Tuesday, June 29, 2010

orcs, gruumsh and orcus

in the past, i have stated that i regard gruumsh, in 4e, as a primordial rather than as a god because his manner and mentality seemed better suited for a primordial.

lately, i have been thinking about orcs and have devised some changes that are to my liking. for several reasons, i think that orcs should worship orcus instead of gruumsh.

admitedly, one of those reasons is the mere similarity in the names: orcs and orcus. simple--perhaps silly--but true. i see the name orcs as meaning "deriving from orcus". for me, it fits.

another reason for orcs worshipping orcus is to better differentiate orcs from the other, common "savage" races: gnolls, minotaurs and, perhaps, the goblinoids (the list could go on--e.g., kobolds, etc.--but i will stop with these).

i say perhaps goblinoids because although many players group goblinoids with those other races, i see gobliniods as rather different from the others. they are an evil race, not chaotic evil. they generally worship gods-principally bane--whereas gnolls (yeenoghu) , minotaurs (baphomet) and (as i see it) orcs (was gruumsh, now orcus) generally worship worship demons.

by changing the orcs' patron from gruumsh to orcus, orcs now can be closely associated with the undead. orc shamans would be practitioners of necromancy. undead would be as prevalent among orcs as hyenas are among gnolls, and mazes are among minotaurs.

i can see orcs leading low level undead, such as zombies and skeletons; associating with ghouls and wights; and following higher level undead, such as arcanians, vampires, mummy lords, and liches. i can also see orcs associating with nonorc cultists of orcus.

i think that this association with the undead will make orcs appreciably different from the other common savage races, even at low levels of gaming.

so, you might be wondering, "what about gruumsh?" imo, other than serving as the patron of orcs, gruumsh is unimportant to 4e. he acts more like a demon lord than like any of the other gods, and there are plenty of demon lords already. so, maybe that is gruumsh's skull planted at the end of orcus' wand.

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

tiefling and hellock

i like the new article in dragon 386.

totems worn

someone once suggested that totems should be wearable in addition to wieldable, similarly to divine holy symbols.

i second this idea.

witch and the shadow power source

i would LOVE to see, finally, a witch class. i had long envisioned a witch class as primal, but a shadow-based witch class would be great.

this would be an awesome--and solid--shadow power source line-up:
hexblade - defender
assassin - striker
necromancer - leader or controller (i vote controller)
witch - controller or leader (i vote leader)

p.s., i could see constitution being a prominent stat within the shadow power source, a la wisdom for divine, intelligence for arcane, strength for martial, constitution (and wisdom) for primal, and wisdom (and charisma) for psionic.

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

cunning sneak & shadow walk

two ways of accomplishing this:

i) hybrid rogue/warlock, with hybrid talent feat and paragon hybrid talent feat; or

ii) rogue wearing phantom chaussures (level 18 boots).

this cunning sneak/shadow walk combination grants the characters the ability to make stealth check every round.

EDIT: the cursed shadow feat (dragon 385, prerequisite: assassin and warlock) grants the shadow walk class feature.

Thursday, June 3, 2010

aberrations

i think that all aberrations should share a fluff--with varying mechanics--whereby their mere presence is anathema to their immediate environment. different sources of inspiration for this include the starcraft zerg and dark sun defiling. this fluff would lend further credence to the imperative sentiment against the far realm and its progeny, especially among the primal forces of the world.

such fluff would cause aberrations to stand out among the other threats to the natural world and the "natural order of things." a primal character might consider the undead to be an affront to the natural cycle of life; he might combat creatures of the elemental chaos because of their conflicting values of creation and recreation; but, that primal character would regard the mere existence of an aberrant creature as a cancer upon his sacred world.

one example that i have considered is having the caves of a grick colony coated with a strange substance (think zergs or aliens the movie).

lycanthropes

i like the idea of different types of lycanthropes adopting differing humanoid forms, such as a wererat taking the form of a halfling and a wereboar taking the form of a dwarf or orc.

this is not an original idea. scepter tower of spellguard has wererats that take the form of halflings. however, all of the lycanthropes depicted in the monster manuals and dragon magazine articles generically assume the form of man. so, i just want to emphasize the potential for diversity.

EDIT:
werecrocodile as lizardfolk