Author Topic: Vulcan  (Read 3581 times)

Offline Skyrock

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Vulcan
« on: March 25, 2019, 06:08:28 PM »
Vulcans


Vulcans are a humanoid folk with pointy ears from a harsh, hot desert environment. Their physical strength and their natural psionic talents are superior to humans. Vulcans embrace a stoic philosophy that rejects violence and emotions, and makes logic the chief value.

HD: d8

LevelBABFortRefWillFeature
1+0+2+0+2Vulcan Body, AC Bonus, Desert-Adapted, Mind Meld, Pacifist, Psionic Inclination, Resilience, Stoicism, Unarmed Strike, +1 Str, +1 Int
2+1+3+0+3Mind Meld, Powerful Build, +1 Str, +1 Int
3+2+3+1+3Mind Meld, Minor Precognition, Nerve Pinch, +1 Str, +1 Int

Skills: 4+int mod per level, quadruple at 1st level. Class skills are Autohypnosis, Climb, Concentration, Craft, Diplomacy, Heal, Knowledge (all but arcana and religion), Profession, Psicraft, Sense Motive and Survival.

Vulcan Body (Ex): A Vulcan loses all other racial bonus and gains Humanoid traits. It is a medium-sized Humanoid with base speed of 30 feet. Vulcans are proficient with unarmed strikes, bolas, clubs, lirpas1 and quarterstaffs, but not with any armors.

AC Bonus (Ex): This works exactly as the Monk ability of the same name, except that it is based on the Int bonus instead of the Wis bonus. Vulcan levels stack with Monk levels for the purpose of increasing unarmored AC.

Desert-Adapted (Ex): Vulcans gain a +4 racial bonus on Fortitude saves made to resist the effects of hot weather and Survival rolls made in the desert. They are immune to being dazzled.

Mind Meld (Psi-Like): Beginning at 1st level, the Vulcan can use Mindlink at-will as a psi-like ability.
Beginning on 2nd level, the Vulcan can use the following psi-like abilities at-will on a target he is already connected with via Mindlink: Telempathic Projection
Beginning on 3rd lvl, once per day the Vulcan can use Psionic Suggestion as a psi-like ability on a target he is already connected with via Mindlink.
These psi-like abilities are based on Intelligence. They all have their range changed to touch.

Pacifist (Ex): Vulcans suffer no penalties to their attack rolls when dealing non-lethal damage with bludgeoning melee weapons or unarmed strikes.

Psionic Inclination: A Vulcan gain 2 Power Points on 1st level. A Vulcan who multiclasses for a psionic class can count their Vulcan levels as levels of that class for purposes of ML and for the purposes of learning new powers, getting new power points and progressing bonus power points. So for example, a Vulcan 3 with an Intelligence score of 18 who took 1 level of Psion could choose to have ML 4, get 2 2nd level powers known as well as 14 Psi Points (6 from class levels, 8 from bonus power points as a 4th level Psion). He wouldn't get the powers knowns and power points of a Psion 3 however.

Resilience (Su): When a Vulcan takes damage, he can spend power points to reduce its severity. As an immediate action, he can reduce the damage he is about to take by 2 hit points for every 1 power point he spends.

Stoicism (Ex): Vulcans suffer a -2 penalty to all Cha-based skills. This explicitely includes Iaijutsu Focus (due to their peaceful nature) and Use Magic/Psionic Device (as arcane magic is illogical to them, and as psionic items are anathema to their belief that psionics are a mere extension of someones inner logos).

Unarmed Strike: As the Monk ability of the same name, including gaining Improved Unarmed Strike as a feat. Vulcan levels stack with Monk levels for the purpose of increasing unarmed damage.

Powerful Build (Ex): Beginning on 2nd level, the physical stature of vulcan lets them function in many ways as if they were one size category larger.
Whenever a vulcan is subject to a size modifier or special size modifier for an opposed check (such as during grapple checks, bull rush attempts, and trip attempts), the vulcan is treated as one size larger if doing so is advantageous to him.  A vulcan is also considered to be one size larger when determining whether a creature’s special attacks based on size (such as improved grab or swallow whole) can affect him. A vulcan can use weapons designed for a creature one size larger without penalty. However, his space and reach remain those of a creature of his actual size.
The benefits of this racial trait stack with the effects of powers, abilities, and spells that change the subject’s size category.

Minor Precognition (Su): Beginning on 3rd level, as an immediate action the Vulcan can activate this ability by spending 1 power point. Unlike other immediate actions, the Vulcan can do this while flat-footed. The Vulcan receives a +5 bonus on his initiative check for the current encounter. If the Vulcan does not make an initiative check within 1 round, this ability has no effect.

Nerve Pinch (Ex): Beginning on 3rd level,  if a Vulcan makes a touch attack with an unarmed strike against a flat-footed target, the target risks to get paralyzed. If the victim of such an attack fails a Fortitude save (DC 8 + half the Vulcan's Heal ranks + the Vulcan's Int modifier) against the paralysis effect, the victim is rendered helpless and unable to act for 1d6x10min plus 1 minute per Heal rank of the Vulcan if its HD are lower than the Vulcan's. If the HD are equal to or higher, it is instead staggered for 1d4 rounds (minimum of zero).

The nerve pinch only works on living creatures with a nerve system and a discernible neck (all Humanoids, Monstrous Humanoids and Giants, and most Animals, Dragons, Fey and Magical Beasts).

1New equipment: Lirpa:
(click to show/hide)

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« Last Edit: April 07, 2019, 07:18:02 PM by Skyrock »

Offline TC X0 Lt 0X

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Re: Vulcan
« Reply #1 on: March 25, 2019, 07:03:09 PM »
Nerve pinch's DC scaling seems quite a bit strong. Flat-Footed isnt the easiest thing to achieve, but still seems a bit off.

Psionic Inclination says Psi Points in the first line, but it should be Power Points.


Seems pretty decent otherwise. Functionally it is a streamlined Monk dip into a Psion, skipping Kung Fu Genius.
Im really bad at what I do.
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Offline Skyrock

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Re: Vulcan
« Reply #2 on: March 25, 2019, 07:16:26 PM »
Thanks for the catch on Psi Points/Power Points. Have fixed that right away.

Not sure what I can do on the Nerve Pinch DC. I like to promote a skill (Heal) that is usually sub-optimal to raise, makes perfect sense in that context and underlines the pacifist nature of Vulcans. Maybe Heal ranks/2 would work better?

Offline oslecamo

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Re: Vulcan
« Reply #3 on: March 25, 2019, 11:52:52 PM »
Yeah half rank scaling.

Also that's way too many at-will PLAs. Any enemy that's knocked out but isn't killed will become a brainwashed slave for the Vulcan with no control cap whatsoever as you can just spam the PLAs until they fail their saves. Needs use limits or "if somebody makes their save, they become immune to the Vulcan's PLAs for the next 24 hours" or something.

Two +2 at first level is also way too much whitout some significant drawback.

Offline Skyrock

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Re: Vulcan
« Reply #4 on: March 26, 2019, 04:10:57 PM »
- 1st level benefits reduced to +1 Str, +1 Int
- PLA line-up changed to less problematic powers
- Nerve Pinch DC changed to DC 8 + half the Vulcan's Heal ranks + the Vulcan's Int modifier, and also graded the effect by HD. Mooks of lower HD now are helpless for many minutes, while foes of equal or higher HD are only staggered for a few rounds.

Offline oslecamo

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Re: Vulcan
« Reply #5 on: March 26, 2019, 10:16:51 PM »
Better, but at-will suggestion is still too much, you just take a bit more time and need to be a bit more creactive to enslave anybody you can get helpless.

Offline TC X0 Lt 0X

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Re: Vulcan
« Reply #6 on: March 26, 2019, 10:55:09 PM »
I agree HD/day uses would probably be best.
Telepathic Projection is probably fine at will, at best anything you murder and brain fuck will go to Unfriendly and some vague ability to influence them further.
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Offline Skyrock

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Re: Vulcan
« Reply #7 on: March 27, 2019, 01:02:36 PM »
Psionic Suggestion has been knocked down to 1x/day.

Offline oslecamo

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Re: Vulcan
« Reply #8 on: March 29, 2019, 10:44:18 PM »
Nice, now one last detail, the base skill list seems quite sparse. Diplomacy and/or Intimidate should probably be there at least.

Also something to use their starting power points with. Don't need to be anything particularly good, but something, like maybe temporary boost to an unarmed attack to-hit/damage/DC.

Plus some extra weapon weapon proficiency, at least something ranged. Vulcans may be pacifists but still train how to use the lirpa and ahn-woon, so they should know how to use basic spears/javelins/axes/throwing axes, maybe bolas too.

Offline Skyrock

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Re: Vulcan
« Reply #9 on: March 31, 2019, 04:54:49 PM »
Nice, now one last detail, the base skill list seems quite sparse. Diplomacy and/or Intimidate should probably be there at least.
I could see Diplomacy - and it wouldn't be an overpowered addition, since the -2 Cha-skill penalty undermines Diplomancing.

Quote
Also something to use their starting power points with. Don't need to be anything particularly good, but something, like maybe temporary boost to an unarmed attack to-hit/damage/DC.
Looking over the Elan as the model race for spending PP on things other than powers, I would go with 1PP = 2 damage less suffered (as per Elan Resilience) and 1PP for an immediate action to get +4 to Initiative (which helps both pacifist Vulcans to escape and hide from combat before it breaks out, and maxed out Vulcans to apply their Nerve Pinch while the target is still flat-footed - and it matches the cost/effect of Nerveskitter as the model one-shot spontaneous Initiative boost).

Quote
Plus some extra weapon weapon proficiency, at least something ranged. Vulcans may be pacifists but still train how to use the lirpa and ahn-woon, so they should know how to use basic spears/javelins/axes/throwing axes, maybe bolas too.
Will have to re-watch Amok Time to see how Lirpas and Ahn-Woons were used for disarming, tripping and so on.
Lirpas may be worth their own original entry as a new exotic double weapon, as there are no Slashing/Bludgeoning double weapons in the SRD.

I could definitively see Bolas - they fit the philosophy of Vulcans, and weird, specific exotic weapons are a proud monk tradition in D&D.

Offline Skyrock

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Re: Vulcan
« Reply #10 on: April 06, 2019, 02:23:52 PM »
- added Diplomacy to class skills
- added proficiency in bolas and lirpas (plus lirpa stats)
- added new uses for power points: Resilience (as per Elan entry) and Minor Precognition (Nerveskitter but IN SPAAACE psionic)

That should wrap it all up.

Offline oslecamo

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Re: Vulcan
« Reply #11 on: April 07, 2019, 03:09:56 AM »
Double weapon with reach? That's an interesting take.

Also the lirpa text mentions guisarme.  :p

Everything else looking good.

Offline Skyrock

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Re: Vulcan
« Reply #12 on: April 07, 2019, 07:22:22 PM »
Also the lirpa text mentions guisarme.  :p
I have no idea what you mean, nor would I edit my old posts to pretend that I never make mistakes.

And yes, double weapon with reach. The lirpa is a weird weapon, so why not make it extra weird and give it combined properties no weapon in the SRD has? At best it opens up new venues and directions, and at worst players will just ignore it and pretend that the proficiency doesn't exist.

Offline oslecamo

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Re: Vulcan
« Reply #13 on: April 10, 2019, 08:10:04 PM »
Ah, clearly it was just a dream, so added to the index. :P