Custom races and sub-races.

[xBlackWolfx]

I would like to know if there are any rules for making custom races.

Some of the races i want to create are either from other settings, my own imagination, or appear as monsters in the book.

I would also like to know how to make a character a vampire. They appear as monsters, but it says nothing about a player character being a vampire. I dont know how to do it, since the book doesn't list attributes for monsters outside of stuff like attack bonus and hit points (no strength, dexterity, etc...). They're not built like a player character.

I do know about all the supplements which add additional races and classes, but none of them seem to say anything about making your own, or converting already existing monsters into play characters.

Can anyone help?

[SmootRK]

You are correct. There are no rules or guidelines to systematically convert or create new character races.

I wrote the New Races Supplement (Caneins, Kappa, Bisren, Phaerim, Faun) and did a major overhaul of the Monsters as Races Supplement, where I made a very deliberate effort to apply a consistent methodology to the races that appear there. That said, it is more of an art to find a way to bridge the monster entry to something that plays and scales with levels. More creatures could have been included in that document, but some were left out because the methodology used breaks down as the innate power level of a creature gets higher. That is why you don't see Trolls, Giants, and such. The additional Hit Dice and special abilities become much much harder to bring down to scale with 1st level creatures.

If you had some races in mind, I would start with what you see in the Monsters as Races Supplement, where there is some guidance or precedence in how extra hit dice and abilities are built into some 'pre-levels'. Beyond that, it may take altogether new expressions of the Monster Entry to match your particular vision of the character race playable version you want... meaning, write your race the way you want the race to work, then craft a new monster entry (what a GM would see in the monster section) to reflect 'your version' of the creature.

Nobody ever said that the Monsters themselves cannot be house-ruled differently. If you want your Orcs to be rainbow colored pig men with magic-user levels... so be it. I probably won't use them, but your game is your own.

That all said, I would look forward to seeing some rules for some races like were-wolves, vampires, and more. Probably not for most games, but a special higher powered campaign might work.

[juronu]

Would you like to collaborate on a project? I am still new, but have a fascination with the Iksar from EQ and would like to try and make a lizard race.

[Dimirag]

Some time ago I read a class document for AD&D containing both Vampire and Werewolf Classes...
Werewolf fits as Fighter-subclasses. Vamps probably fits better as MU's...

[xBlackWolfx]

Yeah, I was thinking that vampirism and lycanthropy would work best as classes, especcially since its something that typically comes about later in your character's life. It would also help to solve the hit die problem a bit.

[Steveman]

I would actually build Vampires as a more of a Cleric sub-class. Traditionally, and game statistically, vampires tend to be strong melee combatants, and if they were made into and MU that would have to be thrown out the window.

I would also point out in the description of the class that PC vampires are of a lesser bloodline than full strength Nosferatu.

Or, one could build a two different vampires, to represent a mage bloodline and a warrior bloodline.

[Dimirag]

I was thinking in Mu's term because using the Cleric type would mean some sort of divine/ungodly/fiendish link, but the idea sound ok, you can convert the Turning Undead into Charm Mundanes...

[SmootRK]

If I was tasked with coming up with a playable vampire, I would probably not use Race as the mechanic. Instead I might apply something like the quasi-classes onto the character, or perhaps the character instantly becomes something like a Combo-Class, becoming a 1st level vampire upon being inflicted.

Then it comes down to layering on the Vampire Abilities at certain landmark levels. For starters:
Upon Becoming a 1st level Vampire the character acquires the immunities to Sleep, Charm, and Hold spells and effects. The Vampire may bite and drain blood (1d3 damage with regeneration 1d3 for the vampire), but does not drain levels at this point. They suffer from all the weaknesses of vampires (sun, mirrors, holy symbols, stakes, etc.) and while not mentioned in the vampire monster entry directly, Holy Water deals damage to vampires.
In addition, First Level and every three levels after (ie 1st, 4th, 7th, 10th... ) the Vampire Character gets +1 to its Strength Score.

3rd Level Vampires can Charm Person (as spell, except via gaze attack)
5th Level Vampires may summon their choice of 10d10 rats, 5d4 giant rats, 10d10 bats, 3d6 giant bats, or 3d6 wolves (all assuming such creatures are in the general vicinity). They arrive in 2d6 rounds and serve for up to 1 hour. Charismatic Vampires may do additional summons each day for each point of charisma bonus.
7th Level Vampires are no longer lesser members of the race. They can now shape-change to giant bat or dire wolf form, their charm ability victims suffer a -2 penalty, and they regenerate 1 hp per turn (even without blood drain). They also drain levels from bite victims, and their regeneration from such drains is now 1d6 per drain attack. They can now also infect others with vampirism at this point.

The above abilities detail the basics of a BFRPG Vampire, however, it might be appropriate to grant higher level abilities, or perhaps even some random 'dark gift' to vampire characters to give them some distinction. Anyhow, its a start

[SmootRK]

I suppose Were-wolves can use a similar application of a Quasi-Class or special Combo class, however the Lycanthropes are a little light on abilities other than natural weapons (bites/claws/etc) and immunity to weapons other than silver. Perhaps a re-write of the monster entries could put a little more detail into the lycanthropes, layering on some appropriate abilities over time (levels).

A special supplement detailing a series of such would be pretty cool. What other such add-on classes might be appropriate for such a supplement? Were creatures of all sorts of course, Vampires, more?

[Joe the Rat]

I keep thinking of curse/affliction type cases, since these can be layered with existing races (were-halflings, vampire dwarves, etc.), but I suppose different types of beastie could be treated as a race, class, or quasi-class, as it best fits. The thing here is that we are looking at this as playing from the get-go alongside "normal" characters, rather than having it afflict a character during play (in which case all you need are the effects on the character).

Ages of ages past, a friend of mine had an idea of doing an undead campaign - the party would be a group of various forms of corporeal not-living, with a plan for advancing their powers with experience (to where the basic abilities are on par with their monster write-up at the appropriate level/HD, additional powers as they advanced further). I was rather looking forward to playing a "dry bones" skeleton (ability to collapse into a heap at will, among others).

Maybe a "creature feature" races and classes supplement? Add a couple other flavors of willful undead (zombriare/revenant, skeletaire, maybe a no-rot mummy), lycanthrope-as-race/class, evil fairies, Cosmic Horror offspring, flesh golems, that sort of thing. Start working now, we might have it ready by Halloween.