Something like a Swanmay, but snow leopard instead of swan.

[der_kluge]

One of the players in my game asked if she could play some kind of snow leopard shapeshifter. Something like a SwanMay (human by all appearances), but able to change into a snow leopard.

I was thinking of an ECL +1 class that was something like this:

Dex +4
Str -4
Spot +4
Listen +4
Scent +4 (new skill IMC)
Shapeshift (Su): Able to transform into a snow leopard 3x/day.

I'm seriously doubting anything like this exists in any d20 product, so does this seem balanced?

 

[Benben]

What's the duration of that transformation Unlimited?

And as an aside. How do you handle that Scent Skill, I'm going to have 3 characters in my current campaign with the scent ability and would like something better than written in core 3.5.

 

[diaglo]

weretigress...but make it wereleopard.

think lycanthrope

 

[Trevalon Moonleirion]

I'd agree with dialgo and say make it something like a lycanthrope. If you don't want to go that route, I'd make the critter you had...

originaly posted by die_kluge
I was thinking of an ECL +1 class that was something like this:

Dex +4
Str -4
Spot +4
Listen +4
Scent +4 (new skill IMC)
Shapeshift (Su): Able to transform into a snow leopard 3x/day.

...look a bit more like THIS:

Dex should be in the range of +2-4...four is a bit high powered if you ask me...but cats are nimble i suppose...

Str -4? I know you're trying to make a bit of a tradeoff here, but leopards are still big animals and probably have a fair bit of strength! Maybe -1 or 2. But find another way to "balance" the Leopardmay...for lack of a better-sounding term.

Skills all look pretty good.

If you really want to make things interesting, you could put more restrictions on the shapechanging. I'm really searching around in my head for what little stories I remember that have swanmays in them... but I thought that they were forced to remain in the swan form at certain times? Ah I don't even know. But throw some restrictions on the changing, and maybe up the ECL one or two more.

Well, that wasn't particularly helpful, but I hope you figure something out.

 

[Benben]

The Creature Catalog has the Swanmay as a +2 CR Template. No mention of ECL.

The token aspect of the template is nice, as it's a good weakness for the character to have.

 

[Sialia]

For related plot ideas, check out a book called "the Jargoon Pard" by Andre Norton.

It was one of my favorties back in high school--should be a quick read--lots of shape shifting leopards in that one--a fine, fine book.

 

[der_kluge]

The player was wanting this to be some sort of hereditary thing, so the token thing wouldn't really work.

The 3.5 SRD is back up (was down most of the morning) so I'm looking at the weretiger thing now. It looks good, but I'm not sure I want a PC having DR against silver. That might be a bit much. I can probably remove some of those abilities and lower the ECL down slightly.

Yea, on the strength thing, I guess I was thinking more of a house cat, and not of a leopard, so yea, that probably wouldn't do...


BenBen - Scent is just like spot and listen: Scent (Wis). You take ranks in it like any other skill. Gnomes have +2 to scent checks. Anyone making a successful scent check notices whatever odors are present around them. Obviously, the fainter the odor, the higher the DC on the scent check.

 

[diaglo]

The player was wanting this to be some sort of hereditary thing, so the token thing wouldn't really work...

lycanthrope sounds more and more like what you want. born not made one.

if you remove the "Kryptonite/ silver" maybe make her more susceptible to heat based attacks. since you said snow leopard. just a thought

 

[BOZ]

The Creature Catalog has the Swanmay as a +2 CR Template. No mention of ECL.

The token aspect of the template is nice, as it's a good weakness for the character to have.

we'll update it sooner or later.

 

[BOZ]

The Creature Catalog has the Swanmay as a +2 CR Template. No mention of ECL.

The token aspect of the template is nice, as it's a good weakness for the character to have.

we'll update it sooner or later.