Hobgoblin (plus Sunscorched, Varag, 2 PrCs)

[Surreal]

Here's my first take at homebrewing some races...

Hobgoblin

HD: d10

Skills: 4 + Int modifier, quadruple at 1st level. Class skills are: Hide, Intimidate, Listen, Move Silently, and Spot

Proficiencies: simple and martial weapons, medium armour and shields (but not tower shields)

Code: [Select]

Level BAB Fort Ref Will Special
1 +1 +2 +0 +0 Hobgoblin Body, Versatility, +1 Dex, +1 Con

Hobgoblin Body: At first level a Hobgoblin loses all other racial traits and gains humanoid traits and the goblinoid subtype. It is a medium sized humanoid with base speed of 35', darkvision 60', and a +4 racial bonus to Move Silently.

Versatility: A Hobgoblin has an equivalent fighter level equal to his BAB for the purpose of qualifying for feats. He may also take Fighter ACFs in lieu of a feat gained as long as his HD is greater than or equal to the minimum required fighter level of that particular ACF and he meets all other prerequisites.

Ability Increase: A Hobgoblin receives a permanent +1 to Dex and Con at first level. At every 5th HD the Hobgoblin gains, he may choose to increase either Dex or Con by +1.

(click to show/hide)

Blurb:
Drawing upon some of the flavour of the Hobgoblins in ToB, they are fighters born true. Aside from the stat bumps, they don't really have any scaling racial abilities but get the flexible ability to grab fighter ACFs by trading feats.

Sunscorched Hobgoblin (racial variant)

HD: d8

Skills: 4 + Int, Class Skills: Bluff, Concentration, Hide, Intimidate, Listen, Move Silently, Spellcraft, Spot

Proficiencies: Simple weapons, medium armour

Code: [Select]

Level BAB Fort Ref Will Special
1 +1 +2 +0 +0 Sunscorched Body, Dragonblooded, Inner-Focus, +1 Con

Sunscorched Body: At first level a Sunscorched Hobgoblin loses all other racial traits and gains Humanoid traits and the Goblinoid and Dragonblood subtypes. It is medium sized with base speed of 30', darkvision 60'.

Dragonblooded: With an ancestry of Blue Dragons in his blood, a Sunscorched Hobgoblin gains electricity resistance equal to its HD, and adds +1 to his effective caster/manifester level should he later gain a casting/manifesting class.

Inner Focus: Any level dependent effect the Sunscorched Hobgoblin places on itself is treated as though it were one level higher.

Ability Increase: A Sunscorched Hobgoblin receives a permanent +1 Con at first level. At every 5th HD the Hobgoblin gains, he may choose to increase either Wis or Con by +1.

(click to show/hide)

Blurb:
Just a touch of Dragon Magic flavour. Trades the fighter versatility and speed for a caster bump.

[Surreal]

Iron Zealot (prestige class)

Prerequisites:
- Must have all levels of the Hobgoblin class

HD: d12

Skills: 2+Int. Class Skills: Concentration, Hide, Intimidate, Listen, Move Silently, Spot

Code: [Select]

Level BAB Fort Ref Will Special
1 +1 +2 +0 +2 Wise to the Sword, Body of Iron
2 +2 +3 +0 +3 Heart of Iron


Wise to the Sword (Ex): When not flat-footed, you gain a bonus to armour class equal to your Wisdom modifier

Body of Iron: All other and future HD increase one step size

Heart of Iron (Ex): Select one spell, effect or condition that is affecting you with a duration of 1 round or more. You may take a full round action to end that effect immediately. You may do this more than once per encounter, but each use after the first is taxing on your mind and body and results in a cumulative 1 damage to Wis and Con (so 1 damage Wis & Con after the second use, a total of 3 damage to Wis & Con after the third use, 6 damage at the forth use, etc). At 4HD you may perform this as a standard action. At 8HD you may perform it twice per encounter before ill effect. At 12HD you may perform it as a swift action. At 16HD you may use a standard action to remove all unwanted effects currently affecting you. At 20HD as a swift action you may ignore one spell or effect or condition that has an area effect for 1 round.

If the Iron Zealot is immune or otherwise does not take the ability damage, he does not gain the benefit of Heart of Iron.

(click to show/hide)

Blurb:
Originally I wanted to combine a bit of the flavour of the Sunscorched subrace from Dragon Magic (descended from Blue Dragons) and the Tome of Battle Hobgoblins, though in the end it became far more ToB centric as there really isn't much to draw from the Sunscorched existing fluff.

adaptation note: perhaps allow undead Iron Zealots to sub Cha instead of Con for Heart of Iron

[Surreal]

Varag


HD: d10

Proficiencies: simple weapons, light armour

Skills: 2+Int. Class Skills: Climb, Jump, Listen, Move Silently, Spot, Survival

Code: [Select]

Level BAB Fort Ref Will Special
1 +1 +2 +2 +0 Varag Body, Fleetness, Scent, +1 Dex, +1 Con

Varag Body: At first level a Varag loses all other racial traits and gains humanoid traits and the goblinoid subtype. It is a medium sized creature with base speed of 45', darkvision 60', and a +4 racial bonus to Move Silently. It gains a bonus to natural armour equal to its Con modifier.

Fleetness: A Varag gains a racial speed bonus of +5' per 4HD

Scent (Ex): You gain the scent ability, and you gain a +4 bonus to survival when tracking by Scent.

Ability Increase: A Varag receives a permanent +1 to Dex and Con at first level.

(click to show/hide)

Blurb:
Built for speed and tracking; that's about it.

[Surreal]

Goblin Piledriver (prestige class)

Prerequisites:
- Must have the Goblinoid subtype
- base speed at least 45'
- feat: Run

HD: d10

Skills: 2 + Int. Class Skills: Climb, Jump, Listen, Move Silently, Spot, Survival

Code: [Select]

Level BAB Fort Ref Will Special
1 +1 +0 +2 +0 Strider, +1 Con
2 +2 +0 +3 +0 Run the Ramparts, Bonus Feat, +1 Dex
3 +3 +1 +3 +1 Hobnob
Skills: Your gain a +4 racial bonus to move silently (or +4 greater than its previous value)

Strider (Ex): You gain a +5' racial bonus per 3HD to your speed and can run up to x6 your speed. You also gain a +2 bonus per HD on any Con checks to continue running and avoid non-lethal damage from a forced march. At third level, the racial speed bonus improves to +5' per 2HD; additionally your limbs have lengthened and your body has adapted to allow you to run on all fours; if you are not carrying anything in your hands, you can run up to x8 your speed.

Ability Increase: You gain a +1 bonus to Con at first level, and +1 Dex at second level.

Bonus Feat: You gain Spring Attack as a bonus feat at Second Level

Run the Ramparts (Ex): When charging or running, you may travel across a vertical surface without impediment. Horizontal movement occurs as normal; vertical movement costs double. You must end your movement on a horizontal surface (or other suitable hand/foothold), or take the appropriate falling damage. However, since you have such powerful legs accustomed to running and jumping, you take damage from a fall as if the fall were shorter by a distance equal to your racial speed bonus (or double that if you are able to use a wall to slow your decent).

Hobnob (Ex): Due to your great speed, you can deal double damage during a charge. At 9HD you may charge at x3 your speed (or x4 if you charge on all fours, though note you can not carry any weapons in your hands while moving). At 12HD you may make a single turn during a charge, up to 90° (or 180° if you have a suitable wall or structure from which to redirect yourself). At 15 HD you deal triple damage on a charge. At 18HD you build such great momentum that you deal extra damage on a charge equal to the distance you charged. At 20HD you move with such blinding speed  that you may become ethereal for part of your charge; any distance covered this way counts as quadruple against your movement.

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Blurb:
Move fast and hit hard. Not sure if I overdid the last bit of Hobnob; my sense of power creep goes all out of whack at those levels. And yes, I know technically that's not the proper use of the term hobnob.

[Prime32]

Weren't these supposed to have a number of levels matching the source monster's CR?

Changing the level of alternate class features could cause all kinds of weird side-effects, and the initiator level thing means that, say, a hobgoblin 1/warblade 1/swordsage 1/cleric 17 gets 9th-level maneuvers twice on top of 9th-level spells. Maybe base it on BAB?

And "Must be taken immediately after the Hobgoblin class or other non-exclusive racial path (not counting template progressions)" is an odd prerequisite, since you don't even need to take levels in these classes consecutively.

[oslecamo]

What Prime32 said. That's one of the reasons I ask people to post right away, so others can offer their opinions on the polishing process.

In more detail:
-The Varag seems to be a diferent goblinoid on his own right, it should probablyy be a diferent 1-level monster class
-Sunscorched should be a diferent path than the "vanilla" hobgoblin. One is more of a commando, the other is a zen-warrior.
-Only the first hobgoblin level should count towards IL/fighter stuff, that makes stuff simpler, or otherwise, like Prime32 pointed out, one will take almost all full caster with just some dips here and there to unlock fullpower maneuvers. The extra ability scores should already be more than enough scaling ability.

Now, there's no reason to waste promising material, and I suport made-up progressions, so feel free to convert your work in "savage hobgoblin" or "honorable hobgoblin" prcs. The Varag, vanilla hobgoblin and Sunscorched on the other hand, need all to be 1 level long at most.

[Surreal]

Weren't these supposed to have a number of levels matching the source monster's CR?

Changing the level of alternate class features could cause all kinds of weird side-effects, and the initiator level thing means that, say, a hobgoblin 1/warblade 1/swordsage 1/cleric 17 gets 9th-level maneuvers twice on top of 9th-level spells. Maybe base it on BAB?

And "Must be taken immediately after the Hobgoblin class or other non-exclusive racial path (not counting template progressions)" is an odd prerequisite, since you don't even need to take levels in these classes consecutively.

What Prime32 said. That's one of the reasons I ask people to post right away, so others can offer their opinions on the polishing process.

In more detail:
-The Varag seems to be a diferent goblinoid on his own right, it should probablyy be a diferent 1-level monster class
-Sunscorched should be a diferent path than the "vanilla" hobgoblin. One is more of a commando, the other is a zen-warrior.
-Only the first hobgoblin level should count towards IL/fighter stuff, that makes stuff simpler, or otherwise, like Prime32 pointed out, one will take almost all full caster with just some dips here and there to unlock fullpower maneuvers. The extra ability scores should already be more than enough scaling ability.

Now, there's no reason to waste promising material, and I suport made-up progressions, so feel free to convert your work in "savage hobgoblin" or "honorable hobgoblin" prcs. The Varag, vanilla hobgoblin and Sunscorched on the other hand, need all to be 1 level long at most.

The way it was kinda working in my head was that the Hobgoblin was a base class, and the others were pseudo prestige classes rather than their own "race". Hmm I thought I had seen some other races here in a similar vein, or maybe not.

The odd prereq clause was under the assumption that all race levels had to be taken in succession. I just reread the FAQ and realized I missed that part that said they didn't have to, which certainly messes up a lot of my structuring.

The fighter ACFs I'm not sure what could really go awry there... I figured dungeoncrasher would be the defaults grabbed.

I can see the problem with the Initiator level though. The intent was that they suffer less for taking non-initiator levels.


*******

I had thoughts about working the Lizardfolk in a similar fashion... a 1HD base Lizard, and "racial path" prestige classes to become a Poison Dusk or a Blackscale or Viletooth (the rogue, beatstick, and caster respectively; rogue/beatstick mutually exclusive due to size changes, though caster could mix in), but if that ain't kosher in this subforum then I'll just scrap the notes.

Or just scrap the names and just call them some random PrC names if that's the issue.

[oslecamo]

The way it was kinda working in my head was that the Hobgoblin was a base class, and the others were pseudo prestige classes rather than their own "race". Hmm I thought I had seen some other races here in a similar vein, or maybe not.

There are some monsters on that vein, but in those cases the "variants" were all of diferent CRs. The diferent kinds of Nagas, Kythons and Yuan-tis all have diferent CRs, whereas the vanilla hobgoblin has the same level as the sunscorched one, and the varag is CR 1.

The fighter ACFs I'm not sure what could really go awry there... I figured dungeoncrasher would be the defaults grabbed.

For example, what happens if you take actual fighter levels? Or warblade levels with the "fighter level-2" thing?

I can see the problem with the Initiator level though. The intent was that they suffer less for taking non-initiator levels.

If an hobgoblin wants to be a martial master, then the player should take martial levels. The hobgoblin level itself granting full IL should be more than enough.

I had thoughts about working the Lizardfolk in a similar fashion... a 1HD base Lizard, and "racial path" prestige classes to become a Poison Dusk or a Blackscale or Viletooth (the rogue, beatstick, and caster respectively; rogue/beatstick mutually exclusive due to size changes, though caster could mix in), but if that ain't kosher in this subforum then I'll just scrap the notes.

Or just scrap the names and just call them some random PrC names if that's the issue.

Ok, let me put the reasoning behind my decisions here.

This project's basic goal aims at making monsters playable in a level=CR basis.

So if someone wants to play a Varag, they should be able to do so at level 1, because it's CR 1.

On the other hand, if someone wants to play a vanilla hobgoblin, they shouldn't feel like an inferior version of a sunscorched hobgoblin. They should be equal because the original monsters are both of the same CR.

So yes, scrap the names. Names are more important than they look.

[Surreal]

For example, what happens if you take actual fighter levels? Or warblade levels with the "fighter level-2" thing?

What I wanted was for the hobgoblin to be able to take fighter feats and ACFs without actual fighter levels.

Maybe if I worded it as "A Hobgoblin has an equivalent fighter level equal to it's BAB (or actual fighter level, whichever is higher) for the purposes of qualifying for feats. He may also take fighter ACFs in lieu of a feat gained as long as his ECL is greater than the minimum required fighter level of that particular ACF and he meets all other prerequisites."

I think I'll just drop the initiator thing entirely.

Will change the names above in just a second.

edit: ok and made a bunch of changes above, separated sunscorched and varag into their own races, made the charger and zen guy into their own PrCs

[oslecamo]

Some more critiques:
-Vanilla hobgoblins don't have natural armor. The class shouldn't either.
-Why does the vanilla hobgoblin has 35 base speed?
-The sunscorched path shouldn't grant CL increase to SLA/PLAs, because pretty much every other monster class around here has its SLAs CL tied directly to HD.
-Why does the sunscorched gains more skills? He's smarter, not wiser, and the caster synergy plus dragonblood subtype is plenty of goodness.

Iron Zealot:
-There's no such thing as inflicting -1 damage to yourself, saying you deal 1 damage to your Con and Wis scores should be enough. What if the player becomes immune to ability damage along the way?
- I would ask you to remove the last part of Heart of Iron, not because I'm afraid players try to use it against me, but because it's kinda useless in PbP 

Piledriver
-Hehe, MTG reference
-Hobnob is powerful, but I don't think it's overpowered at the levels you unlock the last parts.
-Overall pretty nice work with that prc, I like it!

And if possible put the piledriver and Varag in diferent posts, to make the linking to the index easier.

[Surreal]

A few I still need to fix up in editing and better wording...

-Vanilla hobgoblins don't have natural armor. The class shouldn't either.

Ok, will take that out.

-Why does the vanilla hobgoblin has 35 base speed?

It was a holdover from before when the races all merged together. I was thinking of keeping it this way since 5' seems like a minor bump, and allows entry into the piledriver class easily for the hobgoblin, but other goblins would have to work at it.

Incidentally, I meant to put the Varag base speed as 45.

-The sunscorched path shouldn't grant CL increase to SLA/PLAs, because pretty much every other monster class around here has its SLAs CL tied directly to HD.

Ok, will take that out.

-Why does the sunscorched gains more skills? He's smarter, not wiser, and the caster synergy plus dragonblood subtype is plenty of goodness.

Also a bit of a holdover from before. I simply tacked on the skills available to a blue dragon and added two skill points to match (and also dropped hit die one step). If that seems too much though, I'll take it out.

I'm still feeling unsatisfied with the Sunscorched Hobgoblin as a whole though... Even with the stat boosts, there's no real reason to play a hobgoblin caster since you'll be behind a level, but I also don't want to marry it into a specific casting class.

-There's no such thing as inflicting -1 damage to yourself, saying you deal 1 damage to your Con and Wis scores should be enough. What if the player becomes immune to ability damage along the way?

I'll fix the wording so that it is "1 damage" and the requirement that if they don't take the damage they don't gain the benefit.

- I would ask you to remove the last part of Heart of Iron, not because I'm afraid players try to use it against me, but because it's kinda useless in PbP 

Changed it to allow a one shot ignore area effect for the round. I think at level 20 it's not too much.

-Hehe, MTG reference

Heh yup. I'm sure I've easily spend more hours playing MtG than D&D. I've also realized that writing rules text in the MtG style is - while verbose at times - much more clear.

And if possible put the piledriver and Varag in diferent posts, to make the linking to the index easier.

A new thread entirely, or just different post further below?

[oslecamo]

It was a holdover from before when the races all merged together. I was thinking of keeping it this way since 5' seems like a minor bump, and allows entry into the piledriver class easily for the hobgoblin, but other goblins would have to work at it.

Incidentally, I meant to put the Varag base speed as 45.

Well I personally don't like it much, but I do suport originality and I don't see any glaring balance problems with it so I'll let it slide.

Also a bit of a holdover from before. I simply tacked on the skills available to a blue dragon and added two skill points to match (and also dropped hit die one step). If that seems too much though, I'll take it out.

Yes please.

I'm still feeling unsatisfied with the Sunscorched Hobgoblin as a whole though... Even with the stat boosts, there's no real reason to play a hobgoblin caster since you'll be behind a level, but I also don't want to marry it into a specific casting class.

Well, you can always do what I did with the merfolk and grant lv1 spellcasting of a class of your choice, but whitout familiar/scribe scroll/animal companion/turn undead. Of course, in that case you would need to cut back something else.

Other options include making some special caster synergy like the troglodyte and aasimar/tiefling have.

- I would ask you to remove the last part of Heart of Iron, not because I'm afraid players try to use it against me, but because it's kinda useless in PbP 

Changed it to allow a one shot ignore area effect for the round. I think at level 20 it's not too much.

Nice.

A new thread entirely, or just different post further below?

Diferent post would be enough.

[Surreal]

I've moved the Goblin Piledriver to it's own post above.

Lowered the Sunscorched skill points, and removed the 1st level Wis boost and added a new ability "Inner Focus". The wording feels a bit fuzzy still, but the intent is basically any self buffs or similar effects take place one level higher.

[oslecamo]

Great, added them all to the index. Congratulations on your first work(s)!

[TC X0 Lt 0X]

So with Run the Ramparts, does it allow the Goblin Piledriver to ignore Running/Charging in a straight line, at least as far as going verticle/horizontal? I would imagine so at the very least because you need to end on a horizontal surface, but would like to confirm.