Planetouched Questions

[Alzrius]

It's not "official" if you're concerned about such things, but Asgard #1 (iirc it was #1) has an article about how to make mixed-breeds of creatures that don't have a listing unto themselves (such as a character who is part elf and part dwarf, etc). It was an excellent article, and it shouldn't be too hard at all to use it for a planetouched race in conjunction with another race.

 

[Destil]

There's also the elemental plaintouched (gensi) in Monsters of Faerun.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

There's also the elemental plaintouched (gensi) in Monsters of Faerun.

And Tieflings with Elf or Ork ancestors (while I can understand a Succubus who hits on a gold elf, I wonder what kind of monster you have to be to breed with an ork. Demon or Human, obviously. Or ogre or orc...)

All those buggers will show up in Races of Faerûn, with racial stat blocks and background info.

 

[Janos Antero]

As briefly mentioned, a recent issue of Dragon, around 295, had several Planetouched races, including Cansin (chaoticly aligned planetouched), lawfully aligned planetouched, and the paraelemental planetouched genasi, like magma, ooze, smoke, and the like.

The lawful and chaotic ones were nice, but the paraelemental came across as rather blah, still neat to look at though. All descended from humans though I believe, I don't have the issue # here to check.

 

[Gez]

SheepLord,
Your template idea sounds great, but a human with the aasimar template is ECL +1, whereas aasimars as a race in the MM & DMG are ECL+0. And is your template based off the DMG stats?

No, they aren't. They always have been ECL +1.

 

[SheepLord]

Yes, all the planetouched mentioned in this thread are human based except for the tiefling elves and orcs from FR. Things like this sometimes annoy me since 3E did such a good job developing and using templates.

All the planetouched are ECL+1 since they get benefits, but no penalties. Are dwarves an ECL+1? No, they are ECL+0 since they have -2 Cha and worse yet a 20 ft movement restritction. If dwarves did not receive those penalties, I think they would be worthy of consideration of a ECL+1. Same with elves and any other demihumans (you don't here that one much anymore) and humanoids (read- goblins, kobolds, etc.).

I'm not going to bother posting my planetouched templates here since we've realized in play one was under balanced and one was over balanced, and things like that belong in the House Rules forum. I say make the template as you think it will work for your campiagn, using the planetouch and genasi from the DMG and FR materials.

One annoying thing about the planetouch is that other than the assimars and teiflings, they all have favored class 'fighter'. How bland. I gave fire genasi favored class 'bard'. They should be flamboyant and energetic, etc.

Good luck and remember it's your game.

 

[mistergone]

Here's a semi-related question that I'd like to slip in here: Say you wanted to play a Genasi or Aasimar.. could you do something like in Savage Speicies and instead of starting them at ECL 2, play them as a first level "Genasi" and then after gaining enough experience for 2nd level start taking class levels?
Just curious, cause this seems like a good idea, and easier to fit into a 1st level group. But.. how would you do this? I don't have SS, but I imagine you could figure out the base attack bonuses and saves for a 1st level Genasi?

 

[Kae'Yoss]

I thought about that, too: Introduce Planetouched, Drow, Duergar, Svirfneblin, and all the other stronger PC Races as quasi- MonsterClasses - except, you'll get to combine that with the class they're going to do first, and keep their normal favored class (no "Drow" as favored class.).
Maybe at 1st level they are like a member of their "standard race", and instead of leveling up as class, they level up as race over the next levels, gaining the races special powers:
Example: Drow Fighter.
1st Level: Treat as Elven Fighter 1 with PHB Elf Traits except Automatic Languages like Drow, +2 Int instead of Dex and now low-light vision, plus light blindness, Darkvision 60', +2 racial bonus on Will saves against spells and spell-like abilities.
2nd Level: as above, plus Darkvision 90', +2 Dex, Spell-like abilities.
3rd Level: as above, plus Darkvision 120', +2 Cha, Spell resistence.
(4th Level: advance as class, with skill points, better saves, better BAB, and so on)

 

[mistergone]

I wonder what anyone else thinks about that?

 

[Staffan]

IMaybe at 1st level they are like a member of their "standard race", and instead of leveling up as class, they level up as race over the next levels, gaining the races special powers:

I'd have them start as "apprentice-level" in their chosen class with abilities appropriate to a +1 level adjustment (i.e. aasimar and tieflings would have all their benefits, whereas drow would lose out on some, probably the SR).