/mlp/ FEMTORPG
Expanded Racials 4.0
Proposal Document is where all ideas go
This document is a an expansion to the core racial rules in the FEMTO system. Each race entry has a pool of bonus racial traits as well as the default racial ability from the FEMTO core document pasted here for the reader’s convenience. A character may select ONE of these extra options as a secondary racial in addition to the default one. Additional racial traits can be awarded for campaign achievements and character advancement at the GM’s discretion.
Core Races
Crystal Pony
Earth Pony
Pegasus
Unicorn
Buffalo
Diamond Dog
Donkey
Goat
Griffon
Zebra
Exotic Races
Breezie
Bat Pony
Deer
Ram/Sheep
Saddle Arabian
Sea Pony/Hippogriff
Kirin
Monster Races
Bear
Minotaur
Goo Pony
Changeling
Dragon
Hybrid Races
Core Races
Crystal Pony
Residents and descendants of the ancient Crystal Empire, the emotions of Crystal Ponies are said to be reflected on all of Equestria.
Crystal Emotions: passive; The joy of Crystal Ponies radiates almost literally. Whenever you roll a critical success, you gain a +1 bonus to all rolls next turn.
- Emotional Resonance: passive; Crystal Emotions now offers a +2 bonus for your next turn at the cost of suffering a -1 penalty on a critical fail.
- Crystal Absorption: automatic, once per combat; You may negate and absorb a single spell used on you and store it, allowing you to use said spell yourself for one single use as a normal action. This absorbed spell does not require a catalyst to cast. Some more powerful spells cannot be absorbed at GM discretion.
- Recovering Memory: automatic, once per session; While the Sombra’s magic forced you to forget most of your old life, every now and then bouts of memory resurface. You can use Recovering Memory to ‘forget’ a one point skill and ‘remember’ another one from your class skill list
- Transparency: passive; Crystal coats are known for attracting attention making sneaking and hiding more risky for your kind. Few crystal ponies however, don’t shine as bright or stand out all that much. Blending into the scenery better even thanks to their see-through form. When wearing minimal armor (jewelry, trinkets and minor accessories are fine) you gain a passive DC-1 to stealth and hide rolls.
Earth Pony
Sturdy, tough and often big. Can move, lift, and carry heavier weights than other races.
Tough: passive; Earth ponies take 1 additional hit before becoming helpless as well as 1 extra wound once they become helpless, for a total of 6 hits and 6 wounds without other modifiers. They can also lift, carry and move heavier objects than unicorns and pegasi.
- Stand Firm: instant, once per combat; Plant your hooves deep and be as still as a mountain. Your hits are locked at their current value until next turn. This does not protect you from direct wound damage.
- Earthly Affinity: passive; Earth ponies have a special connection to the land. Pick one land type (e.g plains, island, swamp, mountain, forest, etc,). When on your chosen terrain, your rolls to recover from helplessness are DC4 and traversing on your home terrain is automatic.
- Earth Pony Way: passive; Being born without a horn or wings has taught you how to spend more time and effort in the things you do. Pick one skill you know, it gains a +1 bonus.
- Workhorse: passive; Many Earth Ponies are bred for physical labor and other daunting tasks that exhaust others quickly. You can catch your breath faster, work harder, and work longer, which tends to be pretty useful in combat. If you are not helpless, make no attacks, and take no damage in a turn, then you restore 1 Hit at the start of the next turn.
Pegasus
Speedy and adventurous. Can fly freely when they’re not carrying too much weight.
Pegasus Flight: Pegasi can fly and get a +1 bonus to actively evade and dodge midair. Flight is about as taxing as running at full speed.
- Bounce: passive; You hate spending too much time in one place, and are always itching to fly at a moment’s notice. Pegasus Flight is now Automatic.
- Cloud Control: recharge 2; While manipulating weather is a thing pegasi usually can do, you are more proficient at it than what is commonly expected. As long as there are clouds you can manipulate them. You can make a variety of effects that last for a single turn, with some examples listed below. Additional effects and their DCs are at the DM’s discretion.
-Rain [DC6]: Shake the clouds to cause a downpour that hampers everyone’s sight, giving a -1 penalty to all ranged actions
-Fog [DC7]: Bring down a dense fog that is easy to hide in, allowing everyone to make a free Stealth roll. Those that Stealth with this do not gain the Autocrit effect Stealth gives.
-Lightning [DC8]: Strike a cloud to bring down a bolt of lightning, making a ranged attack on a target with the Lightning Elementalist effect.
- Supersonic; once per combat, ranged; You dash in a massive burst of speed to ram into any target and deal damage. On a roll of 8+ the shockwave from your sonicboom renders all nearby foes helpless. More powerful foes are immune to this effect.
- Dogfighting: recharge 3, weapon; The warlike pegasi have long understood the benefits of air superiority. Target an airborne enemy and send them plummeting to the ground (if you only have a melee weapon you can throw it), knocking them helpless and giving their Flight racial recharge 2. If you are airborne you can apply Pegasus Flight’s +1 dodge bonus to using this skill. At the DM’s discretion, they may suffer fall damage depending on the altitude.
Unicorn
Noble and intelligent. Can levitate objects with telekinesis and cast magic.
Unicorn Horn: passive; A unicorn’s horn counts as a basic catalyst for spellcasting only.
Unicorn Telekinesis: spell; Manipulate objects through sheer force of will. With normal focus this is about as strong as your are normally, but complex tasks and heavier objects may require greater focus. You cannot inflict direct harm or damage with Telekinesis.
- Dowsing: spell; when you take this option, select a specific type of non-living object or material (e.g. precious gems, wood carvings, forged metal, bones that aren’t connected to a living body), and this spell lets you locate the general direction of such objects or reveals their specific location in your current vicinity.
- Winkmaster: spell, recharge 2; Every unicorn has a theme of magic they excel in, and teleportation is your forte. You can teleport yourself only as far as a hop, skip, or jump. However, you can teleport this short distance to any visible location, allowing you to pass through solid objects or barriers that have holes or are transparent. In combat you can use this to avoid an attack, but any multi-target attacks are unavoidable.
- Hornlight: spell; No darkness can stop the brightness of your horn. You can generate a piercing light that can shine through almost any darkness, even darkness from magical sources. However, stronger magical darkness may require a higher roll. You gain +1 bonus to perception when using this to light up a dark area or at night.
- Posh: passive; So you’re leaving high society for a life of adventure? It’s dangerous to go alone. Take this. You can start the game with a magical item that gives +1 to a single Spell you know while you hold it, chosen at character creation. If held by someone without that skill, the item’s residual magic allows that spell to be cast at DC 8.
Buffalo
Hardy desert dwellers, a buffalo's charge is as strong as their connection to the land. They are big, lumbering things with thick muscle and bones.
Huge:[a] instant, recharge 4; You do not fall easily, your huge size letting you shrug off blows that would fell any other race. When you would be sent helpless you can use this skill, and on success you instead remain standing with 1 hit remaining.
- Buffalo Stomp: Your heavy hooves are great for shaking up surrounding enemies. You stomp the ground, striking every enemy in close range. This never does more than 1 hit of damage except on crit.
- Tribesman: passive; Even the quietest buffalo from the smallest tribe can stand among ponies as a natural leader. They have an affinity for taking care of their comrades, giving them +1 to actions that affect their allies’ hits/wounds or grant them a bonus in combat.
- Bulk: passive; Culture aside, the most defining feature of the buffalo is the fact that they are no doubt one of the largest races in Equestria. Physical fighters and brawlers find out the hard way that their techniques don’t work on such massive creatures. You are immune to grapples and cannot be pushed, pulled, dragged, or moved by non-magical means against your will in any way.
- Charge: passive; At the beginning of combat declare a charge against one enemy. You get a +2 bonus on all actions against that target this turn at the cost of increasing critical failure range by 1.
Diamond Dog
Subterranean gorilla dogs with a taste for gems.
Burrowing: Diamond dogs can dig tunnels and holes through most materials with ease, allowing them to set traps, move unseen, and fleeing in unexpected directions.
- Bloodhound: passive; After making a successful, non-spell attack against a target you pick up its scent. The target cannot hide from you, they do not gain any bonuses from Stealth against you (i.e. They do not autocrit when attacking you from stealth and you can still target them), and darkness of any kind does not affect you when you target them. Bloodhound’s effect lasts for X turns where X is the amount of damage you dealt, and this effect stacks.
- Lucky Dog: passive; Every dog has its day, and you have yours frequently. Your first turn in combat enjoys a higher chance to be critical, giving your actions Critrange -2 (i.e. An action that Crits on 10 now crits on 8+).
- Gem Hunter: recharge 2; Like your racial namesake you are exceptional at finding gems and love it when you do. You can scavenge your surroundings at DC9 for gems, or other equally valuable objects if gems are impossible to find there. You can choose as an Instant Automatic action to either eat the gem to restore all your hits and one wound in combat, give you 2 temporary hits (bonus hits that fade when you fall helpless) if you are at full health, or you can keep the object to sell later at a high value.
- Sound Hound: passive; Rather than brutishly train your paws, your ears give you a much more refined sense for your surroundings. With your heightened hearing and a bit of focus, you can listen on whispers and distant conversations with ease. Allies that aware of your ability can use this to speak at you at near whispering without either of you needing to roll to keep it from being overheard, except by other Diamond Dogs with Sound Hound . In combat, for the first turn any attack targeting you hits on a DC+2, or DC+1 for stealth attacks and ambushes.
Donkey
Similar to earth ponies in a physical sense, if somewhat less bulky and far more stubborn.
Unbreakable Will: passive; Famously stubborn, donkeys are immune to mind control, domination, intimidation and suggestion.
- Arcane Resistance: passive; Being one of the least magical races in Equestria is a two way street. Magic spells and effects don’t take as much of a toll on you as the other races. DC for offensive spells against you is +1 (Magic Bolt hits on 7+ instead of 6+ etc.)
- Immune Response: passive; You’ve put up with a lot in your life to where even the most extreme things don’t bother you, even poison. Poisoned weapons instead act as a normal weapon with +1 against you, and any negative effect on you lasts for 1 turn less to a minimum of 1.
- Pain Tolerance: passive; Your body isn’t too large, but it is resilient. You can take more of a beating than most other races. You start the game with an extra wound bringing your base total to 5/6.
- Disgruntled: instant automatic, once per combat; Donkeys are known to be more prone to irritation, distrust and isolationism, but you make them all look friendly. You are quick to judge and make it well known how much you dislike a specific being no matter what they did or did not do. You can declare a loathing on a single enemy, gaining +1 to all offensive rolls against them. But your extreme focus causes everyone else to fade from your mind, giving you a -1 on all offensive rolls that target them specifically. Your loathing ends when the target is dead or surrenders to your mercy.
Goat
A curious sight in the lands of ponies, some say they are distantly related to the dread ram Grogar.
Goatcraft: passive; The harsh and lifeless territories goats originate from have adapted their bodies to treat it like a standard field. All climbing and agility rolls have DC-1 and you can use anything as food, including non-food items.
- Longhorns: passive; You have large horns to aid in dealing with enemies. You can count your horns as any Weapon Tag aside from Ranged. You cannot be disarmed but excessive misuse can cause them to break.
- Highlander: passive; You naturally adapted to the conditions of mountainous areas. Cold damage is reduced by 1, to a minimum of 1 damage. Rolls affected by Goatcraft are automatically successful in mountainous terrain. Your attacks made from higher ground that your target receive a +1 bonus.
- Eye of Grogar: passive; You come from a culture that’s mysterious, quiet and perhaps even sinister. Few understand you and some may even be unnerved by your odd appearance. If you score a natural Crit against an enemy in combat, they are paralyzed with fear and cannot take any action in its next turn. When a target is paralyzed by Eye of Grogar, you cannot proc Eye of Grogar on them again.
- Restless: passive; The founders of coffee drinks and rumored to never sleep, goats always seem to have much more energy for a creature of their size. While you and your kin neither confirm nor deny the rumors, you do have an unnatural tolerance to sleep magic and effects. You are completely immune from skills such as Sleep Serum or Trick Ammo:Knockout as well as magic meant to put you to sleep, and are no longer required to rest for the night on long journeys (although your companions will probably keep you)
Griffon
Half eagle, half lion. Flight-capable and larger than ponies, they can carry more weight while flying, but tire quickly when doing so.
Griffon Flight: Griffons can fly and have a +1 bonus to melee divebombing attacks from high altitude. This is about as taxing as running at full speed.
- Free Bird: passive; You will not be caged. You have +1 to rolls that involve escaping grapples, traps, binds, and any sort of effect restricting your movement.
- Surveyor[b]: passive; You have keen eyes when flying on high. While flying you can give either an ally or yourself DC-1 to ranged attacks and skills.
- Falcon Burst: passive; Natural reflexes give you the advantage when faced with immediate danger. Your first action in combat is Instant in addition to its other properties.
- Griffon’s Glory: passive; The eagle and the lion are both known for their pride and majesty. Such awe should never be overshadowed by others and the notion of a griffon sitting in the side-lines is poisonous. If you dealt the most damage out of all your allies last turn, you have +1 to all actions this turn.
Zebra
Hailing from a faraway land, zebras are knowledgeable in natural healing and shamanism. They are often regarded with suspicion by ponies.
Heightened Senses: passive; The harsh jungles on their homeland require non-predators to always be on guard. You have +1 to all perception-based rolls (e.g. spotting, searching, listening, etc.)
- Sprinter: recharge 3; You can perform feat of great speed as part of an escape or charge. If used to escape combat, only fast fliers will be able to catch up with you as long as there is open terrain. You can also use this as a basic charge attack that has DC-1.
- Unspeakable Rites: once per session; The timeless knowledge passed down to you allows you to converse with the voices of voodoo and even bargain with them. This ritual has a base DC5, and you may increase the DC by any number you desire. For each value you increase this by, select one of your skills or a specific action. Its DC is lowered by 1 for the remainder of the session, and Skills/Actions can only be chosen once to gain this effect. You can also choose to do other mystical effects with this ritual, however these things will require not only higher DCs but an offering of some kind as well. These effects will require DM discretion.
- Rhythm and Rhyme: passive; Music and timing are strong suits of your race and patterns come as naturally as your stripes. While in combat you can create a basic rhythm to your actions and declare it after doing it once, gaining a +1 bonus for all actions in it as long as you repeat it. If your rhythm cycle has 4 or more actions in it, then this bonus becomes +2. If you break rhythm by not doing a full sequence, then you suffer a -1 penalty to all rolls on the turn you break it. If you fall helpless during a rhythm cycle, you do not suffer the penalty and can continue it from where you left off without penalty once you stand up. You only need to do the actions, not succeed at them.
Example Rhythms: ([Declare] Is where you’d announce your rhythm as your previous actions, this does not count as an action. The repeats where you would gain the bonus are in Italics):
Simple:
-Backstab, Rupture, [Declare], Backstab, Rupture
-Attack, [Declare], Attack, Attack, Attack
Medium:
-Wrath, Cleave, Heal, [Declare], Wrath, Cleave, Heal
-Homing Magic, Homing Magic Instant Projectile, Magic Bolt, Teleport, [Declare], Homing Magic, Homing Magic Instant Projectile, Magic Bolt, Teleport
Complex:
-Heroism, Cheap Shot, Terrify, Cheap Shot, Dual Wield, Dual Wield, [Declare], Heroism, Cheap Shot, Terrify, Cheapshot, Dual Wield, Dual Wield
- Z Tactic: passive; Some zebras inherit the instinct to zig-zag around when stressed. When many zebras gather in one area, you become much harder to hit. The DC for enemies to hit you increases by 1 for every other zebra near you, up to a maximum of 3.
Exotic Races
Breezie
Small pixie-like beings, these miniscule ponies tend to hide away in hidden villages. Despite their appearance, they have strong magic to keep themselves safe from the massive world all around.
Tiny: passive; Breezies are tiny, never getting much bigger than the size of a bug. This size helps to go unnoticed, giving them a DC-1 to hiding, sneaking, and other general out-of-sight rolls.
Breezie Flight: passive; Breezies can float on the air with their large gossamer wings. Hovering or moving through the air can be done without any effort whatsoever, however they are powerless to air currents and need to roll to fly correctly if moving against any breeze.
- Cradle: Recharge 2; Breezies have protective magic to transport food and supplies back to their hovels. This magic can be extended to make a protective shield around a small object, protecting it from all damage. This effect lasts until dismissed or the object is a sizeable distance away from the caster.
- Faerie Tale: Breezies are a naturally more sensitive to magic than other races. They can sense magic in an area if there’s a spell in effect or the residual magic from a large spell, like a ritual or a portal, ended recently. You only can tell there is magic in the area, to tell what is of requires a roll and that may not always be accurate if you aren’t trained in the arcane arts.
- Toy Soldier: passive; Breezies are unfortunately known for their fragility, though this works well in your favor. Until you show you are a reasonable threat (i.e. deal more than 1 hit of damage from one attack) enemies will ignore you in combat.
- Butterfly Net: passive; Due to their rarity, or just a curious kid, some Breezies are the victims of being captured. Though with your small size, that makes it a little harder for them to get a good hold that lasts. Enemies have a DC+1 for any sort of action that would contain/hold you or any AoE skill. You have a DC-1 for avoiding capture.
Bat Pony
An offshoot of pegasi with leathery wings and bat like traits. They have an affinity toward the Princess of the Night Luna.
Leathery Wings: Bat ponies possess leathery wings that allow them to fly silently through the air. This is about as taxing as running at full speed.
- Echolocation: passive; Bat ponies can use the sound reflected off of objects to “see” their surroundings. Your ability to see is unaffected by darkness. While in low-light conditions, enemies without means of seeing in the dark (e.g. Light sources, Hawkeye, Phase Aura, Fourth Eye, Hornlight and similar effects) have DC+1 to all rolls against you, you receive a +1 bonus to all rolls against them, and you are counted as stealthed to them (But you don’t gain the Autocrit bonus of Stealth).
- Supersonic Shriek: Instant, Recharge 3; You can shreech a focused sonic wave that disorients or even can stun an opponent. This gives a target DC+1 to their actions this turn, and on Crit it causes them to be unable to make any action or cause counterattacks next turn.
- Nocturnal: passive; Work all night sleep all day. You live during the night hours, and can take a DC -2 to a single skill at night time, chosen at character creation.
- Magic Leech: instant, recharge 2; Drain a portion of residual magic when an ally receives a beneficial spell. If successful, you copy the effects of the spell onto yourself, giving you the minimal effect.
Deer
Tribal forest dwellers who live a more primitive life than the ponies of Equestria. Sharing a special connection with the forest, they are known to be very protective of their lands.
Woodscraft: passive; You can navigate any forest with DC-1 and you are able to identify any wild flora. You can also Stealth in any forest even if you do not own the skill, and if you do then this Stealth is Automatic.
- Forest Agility: instant; Recharge 1; When in a forest, can make a roll to evade an attack at DC-2, with the DC being the oncoming attack’s roll.
- Geas: passive; You took upon yourself oaths and taboos few can understand. While others may perceive them as idiosyncratic boundaries, you draw immense strength from adherence to them. Select one of your skills without the Passive tag at character creation. All other skills that share the same skillpoint cost gain a roll bonus equal to the cost (Multiclass skills count as costing 2 skillpoints). Whenever you use the chosen skill, this bonus is lost for the rest of the session.
- Tribal Training: passive; Your fighting style is primitive and unpredictable. All damage you deal and you take is lowered by 1.
- Antlers: passive; A deer’s antlers are better suited for defense than for attack. You always count as having a shield, and this bonus stacks with all normal weapons. You may also make a basic attack with your antlers as an Instant Action with Recharge 2.
Ram/Sheep
Descendants of a splinter group of goats choosing to co-exist with ponies instead of remaining independent. While most are content in their role, every now and then and adventurer is born of wool and steel
Steel Wool: automatic instant, once per combat; Your wool is poofy to the point of being armor. You can change a critical hit against you into a minimum success.
- Ramming Speed: recharge 1; Your horns and hard head allow you to charge at an enemy at quick speeds to deal damage. Crits on 9+.
- Adorable: passive; No matter the size of your horns, no matter what sour expression you may have on your face, no matter how old, experienced, or battle-scarred you are, you’re still a big puffball on hoofed legs. No one can resist giving you attention, which helps you get your point across to most anyone. You have +1 on all social rolls.
- Flock: passive; Having extra sheep around tends to help you solve problems. You gain +1 for each sheep that targets the same target as you or uses an action on you that turn.
- Bighorns: passive; Two giant curled horns jut out of your forehead. You count as always wielding a Great Weapon. When you wield a Great Weapon, you gain +1 to Cleave.
Saddle Arabian
A mystical race of ponies that hail from a faraway desert realm.
Arabian Endurance: automatic instant, once per combat; Saddle Arabians are known for their tenacity and endurance in harsh conditions. When you are helpless you can use this to recover and act on that turn. You are also immune to any adverse effects typical for a desert, and you suffer no penalties for fighting or being in desert environments.
- Arabian Agility: passive, recharge 3; Your swiftness allows you to perform hit-and-run attacks with ease. When this skill is not on cooldown, Arabian Agility is automatically used (this does not take any of your actions) to make your next offensive action counts as Ranged. Additionally, all attacks you make with a Ranged Weapon gain +1 regardless of this skill’s recharge.
- Purebred: passive; A Saddle Arabian bloodline is a result of centuries of selective breeding. Though others may frown at such a practice, its results are obvious. And not only the positive ones. At character creation, choose one of your class skills. From your bloodline this skill has +2, but all other class skills suffer a -1 penalty. If you have no other skills that can receive the penalty (e.g. They are all passives, or you only had one skill which was the chosen one), then you suffer a -1 penalty to all other actions in combat.
- Whirlwind Style: instant automatic, recharge 2; You may give your other action this turn a penalty to gain that same amount in temporary hits that last until your next turn, to a maximum of 2.
- Arabian Alchemy: You are well-versed in potion crafting, able to hold magical effects you know in bottles for later use. To make a potion, select a Spell Skill you know and roll, with failure causing counterattack damage from a bad potion reaction. If it is a success, you store that spell as a potion that will use the rolled result. Using the potion, whether it be on yourself or others, is an Instant action that uses the roll that created it and has the Ranged tag. The potion acts the spell it mimics, but does not affect and is not affected by the recharge of the original spell. You can only have one potion per spell at a time.
Sea Pony/Hippogriff
Hailing from the fabled kingdom of the Hippogriffs that once was forced to hide underwater under threat of the Storm King. No lands are unreachable for you whether they’re land, sea, or sky.
Two-Form: passive; Carrying the magic of your kingdom’s prized artifact, you can freely swap between your Sea Pony and Hippogriff form. While this transformation happens automatically when you go underwater or surface back on land, you can do it freely whenever you want as well.
-Sea Pony: When in your sea pony form, you can breath underwater (and you can breathe air as well) and can swim as quick as a dolphin. When you’re underwater, you ignore range, treating everything in the water with you as being at melee distance.
-Hippogriff: In your Hippogriff form, you have the power of Flight. You can’t fly as fast as a pegasus, but if you transform into this form after leaping from the water you can begin Flight automatically.
- Call Upon the Seaponies: passive; There are old legends of aquatic ponies that were known to help those who reached out to them. While these may not be the same as your kind, you’re still quite helpful. When you help someone else recover, it is an Instant Action. Additionally, whenever you do a supportive action (e.g. Help them recover, Heal, Sharpen, etc,) on an ally that has 3 or fewer wounds, your action has +1.
- Birds of A Feather: passive; Singing is more than just a pastime for your kind. And the only thing that makes singing better is others joining in. Whenever you make a vocal based action or skill, your allies can forfeit their turn before they make any action to give you +1 to that roll that turn. This effect can even make your Critfail into a normal fail, provided at least 2 other people forfeit their turn to join in.
- One Small Thing: instant; Your shapeshifting magic can be cast on others, bringing your friends along with you for the sea or air life. You can change an ally into either the Sea Pony or a Hippogriff form, granting the bonus of that form while retaining their original racials.
- Surf or Turf: passive; Many of your kind decided to stick with one form after they returned to their kingdom. You have taken this a step further, empowering half of yourself. At character creation choose one of your forms, either Sea Pony or Hippogriff. While you are in this form, you gain the matching ability listed below.
-Deluge [Sea Pony]: recharge 2; You don’t just prefer being in water, you’ve mastered water. You control any nearby source of water, able to move it as you see fit. In Combat you can strike a target with this water, soaking them to the bone. On success this causes their skills on recharge to recharge for 1 more turn, if they have applicable skills, and also causes them to deal 1 less hit of counterattack damage next turn.
-Typhoon [Hippogriff]: recharge 2; The air is your domain, and you will make sure everyone else knows it. You can make strong gales of wind at your command. In Combat you can focus your winds on a target, giving them a DC+1 (DC+2 if they are flying) to their actions this turn as they fight against the wind. You can also use this against Ranged weapon attacks to deflect them back at the attacker if you roll higher.
Kirin
Mysterious horned equines from the uncharted Peaks of Peril. They are known to be kind but a darker flame lies deep within.
Tempered Rage[c]: passive; A heated argument becomes literal when a Kirin gets angry. Whenever your temperament boils over in a discussion, or any situation, you transform into a Nirik, a creature of pure fire, and gain +1 to all Intimidation, Fear, or other aggressive non-skill social actions. In Combat this form triggers after you are helpless for 3 turns in a row or fall helpless immediately after recovering from a previous helpless state. This form makes your recovery roll Instant with DC3, allowing you to act immediately on success with a +2 to your other action that turn. In combat this form lasts until you recover. Outside of combat it lasts until you calm down.
Kirin Horn: passive; A kirin’s horn counts as a basic catalyst for the purposes of spellcasting only.
- Calm Soul: passive; While not quite so silent, you have kept the effects of the Stream of Silence. Your emotions are muted, making it hard for any foe, or ally, to manipulate or push you in any direction. You are immune to any fear, depression, or any emotion-changed skill or ailment.
- Nirik Fury[d]: Instant automatic, recharge 3; You have mastered your emotions, able to bring up a berserker’s rage at will. You gain all the bonuses from Tempered Rage immediately, as well as applying +2 to your other actions this turn, but you must roll a 1d2 when you make your next action this turn. Rolling a 2 let’s your action continue unhindered, but rolling a 1 causes you to turn on your allies and attack them instead. Number each ally from 1 up to X, with X being the total number of allies nearby. Then roll a 1dX, the result being your new target. If you used a support or non-offensive skill when rolling a 1 from Nirik Fury, that action is cancelled and you make a basic attack with that action’s roll instead.
- Tranquil Hooves: instant, recharge 2; The calm lifestyle and mountainous home has made Kirin light and nimble to walk without disturbing even the grass or air. On success you can walk across any terrain you normally can without causing any disturbances or triggering any traps. Or you can leap high into the air, gliding through the wind to reach as high as those who can fly and land as soft as a feather.
- Burning Passion: spell; In every Kirin lies the burning intensity of their emotion. You can control these flames without losing yourself in anger, lighting your hooves or other focused spots on your body. This fire acts as normal fire but does not hurt you, and it can be used to light objects on fire or it can be laid on the ground in a trail or controlled path. If used to harm a foe, it can only do 1 Hit of damage at most unless they are weak to fire in which case they the suffer full damage the roll would cause.
Monster Races
Bear
A dominant force of nature, Bears can toss aside foes easily without a second (or even first) thought. Despite their ferocity, they are known to be docile allies to those that care for them.
Animal: passive; Even the smartest Bear is still just an animal. They cannot communicate with words to the other sentient races, but they can make general gestures to get their point across. Being an animal though allows them to speak to other fauna they may meet.
Bear Hug: passive; Bear hugs are the strongest grip known to ponykind. Your arms are like a vice-grip, anything you grab, unless it’s bigger than you, has no chance of escaping. You also lift, carry and move heavier objects than most other races.
- Forest Ranger: automatic; Bears are the kings of the forest, able to go where they want and do what they want without interference. Whenever you meet another animal your size or smaller, you assert your dominance and pacify it no matter what. However, if will defend itself against anyone who chooses to attack it after that.
- Massive Claws: Recharge 2; Bears can toss their weight around, but they can toss around everything else better. You can roll to knock a stationary object, something that is held, or a being reasonably smaller than yourself a sizable distance away. If used to disarm, the object is knocked far enough away that it cannot be retrieved in one turn.
- Grizzly Growl: Recharge 3; With a territorial beast, everything knows to run when you hear it’s roar. You unleash an intimidating growl that affects all nearby enemies, giving them a -1 penalty to all their rolls next round.
- Hibernator: passive; You’re tough and burly in preparation for winter. The extra mass you put on to last those winter months makes you less vulnerable. While helpless, the first damage you would take is negated.
Minotaur
Individuals from this bipedal bull-like race are ambitious, and constantly trying to prove how “awesome” they are to others.
Show Them You Rock: instant automatic, recharge 5; Force your point of view on someone else. This allows allows one vocal/social roll or skill (e.g. Inspire, A Word in Your Ear) to automatically succeed. This does not work on characters with resistant minds, and may not be effective on players.
- Fight With Your Enemies: instant automatic, recharge 5 after effect ends; The coolest thing most of your enemies will ever see. Whenever you render a foe smaller than you helpless, you can use this to equip them as a weapon with no properties to replace your current weapon. All successful attacks you make will also deal damage to who you are wielding. If you become helpless, Critfail, or the “weapon” makes a successful roll to recover from helplessness, this effect immediately ends.
- Iron Will: instant automatic, recharge 2; You are going to have your way, no matter the cost. You can use this to take 4 hits of damage and make a failed action of yours this turn into a minimum success. This ability cannot be used on Critfails.
- War Stomp: passive; Whenever you knock an enemy helpless with a melee action, deal half the damage it dealt to all other nearby enemies.
- Hulking: passive; You naturally know Cleave, allowing you to use it at any time with any weapon.
Goo Pony
Far and few in between goo ponies are a rare sight indeed. Lacking their own society and culture, they prefer to blend into pony civilization, often times indistinguishable from heavily clothed earth ponies.
Goo: passive; Being made of goo and slime has a load of benefits. You're able to fit through small areas, you can squeeze through cracks, and you can store things inside yourself. You can choose to form yourself as a pony, stay in a more blobby shape, or swap between them at will. In combat you have DC-1 to free yourself from grapples and other physical binding and restricting effects.
- Gelatinous: passive; You take greatly reduced physical damage, but are more exposed to the elements. Weapon and untagged attacks deal 1 less hit of damage to you, but spells do 1 hit more.
- Toxic Slime: passive; You are a distant descendant of the Smooze, leading to others treating you with caution and skepticism. Your slimy body is poisonous and all your unarmed attacks have the Poisoned tag. You can also poison your own or an ally’s weapon as a normal action. This poison lasts for X turns, where X is [Roll - 5].
- Body Partitioning: instant automatic, recharge 2 after effect ends; With intense concentration and focus you are able to split yourself into multiple smaller copies of yourself. When you divide, your split your wounds as you see fit among all portions you create, with a minimum on 1 wound. Each copy shares all your skills, but they share the same recharge (i.e. If one uses Magic Bolt, none of the others can until the recharge ends) and only one instance of a skill with recharge can be used in a single turn. All your copies start with at full hits, with their max hits being the same as your normal max hits. As long as one copy is still alive you can reform at any time, and when you do your health is set to one less of however many hits you had before using this skill, and however many wounds remained among all your copies. This can be used while helpless, and the copies will not be helpless if you do so.
- Aqueous: passive; Goo ponies may not need to eat, but they do need to keep themselves hydrated! You can no longer be affected by healing spells or skills, but your body is especially permeable compared to other goo ponies, so much so that mere contact with water heals you. You can use carried water to work as a substitute for your inability to be healed. The amount of health restored relates to an appropriate roll. Large bodies of water such as rivers, lakes and oceans will heal you to full automatically. Just don’t go for a swim or you’ll dissolve.
Changeling
Appearing as a cross between pony and insect this race feeds on the emotions of others and can mimic almost anything or anyone.
Changeling Flight: You have thin gossamer wings which allow you to fly unencumbered but somewhat slower than other races. This is about as taxing as running at full speed.
Shapeshifting: recharge 3; A Changeling can imitate almost anything the same size as itself. You can change your form into any specific person or object you choose on success, with higher success rolls giving better quality to the disguise. The disguise is removed when knocked helpless or when dispelled by magic. If you have the Disguise skill, Shapeshifting will Autocrit. Changelings can tell each other apart via pheromones, passively sensing when other Changelings nearby, but not their specific location.
- Evil Twin: passive; There is a magic connection to appearances that Changelings are able to tap into. Looking like an individual makes them stronger when fighting that individual. You receive a bonus to rolls targeting anyone whose identity you are assuming. +1 if it’s a general category of people(e.g. military, police, royal guard)and +2 if it’s a specific person.
- Adaptability: On a successful roll, this racial is replaced until the end of the session by a chosen racial of your choice.
- Enthrall: You have magic that wears away at a non-changeling’s mind. On each success you drive your target deeper into a state of servile trance, giving one level of stupor, or two on Crit. Each level of stupor adds a new penalty to the target. If the target can see your eyes, they will automatically know your nature and intent, success or fail.
1: -1 penalty to all attacks in this combat.
2: - 1 to all rolls for the remainder of the session.
3+: Thralldom: The target becomes a minion for the user. They cannot Crit or benefit from Crits in this state. Receiving damage in this state removes a level of stupor. Player characters and powerful enemies cannot become thralls.
- Glop: recharge 1 after effect ends; You secrete a sticky green goo that prevents a helpless target from recovering that turn. You can passively maintain this effect by not making any other action on each turn you continue it. A strong target will instead receives a cumulative -1 penalty to their recovery rolls for the duration of the effect. If the combat ends (i.e. All other enemies are dead or ran away) before the target manages to recover, the goo hardens into a cocoon and escape without outside help becomes all but impossible.
Dragon
Dragons who have not quite made it into adulthood sometimes leave their flight for solitary adventures and to get a jump start on that horde of treasure.
Dragon Flight: With or without wings, you are able to fly and hover while carrying heavy loads. Dragons can remain airborne indefinitely.
Chromatic Scales: instant automatic; 3 times per combat; At character creation choose an element type such as fire, ice, or lightning. When you use this ability, any attacks or skills against you that turn that share that element do no damage and cause no negative effects. This also allows you attempt feats most other races can’t (e.g. Swimming in lava with fireproof scales or bathing in liquid nitrogen with iceproof scales).
- Dragon Breath: recharge 2; Your dragon breath is far more developed than other dragons, able to cover a wide range and inflict damage. At character creation choose an Elementalist effect for your breath that will determine its element and effect. You can target up to 10 enemies with this attack, but the recharge increases by 1 for each enemy beyond 1 that you target. You can also use your breath to magically send messages, as long as established a link with your message recipient beforehand.
- Dragon Greed: instant automatic; Consuming a gem or a valuable object decreases the recharge of a skill on recharge by 1. You character start the game with 5 gems or other valuable objects, and will have to acquire any more by hunting, trading, or from rewards.
- Dragonforce: passive; You are powered by the elements. Whenever you are exposed to the element chosen of your Chromatic Scales while helpless, you automatically recover and can act normally that turn. If you are not helpless, then you receive +1 to all your rolls that turn.
- Draconic Talons: passive; A dragon’s claws are frightful indeed, able to cut through metal with ease. You can full damage and can deal wounds while unarmed, and you always count as having a weapon for using weapon skills. A dragon’s claws are also a sign of strength. When you attack another dragon with your claws, you two are locked into combat and are only able to target each other. You can only make normal, unmodified attack rolls as you duel for dominance and superiority. The duel lasts until one falls helpless, the winner gaining a DC-1 to all their actions against the loser for the rest of the session. These duels can only happen once per dragon per session.
Hybrid Races
Players can also chose to play as an hybrid of two races if the DM allows it. Instead of having the standard Base Racial and Expanded Racial like normal races, you will gain both Base Racials of the two races you are a hybrid of. If either of the races has multiple racials (Unicorns, Changelings, Dragons, Breezies, Bears, or Kirin) you must pick only one of them. Essentially, a Hybrid can only have 2 racials at most even if their parent races would give more than that.
[a]Realizing we should set this to the original Buffalo racial
Frenzy: passive; You do not fall easily. When you would be sent helpless you instead stay up and can keep rolling for normal attacks only once per turn until you fail. Go helpless immediately once you do fail. You do not take counterattack damage from this fail.
[b]Surveyor: Changed bonus from -1 to rolls to DC-1
[c]Updated: Changed the +2 from "other skill" to "other action"
[d]Updated: Clarified that you gain all the bonuses, and that the +2 bonus is applied immediately as well so there is not confusion on needing to recover to gain it.