Prestige Races, yay! Post Your Own!

[Craer]

Everyone loves the Sculpt Self feat from Dragon, right? Of course you do. Since it seems to be so open to homebrew creations, I thought that we could post some of our own prestige races.

I'll start off with one that my character is most likely going to be taking. We do a very anime-influenced campaign, and I play the obligatory Ninja. I can't take direct credit for making this (It was somewhat of a birthday present from my DM), but it seems to go with the feel of the sample Prestige Races. Now go, and post your own!


Shadow
The shadow focus stems from darkness and shade, and is commonly adopted by assassins, thieves, and other sorts that would benefit from the ability to dissapear at will.

Dark Creature
The creature begins its first steps down the path of shadows. Their eyes darken as if they suffer from an acute lack of sleep, and their skin turns a slight shade darker.
Cost: 800 XP
Prerequisites: Sculpt Self
Benefit: +1 Dex, +5 Bonus to Hide and Move Silently

Shade Creature
The shade creature's skin darkens significantly more, and in poor lighting the creature appears to be skinnier and move with a fluid motion through shadows, almost seeming to bend away from strong sources of light.
Cost: 1,000 XP
Prerequisites: Sculpt Self, Dark Creature
Benefit: +1 Dex, the creature may move at normal speed while hiding and moving silently.

Twilight Creature
The twilight creature's eyes look to be covered in pools of blackness, and if examined closely, the creature appears to be surrounded by a swirling miasma of shadows.
Cost: 2,600 XP
Prerequisites: Sculpt Self, Dark Creature, Shade Creature
Benefit: +1 Dex, +2 to Reflex saves, the creature gains Darkvision to a range of 60ft. If the creature already had Darkvision, the creature uses whichever version has a greater range.

Shadow Creature
The shadow creature's form seems to waver as if it were about to dissapear, even in bright light. Darkness deepens around the shadow creature, almost like it absorbs light.
Cost: 7,200 XP
Prerequisites: Sculpt Self, Dark Creature, Shade Creature, Twilight Creature
Benefits: +1 Dex, Shadow Jump 40ft (as the Shadow Dancer PrC ability), Continuous Blur effect (20% miss chance) while in normal lighting conditions.

 

[Azure Trance]

I'm not sure, but they look a wee bit cheap. Or are they supposed to be that cheap?

 

[Crothian]

And I don't think they should all give +1 to dex, that seems a lot much.

 

[Piratecat]

And I don't think they should all give +1 to dex, that seems a lot much.

You need to equate this to magic items.

For instance, a Manual of Quickness of Action that gives you a +4 bonus to dex will run you 20,400 xp. Thus, as a bare minimum, any level of the prestige race that gives you an inherent +1 to an ability score must run you at least 5,100 xp - PLUS an xp cost for any other abilities, modified by the other qualifiers in the article. Craer, how'd you end up with those xp numbers? It could be I'm missing something.

I'm also really, really nervous about giving access to class abilities for such a low cost.

I like the idea of this prestige race, mind you; it's just the specifics which worry me.

 

[Ravellion]

I agree with you, PC. Of course, he didn't say it was an inherent magical bonus. Perhaps it is an enhancement bonus? I don't really agree with doing it like that (it is inherent, it is magical, an inherent magical bonus makes most sense) though, but that should explain some of the pricing.

I was wondering about a prestige race which would allow you to count any non magical, masterwork melee weapon in your hands act as though it was magical, you spirit being one with the weapon you hold. Sort of like Hong's Imbue house rule ability, but innate.

Rav

 

[Craer]

Wow, a response from the great PC himself. I'm honored.

As I didn't write this up myself, I've honestly got no clue how my DM came up with these XP costs. Any help towards accurate pricing would be very much appreciated indeed, as are any and all comments. Perhaps you could take a swing at this, sir Privateer Feline, or how about you, Postmaster Crothian?

I am *so* sorry for those terrible nicknames. Really.

 

[Piratecat]

I am *so* sorry for those terrible nicknames. Really.

You should be. Good God, man.

I'll take a stab at it if I have time. Grab Ashy's attention; he co-wrote the article, and is the resident expert on this.

 

[masque]

Vocal focus

I'm currently working on a prestige race that focuses on the different monstrous vocal abilities (frex the harpy, allip, phoenix, sirine, etc). For my campaign I'm doing costs based on the Bastion method (roughly half as expensive as the magic item pricing method), but when I'm done I'll post it up with both costs.

i know, empty promises...

 

[Ravellion]

I might be able to do yours after I do my "Weapon unification" one... sometime tomorrow.

 

[Ashy]

Yea, it looks a little unbalanced (in the cheap side), and what's more it has already been done. Oathbound, Domains of the Forge has a Focus of the Shadow in it already; I must say it is rather nifty! If you like, you can snag the book at the link below!

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0971439265/theenkwell-20

Also, if you would like to see some of the stuff that was left out of Dragon #304 check here:

http://www.enkwell.com/ogco_ar_focus_of_the_flesh_012303.shtml