Wednesday, February 8, 2017

Killer Wabbits!

Yet of those that chew the cud or have the hoof cloven you shall not eat these: The camel, the hare, and the rock badger, because they chew the cud but do not part the hoof, are unclean for you. — Deuteronomy 14:7

Recently, this blog post about killer medieval rabbits was pointed out to me and Gamer ADD immediately kicked in. I wanted a PC class for this ASAP:


When I did a little on-line research, I found out there is, in fact, a 5e character race called Rabbitfolk. Unfortunately, they look like they just walked out of Wonderland (art by Tony DiTerlizzi):

All he is missing is a watch

I am after a race that looks like a humanoid version of General Woundwort from Watership Down:


As such, I decided to start from scratch and came up with the following race-as-class for Labyrinth Lord:

Hyrax

Requirements: CON 9
Prime Requisite: STR
Hit Dice: d6
Maximum Level: 14

Hyraxes* are a humanoid race that resemble man-sized, bipedal rabbits. Fierce warriors, xenophobic and highly territorial, they guard their wilderness domains with a level of violence most humans find shocking. Though their numbers are small, there are some hyraxes that do see value in cooperating with other races; however, they often find themselves ostracized from their own community and forced to become adventurers. This is the most common background of a hyrax PC.

Hyraxes are osteoderms, having a layer of bony scales beneath their thick hides. As a consequence, their base AC is 5 and any damage die from a non-magical attack is reduced by 1 (attacks from creatures with 5HD or more are considered to be magical for this purpose). This protection increases at higher levels. At 7th level their base AC is 3 and damage dice are reduced by 2. At 13th level their base AC is 1 and damage dice are reduced by 3. These bonuses may stack with magic and magic items (such as a Ring of Protection), but not armor (even magical armor). As a consequence, hyraxes never wear armor.

The base move for a Hyrax is 90’; however, they have the ability to jump 10’ either vertically or horizontally.

As protectors of their wilderness domains, hyraxes are excellent at identifying plants and animals on a roll of 1-3 on a d6. They also get a +2 to all reaction rolls with normal animals. In addition, they may take animals as henchmen.

Hyraxes fight and save as fighters, can use any weapon and may use shields (though some might find doing so a sign of cowardice). They speak their own dialect of Common.
Level…XP Requirement
1…0
2…2600
3…5200
4…10,400
5…20,800
6…41,600
7…85,000
8…170,000
9…390,000
10…510,000
11…630,000
12…750,000
13…870,000
14…990,000
*I realize that a hyrax is a real animal that is more closely related to the elephant than a rabbit, but not only does the name sound cool, but it is sometimes used in Scripture to mean coney.

1 comment:

Conrad Kinch said...

Right...Launcelot, Galahad and I all leap out at the rabbit...