One Random Race

[icyshadowlord]

Okay, I might have posted an earlier version of this race before, but it was on a messily made thread (understatement of the year) and was placed there alongside other races I had made. So, here it is again, my own take on the Holstaurus (I would rather call them Holstaurs myself), stat-wise.

If you have no idea what this race is, it's basically a D&D version of this thing. http://www.interbutt.org/plog-content/i ... 00056b.png

Holstaur

+2 Strength, -2 Dexterity.

Type: Humanoid (Holstaur)

Medium: As medium creatures, cowgirls have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size.

Holstaur base land speed is 30 feet.

Darkvision: Holstaurs can see in the dark up to 60 feet.

Natural weapon: Gore (1d6). If the holstaur charges, her gore attack deals 2d6 points of damage, plus 1½ times her Strength modifier. A holstaur can attack with a weapon at her normal attack bonus and make a gore attack as a secondary attack (-5 penalty on the attack roll, and half Strength bonus on the damage roll).

Powerful Build (Ex): Same as the Goliath and Half-Giant ability.

+2 racial bonus on Listen, Search and Spot checks.

+2 racial bonus on Diplomacy and Bluff checks.

-2 racial penalty on Move Silently and Climb checks. Also insert some fluff bullcrap concerning shoes and horseshoes because of the hooves.

Minotaur Cunning (Ex): +4 bonus on Intelligence checks to escape Maze spells as well as having the ability to detemine which way is north automatically.

Automatic Languages: Common, Giant. Bonus Languages: Abyssal, Dwarven, Gnoll, Goblin, Terran and Undercommon.

Favored Class: Any.

Level Adjustment: +0

So yeah, is this thing too strong, or too weak? I know a penalty to Dexterity is kinda bad, and the penalty on Move Silently only makes it worse.

Edited a few times.

[CatharzGodfoot]

I'm not sure what to make of this. Very little of your D&D stat block reflects the given description, but I'm not sure that you would want it to (e.g. where's the magic milk?)....

For D&D, you might be better served by making it an LA 0 minotaur and mentioning that it's an actual species with male and female members, and that appearance ranges from fully cow headed to human headed with cow horns and ears, as well as from human legs to cow legs. For that, your current write up works pretty well. If you wanted to go all 2e on it, there could be different skill modifiers for all four variants.

[RobbyPants]

So yeah, is this thing too strong, or too weak? I know a penalty to Dexterity is kinda bad, and the penalty on Move Silently only makes it worse.

What's the LA on this thing? If it's not listed, I'll assume it's +0.

It's strictly better than goliaths and half-giants without the LA, but those races are over-priced at LA+1.

In terms of playing a low-level fighter or barbarian, it's better than core races, but it's not super-overpowered. The gore attack is cute and all, but even on a charge, it preforms as well as a medium-sized greatsword, so it's not like you're getting away with anything special there.

Really, the strongest thing about it is being able to deal 3d6+6 damage at level 1 (assuming a natural 16 in the Str score). Sure, that's 16.5 damage on average at level 1, but a human wiht the same stats is dealing 2d6+4 (11 on average) and they get a bonus feat. Either way, you're still one-hit killing stuff each hit. The only real difference is their base weapon damage stays in the one-hit-kill range about one level longer than a human.

At the end of the day, it's probably fine as-is.

[icyshadowlord]

I'm not sure what to make of this. Very little of your D&D stat block reflects the given description, but I'm not sure that you would want it to (e.g. where's the magic milk?)....

For D&D, you might be better served by making it an LA 0 minotaur and mentioning that it's an actual species with male and female members, and that appearance ranges from fully cow headed to human headed with cow horns and ears, as well as from human legs to cow legs. For that, your current write up works pretty well. If you wanted to go all 2e on it, there could be different skill modifiers for all four variants.

I said this was MY take on the race (they are NOT the same as the ones from the MGE), and I decided not to throw the fluff around in a thread about the game mechanics. I didn't mention the milk or anything because the DM would have NEVER let me play it with the explanation "play a race, not a fetish" and such. It's not helped by the fact that people I play D&D with do NOT want to change the Minotaur from the bull-headed being into anything else, because they say "it wouldn't be a minotaur anymore".

Oh, and I added the Level Adjustment now, and it should be a +0.

[icyshadowlord]

Apologies for the double post, but nobody ever addressed the question "should I switch that Strength bonus to a Wisdom one".

[...You Lost Me]

The flavor here suggests (beyond that ridiculous number of racial bonuses to skills) a strong race, so I think a +2 Str is better. +2 Wis would just make this the choice of all clerics everywhere (wisdom bonus. bigger weapons, skill bonuses, and 2 penalties I couldn't give a fuck about? Hell yeah!)

[icyshadowlord]

Point taken. And I wondered if the skill bonuses were too much but then I looked at some other races and thought it might not be that bad, since Mongrelfolk get bonuses to fucking everything, and Minotaurs actually get +4 to Listen, Search and Spot so it makes sense to me.

As for an earlier mention on why they're different from the Monster Girl Encyclopedia entry...how the hell am I supposed to make a write-up of that magic milk? ...and how am I going to make it without feeling horribly dirty? (Bottle of magic milk as a magic item?)

[CatharzGodfoot]

Use lesser restoration as a spell-like ability Con times per day (normal casting time). Castings can be 'bottled' for later and remain effective for one day (one week with proper refrigeration).

But seriously, why the bonus to Diplomacy and Bluff?

[...You Lost Me]

But seriously, why the bonus to Diplomacy and Bluff?

They're cows. Everybody trusts cows.

[CatharzGodfoot]

But seriously, why the bonus to Diplomacy and Bluff?

They're cows. Everybody trusts cows.

Yeah right. They're clearly up to something. This one knows we're onto them:

[Darth Rabbitt]

But seriously, why the bonus to Diplomacy and Bluff?

They're cows. Everybody trusts cows.

Yeah right. They're clearly up to something. This one knows we're onto them:

It's going to do something like this when we least expect it.

[evary]

great picture ...