Silent Spectre (Race)

[bcadren]

This is a redraft, in which I re-balance some of the old ideas in this concept.

Stats:
Starting Base Stats: Str 3 Int 8 Dex 12
Gains 1 Dex every 4 levels.

Apts:

  Code:

SS: Fighting: -2*, Short: -1, Long: -2, Axes: -2, Maces: -2, Polearms: -2, Staves: -1, Slings: -1, Bows: -1, Xbows: -2, Throw: -2*, Armour: -2, Dodge: 4!, Stealth: 4, Shields: -3*, UC: -1, Splcast: -1, Conj: 2, Hexes: 1, Charms: 1, Summ: 0, Nec: 2!, Tloc: 3, Tmut: 3!, Fire: 0, Ice: 0, Air: 3!, Earth: -1, Poison: -2, Inv: -2*, Evo: 1, Exp: -1, HP: -2, MP: 2!

Weirdness/Mutations:

• Undead - You are undead. - Vuln. to Holy Flames, Holy Wrath and Dispel Undead. Immune to Poison, Torment, Negative Energy and Rot. Resist Cold. No berserking, doesn't need to eat, can use potions.
• Non-Corporeal - You aren't completely solid. - You are immune to curses (objects can't stick to you). Unlike corporeal undead you can self-transmute (changing the shape of a ghost's misty form is easy; changing the shape of a corpse is impossible). This additionally boosts your Stealth and Evasion (Size Factor 4 for Evasion, High Base Stealth like Nagas and Vampires for Stealth).
• Aura of Quieting - You exude an imperfect aura of silence. - This aura makes it impossible to read a scroll and more difficult to cast spells; any enemy that can be silenced has a chance of cantripping while in the aura. (exact chance to be tuned with playtesting). Additionally all noise within the aura is vastly diminished, but not extinguished. You can cast normally in your aura (and can't cast as normal in PERFECT (normal) Silence) but you cannot use Scrolls, ever.

[tasonir]

I like the idea of an undead who can transmute, and it convinently gives you an excuse to ignore remove curse scrolls being unreadable, so it should work. I'd probably try to move away from having so many extreme aptitudes though, making their air, transmutations, and dodging all off the charts seems a bit much. And a heavily EV based race with -20% hp is going to be somewhat frustrating to play. I wouldn't want to play them as melee, and it's somewhat unclear what "more difficult to cast spells" means, but if they're bad at casting as well it's going to be a very weak race. This may be intended, but I'd aim for a more medium power level - give them HP:0 and lower aptitudes. You could do pretty well with just -1 across the board, or +0 for the magic schools.