Player Wants to Play a Hawk

[Piratecat]

It was really about the voice, wasn't it.

Shut up!

...yes.

 

[Zhaleskra]

Airsoul Genasi

I wasn't going to say anything until I saw this. The element "air" wasn't descriptive enough? You kids and your aerosol genasi . . . ;-)

 

[billd91]

Man, lots of haters in this thread.

Y'know what? This is 4e. Reskinning is the name of the game. It sounds like the Pixie coming up might be what you're looking for in an ideal world, but lets go with what there is now.

That may be, but there's a point when the oddball request becomes disruptive too. It may work pretty well in some traditions like Japanese legends of Momotaro, but if animal spirits or talking animals are alien to the landscape, it would probably generate more trouble than it may be worth.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Maybe allowing Dragon Magazine stuff isn't a great idea

Oh, I forgot to mention; he's a psionic hawk. As in, a psion perfectly capable of playing his tricks from the air.

Gamma World has a "hawkoid class", which lets you fly, but gives you -2 to hit with powers. This would include psionics, at least anything that isn't a utility power.

I've only seen this once (for a few sessions), it didn't seem crazy, but there's not that many melee-only enemies in Gamma World that I recall.

 

[David Howery]

well, you could allow him to play a hawk. And then every time something exciting happens, say this...

"Okay, the orc shaman is preparing to cast a spell. Everyone tell me what you're going to do. Oh, and the hawk sees a field mouse running around, and is compelled to go catch it and eat it."

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Oh, let him try it. It's more balanced than a shape-shifting druid with the Natural Spell feat.

If it doesn't work out, there's always a bigger raptor ... or a mob of goblins with crossbows.

 

[Tequila Sunrise]

If anyone is interested, here is the actual racial write-up for our new hawk friend. And yes, I stole the aerosol genasi's racial power.

"Okay, the orc shaman is preparing to cast a spell. Everyone tell me what you're going to do. Oh, and the hawk sees a field mouse running around, and is compelled to go catch it and eat it."

Ugh, this idea created a mental image -- that I'm going to share, of course. I just watched the Life of Birds, which at one point mentioned an English raptor whose vision extends into the ultraviolet spectrum. Why does it need to see ultraviolet? Because it loves to eat lemmings, and apparently lemming urine contrasts sharply with surrounding shrubbery when seen in ultraviolet.

"Okay, the orc shaman is preparing a spell. Everyone tell me what you're going to do. Oh, and the hawk sees a few mouth-watering splatters in ultraviolet, and is compelled to thoroughly investigate."

 

[I'm A Banana]

That may be, but there's a point when the oddball request becomes disruptive too. It may work pretty well in some traditions like Japanese legends of Momotaro, but if animal spirits or talking animals are alien to the landscape, it would probably generate more trouble than it may be worth.

Oddball requests are this gamer's bread and butter. 4e characters so far include a gnome assassin|wizard who dressed like a clown, and a dwarf bard who raps, in adventures involving idiot bullywugs that blew each other up and a wizard's tower gone rogue with toy soldiers, rebellious furniture, rat armies, and a familiar that was possibly possessed by an evil spirit.

Fun fun times.

I grok that that level of wahoo doesn't work for everyone, or even for me all the time, but the OP didn't seem like he wanted to veto the idea of a hawk -- rather, he wanted to work with flight somehow, so that the hawk wasn't unbalancing.

Gamma World has a "hawkoid class", which lets you fly, but gives you -2 to hit with powers. This would include psionics, at least anything that isn't a utility power.

I've only seen this once (for a few sessions), it didn't seem crazy, but there's not that many melee-only enemies in Gamma World that I recall.

So the main fix is, penalty to hit + enemies with ranged attacks. Seems reasonable.

If anyone is interested, here is the actual racial write-up for our new hawk friend. And yes, I stole the aerosol genasi's racial power.

Ozone damage?

Anyway, looks neat! I love it when a game goes outside of the box.

 

[Hussar]

When you back up a second too, this kind of ability isn't terribly game breaking anyway. Sure, he can fly. Ok, great. So what? No one else can. Unless he's going to start Lone Wolfing all the time, he's pretty much limited to wherever the group goes. Any dungeon setting, and his flight ceiling is in reach of the melee types. And, as was mentioned, a simple trip attack, or anything that stuns/immobilizes and even slow (gotta maintain that forward momentum) knocks him out of the air.

Sounds like an interesting tactical element to me.