anything" are becoming new "sacred cows" of 4e. It's a good general guideline, but I think strict adherence limits creativity and also has some detrimental effects on class balance.

Besides, a tiny race is already against race-design guidelines, flying at 1st level is already against character-design guidelines, so why not break the ability-score guidelines? It's not like pixies will ever be one of the simple, easy-to-use introductory classes in the PHB -- they are for people who are comfortable stepping outside the box of the existing race balance.

I think the Str and Con penalties are necessary to balance their flying, which is such an excellent power. The Str penalty isn't that bad because their low [W] values steer them away from martial classes anyway, and the Con penalty means they are -2 hp and -1 Fortitude (which is compensated by +1 Reflex). This means that the shrewd pixie sorcerer or feylock or rogue or whoever is going to need to use their flight to its fullest to stay out of harm's way.

-- 77IM

 

[EP]

Besides, a tiny race is already against race-design guidelines, flying at 1st level is already against character-design guidelines, so why not break the ability-score guidelines? It's not like pixies will ever be one of the simple, easy-to-use introductory classes in the PHB -- they are for people who are comfortable stepping outside the box of the existing race balance.

-- 77IM

True. I agree with the ability modifiers too, but I can't think of any group out there that hasn't taken some liberties with a race's modifiers before. Just look at the discussions on the revenant (WotC's version) and that's just one example right there.