Species Proposal: Beastmen

[dee ehm]

The idea of a species that improves in high tension was a good one, and I think deserves another run, although this time with a bit of a different approach.

Beastmen are creatures with the bodies of men but the souls of beasts. Although normally they appear mundane or human, when cornered they reveal their true nature as terrible monsters. Beastmen rapidly transform into ferociously powerful creatures with a plethora of powerful mutations at their disposal, but at a cost. Once the tension dies down, they heal up, and the fight is over, they return to their original form, weakened and hungry until they can recover to full strength. Beastmen make natural transmuters, berserkers and monks, though beastmen summoners and necromancers are not unheard of. Beastmen are excellent dodgers, but have terrible aptitude for armor due to their mutable forms being poorly constrained by body armor.

Mutations:

Beastmen mutate very rapidly in high tension situations, or by using an activated species ability, Beast's Call. When done so, they can get multiple ranks from the list of following mutations:

- Fangs
- Claws
- Horns
- Hooves
- Talons
- Tough Skin
- Shaggy Fur
- Carnivorous
- Fast
- Wild Magic
- Strong
- Agile
- Regeneration

As well as the following bad mutations:
- Fast Metabolism
- Berserk
- Deformed

When tension remains low after combat, the mutations begin to recede, bringing with them hunger cost and skill drain, as well as temporary mutations Weak and Clumsy that wear off over time. More mutations means more hunger cost and more skill drain. This discourages 'gaming' the tension system or abusing the ability to transform more than necessary.

Attributes:
Average HP
Average MP
+1 Strength or Dexterity every 4th level
11 Strength, 9 Dexterity, 6 Int

Skills:

FIGHTING, +1
SHORT_BLADES, 0
LONG_BLADES, 0
AXES, 0
MACES_FLAILS, 0
POLEARMS, 0
STAVES, 0
SLINGS, -2
BOWS, -2
CROSSBOWS,-2
THROWING, 1
ARMOUR, -4
DODGING, +3
STEALTH, -3
SHIELDS, -3
UNARMED_COMBAT, +2
SPELLCASTING, -2
CONJURATIONS, -3
HEXES, -2
CHARMS, -1
SUMMONINGS, +1
NECROMANCY, 0
TRANSLOCATIONS, -1
TRANSMUTATIONS, +4
FIRE_MAGIC, -1
ICE_MAGIC, -1
AIR_MAGIC, -1
EARTH_MAGIC, -1
POISON_MAGIC, -1
INVOCATIONS, 0
EVOCATIONS, 0

[TeshiAlair]

*looks at OP username"

Huh.

Well, welcome.

1. Out of curiousity, have looked around at some of the various werewolf threads that have popped up?
2. Tension is a tricky mechanic to manage.
3. TMUT +4 is probably overkill, as is UC +2 given that their UC is by default going to be better.
4. Also, how will their mutations affect transmuted forms? Can we get hooved spiders? Because we should get hooved spiders.

[spudwalt]

Hmm, this is a neat take on the whole 'werewolf species' idea. Instead of a full-blown form change, you just mutate a lot when you get into trouble, meaning you aren't locked into a particular style of combat (since your equipment mostly stays the same, though suddenly growing horns or talons could mess with headgear/boots). I think that could work.

Not sure skill drain works as a drawback, though; you'd end up having to deal with draining quite a lot, as the only way to cure draining is to gain experience, which requires fighting things, which would induce mutations, which would cause more skill drain, etc.

[tasonir]

Overall a very solid proposal imho. I'd slightly flatten some of the aptitudes, but that isn't a big change.

Armor -2 dodging +1 might be more reasonable, for example. Transmutations I probably wouldn't go above +2, but maybe give them -1 spellcasting instead of -2? That sort of thing.

Equipment falling off would be annoying, but I don't think you can have beastmen who don't occasionally get hooves/horns/etc which will block slots. Maybe these temporary mutations could be coded to meld the item instead of actually making you remove it, so it would come back when the mutation is gone.

[spudwalt]

I don't think it's a big deal for hooves to push off your boots instead of melding them. It sounds like the only time you'll de-mutate is after you've killed most of the things that made you beast up in the first place, so there'd be time to put your boots back on once your feet go back to normal.

...having said that, I just realized that it's a thing that could conceivably happen most times you beast out, so there's a certain frustration factor in "oh, look, I have to put my boots/helmet/gloves back on AGAIN". Maybe melding your footwear would work better after all.

[Lyrick]

Skill drain could be potentially too dangerous, its kind of like Felids after a death; you've come out of a tough fight but are now weaker than before and more likely to die again/have to transform, resulting in more skill drain etc.