Scarecrow

[dangerous jack]

I actually like vulnerabilities and weaknesses a lot, and not including racial penalties is a critique I have of 4e. Adding them to a new general purpose race intended to be balanced against the standard races would need to be carefully done and playtested.

But in a given campaign, a DM could either make each character take one, or add themes (i.e. Darksun style themes) that also have an associated weakness.

 

[Aspect of Veles]

Lifeless Brutality: neat, but does "Lifeless" imply that they are undead? or should they at least have the Shadow Origin property like Revenants (or Shadar-Kai)

I feel that if I gave the Scarecrow an origin (such as with the Elven 'Fey Origin') I might be overburdening them with Race specific features. I know that origins come into play much less than most race features, but I just can't get past a feeling that it might be a little unbalanced to stick one on. I don't know.

 

[Aspect of Veles]

Updates

Okay, so I updated the Race and Feats. I adjusted the feats suggested, and added in a new one based on the Scare Tactics suggestion. I also changed a few of the Race Features and added in a Racial Encounter Power (which may or may not still need to be re-done).

 

[Aspect of Veles]

Whoops

I forgot that I intended the scarecrows to function as living constructs, in much the same way as Warforged, and so have looted the Living Construct and Unsleeping Watcher Racial Features from the latter race. Unfortunately I realized after I did this that the Scarecrow now has an inordinate amount of Race Features. I need help deciding which of the racial features would be more at home as Race-Specific Feats. I'd like to trim off about two of 'em, but I'm at a loss as to which two might be the best, or if the whole non-living construct thing should just be dropped.

 

[Aspect of Veles]

Race Features

One idea I had to solve the Race Features problem was to (instead of making two of them Feats) make two race feature slots open to choice (aka 'You may choose Race feature 1 or 2, but not both). Thoughts?

 

[Aspect of Veles]

Alterations

I changed Lifeless Brutality to a Race Specific Feat and made it so that you either can have Unnatural Balance OR Ragdoll Agility as a Race Feature. I think this works out fairly well; Thoughts?

 

[Aspect of Veles]

I realized that I gave them a Resist 5 to 'Fear damage', which obviousley doesn't exist. This should be a +5 vs. fear saving throws. My original document became corrupted, but I'm working on uploading a new file.

 

[Aramax]

I looked at this expecting something to ridicule,note the experiance points!
Ilove this concept.I use scarecrows in my game as sort of generic
mystical back up for the villians.Some one is making a lot of them and selling them to Gnolls,bugbears etc.What if one became truelly sentient and didnt want to do evil?THANX!

 

[Aspect of Veles]

Scarecrow Flavor

The background and flavor included in the document have never actually been used; my original campaign idea to introduce these was abandoned shortly after I wrote this, and have instead used Oz as a way to introduce it to my players. Once I finally get the new document up I will probably end up changing the background text to be more in line with that.

P.S. - Thanks for the positive feeedback everyone!