Player Race Proposal: Phantasm

[bcadren]

My last proposal for a bit I swear.

Phantasms are an undead race without a physical body. They are spirits trapped in between the physical realm and that of death, without a concrete form. Ghosts with a mission to attend to so that they can finally rest and be at peace with the world. Essentially they are meant to be a race similar to the phantasmal warrior and basic phantasm enemies and general ghosts, unlike the existing bodily undead.

{rN-, rPois+++, rRot+++, rSticky, rConstict, rDrown, no Hunger, no Potions, rTorm, Permanent Flight (Cannot stop flying, effectively an Air Weakness)}
[Unlike Bodily undead, they are weak to draining as they are pure lifeforce, they are still immune to pain and torment, however.]

Aptitudes:
Fighting: -3
Short Blades: +1
Long Blades: 0
Axes: -3
Maces & Flails: -3
Polearms: -3
Staves : -2
UC: 0
Throwing: -1
Slings: -1
Bows: -3
Crossbows: -3
Armour: -4
Dodging: 3
Stealth: 4
Shields: -3
Spellcasting: -1
Fire Magic: 0
Ice Magic: 1
Air Magic: 2
Earth Magic: -1
Poison Magic: -2
Conjurations: 0
Hexes: 2
Charms: 1
Summonings: 1
Necromancy: 2
Translocations: 4
Transmutations: 4
Invocations: -1
Evocations: -2
Experience: -1
HP: -2
MP: 2

Racial abilities: They have very high natural evasion, gaining more as they level. They gain evocable invisibility at level 12. As it's a natural ability it does not generate glow, the length of time Phantasms can remain invisible increases with level.

Weirdness:
Because they have a hard time manipulating physical objects and have a weightless form; they are treated as very small in terms of equipment they can weld, armors they can wear, stealth and dodging multipliers. {Same as Spriggans.}
Their physical attacks gain a unique branded effect phantasmal, they only check against half the target's armor value, but their base damage is lowered. {target AC/2; Weapon (including UC's and enchantment values) damage *0.7}
Because their form is non-physical it's shape varies randomly, causing them to gain and lose several mutations at random; this acts like a permanent Evolution 2 Mut, but selects from fewer mutations and is more likely to remove muts or give negative ones. {Claws, Talons/Hooves, Antennae/Horns, Fangs/Beak, Tough Skin/Translucent Skin, Blink/Teleportitus, Clarity/Berserkitus, Silence*/Shoutitus, Fast Movement/Slow Movement, Wild Magic, Robust/Frail, High MP/Low MP, Regen/Slow Healing}. Mutations change with experience, not time to prevent waitscumming.

*Silence turns the Silence spell into an evocable. Only level 3 has the size of a Silence spell cast; level one only silences yourself. Effect is a permanent aura until cancelled (similar to Silent Ghosts).

Gods:
Cannot Worship Good Gods. Unsure about Fedhas as they are not violating corpses/natural rot.
Jiyva cannot cure their mutations (sorry that would be overpowered).

[Klown]

They seem like they'd be fun to play.

[Galefury]

Allowing dragon armors doesn't make much sense IMO.

I think the apts are too one-dimensional, and too close to Spriggans. Giving them invis for free at level 12 does not help in this regard.

Can they transmute? Because most undead cant.

[MoogleDan]

I was considering how a phantasm player species might work a while ago, and was trying to find a balanced way to implement Passwall or Cause Fear as an innate feature. Didn't have much luck with it though...

[1010011010]

You could deny armour/weapons based on weight, allowing light armour small shields one handers.

[earLOBe]

I like the idea of allowing/disallowing items based on weight. Perhaps the phantasm should only be allowed to wear armour/wield weapons with evp/weight less than, say, XL/2?

I don't think perma-evolution is necessarily the best way to go about changing the phantasm. Perhaps give phantasms a 0 hp apt and let them choose (say, between three different mutations every 3 levels, ending up with a total of 9 mutation levels and the effect of hp-2 at xl27) to mutate/permamutate at the cost of maxhp. This would give them a more 'directed' way of mutating than demonspawn and allow us to add different costs for different mutations. Because the species apts are so focused on stealth/ev, the mutations would have to be different bonuses to that playstyle rather than all over the place like demonspawn. It'd also provide the opportunity for players to get a different kind of unarmed glass cannon to trolls - phantasms could perhaps choose a path of unique mutations that brands their unarmed attacks with something interesting like distortion at the cost of limiting transmutations, or they could be stealthy transmuters with a mutation that improves claw stabbing. Giving a random set of optional 'mutation paths' would probably be the best, so that this doesn't become a build-a-bear character like the abomination proposal, but more of a spriggan-meets-demonspawn-meets-djinni-meets-mummy.

[ackack]

I think the apts are too one-dimensional, and too close to Spriggans. Giving them invis for free at level 12 does not help in this regard.

Yes, having stabber aptitudes and then getting free invis (which I'm guessing is pretty much the point of this proposed race) is way too good (not to mention Gr style inherent EV on top of a Sp base, which is insane.) At least with SpEn you have to spend some xp (although not all that much) getting invis going instead of stealth or short blades.

edit: in general, I dislike that basically all of the small races have aptitudes that are so stab focused.

[Lasty]

It strikes me as weird that they can use any items at all. Incorporeal monsters never pick up or use items. Also, no other incorporeal undead monsters have drain vulnerability.

[earLOBe]

I think the apts are too one-dimensional, and too close to Spriggans. Giving them invis for free at level 12 does not help in this regard.

Yes, having stabber aptitudes and then getting free invis (which I'm guessing is pretty much the point of this proposed race) is way too good (not to mention Gr style inherent EV on top of a Sp base, which is insane.) At least with SpEn you have to spend some xp (although not all that much) getting invis going instead of stealth or short blades.

edit: in general, I dislike that basically all of the small races have aptitudes that are so stab focused.

That's why I like the idea of choosing to stack mutations like 'free' invis (which could be high-glow, low-power at mutlevel 1, more reasonable at mutlevel 2, and low-glow at mutlevel 3), but which would have the opportunity cost of, say, -10% hp and passing up another mutation like a hex enhancer. The apts are only one-dimensional in that the stabber aptitudes+invis+free ev are too good to pas up - the apts would be fine for a spellcaster or really anything that doesn't require armour/fighting. To be honest, though I think this proposal could be improved, I still like it more than spriggans, because it's not as kiting-and-hunger-oriented (two of my least favourite aspects of the game). If these guys could be balanced and the mutroulette made more interesting, I'd play them.

[zugundertherug]

Without even reading any posts there should be an undead player species along this line, phantom/ghost/spirit, it's a staple fantasy undead. Also wouldn't mind zombie as a challenge race.

[reaver]

There are two basic problems with this proposal:

It's undead, and 3 undead species is already too many.
All the interesting features are already in the game.

The second one is by far the most damming. Jiyva covers the mutation thing, Mummies cover the potions, Djinn/Tengu Permaflight, Invisibility and Silence by the spells/scrolls/rings Invisibility and Silence, Spriggans small slots but high EV etc. They also have a big pile of resists for no particular reason. Arbitrarily making Naga, Spiny Frogs, Smoke Demons, and Water elementals significantly less dangerous isn't very interesting.

rN- and phantasmal brand are sort of interesting, but they aren't really good enough to base a whole species on. rN- seems like a good tool to have if it was implemented, but not something to carry a proposal in itself. Phantasmal brand could be an interseting buff against certain enemies, but AC isn't very transparent right now, so it might inherit most of the problems with polymorph.