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Axani & Cansin vs. Chaond & Zenythri ?

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Sun, 2005-08-14 03:08
#1
Nemui
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Axani & Cansin vs. Chaond & Zenythri ?

Apparently, we have two separate sets of Chaos and Law planetouched.

Axani (Law) and Cansin (Chaos) are from Dragon #297.

Chaond (Chaos) and Zenythri (Law) are from the Monster Manual II, and they are also included in the .rtf release of PSCS's races chapter.

Which pair do you all prefer? Me, I'm undecided, possibly because IMG I edited them all to an extent, so I'm not 100% sure on their exact characteristics.

Does anyone have an idea how we could fit both pairs into the setting? I guess the Limb0-side doesn't need such a rationalization, but having two very similar unexplicably Law-touched races is too much for me...

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Sun, 2005-08-14 10:19
#2
Fidrikon
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Axani & Cansin vs. Chaond & Zenythri ?

Easy, you just make a similar chain to that of the fiendish descended and the Celestial descended.

Half-celestial to aasimar, Half-fiend to Tiefling, just makes the Axani and Cansin more infused.

You can do this in two ways:
Have it so Axani are heavily insfused with law, and their offspring become Zenythri
OR
When two Zenythri have kids, their lawful natures combine, makeing the child more lawful infused then either parent. This makes the Axani far more rare.

As for their powers, make the Cansin/Axani more powerful, give them similar abilities to those of the half-celestials/half-fiends. Just dont give them wings. The Cansin, you might be able to get away with, if a small precentage of them have wings. But i dont see any reason why the Axani would have wings.

In fact, If this idea isn't shot out of the sky, I would like to know where I might find the stats for the existing Anaxi and Cansin. I dont know if Dragon articles have a website or not. If not, Ill have to start them from scratch.

Sun, 2005-08-14 12:31
(Reply to #2) #3
ripvanwormer
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Axani & Cansin vs. Chaond & Zenythri ?

'Nemui' wrote:
Does anyone have an idea how we could fit both pairs into the setting?

That's easy. Zenythri are the descendents of humans and mercanes (according to Ed Bonny, who invented the zenythri - he says he just wasn't allowed to say so in the book because mercanes weren't core). Axani are the descendents of humans and creatures with the axiomatic template.

There's even a third group of lawful planetouched - mechanatrixes, from Fiend Folio. They seem to be (somehow) the descendents of humans and modrons.

Chaonds are humans who (somehow) have slaad blood.

Cansin are humans with the blood of anarchic creatures.

Sun, 2005-08-14 12:54
(Reply to #3) #4
Nemui
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Axani & Cansin vs. Chaond & Zenythri ?

'ripvanwormer' wrote:
That's easy. Zenythri are the descendents of humans and mercanes (according to Ed Bonny, who invented the zenythri - he says he just wasn't allowed to say so in the book because mercanes weren't core).

:shock:

So he just made them scions of law instead? (Well, come to think of it, nothing in MM II defines them as such, except the fact that they're right next to the chaond... it's mostly PSCS that made them "law-touched")

Or is there supposed to be some hint of mercane blood left in the MM II description? If so, I can't find any. With all the perfection seeking, they sound more like descendents of parai and humans.

It seems PS3E needs to make some changes in the races chapter...

Sun, 2005-08-14 13:08
(Reply to #4) #5
Nemui
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Axani & Cansin vs. Chaond & Zenythri ?

'ripvanwormer' wrote:
There's even a third group of lawful planetouched - mechanatrixes, from Fiend Folio.

Yeah, it seems just about every WotC employee wanted to take a shot at designing a planetouched race. Monsters of Faerun has "elven tieflings" and "orc tieflings" (fey'ri and tanar'ruk), but I think we can safely ignore those...

(BTW, mechanatrixes could also be descendents of humans and inevitables... not much more of a stretch then modron-human crossbreeding)

Let me rephrase my original question: Which two planetouched races do you think should be included in the Races chapter of PSCS in addition to the aasimar, tieflings, tuladhara, and genasi?

Obviously, we need a chaos-touched and a law-touched race, so it pretty much comes down to the choices I offered above (plus the ugly mechanatrix, I guess).

Sun, 2005-08-14 21:46
(Reply to #5) #6
Korimyr the Rat
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Axani & Cansin vs. Chaond & Zenythri ?

I prefer Zenythri and Chaonds-- they just struck me as more thematically appropriate, and the Axani and Cansin were just... too human.

As for how Zenythri came about, I've got no clue, though powerful Axiomatic creatures might be involved. I hammered out a rough (real rough) Half-Modron template, but I'm pretty sure that's more of a freak accident than a... well, freak coupling. Also gotta remember, there's no reason why Baatezu or Archons couldn't spawn Zenythri instead of Tieflings and Aasimar, respectively.

While Chaonds seem to have strong Slaad influences, they also sound a lot like the description of Anarchic creatures from Manual of the Planes. Rough, crude, and "unfinished"... And there's actually a half-good reason for Half-Slaad. Slaad fever can be recovered from without magical healing-- essentially, the host body fights off and absorbs the infection without lasting harm to itself.

Doesn't say anything about their offspring.

Sun, 2005-08-14 22:20
(Reply to #6) #7
Rhys
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Axani & Cansin vs. Chaond & Zenythri ?

I prefer axani and cansin. They're not really any more "human" than tieflings and aasimar are. Chaonds and zenythri didn't fall into the established planetouched pattern that the two most famous types set up, with their screwy ability modifiers and such. If it weren't for those silly copyright laws, I'd post the stats for cansin and axani.

There are all kinds of ways to come up with a planetouched heritage besides having a modron or a slaad for a grandfather. Once, I made a character who had been attacked by parai and partially transformed before he was killed and revived. If I were playing him now, I might use a lawful planetouched race to represent that.

Sun, 2005-08-14 23:37
(Reply to #7) #8
ripvanwormer
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Axani & Cansin vs. Chaond & Zenythri ?

'Nemui' wrote:
So he just made them scions of law instead?

My guess is that mercanes were the only lawful outsiders he could think of that could reasonably reproduce with humans.

Mon, 2005-08-15 01:15
(Reply to #8) #9
ripvanwormer
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Axani & Cansin vs. Chaond & Zenythri ?

'Nemui' wrote:
(BTW, mechanatrixes could also be descendents of humans and inevitables... not much more of a stretch then modron-human crossbreeding).

I suppose that's true (especially with the touchstone in the Planar Handbook that implants mortals with inevitable parts). It's the fact that the book calls them "bizarre clockwork beings" instead of spelling out exactly what they are that reeks of WotC's standard way of dealing with modrons. There are inevitables in Fiend Folio, so they could have easily enough referenced them if that's what they meant, but modrons they have to tiptoe around.

Tue, 2005-08-16 01:52
(Reply to #9) #10
nick012000
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Axani & Cansin vs. Chaond & Zenythri ?

Modrons aren't immune to polymorph, are they?

Just imagine all the lonely, horny female mages out there on Mechanus, with only modrons for company...

Tue, 2005-08-16 15:32
(Reply to #10) #11
Fidrikon
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Axani & Cansin vs. Chaond & Zenythri ?

aaaaaanyway, I realize that, given new information, these stats are prbably worthless. But if you ever need a half-law exemplar/ Half-chaos exemplar, feel free to use these. Call them cansin and Axani if you want. If not, make up your own name.

Half-law exemplar

Abilities: STR+4 Dex+2 CON+4 INT+2 WIS 4 CHA+4
Speed: same as base creature
Natural armor +1
Special attacks: Smite Chaos once per day
Spell like abilities:
HD 1-2 Protection from chaos 3/day
HD 3-4 calm emotions
HD 5-6 orders wrath
HD 7-8 Enoll Eva's Duplication
HD 9-10 dispel chaos
HD 11-12 Dictum
HD 13-14 shield of law
HD 15-16 hold monster
HD 17-18 summon monster IX (law only)
HD 19-20 mechanus cannon
Special qualities:
darkvision 60
immune to poison
fire 10, cold 10, shock 10
Damage reduction 5/magic or 10/magic if over 12 HD
Spell resist: equalt to 10 +HD (max 35)
Skills: A half law exemplar gains a number of skill points equal to (8+int) x (Racial hit die + 3)
Level adjustment +3

Half-chaos exemplar

Abilities: STR+2 Dex+4 CON+2 INT+4 WIS 2 CHA+2
Speed: same as base creature
Natural armor +1
Special attacks: Smite law once per day
Spell like abilities:
HD 1-2 Protection from law 3/day
HD 3-4 shatter
HD 5-6 chaos hammer
HD 7-8 Xaandar's Wonderous orbs
HD 9-10 dispel law
HD 11-12 word of chaos
HD 13-14 cloak of chaos
HD 15-16 animate objects
HD 17-18 summon monster IX (chaos only)
HD 19-20 felldoranthus's jigsaw
Special qualities:
darkvision 60
immune to disiese
acid 10, shock 10, sonic 10
Damage reduction 5/magic or 10/magic if over 12 HD
Spell resist: equalt to 10 +HD (max 35)
Skills: A half chaos exemplar gains a number of skill points equal to (8+int) x (Racial hit die + 3)
Level adjustment +3

Tue, 2005-08-16 19:43
(Reply to #11) #12
Korimyr the Rat
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Axani & Cansin vs. Chaond & Zenythri ?

'Rhys' wrote:
Chaonds and zenythri didn't fall into the established planetouched pattern that the two most famous types set up, with their screwy ability modifiers and such.

This didn't bother me as much-- I just house-ruled modifiers I liked better and called it even. Had to fix the Tiefling's stats anyway, so I ended up upgunning all of the planetouched a little bit.

Wed, 2005-08-31 14:31
(Reply to #12) #13
Spragg
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Axani & Cansin vs. Chaond & Zenythri ?

Axani and Cansin were definitely more interesting to me. They were more flexible, and had more interesting abilities... and much better art, of course (been loving Todd Harris' art in Dragon, when it pops up). I always liked the fact you can't really stereotype aasimar or tieflings too much - I had an aasimar character based on the cervidal guardinals, and thusly looked almost like a stereotypical tiefling. Eye-wink Saying 'all chaos-touched are gooey green folks' doesn't really grab me.

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