Thursday, 3rd May 2012, 12:43 by mageykun
This is also kinda short on details.
What size are these guys (tiny, little, small, normal, large, huge)? Can they wear normal armour at all? Are they going to get bardings like the other -taur species? How do you balance the infinite spider nets? Does it cost food/breath/mp etc? Do any of the racial abilities (poison, web) become available at a certain level, or are they all available from the get go? Do the abilities scale up at certain levels? What's their diet like? Is there any reason they should be considered evil, or hated / disbarred by any of the gods? (I could see Zin hating them, and maybe TSO- though he does accept green dracs). What kind of roles are they good for? (melee, hybrid, caster, stabber, etc). How fast do they level? Any other skills they'd be particularly good / bad at? (I always think it's important to consider what kind of casters a new species would work as).
At the very least, I'd say you'd want to lose the speed- it's too useful, and makes any potential spider-taurs seem to much like reflavoured centaurs. Natural AC doesn't seem right for a spider to me- and is another advantage they maybe shouldn't get. I'd say give them innate clinging- wall clinging that doesn't run out is a mechanic no other race has access to, and might be an interesting gimmick to build around.
Possibly a drink from corpses mechanic like vampires? One that takes several turns to complete (inject poison, dissolve organs into delicious slurry, drink. Only works on fresh corpses). An inability (or penalty to using at least) of chunks might be a good, flavorful penalty. (although, then what do you do in the endgame? Allow permafood, but it's just not as good?)
Edit: ninja-ed!
I second rPois-.
Hrm. Looking at skills, we're moving away from "poison centaur" and towards "faster fragiler naga". Need to mix it up a little more-
Poor charms (offset good hexes)? Poor fire (webs burn! Spiders no like-y!), decent ice? Maybe a -1 to casting, er -1 or -2 to fighting? Poor to average tloc (used to relying on webs, climbing). Good traps? (seems appropriate- they are ambush predators who make their own) No idea what to do with necro, wind, earth, invo, evo, ect. Also unsure how you'd want to spread weapon apps.