Magical Animals of West Panfalia (DIY DnDish Race)

Panfalia is full of many of the "normal" animals we know here on Earth. Many of them talk, but otherwise are as an Earthling would expect. Sometimes in Panfalia, however, they get magical powers from silly stuff like magical radiation fields or tree sap or some junk. These seem to gain a fairly standard set of magical abilities, and often go adventuring. While their powers are helpful, they are also sometimes weird to be around.

STRETCHY

Magical Animals can stretch their limbs all crazy n stuff. Just lookit that chart down below! And like, a 3rd level Raccoon could stretch both his feet like 7.5 feet each, or like one foot 10 feet and one arm five feet, or whatever! Above and beyond how long an arm is already!

They can even stretch further than that, but it's pretty dangerous. For every 5 feet (cumulative among all limbs) they stretch beyond what's in the chart, they take one higher die of damage, starting at 1d4. Like if that third level Raccoon stretched his arm 20 feet, or 5 feet more than his safety zone, he'd take 1d4 damage. Another 5 feet, 1d6 damage! and so on, up to d20 damage for stretching 30 extra feet. But each die is rolled, too, so 30 feet would actually do 1d4+1d6+1d8+1d10+1d12+1d20 damage to the poor kid! Silly Raccoon.

GROWING

These crazy critters can grow and shrink, too! Size categories are given at the levels they are gained on the chart as compared to regular animals. The character's Strength score is affected - shrinking a size is -2 and growing a size is +2. Them's the breaks!

FALLING SLOWLY

They can stretch out to catch the wind and fall slower than usual, preventing falling damage at certain heights. They gotta choose this one OR limb stretching, though, doing both is like stretching extra, hurtful. They can also keep pals outa trouble, although the distance is reduced by 5 feet for every pal they have along. Hey lookit the table below! Yeah I called it Feather Fall, like the spell you should look at if this ability confuses you!

AC

Take a seat, I'm about to tell you some hard truths about life. Clothes? Armor? Jewelry? That stuff won't grow, shrink, or stretch with you! Bummer! Most animals don't wear them at all. 

Luckily, magical animals, being all mushy, can resist some damage on their own. They like hats. Hats seem to be easier to keep on.

SLEEPING

Magical Animals must sleep 10 hours of every 24 to benefit from ANY KIND of healing. They don't have to do it all at once, though. They can even sleep while other folks carry them around! How helpful.

by SilverFox5213 on  DeviantArt

NATURAL ATTACKS

Start at 1d4. It goes up a die for every size category you grow. Grow grow grow! Then shrinks again as you shrink. Getting smaller than your normal size gets you a whopping -1 to damage per size category. You don't ever do negative damage though, that's silly!

Some Species and Classes of Panfalia (DnDish DIY Race and Class)

The madness continues. Note that the base system is Lamentations of the Flame Princess, but I am altering things to separate Race and Class. I'm call Race "Species" and adding an XP tax, essentially.

Species of Panfalia

Tiefling

The offspring of a human and...anything else, pretty much. They are commonly the angsty "straight man" to the humor and optimism of the average Panfalian. Occasionally a Tiefling will end up just as jovial and earnest as the rest.

XP Requirements: 

Level Gained		XP Needed Above Class Norm
2		1000
3		1500
4		2000
5		3000
6		4000
7		5500
8		7000
9		10000
9	+	none; advance as class

Special:
•Roll 1d4 times on the Tiefling Appearance Chart

•Roll 5 times on the Tiefling Ability Table or 1d4 times on the Chaos Attributes Chart. Let me know if you have trouble interpreting your result as something LotFPish.

•Any Ability result on either table can be discarded for a roll on the Tiefling Special Side Effects Table.

•You may not choose your result at any time; if you play a Tiefling, you must leave your initial abilities to chance.

(click to make it bigger.)

Octopoid

Octopus - inspired by +Michael Curtis 's blog entry here.

You are an Octopus. You can breathe both air and water. You probably live on land, even in a town, but probably have relatives that still live in the water - either at the base of the fearsome Sea Mount, or in the Ocean of Incompletion. Your head rises about 4' off the ground, and if you stretched out rrreeeeaaaalllllyyyyy far, your tentacles would be about 10' in diameter.

While there are Octopi of many types, the Octopi of Panfalia are generally known for their dry wit and luxurious taste. They will often adventure to gain fabulous riches, then blow it all on lavish furnishings and a lush (but tasteful) party. They are afraid of mustaches, however.

An Octopi's Stealth skill increases naturally as they age - this is reflective of their natural camouflage, getting better at mimicking their surroundings. Likewise, their ability to use the suction cups on their tentacles to climb. As they get martial experience and their balance improves, Octopi learn to balance on fewer tentacles and use more for activities like attacking. This does not allow those of spell-casting classes to cast more than 1 spell in a round, however.
Octopi have malleable bodies, allowing them to fit through small spaces. The lack of an internal skeleton makes them less structurally sound of course, and they may only carry half of what a human of similar ability scores could. Also, all armor must be especially made for the Octopus, and costs 10x the usual amount.
Note the addition XP required to reach each level above that required by the Octopus's class.


Octorok - Pretty much copying Rey's version here.

This species of Octopoid left the water long ago, and have developed some odd adaptations! They only have four tentacles, and their bodies occasionally produce an internal rock - which they can eject with great velocity! These rocks have a range of 40', and firing one takes the Octorok's entire round. Add any bonuses that would normally apply to projectile weapons.

An Octorok may attack with a bare tentacle for 1d4 damage. Octoroks can re-roll a miss in melee combat if a second tentacle holds a weapon or is free. They must balance on at least two tentacles at all times.

An Octorok can leap 10' high from standing, and leap twice their normal move if they haven't fired a rock this round.

Octoroks may carry normal shields, but can only wear specially made armor that costs 10x the usual amount. 

They have something of a rivalry with Octopi, but it is more of a bickering, one-upsmanship relationship than outright fighting. 

Vat Spawn

Pretty much as written here by Jeremy Duncan (who drew the picture above) or in Secret Santicore 2011 (I know they are slightly different). They require the same additional XP to reach each level as Tieflings do.

XP Requirements: 

Level Gained		XP Needed Above Class Norm
2		1000
3		1500
4		2000
5		3000
6		4000
7		5500
8		7000
9		10000
9	+	none; advance as class

To be written in the future: Magical Animals (think Jake from Adventure Time, but he's like level 10).

Classes of Panfalia

The long peace of the Beast-King has led to a proliferation of information and a complicated network of apprenticeships across Species boundaries. Any species above (plus Humans and Magical Animals) may be any Class.

Yon Squire

Fighter, Specialist as LotFP. No Magic Users or Clerics.

Ranger as LotFP Halfling, but as a class.

Battle Princess, Murder Princess - As written by +Reynaldo Madriñan here.

Rune Knight - As written by +Ramanan S here.

Blue Mage - As written by +Courtney Campbell here.

Shaman - Two types:

Dream Hunter as written by +Patrick Stuart here. I can feel him cringing at "Dream Hunter".

Goblin Enchantress by +Benjamin Baugh and +Cédric Plante here.

EDIT: can't forget Alices as written by +Zak Smith and featured in A Red And Pleasant Land. Panfalia has those, too.

Gelatinous Cube (PC Class for D&Dish games)

I'm sure this has been done before. When I'm inspired I gotta jump on it, however irrelevant to my ongoing projects. I have a few race/classes to write up this and next week that have potential cosmological implications for your game, should you allow them. Players, ask the DM before playing one of these in their game and be cool if the DM says NO.
The way I thread the needle between old school race-as-class and my love of weird combinations is that I allow PCs to be like, "my character is going to try Thief stuff for a while and pay that NPC in the town we're in to train him" or something like that and thereby take a level in Thief instead of putting that XP toward second (or whatever) level in their current race or class.
Anyway. This is the first entry in what will be at least two very different blog posts with perhaps similar themes. Let's call it Victories and Voids: A D&D Game About Nothing.

Gelatinous Cube

Expelled From the Holy Gelatinous Oneness
You were once part of the One Gelatin, a large gelatinous mass taking up an entire plane. You have been cursed, nay, double-cursed, with independence and consciousness. You have found yourself in this place, different from it's oozes, slimes, and cubes. Success for you is consuming things, gaining mass and girth, in the hopes that you will one day be freed of your curses and return to the Gelatinous Oneness. Perhaps you are the holy spawn, and your purpose is to become the Gelatinous Twoness, consumer of this plane?

Having been cursed with consciousness, unlike the other slimes, oozes and cubes of this place, who are only cursed with individuality, you have found some kinship with other outcasts of conscious races. You have decided to travel with them, for a while, and not eat them immediately. They seem to attract new and interesting things to consume and make part of yourself.

Gelatinous Cube

HD: 1d10

AC: as unarmored, improves by 1 per level until level 4.

Saves/XP Advancement/Fighting Progression: As Dwarf

Size: 3 feet on a side. You gain a foot every level between 2nd and 7th.

Weapons and Armor: Unable to use armor. May use weapons or items for 1 round per day per level with a -2 to hit. After that you have either consumed them, absorbed them, or expelled them onto the floor.

Special:
•+1 to surprise other creatures, improves by 1 every other level
•Digest anything less dense than glass (IE wood and other organic materials) quickly
•Ability to absorb material that you cannot digest (metal, glass, gems) and store them within your body for several weeks. They are visible to observers, quite clearly if recently used.
•Natural melee attack doing 2d4 points of Damage (your digestive process)
•If you touch a creature's skin, that creature must save versus Paralysis or be paralyzed for 1d4 rounds, increasing duration by 1d4 every other level until 9th. Creatures that pass their save cannot be paralyzed the same day by you. Every subsequent creature you paralyze after the first in a combat gets a cumulative +1 bonus to their saving throw. Your natural attack automatically hits paralyzed creatures.
•You have a save VS any Cold attack, even if one is not normally allowed. If you fail the save, you move at half speed and only do 1d4 points of damage for the duration of the Cold effect or 1d6 rounds if the Cold effect has no duration.
•You are immune to fear, hold, paralysis, polymorph, and sleep based attacks.
•Roll or choose your communication method:
1. verbally by routing air through yourself
2. visually forming letters on a side of yourself
3. Pheromones, through smell
4. telepathy

Go forth and devour!

Vampire PCs of Kalak-Nur for B/X Etc

Because always write down the crazy ideas you have when you shoulda been asleep an hour ago.  I just had this idea and wanted to see what people think. It's my intention to give fellow DMs something to use when a PC gets turned, so I want this to be useful for you.

I don't use all the B/X stuff (prime requisites) but I put it all in case you do.

Prime Requisite: Charisma

Exp Progression, Saves, Weapons/Armor: as Elf

Spell and Attack Progression: as Cleric (where 1st spell is gained at level 2; if race/class are separate, spells are as per class)

HP: 1 per level and see below

This breed of vampire only gains lasting sustenance from willing victims. At the beginning of each session, the other members of the party must decide how much HP to give to the Vampire PC, which is exchanged on a 1 for 1 basis. This is best done in private in-game, as it represents the Vampire drinking the blood of its companions. These HP contribute to the Vampire's max HP for that session, and are lost at the end of it (they can be carried over if the action is "paused" and other PCs are not able to rest).
With dedication and prolonged effort, Vampire PCs can gain NPC Thralls to drink from if the DM allows, as detailed below.

Current HP	Forms Available
1-3	Hideous humanoid beast, or literal walking skeleton; cannot pass for human
4-7	Pale, drawn, can pass for very sick person
8-11	Handsome, charming youth with a savage allure
12-15	Wolf or giant mantis
16-19	Contested CHA vs target’s WIS to appear as someone they trust
20-23	Large Bat or hawk
24-27	Rat or insect Swarm
28+	Mist

This is cumulative, so a Vampire PC with 13 HP could change into a wolf, giant mantis, charming youth, sickly person, or skeleton. A PC with 28 or more HP could turn into anything listed on the chart.

Uses Of Blood
Blood of the Willing: increases session-long max HP
Blood of the Unwilling: increases HP or AC for one encounter or turn
Either: makes more physical forms available as per chart above; can be "burned" to increase any Specialist Skill for one roll.

Gaining a Thrall

The Vampire must be passable as human to attempt this.
If an NPC is encountered more than once, starting on the second encounter, the Vampire PC may make a CHA check each time. For each success in a row, the NPC will allow that many HP to be drained from them. If you have the type of game for it, the interaction and seduction should be roleplayed to the extent that makes sense for you and your group. 

If a thrall finds out about any other thrall, they will attempt to kill the other thrall or commit suicide. Thralls believe they are the Vampire's only special one.

Roll a percentage check each time a Thrall is drank from; if the number of total HP gained from that thrall or less is rolled, the Thrall is permanently in love with the Vampire PC and will allow them to drink with no further rolls.

Blood of the Unwilling

A Vampire PC may drink from the unwilling if the victim is grappled for two rounds in a row and a seperate to-hit roll for the bite is made. After a successful bite, no further rolls are required to drink. The Vampire gains 1d4 temporary HP per round this way. These HP are lost in the usual manner (IE wounds), when the current encounter is over (if it involves other NPCs), or when one turn passes. If in doubt, they expire after 20 minutes of real time. These can boost AC instead of HP; see below.

Sunlight

The Vampire loses all HP gained from drinking blood (both session-long HP gained from the willing, and temp HP from the unwilling) in direct sunlight. This leaves them with HP equal to their level minus any lost to combat. This will leave them with limited appearance options until higher levels; see the chart above.
As permanent HP are lost first when wounded, this could reduce a PC to 0 HP.

Specialist/Thief Skills

Using the LotFP Skill system the Vampire PC gains 2 points to distribute among the following skills at first level, and 1 point every level gained. If you're using B/X or AD&D, the Vampire has 32% points to distribute at first level, and 16% to distribute for each level gained after that.
(If race and class are separate in the current game, Skills are as per the Vampire's Class)

Bushcraft

Climb

Sleight of Hand

Sneak Attack

Stealth 

Turning

Regardless of alignment, these Vampires can be turned as a creature of their level by any creature able to turn undead. Those who have spent significant time with the Vampire as a companion may choose to exclude the Vampire when turning.

Invitations

To enter any private residence, the Vampire must be invited by a person who lives there (and has done so for more than one week, unless the residence is new). Otherwise, blood will erupt from their pores and the Vampire will lose 1d4 HP per round.

Spells/Healing (EDIT to add this)
I left this vague for each DM to figure out, but here's what I'd do:
-Cleric spells are always the reverse (thus, no healing spells)
-Healing magic acts upon the Vampire as the reverse (as it would any undead in my game)

CHOICE
Be awesome and do not take a long time choosing what to do, Vampire. 

What do you think? Comment here or on the G+ Post.

(EDIT: THREE TWEAKS I thought of:
1. casting any spell reduces HP by 1
2. any of the Vampire's HP can be sacrificed to increase AC 1 for 1 up to 4 total per day
3. burning HP to increase an Ability Score for one roll)

Wampus Magpie

Level               Title                                            Exp. Points             Hit Dice          Spells

1	Roustabout	0	1d6	None!
2	Gadabout	2000	2d6	Nunya!
3	Roughneck	4000	3d6	Nunya no sirree bob!

While I'm sure there are all sorts of "normal" birds in the lands of Wampus, I keep hearing tales of 4-6 foot tall Magpies that can walk, talk, and do all sorts of other things the humans and elves and dog-people and frog-people can do. Only +Erik Jensen can tell us if these tales are true.

I hear that Magpies of this kind progress as a Thief in the following skills: 

•Find/Remove Traps

•Open Locks

•Pick Pockets

If your system does not use these skills, they advance in skills related to problem-solving with tool use, mechanical skills, and sleight-of-feather.

In addition, they have the following abilities:

•Himitation: With a successful Intelligence check, Magpies can imitate a specific sound or voice for one round (that is, they can do it until they fail the check or run out of things to say).

•Patter: Once per day per level, on a successful Charisma check, Magpies can keep an audience engaged as long as they can talk. Charisma must be checked every third round. The effect ends immediately if the listener takes damage or perceives a new, clear threat (IE it could extend a tense standoff, even with guns involved, but if someone starts casting a Fireball they're gonna stop listening and duck!)

•Flippy-flappy: a Wampus Magpie can fly their movement rate, but must land every other round, and can do nothing else while flying but talk (it is up to the DM if they can use the Patter ability while flying).

•Get Thee To A Rookery: A Magpie PC may give another Magpie PC in the same room a +1 to any roll once per day for every three levels (of the giver). This is in the form of encouragement or chiding, and must be done at the time the roll is made.

EDIT: forgot to say - armor greater than leather impedes Pick Pockets and prevents flight.