LordVyreth
First Post
Yeah, I think I have a good idea for the evil valley elves. Do you prefer if they're fey or humanoids? Also, how long to we have before next game?
Request for some Ideas (my players please avoid)
- Thread starter WizarDru
- Start date
LordVyreth
First Post
Hey, out of curiosity, where do you work? It sounds like you're doing something software-related and fairly complicated. You're not in video games or anything, are you?
Oh, and I still need your preference on if the valley elves should be fey or humanoids, or if it doesn't matter.
Oh, and I still need your preference on if the valley elves should be fey or humanoids, or if it doesn't matter.
WizarDru
Adventurer
LordVyreth said:
Heh, no, nothing like that. I'm a network admin for an investment firm, actually. The project in question is a private one, and a personal goal, not work-related. I only have so many D&D hours in the week, which is why the alpha game is on hold.
Truthfully, I'll prolly use a mix. I definitely will want some fey and just some souped-up Valley Elves. Kayleigh, the character, will prolly have a hard time fighting fellow elves, depnding on the situation.
Spatzimaus
First Post
WizarDru said:
Well, I'd say just come up with a different template, one that better mimics something that's close to being an actual dragon. Better stats, more of the dragon's special abilities, higher CR, that sort of thing. After all, a Half-Dragon is just someone who's got a good amount of draconic genes, but you're talking about someone who's been magically altered into being a near-dragon. In fact, make two distinct paths; let's say, for instance, that the Red is the "brute force" alteration, giving the strength and attacks of a full dragon, while the Black is the "finesse" alteration, giving the Clerical spellcasting ability and Fear aura. Effectively, you'd take the stats of a Juvenile (Red) or Young Adult (Black) dragon, drop half of the abilities, then tack on the Gith racial bonuses.
So the Red might have full-strength claw attacks, breath weapon, Natural Armor, and can cast a few Cleric spells. The Black would have a weak Fear aura (DC 15?), more Cleric ability, higher flight speed, some SR, that sort of thing.
And both would have wings, much higher stats than a normal Half-Dragon, better saves, and the weakest spell-like abilities Dragons get. It shouldn't be TOO different than a Dragon or Half-Dragon, so the players will still have some expectation of what's coming.
LordVyreth
First Post
And here's my contribution for a good valley elf, or at least the fey that live with them. I'm not so sure what you want for the valley elves. A new sub-race? Just some examples of a pre-existing sub-race? What CR are we talking about.
Anyway, the new fey I'm sending you uses a few feats (and a new feat that comes from a combination of two other feats,) from Complete Arcane. If you don't have that, let me know. I know that one of the feats, Delay Spell, was also in Tome and Blood, but I can't remember where the sudden metamagic feats were from originally. Miniatures Handbook maybe?
Oh, and on a totally irrelevant not, I finally got an avatar! Any opinions?
Hihoca
Medium Fey
Hit Dice: 8d6+24 (50 hp)
Initiative: +2 (+2 Dex)
Speed: 20 ft. (4 squares)
AC: 14 (+2 Dex, +2 natural) touch 12, flat-footed 12
Base Attack/Grapple: +4/+7
Attack: Spiked Chain +7 (2d4+3)
Full Attack: Spiked Chain +7 (2d4+3)
Space/Reach: 5 feet/5 feet (10 feet w/ chain)
Special Attacks: Spells
Special Qualities: Endless Sight, Leap of Distance, Control Perspective, DR 5/cold iron, low-light vision
Saves: Fort +5, Ref +8, Will +5
Abilities: Str 16, Dex 15, Con 16, Int 15, Wis 8, Cha 15
Skills: Concentration +14, Hide +13, Jump +14, Knowledge (arcana) +13, Listen +12, Move Silently +13, Spellcraft +13, Spot +12
Feats: Enlarge Spell, Sudden Delay Spell, Alertness
Climate/Terrain: Temperate plains and forests
Organization: solitary, patrol (4-6) or community (10-100)
Challenge Rating: 6
Treasure: Standard
Alignment: Usually lawful evil
Advancement: By character class
A long time ago, the Hihoca were just ordinary elves. As their civilization advanced, however, their knowledge of both magic and reality went with it. The civilization of the Hihoca reached its climax when its wizards came to the conclusion that physical reality and the illusions of the mind that help us understand it can both be manipulated. With this knowledge, the power of the Hihoca increased dramatically, but the development of their race plummeted as the increased power lead to expansive warfare, political infighting, and xenophobia. No one knows what happened to the original Hihoca civilization. Some believe that it transcended reality completely and now exists in some sort of ideal state outside of the normal planes. Others believe they traveled to a new plane or were destroyed by their many enemies. Regardless, all that remains of the original civilization on the prime material planes is a primitive series of tribes that have much of the pride and memories of their old civilization but few of the advances.
The Hihoca people look like elves, but they have yellow, green and brown striped skin and have a slightly hunched gait. Their hair and nails are wild and unkempt, but they show quite a bit of attention and care to their clothing. As a result, they all wear gross mockeries of noble attire made out of whatever materials they can find. They are often known as “horizon hoppers” because of their strange powers that they inherited from their ancestors. They like to live in forests that grant them a lot of hiding places or valleys that give them a long view of their surroundings without obstruction. They’re especially fond of forested valleys that give them hiding places but let them see invaders coming from the mountains with ease. They remain xenophobic despite losing their expansionistic instincts. To the Hihoca, the only value any intelligent being that enters their territory has is as slave labor. However, they are willing to deal with powerful allies if they stay out of Hihoca territory while negotiating and are absolutely respectful, if not groveling, to the Hihoca to appeal to their sense of pride.
Combat:
Hihoca take full advantage of their unusual abilities. They like to stay unknown to their enemies while watching from tens or even hundreds of miles away, then leaping in to attack from ambush. They prefer to stay out of melee range by using their reach weaponry or spells. After attacking, they activate their Control Perspective ability, leap out of range, let their enemies waste attacks on their now distant forms, and then leap back in to attack again. Attacks with persistent duration that let them be a threat to their enemy while at a distance are popular with the Hihoca, and they take advantage of their Sudden Delay metamatic feat whenever they can.
Spells (Sp): All Hihoca cast spells as a 5th level wizard or sorcerer. Wizards outnumber sorcerers by an approximately 2 to 1 margin, and any level of wizard or sorcerer stack with this initial spellcasting ability in terms of caster level only (so the initial levels have no effect on bonus feats or familiar advancement, for example.)
Typical Wizard Spells Prepared (4/4/3/1, base save DC 12 + spell level): 0 – resistance, daze, disrupt undead, flare; 1st - color spray, sleep, grease, magic missile; 2nd – melf’s acid arrow, web, enlarged magic missile, scare; 3rd – fireball.
Endless Sight (Su): To the Hihoca, the concept of distance is at best an illusion and at worst an outright lie. Everything that isn’t directly blocked by some obstruction might as well be inches away from the Hihoca as far as they’re concerned. As a result, they can see objects from any distance away. Besides the obvious advantages this gives the Hihoca in terms of surprise and encounter distance, they never take distance penalties on their Spot Checks.
Leap of Distance (Su): Hihoca not only see in a way that negates distance, they move in such a way as well. As a move-equivalent action that doesn’t provoke an attack of opportunity, a Hihoca can leap a few feet into the air and land anywhere within their range of vision! This functions as a teleport spell, except the target location must have line of sight with the starting location, the Hihoca only brings itself and its equipment (though unconscious or dead allies are considered equipment,) and there’s no chance of failure. The distance of the leap is theoretically unlimited, but in practice a mountain range or the natural curvature of the planet will limit the Hihoca’s range to the top of said range or to the horizon.
Control Perspective (Su): Though the Hihoca ignore perspective and distance for their own vision, they’re aware that other races retain their “delusion” on the subject, and they can alter their own spatial appearance to make things more difficult on their enemies. It takes a free action to activate or deactivate this perspective-locking barrier. When it is active, any Hihoca that a non-Hihoca is aware of and has line of sight with appears to be standing only a few feet from it in terms of perspective height. This has a number of consequences. First of all, it takes a Spot check to even determine that the Hihoca is not as close as it appears to be and a second to determine its position. The first of these checks gets easier as the Hihoca’s distance increases, but the second gets harder, as this table indicates.
Distance Determination Check DC Pinpoint Check DC
10 ft. 20 5
11 ft. – 20 ft. 18 10
21 ft. – 100 ft. 15 15
101 ft. – 200 ft. 12 20
201 ft. – 1000 ft. 10 25
10001 ft. – 1 mile 7 30
more than 1 mile 5 35
In addition, even if a Hihoca is pinpointed, the Hihoca essentially has concealment based on the difficulty of adjusting attacks for the new distance. This gives it a 10% miss chance if up to 20 ft. away, 20% if up to 100 ft. away, 30% if up to 1000 ft. away, 40% if up to a mile and 50% if over a mile away.
Hihoca Enforcer, 17th level Hihoca Wizard
Medium Fey
Hit Dice: 8d6+ 17d4 +100 (170 hp)
Initiative: +4 (+4 Dex)
Speed: 20 ft. (4 squares)
AC: 34 (+4 Dex, +7 natural, +8 armor, +5 deflection) touch 19, flat-footed 30
Base Attack/Grapple: +12/+15
Attack: MW Spiked Chain +15 (2d4+3)
Full Attack: MW Spiked Chain +15/10/5 (2d4+3)
Space/Reach: 5 feet/5 feet (10 feet w/ chain)
Special Attacks: Spells
Special Qualities: Endless Sight, Leap of Distance, Control Perspective, DR 5/cold iron, low-light vision
Saves: Fort +16, Ref +20, Will +21
Abilities: Str 16, Dex 18, Con 19, Int 23 (29,) Wis 10, Cha 12
Skills: Concentration +32, Hide +22, Intimidate +12, Jump +22.5, Knowledge (arcana) +32, Knowledge (planes) +32, Listen +16, Move Silently +15, Spellcraft +32, Spot +21.5
Feats: Enlarge Spell, Sudden Delay Spell, Alertness, Scribe Scroll, Sudden Enlarge Spell, Spell Focus (Evocation,) Empower Spell, Greater Spell Focus (Evocation,) Improved Initiative, Delay Spell, Spell Penetration, Spell Mastery
Epic Feats: Epic Spell Focus (Evocation)
Climate/Terrain: Temperate plains and forests
Organization: solitary, patrol (4-6 regular Hihoca) or community (10-100 regular Hihoca)
Challenge Rating: 23
Treasure: Standard plus possessions (bracers of armor +8, headband of intellect +6, cloak of resistance +5, ring of protection +5, amulets of natural armor +5, staff of fire, wand of lightning bolt (at 8th level caster,) MW Spiked Chain
Alignment: Usually lawful evil
Advancement: By character class
Enforcers are specially-trained Hihoca. Blessed with great intelligence and an almost instinctive connection to magic, the Hihoca believe that these wizards contain the souls of their lost ancestor, giving them their magical prowess. After decades of rigorous magical training, Enforcers rank among the most powerful magic users in the world. Hihoca are devoted to the defense of their homes, but they’re often far more long-reaching with this objective than ordinary Hihoca. Besides directly stopping invasions into their land, Enforcers leave their land to learn about their neighbors and scheme to ensure that their land remains forgotten and ignored to outsiders. When they fail at tricking or persuading away potential invaders, they’re just as willing to wipe out entire armies before they get close their homeland.
Combat:
Enforcers have the same powers as regular Hihoca and use similar tactics. However, they’re increased magical abilities causes them to rely less on their weaponry and focus more on magic. Armed with more metamagic feats and ways to delay their attacks, they rely even more on leaving time-based traps for their enemies and then leaping away to let their abilities activate.
Spells (Sp): Enforcers cast spells as 22nd level wizards
Typical Wizard Spells Prepared (4/7/6/6/6/6/5/5/5/5, base save DC 19 + spell level, Evocation spell DC 23 (assuming Epic Spell Focus still gives a +2 bonus to DCs, + spell level): 0 – resistance, daze, disrupt undead, flare; 1st - color spray, sleep, grease, magic missile x2, shield x2; 2nd – melf’s acid arrow, web, scare, mirror image, summon swarm, enlarged magic missile; 3rd – fireball x2, lightning bolt, fly, empowered magic missile, enlarged Melf’s acid arrow; 4th – ice storm, Otiluke’s resilient sphere, polymorph, Evard’s black tentacles, wall of fire, enlarged fireball; 5th – cone of cold, wall of force x 2, baleful polymorph, teleport, empowered fireball; 6th – acid fog, chain lightning, Otiluke’s freezing sphere, delayed fireball, enlarged cone of cold; 7th – forcecage, delayed blast fireball, reverse gravity, greater teleport, empowered cone of cold; 8th – incendiary cloud, polymorph any object, greater shout, delayed cone of cold, enlarged delayed blast fireball; 9th – meteor swarm, bigby’s crushing hand, summon monster ix, gate, empowered delayed blast fireball.
Anyway, the new fey I'm sending you uses a few feats (and a new feat that comes from a combination of two other feats,) from Complete Arcane. If you don't have that, let me know. I know that one of the feats, Delay Spell, was also in Tome and Blood, but I can't remember where the sudden metamagic feats were from originally. Miniatures Handbook maybe?
Oh, and on a totally irrelevant not, I finally got an avatar! Any opinions?
Hihoca
Medium Fey
Hit Dice: 8d6+24 (50 hp)
Initiative: +2 (+2 Dex)
Speed: 20 ft. (4 squares)
AC: 14 (+2 Dex, +2 natural) touch 12, flat-footed 12
Base Attack/Grapple: +4/+7
Attack: Spiked Chain +7 (2d4+3)
Full Attack: Spiked Chain +7 (2d4+3)
Space/Reach: 5 feet/5 feet (10 feet w/ chain)
Special Attacks: Spells
Special Qualities: Endless Sight, Leap of Distance, Control Perspective, DR 5/cold iron, low-light vision
Saves: Fort +5, Ref +8, Will +5
Abilities: Str 16, Dex 15, Con 16, Int 15, Wis 8, Cha 15
Skills: Concentration +14, Hide +13, Jump +14, Knowledge (arcana) +13, Listen +12, Move Silently +13, Spellcraft +13, Spot +12
Feats: Enlarge Spell, Sudden Delay Spell, Alertness
Climate/Terrain: Temperate plains and forests
Organization: solitary, patrol (4-6) or community (10-100)
Challenge Rating: 6
Treasure: Standard
Alignment: Usually lawful evil
Advancement: By character class
A long time ago, the Hihoca were just ordinary elves. As their civilization advanced, however, their knowledge of both magic and reality went with it. The civilization of the Hihoca reached its climax when its wizards came to the conclusion that physical reality and the illusions of the mind that help us understand it can both be manipulated. With this knowledge, the power of the Hihoca increased dramatically, but the development of their race plummeted as the increased power lead to expansive warfare, political infighting, and xenophobia. No one knows what happened to the original Hihoca civilization. Some believe that it transcended reality completely and now exists in some sort of ideal state outside of the normal planes. Others believe they traveled to a new plane or were destroyed by their many enemies. Regardless, all that remains of the original civilization on the prime material planes is a primitive series of tribes that have much of the pride and memories of their old civilization but few of the advances.
The Hihoca people look like elves, but they have yellow, green and brown striped skin and have a slightly hunched gait. Their hair and nails are wild and unkempt, but they show quite a bit of attention and care to their clothing. As a result, they all wear gross mockeries of noble attire made out of whatever materials they can find. They are often known as “horizon hoppers” because of their strange powers that they inherited from their ancestors. They like to live in forests that grant them a lot of hiding places or valleys that give them a long view of their surroundings without obstruction. They’re especially fond of forested valleys that give them hiding places but let them see invaders coming from the mountains with ease. They remain xenophobic despite losing their expansionistic instincts. To the Hihoca, the only value any intelligent being that enters their territory has is as slave labor. However, they are willing to deal with powerful allies if they stay out of Hihoca territory while negotiating and are absolutely respectful, if not groveling, to the Hihoca to appeal to their sense of pride.
Combat:
Hihoca take full advantage of their unusual abilities. They like to stay unknown to their enemies while watching from tens or even hundreds of miles away, then leaping in to attack from ambush. They prefer to stay out of melee range by using their reach weaponry or spells. After attacking, they activate their Control Perspective ability, leap out of range, let their enemies waste attacks on their now distant forms, and then leap back in to attack again. Attacks with persistent duration that let them be a threat to their enemy while at a distance are popular with the Hihoca, and they take advantage of their Sudden Delay metamatic feat whenever they can.
Spells (Sp): All Hihoca cast spells as a 5th level wizard or sorcerer. Wizards outnumber sorcerers by an approximately 2 to 1 margin, and any level of wizard or sorcerer stack with this initial spellcasting ability in terms of caster level only (so the initial levels have no effect on bonus feats or familiar advancement, for example.)
Typical Wizard Spells Prepared (4/4/3/1, base save DC 12 + spell level): 0 – resistance, daze, disrupt undead, flare; 1st - color spray, sleep, grease, magic missile; 2nd – melf’s acid arrow, web, enlarged magic missile, scare; 3rd – fireball.
Endless Sight (Su): To the Hihoca, the concept of distance is at best an illusion and at worst an outright lie. Everything that isn’t directly blocked by some obstruction might as well be inches away from the Hihoca as far as they’re concerned. As a result, they can see objects from any distance away. Besides the obvious advantages this gives the Hihoca in terms of surprise and encounter distance, they never take distance penalties on their Spot Checks.
Leap of Distance (Su): Hihoca not only see in a way that negates distance, they move in such a way as well. As a move-equivalent action that doesn’t provoke an attack of opportunity, a Hihoca can leap a few feet into the air and land anywhere within their range of vision! This functions as a teleport spell, except the target location must have line of sight with the starting location, the Hihoca only brings itself and its equipment (though unconscious or dead allies are considered equipment,) and there’s no chance of failure. The distance of the leap is theoretically unlimited, but in practice a mountain range or the natural curvature of the planet will limit the Hihoca’s range to the top of said range or to the horizon.
Control Perspective (Su): Though the Hihoca ignore perspective and distance for their own vision, they’re aware that other races retain their “delusion” on the subject, and they can alter their own spatial appearance to make things more difficult on their enemies. It takes a free action to activate or deactivate this perspective-locking barrier. When it is active, any Hihoca that a non-Hihoca is aware of and has line of sight with appears to be standing only a few feet from it in terms of perspective height. This has a number of consequences. First of all, it takes a Spot check to even determine that the Hihoca is not as close as it appears to be and a second to determine its position. The first of these checks gets easier as the Hihoca’s distance increases, but the second gets harder, as this table indicates.
Distance Determination Check DC Pinpoint Check DC
10 ft. 20 5
11 ft. – 20 ft. 18 10
21 ft. – 100 ft. 15 15
101 ft. – 200 ft. 12 20
201 ft. – 1000 ft. 10 25
10001 ft. – 1 mile 7 30
more than 1 mile 5 35
In addition, even if a Hihoca is pinpointed, the Hihoca essentially has concealment based on the difficulty of adjusting attacks for the new distance. This gives it a 10% miss chance if up to 20 ft. away, 20% if up to 100 ft. away, 30% if up to 1000 ft. away, 40% if up to a mile and 50% if over a mile away.
Hihoca Enforcer, 17th level Hihoca Wizard
Medium Fey
Hit Dice: 8d6+ 17d4 +100 (170 hp)
Initiative: +4 (+4 Dex)
Speed: 20 ft. (4 squares)
AC: 34 (+4 Dex, +7 natural, +8 armor, +5 deflection) touch 19, flat-footed 30
Base Attack/Grapple: +12/+15
Attack: MW Spiked Chain +15 (2d4+3)
Full Attack: MW Spiked Chain +15/10/5 (2d4+3)
Space/Reach: 5 feet/5 feet (10 feet w/ chain)
Special Attacks: Spells
Special Qualities: Endless Sight, Leap of Distance, Control Perspective, DR 5/cold iron, low-light vision
Saves: Fort +16, Ref +20, Will +21
Abilities: Str 16, Dex 18, Con 19, Int 23 (29,) Wis 10, Cha 12
Skills: Concentration +32, Hide +22, Intimidate +12, Jump +22.5, Knowledge (arcana) +32, Knowledge (planes) +32, Listen +16, Move Silently +15, Spellcraft +32, Spot +21.5
Feats: Enlarge Spell, Sudden Delay Spell, Alertness, Scribe Scroll, Sudden Enlarge Spell, Spell Focus (Evocation,) Empower Spell, Greater Spell Focus (Evocation,) Improved Initiative, Delay Spell, Spell Penetration, Spell Mastery
Epic Feats: Epic Spell Focus (Evocation)
Climate/Terrain: Temperate plains and forests
Organization: solitary, patrol (4-6 regular Hihoca) or community (10-100 regular Hihoca)
Challenge Rating: 23
Treasure: Standard plus possessions (bracers of armor +8, headband of intellect +6, cloak of resistance +5, ring of protection +5, amulets of natural armor +5, staff of fire, wand of lightning bolt (at 8th level caster,) MW Spiked Chain
Alignment: Usually lawful evil
Advancement: By character class
Enforcers are specially-trained Hihoca. Blessed with great intelligence and an almost instinctive connection to magic, the Hihoca believe that these wizards contain the souls of their lost ancestor, giving them their magical prowess. After decades of rigorous magical training, Enforcers rank among the most powerful magic users in the world. Hihoca are devoted to the defense of their homes, but they’re often far more long-reaching with this objective than ordinary Hihoca. Besides directly stopping invasions into their land, Enforcers leave their land to learn about their neighbors and scheme to ensure that their land remains forgotten and ignored to outsiders. When they fail at tricking or persuading away potential invaders, they’re just as willing to wipe out entire armies before they get close their homeland.
Combat:
Enforcers have the same powers as regular Hihoca and use similar tactics. However, they’re increased magical abilities causes them to rely less on their weaponry and focus more on magic. Armed with more metamagic feats and ways to delay their attacks, they rely even more on leaving time-based traps for their enemies and then leaping away to let their abilities activate.
Spells (Sp): Enforcers cast spells as 22nd level wizards
Typical Wizard Spells Prepared (4/7/6/6/6/6/5/5/5/5, base save DC 19 + spell level, Evocation spell DC 23 (assuming Epic Spell Focus still gives a +2 bonus to DCs, + spell level): 0 – resistance, daze, disrupt undead, flare; 1st - color spray, sleep, grease, magic missile x2, shield x2; 2nd – melf’s acid arrow, web, scare, mirror image, summon swarm, enlarged magic missile; 3rd – fireball x2, lightning bolt, fly, empowered magic missile, enlarged Melf’s acid arrow; 4th – ice storm, Otiluke’s resilient sphere, polymorph, Evard’s black tentacles, wall of fire, enlarged fireball; 5th – cone of cold, wall of force x 2, baleful polymorph, teleport, empowered fireball; 6th – acid fog, chain lightning, Otiluke’s freezing sphere, delayed fireball, enlarged cone of cold; 7th – forcecage, delayed blast fireball, reverse gravity, greater teleport, empowered cone of cold; 8th – incendiary cloud, polymorph any object, greater shout, delayed cone of cold, enlarged delayed blast fireball; 9th – meteor swarm, bigby’s crushing hand, summon monster ix, gate, empowered delayed blast fireball.
LordVyreth
First Post
Hey, do you need anything else at this point? I can probably make you something this weekend, but I need your input first, since I need to know what else you need.
Nifft
Penguin Herder
WizarDru said:
Hey WizarDru!
You can always use my variant Half-Dragon and its associated prestige classes... http://fishnet.cx/~josh/DnD/DHE/templates.shtml
The Drake Blood Champion would work well as infantry, and a troupe of Drake Blood Aerialists would make a juicy cavalry.
-- N
LordVyreth
First Post
So is the machine crab a variant of something we came up with here, or a new creation of yours? Also, now that you have a better idea where the party is going, will you be needing anything for it? Is this Tomb of Horrors direction related to the Madness Horse, evil valley elves, or other potential plot hooks or a new direction entirely?
Actually, I'm hoping you can give me an evaluation of the earlier submissions in general. Did you ever get a chance to look at Xetich, the Hihoca, the Consumers, and even the Hive Birds? What did you like or dislike?
Actually, I'm hoping you can give me an evaluation of the earlier submissions in general. Did you ever get a chance to look at Xetich, the Hihoca, the Consumers, and even the Hive Birds? What did you like or dislike?
