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new old thing notes
==Harpy Revision Racial Traits==
* +2 Dexterity, +2 Charisma, –2 Constitution
* [[SRD:Monstrous Humanoid Type|Monstrous Humanoid]]: Harpies pay the non-humanoid cost for fitted armor. They have wings in place of arms and their feet form clawed hands. They can wear magical rings and bracers on their feet and legs. Magical gloves and boots occupy the same slot.
* [[SRD:Movement, Position, and Distance#Big and Little Creatures in Combat|Medium]]
* Harpy base land speed is 30 feet.
* [[SRD:Low-Light Vision|Low-Light Vision]].
* [[SRD:Darkvision|Darkvision]] 60 feet.
* Claws: A harpy possesses two light [[Feral Strike (3.5e Variant Rule)|feral strike]] claw attacks that deal 1d6 piercing and slashing damage (with a 20/×2 critical). A harpy's claws can wield weapons and manipulate tools as hands.
* Skills: A harpy receives a +2 racial bonus to Acrobatics and Perform (Singing) checks. A harpy is always treated as having a running start when jumping. They do not take the –1 penalty per 10 feet of distance on Perception checks for targets within 100 feet.
* Bird Affinity {{Su}}: Harpies can communicate with birds and bird-like magical beasts as the ''[[SRD:Speak with Animals|speak with animals]]'' spell. They also gain the [[SRD:Druid|Wild Empathy]] ability with birds and bird-like magical beasts.
* Swoop In {{Ex}}: A harpy deals double damage (as if she were making a dive attack) with her feral strikes or unarmed attacks when charging. A harpy may swoop in without moving 10 feet before the attack, but takes a –2 penalty to her attack and AC (stacking with the penalties and bonuses from charging).
* Gliding {{Ex}}: Harpies can use their wings to glide. A harpy can still glide or fly while encumbered, but her speed is reduced. She descends 1 foot for every 5 feet of horizontal distance traveled. If a harpy becomes unconscious or helpless while in midair and begins falling, her wings unfurl and hold in their gliding position. The harpy descends in a fluttering spiral and takes only 1d6 falling damage, no matter the actual falling distance.
* Flight {{Ex}}: At 5 HD the harpy gains a fly speed of 40 feet (average maneuverability). She can use the run action while flying, provided she flies in a straight line.
* Languages: Common, Sylvan
* Favored Class: Whatever
* LA 0
* ECL 1
===Cut Abilities & Ability Notes===
* ''(CUT)'' Flight {{Ex}}: At 7 HD it increases by 20 feet. ''This was in there, but I removed it, not sure on balance of it. The singular test character hasn't reached level 7 yet. The current 40 ft. (average) is still pretty decent.''
* ''(CUT)'' Captivating Song (Charm, Compulsion?) [Mind-Affecting, Sonic] {{Su}}: As a standard action, a harpy can sing her captivating song. Creatures within a 100-foot spread must succeed on a Will save (DC 10 + 1/2 HD + Charisma modifier) or become captivated. A creature that saves is unaffected and resistant to her captivating song for 24 hours.
A captivated victim moves toward the harpy, taking the most direct route available. If the path leads into a dangerous area (through flame, off a cliff, or the like), that creature gets a second saving throw. Captivated creatures can take no actions other than to defend themselves and react as two steps friendlier toward her. A victim within 5 feet of the harpy stands and offers no resistance to listen to her singing. The effect continues for as long as the harpy sings and for 1 round thereafter. Any attack or obviously hostile action against a captivated victim breaks the effect on them. A bard’s countersong ability allows a captivated creature to attempt a new Will save.
She can sing her captivating song for a number of rounds per day equal to 1/2 her HD plus her Charisma bonus.
* ''(NEW)'' Humanoid Blooded: You are targetable as a Humanoid by effects. ''This idea probably needs some revision, but could work here to keep things in better tone. Humanoids are required to have a racial subtype in 3.5e for things like Bane & rangers and whatnot, so not sure what to do about that. Could require picking a humanoid subtype, but that opens a slew of other concerns.''
===Author Notes===
This is a revision of a revision of the [[Harpy, Variant (3.5e Race)|variant harpy]] that I'd be tweaking for a long while and had in use on a single character. I'm cutting out the Captivating Song since I don't think in 5 years it ever really did make any difference in play and maybe came up all of once, serving only as feature bloat not something easily put on a character sheet anyway for how long it is. It was a weaker version of the SRD harpy ability anyhow. Probably better as a feat if anything.
Races with flight are inherently difficult to balance. I don't like the model raptoran-style flight. It's clunky and weird. Having scaling flight speed feels unnecessary to me on this case.
Bird Affinity is probably one that could be tossed into the scrap heap as well. It is interesting, but not particularly necessary, and a leftover from the older revision. Maybe something about identifying bird calls easily? That's like, a Knowledge (nature) sort of thing and could end up being use-impaired.
Harpies (lore-wise) are bits of the odd-ducks. They hunt people and eat them. They're alluring sirens. Their descriptions are all over the place. Sometimes they're hideous flying hags with batwings and arms, other times they're odd mixes of humanoid and bird or whatever. I hate that the SRD gives them clubs. Like, flying monsters that have clubs... okay, why no bow or sling or spear or something? They're defeated by readied actions to swing as they swoop in for a fly-by attack, which is fine at their CR since characters are unlikely to have multiple attacks anyway.
* +2 Dexterity, +2 Charisma, –2 Constitution
* [[SRD:Monstrous Humanoid Type|Monstrous Humanoid]]: Harpies pay the non-humanoid cost for fitted armor. They have wings in place of arms and their feet form clawed hands. They can wear magical rings and bracers on their feet and legs. Magical gloves and boots occupy the same slot.
* [[SRD:Movement, Position, and Distance#Big and Little Creatures in Combat|Medium]]
* Harpy base land speed is 30 feet.
* [[SRD:Low-Light Vision|Low-Light Vision]].
* [[SRD:Darkvision|Darkvision]] 60 feet.
* Claws: A harpy possesses two light [[Feral Strike (3.5e Variant Rule)|feral strike]] claw attacks that deal 1d6 piercing and slashing damage (with a 20/×2 critical). A harpy's claws can wield weapons and manipulate tools as hands.
* Skills: A harpy receives a +2 racial bonus to Acrobatics and Perform (Singing) checks. A harpy is always treated as having a running start when jumping. They do not take the –1 penalty per 10 feet of distance on Perception checks for targets within 100 feet.
* Bird Affinity {{Su}}: Harpies can communicate with birds and bird-like magical beasts as the ''[[SRD:Speak with Animals|speak with animals]]'' spell. They also gain the [[SRD:Druid|Wild Empathy]] ability with birds and bird-like magical beasts.
* Swoop In {{Ex}}: A harpy deals double damage (as if she were making a dive attack) with her feral strikes or unarmed attacks when charging. A harpy may swoop in without moving 10 feet before the attack, but takes a –2 penalty to her attack and AC (stacking with the penalties and bonuses from charging).
* Gliding {{Ex}}: Harpies can use their wings to glide. A harpy can still glide or fly while encumbered, but her speed is reduced. She descends 1 foot for every 5 feet of horizontal distance traveled. If a harpy becomes unconscious or helpless while in midair and begins falling, her wings unfurl and hold in their gliding position. The harpy descends in a fluttering spiral and takes only 1d6 falling damage, no matter the actual falling distance.
* Flight {{Ex}}: At 5 HD the harpy gains a fly speed of 40 feet (average maneuverability). She can use the run action while flying, provided she flies in a straight line.
* Languages: Common, Sylvan
* Favored Class: Whatever
* LA 0
* ECL 1
===Cut Abilities & Ability Notes===
* ''(CUT)'' Flight {{Ex}}: At 7 HD it increases by 20 feet. ''This was in there, but I removed it, not sure on balance of it. The singular test character hasn't reached level 7 yet. The current 40 ft. (average) is still pretty decent.''
* ''(CUT)'' Captivating Song (Charm, Compulsion?) [Mind-Affecting, Sonic] {{Su}}: As a standard action, a harpy can sing her captivating song. Creatures within a 100-foot spread must succeed on a Will save (DC 10 + 1/2 HD + Charisma modifier) or become captivated. A creature that saves is unaffected and resistant to her captivating song for 24 hours.
A captivated victim moves toward the harpy, taking the most direct route available. If the path leads into a dangerous area (through flame, off a cliff, or the like), that creature gets a second saving throw. Captivated creatures can take no actions other than to defend themselves and react as two steps friendlier toward her. A victim within 5 feet of the harpy stands and offers no resistance to listen to her singing. The effect continues for as long as the harpy sings and for 1 round thereafter. Any attack or obviously hostile action against a captivated victim breaks the effect on them. A bard’s countersong ability allows a captivated creature to attempt a new Will save.
She can sing her captivating song for a number of rounds per day equal to 1/2 her HD plus her Charisma bonus.
* ''(NEW)'' Humanoid Blooded: You are targetable as a Humanoid by effects. ''This idea probably needs some revision, but could work here to keep things in better tone. Humanoids are required to have a racial subtype in 3.5e for things like Bane & rangers and whatnot, so not sure what to do about that. Could require picking a humanoid subtype, but that opens a slew of other concerns.''
===Author Notes===
This is a revision of a revision of the [[Harpy, Variant (3.5e Race)|variant harpy]] that I'd be tweaking for a long while and had in use on a single character. I'm cutting out the Captivating Song since I don't think in 5 years it ever really did make any difference in play and maybe came up all of once, serving only as feature bloat not something easily put on a character sheet anyway for how long it is. It was a weaker version of the SRD harpy ability anyhow. Probably better as a feat if anything.
Races with flight are inherently difficult to balance. I don't like the model raptoran-style flight. It's clunky and weird. Having scaling flight speed feels unnecessary to me on this case.
Bird Affinity is probably one that could be tossed into the scrap heap as well. It is interesting, but not particularly necessary, and a leftover from the older revision. Maybe something about identifying bird calls easily? That's like, a Knowledge (nature) sort of thing and could end up being use-impaired.
Harpies (lore-wise) are bits of the odd-ducks. They hunt people and eat them. They're alluring sirens. Their descriptions are all over the place. Sometimes they're hideous flying hags with batwings and arms, other times they're odd mixes of humanoid and bird or whatever. I hate that the SRD gives them clubs. Like, flying monsters that have clubs... okay, why no bow or sling or spear or something? They're defeated by readied actions to swing as they swoop in for a fly-by attack, which is fine at their CR since characters are unlikely to have multiple attacks anyway.
