Talk:Poltho (3.5e Race)

Took me a while seeing your suggestion, but I do indeed like the race you have here. It reminds me of something from Warhammer 40k -- creatures from the warp who invade the material world by overwhelming the minds of psychic individuals, turning their bodies into living portals until they are utterly destroyed by the strain. The difference, of course, being that for the Poltho it is (or was, for one generation,) voluntary.

I've made some minor wording edits that I hope are in line with your intent. I didn't want to take too many liberties. Under the Personality section, it says they have "altruistic" reasons for hiding their secret. Granted, that may be the case for many... but if something is going to destroy the world, any selfish person will do his best to stop it, if simply so he won't die himself. Also, you noted that they come in any alignment, for the most part. Wow, I feel like I'm making a big deal over one word, but it tends to flavour the race as overall benevolent, whereas I feel they also make excellent dark & brooding anti-heroes.

Mechanically, they are quite interesting. Is the Touch of Pain ability intended as a multi-purpose ability? It seems as though it could be used to dispell negative effects as well as debuff opponents. I'm not sure the saving throw should be dropped at level 10, just because it could always be quite powerful against opponents that rely a lot on morale bonuses and effects, for example. If it's used on allies though, say to cast off the effects of a dragon's Frightful Presence, it might be useful to drop the dazing effect for those who voluntarily fail the save? It would be as though they embraced the mind-scouring pain, rather than fighting against it.

Thanks for the good reading. :) -- Techpriest88 23:45, 6 April 2011 (UTC)

Ratings

Aarnott is neutral on this article and rated it 2 of 4.

I find it strange that the abilities are powered by Cha, but the race gets a -2 penalty to Cha. The flavor is cool, although more details about exactly what a war of nightmares is would be nice. If they are really originally born humans, shouldn't they have augmented humanoid as a subtype? Techpriest's questions were also something I was asking myself as I read this. Agonized Scream: Shaken for one round seems rather weak. Why not shaken, save ends?