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WIP Maenad,Race ideas in need of feedback; Formerly: Race ideas in need of feedback
Topic Started: Oct 4 2015, 11:58 PM (253 Views)
Gnodgnid
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Depending on who you ask and depending on which individuals you'll meet, you will get a wildly contradictory picture of them. As a whole, Maenad are a contradictory. They are beings of extremes. Extremely driven people with a strong magnetic presence and burning curiosity, they can be found all across the wheel doing a variety of things. Rumours of their debauchery may have been slightly exagerated but definately has a basis in reality.

Physical Characteristics
Average Height: 1.5-2.0m
Average Weight: 70-125kg
Languages: Trade, Maenad
Common Personality Traits: Stoic, mercurial, passionate, flirty
Common Physical Traits: brightly colored skin, wild hair, tiny antenna, striking appearance
Example Names: ???

Racial Statistics
Characteristic Bonus: +1 to Fellowship or Intelligence
Skill Bonus: +1 to Charm and Perform
Power:
Size: 4

Racial Feat

Psychic Scream [Maenad]
Maenad can unleash a powerful scream which can be focused to send someone flying. A Maenad may cast Battering Ram, using their Level + Fellowship in place of the spell's normal Focus Power test.

Physical Qualities
On average, Maenad are tall and attractive people. Their skin tend toward bright colors, usually in the pink, red, purple or rarely orange range, with hair usually red or blue. A pair of small, thin, twitching and retractable antennas erupt near their hairline, usually hidden by their long, wild hair.

In terms of build, however, Maenad tend toward extremes; with males being rugged and women lithe or curvaceous. Those who don't fit those mold are equally striking, either by being almost fey-like in androginy or amazonian. Maenad simply don't do 'average' or 'boring'. However this also mean that ugly Maenad are indeed very, very ugly.

Playing a Maenad
How a Maenad act depend on wether or not he or she choose to contain the wild emotions of the race. Overall, as a race, Maenad are highly emotional people. Some Maenad, in order to better accomplish their tasks, willingly choose a life of emotional repression. As for the rest, they are an extremely loud bunch, living life to the fullest with a zest that often terrifies more relaxed species. When Maenad are having a good time they are having a REALLY good time and wish to share such passion with others. Angry Maenad, on the other hand, are a match for any ork in term of brutality and bloodlust.

Despite their wild emotions (or in spite of them), Maenad tend to be intelligent people, being blessed with a very strong sense of curiosity and adventure. It is easy to misunderstand Maenad as wild party animals when they can be quite intellectual, if only because intellectual stimulation count as stimulation.

Design Notes: The Maenad were originally written as the D&D race of the same name but I decided to expand on them by bringing up their mythological origin a tad more. At the same they were mixed with the Zeltron of Star Wars and Pathfinder's Lashunta. However where the Lashunta are simply sexually dimorphic, I made the Maenad simply extreme in appearance.

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Original post, for posterity:

Vedalken
For a few years, the Vedalken were Magic: The Gathering's primary blue humanoid race since Merfolk were too associated with water. For those who don't know, Vedalken are spindly, big brained blue-skinned humanoids. Now basically I was thinking combining them with the concept of 'grey' aliens, possibly drawing inspiration from the Fraal from the Alternity RPG (they also showed up in D20 Modern and Future) and the Salarian of Mass Effect. At the same time, the Vedalken of Mirrodin were known to have multiple arms so I was thinking mixing them with the Spellweavers of D&D who are also known as Annunaki...which also fits pretty well with the whole 'ancient alien' deal.

Current crunch idea: Heavy focus on mental capacities. I suppose if the Spellweaver aspect is emphasized they would focus even more on spells. I had a draft where their racial ability was to start with Education and Gifted (Mental) but perhaps that is a bit too overly focused.

Kalashtar
I've been considering porting the Kalashtar to DTD. For those who don't know what's a Kalashtar, they are the descendent of outsiders from the plane of dreams who merged with monks. The thing is, the monk then had children and the spirit inhabiting the monks were split and shared across their descendants. As a result, Kalashtar are a race that breed true. They oppose their evil counterpart, the Inspired. I was considering making the Kalashtar a race with ties to the Daemonhost exaltation without them needing to be Daemonhosts (althought a Daemonhost Kalashtar is hilarious because you got the human mind, the lingering ancestral daemon and the quite living daemon in there). Alternatively (and perhaps more fittingly) they and the Inspired could be a form of Syrne spirit similar to the Atlantean. I mean, Quori sounds a lot like Ori, when you think about it, so there's some potential Stargate inspiration in there. Hell they're both malevolent, incorporeal and have engineered slaves.
Edited by Gnodgnid, Oct 6 2015, 10:16 PM.
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weredrago2
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He Who Posts Too Much
We already had a "More Races" thread. You don't need to delete this, but you might want to put future ideas in need of feedback there or in the Book 3 thread.

As for ideas, I don't think I know enough about the source material of either race to provide legitimate help at the moment.
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Gnodgnid
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Updated the first post and topic to reflect the current WIP, the Maenad race.

Current WIP crunch ideas:

  • Decide what their racial power is; telepathy (from the Lashunta and Zeltron) or psychic scream (Maenad). I suppose the other could become a racial feat.
  • Alternatively (or adding to that) they gain the Androgynous, Appearance or Dangerous Beauty Asset.

I should probably point out in the writeup that they're likely to NOT get along with the Dryad due to each other's shtick.
Edited by Gnodgnid, Oct 6 2015, 07:56 PM.
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weredrago2
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He Who Posts Too Much
That starting paragraph lacks a subject. That is, people reading it won't know what you're talking about unless they read the topic. Starting it with "Who are the Maenad?" will remedy that.

Telepathy can be represented by the spell Message. I think Sload have that as one of their racial feats. Those assets could also work for them.
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Gnodgnid
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Everything in the text writeup is technically placeholder, at least the exact wording but yes I'll fix that.
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