ethnology Archives - GMS Magazine

Fehr’s Ethnology: Dhosari

June 19, 2012 by Paco G. Jaen

This pdf from Purple Duck Games is 11 pages long, 1/2 a page editorial/artwork, 3.5 pages of SRD/advertisement, leaving 7 pages of content for the Dhosari, so what exactly are they?

Dhosari get +2 to Str, +2 to Cha, -4 to Wis, are large and have an upper Torso extending from the shoulders of a fully sized human body, have a base-speed of 30 ft. and since they move on their legs and 2 of their arms, they gain +4 CMD against trip, +2 to climb and perform, may bond with an ally to gain +1 on atk against an aggressor of the ward and may rear up on their hind-legs as a full-round action to bring all 4 arms to bear, taking a penalty of -1 to ability checks and attacks. Fluff-wise, the Dhosari are the slaves of the Erkunae.

The race gets 4 well-balanced race traits, 6 alternate racial traits (making e.g. the Dhosari faster, but unable to rear) and 7 new racial feats: From exotic weapon proficiencies to the ability to trample foes, carry two shields when rearing and even serving as a mount, One feat takes the cake, though: Dance of arms grants you ANOTHER attack when using a full attack and flurrying and standing on the legs – at -2. I’m not sure whether the penalty is cumulative with flurry of blows. 4 arms. Multiattack, flurry of blows – SICK.

We get a discussion of the race and its take on classes and 7 favored class options as well as a level 1 sample paladin. Since the Dhosari are quadribrachial, paladins of the race can gain a kind of biped eidolon at summoner level -2,while cavaliers get a heroic npc with class-levels equivalent to a druid’s companion’s HD. This takes a powerful race bordering on broken and makes it sickeningly powerful. Not gonna happen in my campaign – ever. In contrast to regular animal companions/mounts, these companions have a much higher chance of getting appropriate weapons and gear and eidolons are powerful for the summoner – to supplement the already powerful paladin-class utterly breaks this option for me.

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are ok, I didn’t notice jarring glitches, although I would have e.g. liked the flavour-text of the feats to be in italics in order to better separate it from the crunch and felt that formatting could have been tighter. Layout adheres to PDG’s 2-column standard and the pdf has no bookmarks, which is a pity. The one piece of artwork is nice, though you may already know it from Monsters Unleashed. The Dhosari are a cool concept indeed – the basic idea for this strange race of slave creatures is awesome and the cost of a full-round action for rearing up and bringing all four arms to bear is nice.

However, I feel a further restriction would be in order for the 2 additional arms, especially with the racial feats and e.g. a monk-class , they make for a deadly PC – especially since rearing up does not cancel the stability of the race. The cost for rearing up and which penalties are cumulative are fuzzy, at least for me: Is the penalty for rearing up cumulative with the -5 or -2 penalty for secondary natural weapons? What about the Dance of Arms-feat? Do the penalties stack? What about flurry of blows and the interaction with the feat? Especially with a rule that is such a hotbed of rules-interpretation/clarification, an additional section helping the player would not only have been helpful, but rather all but required, at least in my opinion. And then there are the Paladin/Cavalier-options, which are SICK. Eidolons are powerful, but giving a four-armed paladin an eidolon-rider is insane.

That’s also my basic gripe with the race – the Dhosari are VERY powerful – too powerful for my conservative tastes. Also: Can they e.g. wear a magical ring on all 4 hands? Being quadruped and gaining access to a whole slew of potentially game-changing moves (4 magic weapons…) in addition to the ability to use two shield bonuses and stack them, there are oh so many ways with which to abuse them – If you build a Dhosari-tank, you’ll see your foes CRINGE. That being said, as a monster-race, I can see DMs having fun with this. As a player-race, though, I’d rather eat the core-rules before I allow them as written. My final verdict will thus be two scores: 3 stars as a DM-monster-race, 2 stars as a player-race. My final verdict will reflect the latter due to them being intended as a player-race.

Endzeitgeist out.

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Fehr’s Ethnology: Hhundi

April 30, 2012 by Paco G. Jaen

By Thilo Graf

The second installment of Fehr’s Ethnologies from Purple Duck Games is 8 pages long, 1/2 page artwork/editorial, 1 page SRD and 1 page advertisement, leaving about 5 1/2 pages of content for the Hhundi, so let’s check them out!

First, something to note: If you play with Germans or any speakers of German, you’ll have to rename these. “Hundi” is roughly the equivalent to (cute) “doggy” and my players would have burst from laughter. Oh well, onwards to the new race!

Hhundi are crouched monstrous humanoids, get +2 to Dex and Wis, -2 to Cha, darkvision, light sensitivity, scent, natural claw attacks for 1d4, the ability to cast reduce person on themselves and a natural armour bonus of +1.

The Hhundi are a race of stalkers and hunter, not entirely benevolent, but neither bestail, just…welll…somewhat alien. They lay eggs, have some interesting social protocols. The ecology-section per se is well-written. The Hhundi get 4 race traits that don’t feel overpowered and specific enough to make the race flavourful. & alternate racial traits are also part of the deal and range from less penalties when using stealth while moving fast, to negating scent (via a new spell aslo included in the pdf) and I liked most of them – one, though, is severely over-powered: Wary defender replaces scent and lets you roll each perception-check twice, taking the better result. That’s stronger than most FEATS, let alone traits! Not gonna happen!

Speaking of feats: The 4 new ones herein are neat, one in particular, which enables the hhundi to temporarily become small, is neat indeed. The pdf also covers how the race views classes and features favoured class alternatives for 8 different classes.

The sample Hhundi is actually…a gunslinger! Yes, you heard right! Hhundi love the black powder and a masterwork backpack as well as the crude Hhundi silencer are included with their stats – cool supplemental material and the seeming contradiction in the race and the fondness for technology makes them more interesting.

Conclusion:

editing and formatting are top-notch, I didn’t notice any significant glitches. Layout adheres to PDG’s rather printer-friendly 2-column standard and comes with full bookmarks. The artwork of the Hhundi is nice. Apart from the stupid name, I did actually enjoy the race quite a bit – the Hhundi are not easily pinned down into a stereotype and offer a wide array of roleplaying possibilities without dissolving into featurelessness. Rules-wise, they are also rather solid and, with the notable exceptions mentioned above, neither too powerful, nor too weak. On the other hand, said rules are there and feel a bit off and quite frankly, I would have loved to see a bit more on the products they create, as goods say a lot about a culture. The race unfortunately lacks an age, height and weight table. The low price is a plus, but as written; I can’t go higher than 3 stars on this one – check it out if the idea of some strange stalking race intrigues you!

Endzeitgeist out.

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Fehr’s Ethnology: Ith’n Ya’roo

April 22, 2012 by Paco G. Jaen

By Thilo Graf

This pdf from Purple Duck Games is 8 pages long, 1 page SRD and 1/2 a page artwork and editorial, leaving 6 1/2 pages of content for the Ith’n Ya’roo…so what exactly are these beings?

The Ith’n Ya’roo are an interesting new race that capitalizes on a the idea of regression – via mating with yetis, humans have transformed into these strange humanoids. If you now expect another evil culture to abhor, you’ll be in for a surprise, though – the Ith’n Ya’roo are actually epitomes of the noble savage, being mostly LG and suitable as a PC-race. While their customs include cannibalism, there is no taboo in being eaten and in fact, the usage of one’s bones in the crafting of a tribe is considered to be a great honor, especially for weapons – for the Ith’n Ya’roo are perhaps the best bonecrafters in the known world – thus rules for bone weapons and armour are part of the deal.

The horned, tall, shaggy-furred Ith’n Ya’roo get +2 Str and Wis, -4 Int, are monstrous humanoids, medium, gain darkvision, +2 natural armour, hooked horns for a 1d6-natural attack, resistance to cold 5, vulnerability to fire, a bonus on craft checks related to bone and the ability to cast a new spell from this pdf 2/day. While they are fearsome-looking and culturally limited, I think DMs should be careful when allowing such a PC – over all, their abilities seem to be very strong and should be balanced via social stigmata or the like.

ESPECIALLY when using one of the 4 racial traits, or 6 alternate racial traits, some of which are simply OP: Yaroo Bloodspear grants you the Splintering Weapon FEAT. Trait. Feat. There’s supposed to be a difference in power, isn’t there?. Worse, the Blue Hair alternate trait makes them IMMUNE AGAINST COLD. A trait. Immunity against one whole energy type. At first level. Not gonna happen in my game. Ever. Another trait, where I doubt the usability, is Growler: You sacrifice your starting languages for a 1d3 bite attack. that’s worse than the horns. And it’s not clear whether this is a primary or secondary natural attack. Either way, it doesn’t do enough damage when compared to the attack the race already has. The ability to use a trait to cast icicle dagger and shield simultaneously is also to powerful for a trait. Or it would be if it specified what action this special casting takes – the information is missing.

The 4 racial feats, when compared to the traits, fall almost insultingly flat and range from an ice-based version of stonecunning to using Wis as governing attribute for two of your knowledge skills. Especially when directly compared to the traits, these feats feel like they are actually too weak. We also get 8 favoured class alternatives, a discussion on how they relate to classes, but no information on an age, height and weight table, which is a bummer. Instead we get another trait, 2 spells (an icicle dagger and one to reinforce temporarily brittle bone equipment) and a sample NPC.

Said sample NPC, I gladly admit, is my favourite piece of the pdf – an Ith’n Ya’roo alchemist who uses acid-filled bladders instead of exploding flasks and who is a refreshingly non-optimized build. If I do use them in my campaign, I’ll be sure to include this cool alchemist.

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are very good, though some rules need clarification. Layout adheres to PDG’s printer-friendly 2-column standard and also features a truly beautiful full-colour artwork I didn’t expect to see at this price-point. The pdf comes fully bookmarked, which is another plus. I’m kinda torn on the Ith’n Ya’roo – on the one hand, I love how the fear of degenerating into something wild has been married to the stereotype of the noble savage and what I could glean from their culture interested me. However, their bonecrafting remains somewhat underutilized and, moreover, the race suffers from what I’d call a bit wonky balancing – as written, a DM should be willing to put some stones in the way of the Ith’n Ya’roo PC in order to counteract the increased power when compared to the core-races. And then there are the broken traits. And I mean BROKEN. I like powerful traits that matter, I really do. But they have to be restricted in order to remain what they are supposed to be. Good examples would be RiP’s “101 Pirate & Privateer”-traits. In contrast, the Ith’n Ya’roo traits are almost ridiculously powerful, while their racial feats frankly suck. All in all, I’m missing the crucial age, height and weight-table (when do they crash through the ice?), perhaps some unique items and some fleshing out of the whole culture (what about starting wealth?). On the other hand, the pdf is very cheap. Going over it again and again, I can’t bring myself to rate this higher than 2.5 stars, though – there are too many mechanical hick-ups that add up and tarnish the per se great idea of the race. Unfortunately, I feel like I have to round down for that one.

Endzeitgeist out.

Fehr’s Ethnology: Ith’n Ya’roo is available from:

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