/tg/ - Traditional Games

>things that still need to be written:

>opening introductory quote

"half elves are boring faggot fuckers and i have replaced them with an aquatic race i call thalassians. why? dwarves live in mountains. elfs live in forests. humans live in plains. no one lives in the oceans? "

>>223579

Uhm..Undine?

>>223585

undine is a dumb name for a race. too similar to undead. it conveys something that the race is not.

>>223587

No..I mean we have an ocean dwelling. It's called an Undine. Or Merfolk if you really splitting hairs about it.

>>223579

What gods do Thallasians worship?

Here's some OC from a long, long time ago https://1d4chan.org/wiki/Merfolk#Creation

>>223587

Undine is pronounced Ondeenay. It's a greek word for water spirits.

>>223608

>>223611

Just write it as Ondine. People will get it.

>>223635

undines are water spirits

thalassians are not water spirits. at all. they are humanoids just like elves and dwarfs and humans

So… ocean elves?

>>223637

Petition to name the water elves "Welves."

>>223635

Undine is how the word is spelled. That's how language works, you cunt.

>>223636

Thalassian sounds like a nationality, not a species.

>>223637

nothing about them is elf

>>223642

Thalassia sounds like an ancient Greek kingdom.

In fact, a quick Google search reveals it is the name of a small town in Greece.

>>223579

Okay, here goes

Thalassian male and female picture have a striking difference in facial features not mentioned in the text. Actually, female has hairs which the text says they don't.

If you want to make this look more official the pictures need to kind of "cloud" in with the background since they don't have any transparency. See the landscapes on top of the race sections in the PHB.

>>223642

>>223649

thalass is greek for ocean. thats where i got the name

>>223644

How does one define elf anyways?

>Pointed ear analogues

>Live isolated from general population

>In tune with nature to a large degree

>long lived

>slender builds on average

>Long natural lives

These guys hit most of it, so they seem pretty Welves to me.

>>223785

Is there any sort of drawback to being amphibious.

Like do they have a hard time in heated/harsh sunny weather and an easier time in rainy and damp weather.

Do they have to drink twice the water an otherwise land based race would or what?

>>224040

as a justification for the lac of drawback. think of toads. they are able to live in hot desert areas but can also live in water.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toad

>>224040

>>224040

crabs also have the ability

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Branchiostegal_lung

>>226320

Is there a model line to represent these guys? I need them for a kings of war army

>>226351

umm… not that i know of. i just made them up. lets google together. i bet there is some kind o model for legged water people

>>226351

looks like they have models according to this video

>>226320

Maybe give them advantage in swimming related checks instead of what you have now for aquatic adaptation. Might be better simple like that

What's their schtick? Dwarves dig, orcs are bad guys, elves fuck trees, humans fuck anything that moves. What about these guys?

>>226556

They fuck coral reefs

Tritons?

i talked to chuckchan and some of the things they suggested where to add fluff about their organization, the dangerous abyss next door, and more stuff on letting them be evil/ruthless. so i added that and i think the best way to improve the "deep dea thread" feel that some people wanted is to have the thalassian opening quote involve something about deep sea horror.

any writefags have any suggestions?

>>226556

>What's their schtick?

there is literally 5 pages of stuff talking about their schtick

they are cosmpolitan merchantile aquatic skillmonkeys. similar to the halfefls, but with fluff instead of nothing

>>226573

>Tritons

some people have suggested changing their name. tritions would be on the list.

>>226388

>Maybe give them advantage in swimming related checks instead of what you have now for aquatic adaptation. Might be better simple like that

thats what i had originally, but i think the preficency and bonus is more of what i want. it ensures that they never suck at a swim check, whereas with advantage, they can still roll snake eyes

>>226589

I am unsure about the floating free skill. It doesn't seem too fluffy or magical and could lead to situations where the a Thalassian rouge could technically have 9 skills and while not too crazy I am not a fan of personally. Beyond that maybe you could replace it with something along the lines of "Flowing Power: While conscious you may chose to have Advantage vs Transumutation spells. In addition you may extend one Transmutation spell effect on you for an additional 50% duration or an additional round if duration:concentration. This ability cannot be used again until a short rest."

This ability does a few things. It gives Thalssians a unique interaction with a school of magic that could easily be worked in thematically, they are familial with transmutation magic because they work with it so often with their structures and crafting in general. Situational Advantage still allows vulnerability but grants strength vs debuffs, great for melee bards or paladins. The extended buff duration is unique and helps all classes but especially frontliners. Additional duration of spells might not be the best option but I think transmutation as a whole might fit well if you want to add more magic to the race.

>>226624

>a Thalassian rouge could technically have 9 skills

how is that different from the half elf?

>>226359

Thanks man! They aren't kings of war models but they are perfect, found them here https://www.coolminiornot.com/shop/catalogsearch/result/?q=hadross&cat=

>>226589

No, I mean, there's already an existing race of aquatic humanoids that fits what you're going for - they're even depicted in the artwork you're using for this homebrew. They're called Tritons.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triton_%28Dungeons_%26_Dragons%29

They're a fairly nifty race.

>>226642

I just get wary when one or two PCs try to stack skills and then crowd in on other classes niches, not the biggest problem but one I like to be mindful of.

Also I never was a fan of the half elves being just awesome skill monkeys, it seems too boring to me an adds power that is impactful but not juicy like dwarven poison resistance or halfling luckiness. This is also my beef with humans a bit because of the whole "lol can be anything" and people just leaving that as is. It is not terrible I just think more can be done with human design beyond being generic and that impacts half elves as well. Even just making humans better skill monkeys and diplomats and have half elves be the red head step child they are supposed to be would be better, especially if something unique comes from mixing humans and elves separate from both lineages.

Shitpost incoming

>>223785

Usually aquatic races suck because at some point a member of the aquatic race (who can breathe both air and water) wants to return to his motherland and the rest of the party (who can't breathe water) has to come up with some huge magical/technological thing to buy/steal/build or a corny plot device to handwave it all away.

Also, the combat system has to change drastically to figure out what happens in an underwater 3-D battle and some of the more autistic players will hate whatever you come up with (How can this guy still swing his giant axe under water with any force at all? How come my bow hasn't warped and come unglued? Can he really swim with full plate on? How come we don't have hypothermia? Why hasn't the pressure made our eyeballs pop out? Having our speed reduced by 1/3rd really sucks! Can we leave?)

>>224046

>they are able to live in hot desert areas but can also live in water.

Those arn't the same toads.