Abrian

[multibear]

HD: d10

Level	BAB	Fort	Ref	Will	Feature
1	+1	+0	+2	+0	Ostrichy Body, Abyssal Bird, Atrophied Arms, Shriek, +1 Str, +1 Dex

Skill Points: 2 + Int modifier, quadruple at first level
Class Skills: Balance, Hide, Listen, Move Silently, Spot, Survival

Features
Ostrichy Body: An abrian loses all other racial bonuses and gains magical beast traits (darkvision 60'). An abrian is medium-sized and have a move speed of 50'. Abrians have a kick natural attack dealing 1d8+Str modifier damage and a beak natural attack dealing 1d4+1/2 Str modifier damage.

Abrians also gain a bonus to natural armor equal to their Con bonus

Abyssal Bird: An abrian's beak threatens a critical hit on a natural attack roll of 19-20 and deals triple damage with a successful critical hit.
An abrian also gains Sonic Resistance equal to their HD

Atrophied Arms: Abrian arms are capable of fine manipulation, but are small and weak. An abrian uses 1/2 of its Strength score to determine its carrying capacity.

Shriek: Once every 1d4 rounds as a standard action an abrian can let loose a supernaturally loud and distressing shriek. Anyone within 20 feet of a shrieking abrian must make a Fortitude save (DC 10 + HD) or be dazed for 1 round.
   At 4 HD the targets are also deafened for 1d6 minutes if it fails the save
   At 8 HD the targets also take 1d10 points of sonic damage if it fails the save
Abrians can strengthen the shrieking of other abrians by shrieking together. If 4 HD worth of abrians shriek together it duplicates the effect of one 4 HD abrian shrieking. If 8 HD worth of abrians shriek together it duplicates the effect of one 8 HD abrian.
Abrians are immune to their own shriek and the shriek of other abrians.

Ability Increase: Abrians gain +1 Str and +1 Dex at level 1

(click to show/hide)

Shrieking, pack-hunting ostrich-men from the Abyss. Yay. Their shriek was already set up to scale with the number of abrians present, so I just adjusted it to scale with HD as well. They're really fast but aren't terribly strong on account of their dinky arms, nor are they particularly skilled since all they do is run around the planes all day looking for people to eat.

[oslecamo]

Shriek needs a type of activation (standard, full-round, swift, move?)

Also sonic resistance at 2 HD feels somewhat odd. Why not at first level? Why not scaling?

[multibear]

Made shriek a standard action and changed sonic resistance to scaling from the start

[Concerned Ninja Citizen]

I'm not sure carrying capacity is the right thing for Atrophied Arms to penalize. You carry with your back, not your arms (quadrapeds get x2 carrying capacity and they don't even have arms) and the Abrian's back looks plenty strong.

I might penalize weapon use. Maybe restrict them to small sized weapons.

[multibear]

Thats a good point about carrying with your back, but the 1/2 carrying capacity due to dinky arms thing comes straight from the original source. I don't mind limiting them to small weapons instead. Of course, I want to make sure all the intense abrian enthusiasts won't be super disappointed if I don't make it as accurate as possible 

[oslecamo]

Excuse me, but when all you've got is 2 legs to stand on, then yes your carrying capacity is penalized. Yes, you tecnically carry with your back, but whitout a second pair of legs for stability or strong arms to help hold and balance stuff, you won't be carrying a lot.

EDIT: Also when I said the sonic resistance  should scale, I meant it should start small and then scale up.

[multibear]

fixed sonic resistance scaling

[oslecamo]

No further critiques, added.

[Concerned Ninja Citizen]

Yes, you tecnically carry with your back, but whitout a second pair of legs for stability or strong arms to help hold and balance stuff, you won't be carrying a lot.

For a human anatomy, sure. Human bodies are designed with arms in mind so removing them screws things up. Ostriches are not. Notice how the Abrian's weight distribution is completely different from that of a human. If anything, it should have a higher carrying capacity, not a lower one. It would probably have difficulty going down stairs, though.

Of course, if it's in the original monster writeup you should keep it. I shall direct my complaints to WotC.

[altpersona]

whose abrian was it?
abby something.
abby who?
abby normal, yes definetly abby normal.

[Prime32]

For the shriek, I'd suggest adding another +1d10 sonic damage for every 4 HD after 8. Also, make the joint shriek work more like "If two abrians shriek at the same time within the radius of each others' shrieks, their effective HD increases by 4 for determining their shrieks' effects. For every doubling after the first, increase the abrians' effective HD by another +4 (eg. eight abrians shrieking together would gain +12 effective HD)."

[oslecamo]

^All good ideas.