Sunday, January 8, 2012

New Race/Class: Primusaurs




These civilized saurians hail from the vast, verdant valley of Gwangitopia, where they are ruled by the fearsome yet benevolent Megasaurus Rex from his mighty fortress atop the volcano known as Mount Krong.

Primusaur society is in many ways quite similar to that of ancient human cultures, and thus there are among them more adventurous souls who strike out to make their fortune as mercenaries and dungeon delvers, rather than spend their life on a capybara ranch or giant termite plantation.

REQUIREMENT: Con 9, Str 12
PRIME REQUISITES: Con & Str
Hit Dice: d12

ABILITIES:
Primusaurs can range between five to seven feet tall, and weigh between 250 to 500 pounds. They resemble small tyrannosaurs, but walk in an upright posture with their tails dragging behind them. Their forelimbs are small and weak, while their legs are large and powerfully muscled. They possess thumbs on all four limbs, using their arms for delicate tasks and their legs for lifting heavy weights, as long as they don't have to walk anywhere with their load.

They are capable of delivering a bite for 1d6 damage, or a kick with a hind leg for 1d8. This latter attack can only be made every other round, as they need to recover their balance in the intervening round. Primusaurs can wield one handed weapons, or use a spear one handed with a -1 to hit, but cannot use two handed swords, pole arms, or any kind of bow except crossbows, which due to being aimed one handed also suffer a -1 to hit.

Their skin is leathery, and ranges in color from yellow green to dark brown. It provides a natural Armor Class of 7. Primusaurs can wear any armor, and can use shields.

These creatures are possessed of an amazing ability to regrow lost extremities, even a severed head may be regrown thanks to a secondary brain situated above their hips that retains their memories.

It takes a Primusaur 30 days minus their Level to regrow limbs and tail, and 50 days to regrow a lost head. This ability is independent of their Hit Points, but can be accelerated by 10 days with a Cure Serious Wounds spell.

A Primusaur with a severed head is blind, deaf, cannot communicate, and cannot eat until their new head starts budding about ten days later. While this fast goes on, they cannot heal naturally, and they will be mindlessly ravenous when their new head grows back for 1d4 days. Most Primusaur adventurers set up a special code of taps and touches so they can recognize and be assisted by allies should they be rendered headless.

Veteran Primusaur warriors often have one or two of their own heads on display in their trophy alcove. Tarkasaur the Implacable, a near legendary figure among his people, was said to possess seven of these grisly trophies, kept in a place of honor among the heads of a multitude of other foes.

Primusaurs are exothermic, and if they are exposed to cold conditions (below 50ยบ Farenheit), they move as if they are under one higher level of encumbrance. If they are at maximum encumbrance, they go torpid and are unable to move.

Their eyes change color to reflect their mood, with red indicating anger, yellow fear, green a neutral mood, and blue indicating satisfaction or serenity. They cannot control this color change, and thus suffer +2 to reaction checks if they are attempting to lie or deceive. They possess infravision out to 60'.

Males possess a small, blunt horn on the tip of their nose, and females tend to be smaller and lighter in build. Primusaurs lay eggs to reproduce, and these eggs can be kept dormant in cold storage for up to 20 years. Their diet is omnivorous, but they favor meat and insects.

Primusaur culture is at once barbarous and refined. They adorn themselves in richly colored cloaks and harnesses and torques of gold and copper, and collect the severed heads and skulls of their foes as trophies. (They consider it a point of honor to retrieve their own lost heads or limbs, which they keep to be placed their funeral pyre upon their death.)

They are capable of terrible outbursts of extreme violence, but are known to wax lyrical at scenes of natural beauty, and are earnest patrons of music, song, and poetry. They duel to the point of dismemberment over matters of honor, but are gentle, loyal, and caring to those they consider their friends.

Primusaurs are mortal enemies of the troglodytes, and consider it their duty to slay them. They are ambivalent toward lizard folk, and can get along if the marsh dwelling reptile men are highly enough evolved to make treaties and honor bargains. Savage lizard folk are generally avoided if possible, or slain if not.

Primusaurs possess parrot like vocal chords that allow them to speak Common with a thick accent. Their own language sounds like a collection of grunts, rumbles, and roars, and a lot of the phonemes are subsonic. They can speak the language of troglodytes and lizard folk, and those with intelligence over 14 may speak Draconic.

Upon reaching 9th. level, a Primusaur may seek a grant from their ruler to establish a fortress, preferably in a lush jungle valley or atop an active volcano, which he will rule as a Dinolord. This community will attract other Primusaur warriors and their clans to come live under its skull festooned banner. Primusaurs favor large caves and ancient lava tunnels for their lairs, with creche rooms for their eggs in the deepest, warmest parts of the complex.

Primusaurs use the dwarf tables for combat, level advancement, and saving throws.

This class is hereby designated as Open Game Content via the Open Game License.

2 comments:

  1. I *really* wanted to just call these guys "dinosaurs", so that if you were playing them you could say "I'm playing a 5th. level dinosaur!", but alas I feared that that would cause too much semantic confusion. Ah well.

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