The Phanaton (gliding/flying small race from Classic D&D/Isle of Dread)

[Cyronax]

hello,

I wanted to throw out a new race idea for constructive comment: The Phanaton. Some of you will no doubt be familiar with phanatons from Classic D&D/BECMI and the X1 Isle of Dread module. (I also had a bit of inspiration from the Pirates of Dark Water ).

NOTE -- I do not have a search account for ENWorld, nor did I look to the Wotc boards or the Vault of Pandius. Moreover, I purposefully did not seek out someone else's 4e version of a phanaton. I wrote this up because 1) I'm snowed in, 2) this is my first major attempt to homebrew a race [aside from reskinning kobolds into 'ratlings' in my last campaign].

Respectfully,

C.I.D.

here's a picture (excerpt from X1 - Isle of Dread):
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_lpL870wV2A4/SHybkGE_MTI/AAAAAAAACMw/efpMR3jdCvw/s400/scan0011.jpg


Game Stats:
Small
Speed 5 (forestwalk)
+2 Dex / +2 Con (?) [Dex because they're small and spry; Con because they are naturally hardy and mobile]
+2 racial bonus to Acrobatics and Athletics (?) [they're originally from the canopies huge primeval forests!]
Doughty Glider - receives a +1 to saves against the immobilized, restrained, or slowed conditions. [too much?]
Creature of the Night - Low-light vision (?) [nocturnal -- link intelligent lemurs] [too much?]
Forestwalk - ignores difficult terrain that is part of a tree, underbrush, or some other forest growth.
Phanaton Weapon Proficiencies (considered superior weapons to non-phanaton).

Starting Languages: Common and a choice of Phanaton or Anizan. Phanaton is their native language, while Anizan [similar to FR's Calimshan or Mystara's land of hule] is the language of the slavers who kidnapped several phanaton clans from their nests in the great rain forests of the Isle of Dread.

Racial Encounter Power --

Canopy Glide (?)
Encounter
Move Action Personal

Effect: Maybe involving a 'sudden leap into the air' as a move action and then continues into a fly speed of 8 until the end of the phanaton's next turn, so long as he 'sustains' the glide during the second round with a second move action. If the phanaton only wants one round of flight, he'll safely land at the end of the first turn, same as the end of the second. While in the air the phanaton is considered to be a 'clumsy flier' (-4 penalty to attack rolls and defenses). 'Clumsy flier' penalties last until the end of the turn during which the phanaton lands.

Use of this power incurs normals opportunity attacks. Armor check penalties reduce fly speed by three times to amount of the penalty (round down). (Ex: a phanaton in chain-mail (penalty = -1) would have his fly speed reduced to 5.

Phanaton cannot receive a shield bonus while in flight.

Phanaton cannnot make an attack while flying.

Landing on the ground or otherwise stopping in mid-flight ends this power.

[Phanatons will have no altitude limit. They can't hover. They will not be clumsy grounded. See pages 47 thru 49 of DMG1 for further rules related to Flying].

(?) = up for altertation or further ideas.


- The Phanatons – a nocturnal and hardy halfling-sized race that look like a cross between raccoons and monkeys. They are few in number and possibly evolved during the Second Age into a speaking people. They hail from the Isles of Dawn and Dread. Some of the Isle of Dread phanatons have been brought to the Anizan city of Sonepur as slave-pets. The Anizan criminal syndicate known as the Maharajah is said to have trained some phanatons as unassuming, though deadly assassins. They are thought to have been normal animals that were magically altered sometime late in the Second Age by the fallen goddess Avandra. They have their own language, which uses the alphabet of Elven.


PC Phanatons could be escaped slaves from the South, a spy or agent from the Maharajah, or an ally from the Isle of Dawn sent to the party by Sigurd. The Isle of Dawn has a permanent teleportation circle on it and maybe that archipelago was an outpost for Silver Cloaks in the Second Age. Alternatively, the phanaton is descended from a phanaton clan that emigrated from the Isle of Dawn, but were cut off from their homeland during Ragnarokk. Sigurd had given the party knowledge of the Isle of Dawn as one of five locations he could send you to via permanent teleportation circles and it was implied that the Third Age exploration of the Isle of Dawn was high on Sigurd's list of possible missions for the party.

[Note: IMC, I use a version of the 4e Revenge of the Giants's City of Argent. Sigurd is the [renamed] ghostly guardian and keeper. My campaign's still set in the heroic tier and I am not really running RotG, just mining it for ideas. My campaign is also set in a Norse-Theme cosmology -- and the multiverse is in the Third Age only a few centuries after Ragnarokk saw the deaths of all but three gods of Good -- Sehanine, Erathis, and the Raven Queen (seen as the Maiden, the Mother, and the Crone).]


Play a Phanaton if you want ....

- to be a spry and mobile character.

- to be an adventurous explorer that is often underestimated.

- to fight injustice and free their people from slavery.

- to be an excellent climber and have the ability to glide through the air.

- to be a member of a race that favors assassin, druid, or fighter. Other favorable classes include ranger and rogue.


Probable New Phanaton Racial Feats:


- Aerial Charger: Prereqs - Must have taken Aerial Warrior feat. Can end its movement granted from its 'Glide' power with a charge attack. Character also receives a +1 feat bonus to charges, while both ground and flying. Normal: Phanatons have to land prior to making an attack.

- Aerial Warrior: negates penalties from 'clumsy flier.' Can be taken at 1st level. (?)

- Armored Glider: Prereqs - Must have taken Aerial Warrior feat. Negates armor check penalties to speed during flight. (?)

- Dread Landing: Prereqs: Must have taken Surprise Landing feat. Enemies occupying squares adjacent to the phanaton's landing square grant combat advantage to the phanaton and his allies until the start of the phanaton's next turn. (?)

- Enduring Glide: Prereqs - Must have taken Unfettered Wings feat. Allows the phanaton to extend use of its 'Glide' encounter power to the end of a third round (requires a Move action in third round). (?)

- Glide-by Attack: Must have taken Aerial Charger feat. Phanaton may attack and remain aloft. In addition, the phanaton does not incur opportunity attacks against the targets of its attacks for moving out of said targets' threatened spaces. (?)

- Lord of the Four Winds: - Prereqs -11th level and the Enduring Glide and Unfettered Wings feat. Grants a phanaton a new daily power that would essentially give him a fly speed for a full encounter. In addition, the phanaton can make a saving throw as an immediate reaction against immobilized, slowed, and restrained conditions. This saving throw is in addition to the extra saving throw granted from the Unfettered Wings feat and the character's normal saving throw at the end of its turn. (?)

- Nimble Glider: lets a phanaton shift 2 squares and then use its 'Glide' encounter power normally. In addition, the phanaton will incur no opportunity attacks for landing in an unoccupied square. Can be taken at 1st level. (?)

- Suprise Landing: Prereqs - Must have taken the Nimble Glider feat. A single target occupying a square adjacent to the phanaton's landing square grants combat advantage. (?)

- True Wings: - Prereqs - 21st level. Must have taken Lord of the Four Winds feats. Grants phanatons an inherent fly speed of 8 and an overland fly speed of 10. When a character with True Wings uses the 'Glide' encounter power and 'Lord of the Four Winds' daily power, their fly speed increase to 12. (?).

- Unfettered Wings: make saving throws against immobilized, slowed, and restrained conditions at the start of your turn as well as your normal saving throw at the end of your turn. Can be taken at 1st level. (?) -- Note - this is a power that some dragons have.



Published heroic tier feat suggestion:

- Four Winds [tribal] (Primal Power)

- Sure Climber (Phb1)



New Equipment Ideas:


Wingblade -- Special flexible blades (made of bone or light metal) that fits over the phanaton's wings just underneath their wrists. Unlike other weapons, wingblades occupy your magic item hand slots, enabling the phanaton to still hold small or tiny objects in their hands.

Proficiency Bonus: +2 Damage d6 Price 15gp Group: Unarmed Properties: Off-hand. Special: Can receive benefits from Two-Weapon defense, Two-Weapon Fighting, and other similar feats.

 

[circadianwolf]

Interesting race! While flight was all but nonexistent when 4E first came out, subsequent releases have definitely eased the restrictions, making a glider race an intriguing concept. I'm unfortunately not familiar with their earlier edition counterparts.

Suggested edits to racial traits, with comments following:

Phanaton

Ability Scores: +2 Constitution, +2 Dexterity
Size: Small
Speed: 6 squares (a)
Vision: Low-light

Languages: Common, Phanaton or Anizan (b)
Skill Bonuses: +2 Acrobatics, +2 Athletics
Forest Walk: You ignore difficult terrain that is a part of a tree, underbrush, or some other forest growth. (c)
Nimble: You gain a +2 bonus to escape attempts and to saving throws against effects that render you slowed, immobilized, or restrained. (d)
Phanaton Weapon Proficiency: You gain proficiency with the wingblade.
Canopy Glide: You can use canopy glide as an encounter power.

Canopy Glide Phanaton Racial Power (e)
Encounter
Move Action o Personal
Effect: Fly 8 squares. If you don't end your move on solid ground, you float to the ground without taking falling damage.

a. In 4E, speed and size are no longer correlated as strongly as they once were. Thus, dwarves (Medium) have a speed of 5 squares, while halflings and goblin (Small) have a speed of 6. More importantly, dwarves have a racial trait that allows them to ignore heavy armor speed penalties, which would otherwise result in a crippling speed of 4 squares. Gnomes are currently the only 4E player race which face such a possibility, and their racial traits heavily discourage them from heavy armor-wearing classes. Based on the flavor of the race as quick and agile, I think 6 squares is appropriate and gives them more options w/r/t class selection.

b. While in standard 4E languages are standardized to a select few, in homebrew situations obviously many DMs have more diverse languages and as such these fit in fine. In a more general write-up I'd probably use Elven, as the generic language of the forests.

c. Terrain walks aren't found in any official PC race write-up due to their "swinginess"--that is, it depends greatly on the individual campaign as to whether the racial trait will never be used or used all the time. But again, in a homebrew situation you have much greater control over this.

d. I think the originally trait is actually underpowered, hence the boost. I like that instead of the standard racial trait saving throw bonus convention (+5 against one specific condition), this provides a smaller bonus against a variety of conditions.

e. Your original racial power is both overcomplicated for 4E and mostly useless in combat, as it imposes a -4 penalty to attack rolls until the end of your turn. This necessitates using the power after you've attacked on your turn rather than before, which obviates many of its combat uses; its provoking opportunity attacks obviates most of the rest.

My suggestion would be to keep the base racial power very simple (here just a copy of the windsoul genasi's racial power), with feats that gradually expand its utility. This also fits better with 4E's principle of avoiding penalties whenever possible and reducing something's power instead of attempting to offset it with separate drawbacks.

With that in mind, here are some suggestions for the racial feats:

Extended Glide
Prerequisites: phanaton, canopy glide power
Benefit: When you use your canopy glide racial power, you can remain aloft at the end of your movement. If you do so, you gain a fly speed of 8 until the end of your next turn or until you land, whichever comes first.

This is my suggestion for a new feat that basically replicates the original glide power, but without any penalties. I actually originally thought this would be fine as the intrinsic racial power, but after checking the compendium flight speed for two turns doesn't show up until level 6 at the earliest, so I think it's better to cost a feat.

Aerial Charge
Prerequisites: phanaton, canopy glide power
Benefit: You can expend your canopy glide power as a free action when you make a charge attack. If you do so, you can fly up to 8 squares instead of moving up to your speed as part of the charge.
While you have a fly speed, you gain a +1 bonus to charge attacks.

A blanket +1 bonus to charge attacks is a significant boost, though not necessarily overpowered for a racial feat. This version's benefit is only marginally useful at lower levels, but if a phanaton character gains a consistent fly speed, it becomes very powerful (especially given that charging is already a powerful tactic in 4E).

Surprise Landing
Prerequisites: phanaton, canopy glide power
Benefit: When you use your canopy glide racial power, you gain combat advantage against one creature adjacent to you at the end of your movement.

Aside from formatting to 4E conventions, I think this a fine feat.

Lord of the Four Winds
Prerequisites: 12th level, phanaton
Benefit: You can replace one 12th level or higher utility power you know with the Lord of the Four Winds feat power.

Lord of the Four Winds Feat Power
Daily
Minor Action o Personal
Effect: You gain a fly speed of 8 until the end of the encounter.

Besides formatting, I think the additional save is both overcomplicated and somewhat overpowered.

Unfettered Wings
Prerequisite: 11th level, phanaton
Benefit: At the start of your turn, you can make a saving throw against each effect rendering you slowed, immobilized, or restrained. If you fail the saving throw, you do not make a saving throw against the effect at the end of your turn.

This is a weakened version of the original feat, both in benefit and its level requirement. I suggest this because a similar feature is the kalashtar's only combat significant racial trait (which suggests it's powerful), and because most feats that duplicate other races' racial traits are found in the paragon tier.

True Wings
Prerequisite: 21st level, phanaton
Benefit: You gain a fly speed of 8 and an overland flight speed of 10.

I don't think adding additional effects to the racial power is necessary, as this feat is already very, very powerful. (I would also probably provide a similar benefit via a racial paragon path, similar to how genasi can get dual manifestation for a feat in Epic or for their paragon path in Paragon, and to the dragonborn's racial paragon path.)

I won't comment on the rest of the feats as they're mostly obviated by my suggestions to the racial traits (e.g. the feat that takes away the attack penalty from flying).

As for the weapon: it already benefits from the Two Weapon feats if you wield one in each hand (easy since it has the off-hand property), or did you mean for it to be a double weapon?

I would also suggest either a racial trait or a feat that provides defenses against being knocked prone, which is actually the most dangerous condition to impose on fliers (as it causes them to crash). Possibly replace the racial bonus to saves with the dwarf's racial immediate save against being knocked prone?

 

[Cyronax]

Circadianwolf,

Thanks a lot for your feedback. I will incorporate a lot of your suggestions. I wrote the Phanaton in a short burst of creativity and have been seeing areas that could use improvement.

Thanks!

C.I.D.