Okay, so I already tweeted Sciborg about this, but I didn't really explain it.
Recently I picked up Pathfinder's Advanced Races Guide, a collaboration of many great minds included our own resident fiendish crosstrader. The entire thing is awesome in and of itself, but the race creator is particularly fun, and I promptly went about converting things like ogres and gnolls to LA 0 races to add some diversity to my Eberron games. A few days ago, I started to convert some of the obscurer races with mythological ties for my planescape games in word doc so it could be easily shared with my players for their perusal. I hit on the idea that it might be something interesting for PW to host, but the problem is I have nowhere near the time to do all the conversions or to organize a project on my own.
That's when a lightbulb went on earlier tonight.
What I propose is a simple article in each fanzine that showcases a planer race that would normally only be playable at high levels. We give a simplified version of it that could be playable with no LA in Pathfinder or with +1 LA in 3.X. It would not be an exact copy of the original, but mimic some key abilities to give the flavour of that race without being unbalancing while opening some interesting options.
So what would this look like, Oh Watcher in the Deep? How could this be incorporating into the next issue?
I'm glad you asked...
Simplified Hound Archon
* +2 Strength, +2 Wisdom, -2 Int. Hound Archons are powerful warriors and spiritual guides, but they are doers, not thinkers.
* Outsider: Hound Archons do not need to eat or sleep (although they can do so if they wish). Hound Archons are proficiant with all simple and martial weapons. Hound Archons can only be restored to life through limited wish, wish, miracle, or true resurrection. Hound Archons are native to Mount Celestia.
* Medium: As Medium creatures, cyclopeans have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size.
* Hound Archon base land speed is 30 feet.
* Darkvision: Hound Archon can see in the dark up to 60 feet. Darkvision is black and white only, but it is otherwise like normal sight. Hound Archons function fine with no light at all.
* Skill Training: Hound Archons are used to operating independently to sneak up on enemies. They alway treat Stealth and Survival as class skills.
* Spell-like Ability: At-Will - Beast Shape I (canines only)
* Automatic Languages: Planer Trade and Archon. Bonus Languages: Celestial, Draconic, Eladrin, Guardianal, Infernal, Modron
Obviously not the same as an actual Hound Archon, and I or someone else would need to write up the racial description still, but it gives you an idea of what I mean, and I for one am quite pleased with it. I was also thinking we could give a sample NPC using the simplified stats that might be a bit out of usual stereotype for that race, such as a Hound Archon Oracle.
What do you guys think?
Good stuff. I'm happy to put it into Issue 2. We can put it in as an addendum to the main celestial's article, or if people think we can find artwork for it put it in as a completely separate article.
Speaking for myself, one of these in every issue sounds great but we just need to make sure we have artwork for them.
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