Swamp Slogger
Posts: 131
Joined: Wednesday, 2nd May 2012, 10:32
New Species Idea: Abarimon
Species name: Abarimon
Traits
Unaffected by magic
Fast 2
rPois
Description
Although magical aptitude varies from race to race, each creature has at least some ability to use, and be affected by, magic. The Abarimon, however, are entirely unaffected by magic and cannot use any magic themselves. In order to defend themselves, they have to rely on their martial training and high speed.
General
Abarimon are immune to all forms of magic: offensive spells, curses, magical traps and enemy buffs that affect others, such as invisibility. Note that this does not include creatures that are innately invisible, such as Unseen Horrors and Ghost Moths.
They are unable to use any form of magic, including spells and most items. Consequently, they have no MP bar.
Since Abarimon can't use many of the typical methods of escape, such as blink and teleport scrolls, their main method of escape consists of running away, which is made easier by their superior speed. The poison immunity is mainly to make the Snake, Spider and Swamp branches less tedious, since they have no other way of gaining poison immunity.
While the magic immunity makes a lot of monsters easier, Abarimon also have much fewer answers, e.g. no abjuration to deal with summoners and no blink scrolls to make a quick getaway. It therefore becomes even more important than with regular characters to determine when the tide of battle is turning against you and to run away in time. Although the concept will almost certainly have to be tweaked a bit, I hope it's at least interesting and sufficiently different from the existing species to be worthy of some discussion. I look forward to reading your feedback.
Can't use
- Magical weapon brands
- Armour egos
- Jewellery
- Scrolls
- Spells
- Any evokable item save for the Horn of Geryon and reaching weapons, i.e. rods, wands, staves, decks, summoning items, etc.
Unaffected by
- Curses. They can freely swap out cursed items.
- Magical traps (Teleport and Zot)
Affected by
- Weapon and armour plusses and minuses. Since Abarimon can't modify these magically and they can be modified non-magically through corrosion, I'm interpreting these as being particularly well-made rather than having some form of enchantment.
- Nonmagical weapon brands (reaching, speed, vorpal, penetration)
- Ammo/needle brands. Here you don't use the magic of the projectile, you simply launch it at the enemy, who is affected by the ammo's enchantment as usual.
- Potions. Potions are chemical rather than magical.
- Divine powers (friendly and hostile). While similar in effect, divine powers are not magic.
- Non-magical traps
- Breath attacks. Again, chemical rather than magical.
- Branded melee attacks, e.g. a hit by a fire elemental
Religion
Obviously the magic Gods (Sif Muna, Vehumet and Kikubaaqudgha) have no interest in you and will not accept you as a worshipper. Your inability to use decks means Nemelex Xobeh is similarly uninterested.
Since you are unaffected by curses, you don't gain additional Ashenzari piety when wearing cursed items.
God abilities that require MP can still be used.
Skills
Abarimon are good with all weapons and obviously cannot use any magical skills.
Recommended backgrounds
Warrior, Gladiator, Monk, Hunter, Assassin, Berserker, Abyssal Knight, Chaos Knight, Death Knight, Priest, Healer