ZetaStriker
First Post
Not entirely sure how balanced these are, but I like the ideas and I felt they needed to keep their Death Throes. Input, however, is of course appreciated. First I'll discuss a few design goals, and then I'll go into the write-ups and the ideas behind them.
First off, as I said, I wanted to keep each Draconian's unique Death Throes. These, however, aren't always very useful, so in many cases, the Draconians may have two powers; one '(type) Throes' power, and a normal racial power. I also decided I wanted to keep their natural weapons, but give each type of draconian a different, unique version. A good number of Draconian racial feats, once I draft them, will relate to their unique weapon; it's why they all have the same base damage, so I can give a global Draconian feat for all types that affects their natural weapons.
First is the Baaz, the Brass Draconians. I decided to give them the 'Versatile' keyword to their claw weapon, giving them a damage boost if they use them on their own. I would assume it would also apply for two-weapon fighting requirements, giving them a unique advantage over other races in that they can get both damage bonuses at once. At the same time, there are better weapon... but it's an interesting option.
For the Baaz's Death Throes... I decided to do something different. They mimic, but don't incur, the Petrified condition when dropped to 0 hit points or below. They can still be healed after this, and revert to normal when this happens, but their encounter power is effectively a way to gain some measure of defense against the dreaded coup de grace. They also get a chance to immobilize their attacker if they were dropped by a melee attack, following tradition.
Because of the differences between male and female Kapaks, our Copper Draconians, I knew right off the bat that I needed two entries... but there's only one key difference, their encounter power, so I didn't bother copying from one write-up to the other.
Because of the flavor of their unique attacks, I ended up making the Bite the Kapak's natural attack. It has two bonuses; the obvious is that the Kapak can use it when his hands are full, but it can also be used to deliver the Kapak's poisonous Encounter power without the normal requisite Minor Action. Females, sadly, don't get this advantage, but having a healing racial encounter power is good enough to balance it out.
Kapaks were the 3 Draconian types I had to give two racial powers to. Their Death Throes just don't leave a loophole in the fluff for anything short of a 'upon death' ability... I mean their entire body dissolves!
Removing their Glide ability was a sore spot... but I didn't want to overload them with features. I'm considering putting it back in, however.
Bozaks felt like the hardest to design, honestly. I didn't want to steal the Baaz or Aurak's schtick, and the Bozak just sort of falls between the two. I decided to lean their stats towards the Warlord side of things, since they make perfect Warlords by their description, and give them a Half-Elf inspired 'poach an at-will' encounter power, but forcing it to come from a class with the Arcane power source.
I gave them a claw as a weapon too, since I didn't want to give out a 'horn' weapon. If any class' natural attack is to handle like a +3 Prof bonus blade, I thought it should be the Bozak's.
Like the Kapak, I didn't like removing Glide from the Sivak(because flight is just too much), but I felt I had to to balance the race. I may put it back in. Everything else turned out perfectly, however... although I do think they feel weak compared to other Draconians. Which is why I stole the Minotaur's Oversized feature in the first place, but I wonder if it might be better to let the Sivaks include their Trip attack?
Auraks have such a unique flavor, that I didn't want to lose any of their magical awesomeness. So I made their natural attack their magical ray attack(imagine a Aurak Ranger for a second... you can taste the flavor), I kept their Breath Weapon as an encounter power, and they still have their Death Throes for good measure.
I'm working on a whole suite of Dragonlance races at the moment, but these are my focus, as ever since reading the Kang's Regiment books I've been in love with Draconians. For the most part, the races are just PHB races, or PHB races with just one or two things changed. Gnomes(because they're nothing like MM Gnomes), Sea Elves, Gully Dwarves and the various Draconians are the only ones I've gotten to so far that have needed a full write-up.
Irda, Ogres, Half-Ogres and Minotaurs are the only ones I haven't started looking at in depth yet, but I imagine Half-Ogres can be modeled after Orcs, and Minotaurs will be straight out of the MM. Irda will definitely need a full write-up, but I'm not sure if I can model Ogres after a MM race yet or not.
Anyway, input is very strongly encouraged and desired. Especially for the Aurak's Death Throes' name, as I'm too tired right now to come up with anything good. It's sleep time.
First off, as I said, I wanted to keep each Draconian's unique Death Throes. These, however, aren't always very useful, so in many cases, the Draconians may have two powers; one '(type) Throes' power, and a normal racial power. I also decided I wanted to keep their natural weapons, but give each type of draconian a different, unique version. A good number of Draconian racial feats, once I draft them, will relate to their unique weapon; it's why they all have the same base damage, so I can give a global Draconian feat for all types that affects their natural weapons.
First is the Baaz, the Brass Draconians. I decided to give them the 'Versatile' keyword to their claw weapon, giving them a damage boost if they use them on their own. I would assume it would also apply for two-weapon fighting requirements, giving them a unique advantage over other races in that they can get both damage bonuses at once. At the same time, there are better weapon... but it's an interesting option.
For the Baaz's Death Throes... I decided to do something different. They mimic, but don't incur, the Petrified condition when dropped to 0 hit points or below. They can still be healed after this, and revert to normal when this happens, but their encounter power is effectively a way to gain some measure of defense against the dreaded coup de grace. They also get a chance to immobilize their attacker if they were dropped by a melee attack, following tradition.
Because of the differences between male and female Kapaks, our Copper Draconians, I knew right off the bat that I needed two entries... but there's only one key difference, their encounter power, so I didn't bother copying from one write-up to the other.
Because of the flavor of their unique attacks, I ended up making the Bite the Kapak's natural attack. It has two bonuses; the obvious is that the Kapak can use it when his hands are full, but it can also be used to deliver the Kapak's poisonous Encounter power without the normal requisite Minor Action. Females, sadly, don't get this advantage, but having a healing racial encounter power is good enough to balance it out.
Kapaks were the 3 Draconian types I had to give two racial powers to. Their Death Throes just don't leave a loophole in the fluff for anything short of a 'upon death' ability... I mean their entire body dissolves!
Removing their Glide ability was a sore spot... but I didn't want to overload them with features. I'm considering putting it back in, however.
Bozaks felt like the hardest to design, honestly. I didn't want to steal the Baaz or Aurak's schtick, and the Bozak just sort of falls between the two. I decided to lean their stats towards the Warlord side of things, since they make perfect Warlords by their description, and give them a Half-Elf inspired 'poach an at-will' encounter power, but forcing it to come from a class with the Arcane power source.
I gave them a claw as a weapon too, since I didn't want to give out a 'horn' weapon. If any class' natural attack is to handle like a +3 Prof bonus blade, I thought it should be the Bozak's.
Like the Kapak, I didn't like removing Glide from the Sivak(because flight is just too much), but I felt I had to to balance the race. I may put it back in. Everything else turned out perfectly, however... although I do think they feel weak compared to other Draconians. Which is why I stole the Minotaur's Oversized feature in the first place, but I wonder if it might be better to let the Sivaks include their Trip attack?
Auraks have such a unique flavor, that I didn't want to lose any of their magical awesomeness. So I made their natural attack their magical ray attack(imagine a Aurak Ranger for a second... you can taste the flavor), I kept their Breath Weapon as an encounter power, and they still have their Death Throes for good measure.
I'm working on a whole suite of Dragonlance races at the moment, but these are my focus, as ever since reading the Kang's Regiment books I've been in love with Draconians. For the most part, the races are just PHB races, or PHB races with just one or two things changed. Gnomes(because they're nothing like MM Gnomes), Sea Elves, Gully Dwarves and the various Draconians are the only ones I've gotten to so far that have needed a full write-up.
Irda, Ogres, Half-Ogres and Minotaurs are the only ones I haven't started looking at in depth yet, but I imagine Half-Ogres can be modeled after Orcs, and Minotaurs will be straight out of the MM. Irda will definitely need a full write-up, but I'm not sure if I can model Ogres after a MM race yet or not.
Anyway, input is very strongly encouraged and desired. Especially for the Aurak's Death Throes' name, as I'm too tired right now to come up with anything good. It's sleep time.
