Does anyone have the stats for her New Race? Anyone?
Mathra could use the Way?
She's a New Race, yet, but contrarily to the typical meaning of such a name she's not part of any race, but is unique. Like Magnus.
Mathra could use the Way?
Yeah well, she could blast people to bits when she was in danger and ate cinnabar... it could be psionic in nature.
What is cinnabar anyways other than being a gem-like thingy?
Yeah well, she could blast people to bits when she was in danger and ate cinnabar... it could be psionic in nature.
What is cinnabar anyways other than being a gem-like thingy?
It could be a really rare psionic amplifier, like esperweed. That could explain the things she could do.
Or it might be that the cinnabar only effected her this way- something to do with her New Race metabolism.
OR we could say that she was a Wilder AND that the cinnabar is a psionic amplifier for Wilders only, boosting their psionic enervation stuff- maybe allowing them to focus it more or something.
Basically, Mathra has no levels in any "heroe" D&D class - fighter, wilder, rogue - nor is she a member of the expert NPC class. She is most probably a commoner, with less than 5 levels at that.
The only ability we see her use, and that I can recall, is her ability to blast a radius around her, fueled by eating a substance, in this case cinnabar. This would be her New Race racial ability.
Attempting to make Mathra into anything else - wilder, rogue, fighter - is misguided, for such talents/powers/abilities are not displayed by her.
She is...in D&D terms, perfectly ordinary save for her blasting.
? I wouldn't bother with the commoner levels, she isn't a commoner either. :PMahtra— A child of the new races. If she had parents she's neither like them, nor remembers them. Indeed, she remembers nothing clearly before her arrival in the dark natural caverns far below Hamanu's Urik some six years ago. From that time she remembers a human man, old and crippled with arthritis, yet an earth cleric, deep in his element and therefore a man of power in his surroundings. She was sick then, and he oversaw her recovery. Mahtra called him ``Father'' which was what the other outcasts of the cavern lake community called him. Father fashioned the mask she always wears, because there are aspects of her face which men and women of the old, established races find repugnant. Taking note of her cleverness, he tried to teach her his magic, but as the new race children have bodies that cannot be easily categorized, so, too are their minds different.
Mahtra works magic of a wizardly sort, but she draws upon the sun for her power, absorbing its energy into the golden markings on her alabaster sk in. Yet her eyes are weak and cannot withstand long exposure to the Tablelands' harsh light. Moreover, the sole reagent with which she works magic is mercury, which she metabolizes internally after consuming small chunks of cinnabar (usually in the form of trade beads). To catalyze her magic she ``sweats'' both mercury and sulphur through the normally gold-colored patches on her shoulders and face— the appearance is that the gold evanesces into sulphur fumes, leaving a quicksilver surface which itself disappears as incandescent mercury vapor (a somewhat spectacular effect in and of itse lf, which, coincidentally, leaves Mahtra partially blind for several moments afterward). It is an excess of cinnabar in Mahtra's body which naturally colors her fingernails a bright vermillion. Otherwise note that despite her weak eyes, she is not an albino. She owes her pallor to a layer of delicate, faintly iridescent white scales everywhere except the catalyzing patches. When she's not eating cinnabar (which doesn't provide ``normal'' nutrition, just magic fuel) she subsists on a liquid diet, preferably of blood or other liquid animal protein, this because her mouth resembles that of a nectar-drinking insect.
She has gone abroad at night, leaving the cavern just before sundown— soaking up the last rays of sunlight— before beginning her rounds. In her very, very outre' way, Mahtra appeals to certain tastes. She has traded on this allure in the nighttime UpperWorld and supplied the cavern community with such things as their dark, sterile environment cannot provide. With no past to remember and no other lives against which to compare her own, she perceives no strangeness in the life she leads and is disinclined to judge or compare others. She returns to the cavern after dawn, with the rarities her nocturnal activities provide.
Except for Father, she has had no friends, and not been aware of the lack. She is elegant, yet feral.
Still, the way I'd do Mathra is make up racial traits for a +0 LA new race (with options to increase it to +1/+2 for the addition of a powerful innate ability). Then make a racial paragon class specificaly for her new race (which is unique...thus the paragon class is unique to her as well). This would correctly express her discovery of her innate powers, and learned mastery, without involving the messy business of making her a wilder or psion or earth cleric or wizard, from which she'd have access to spells/powers not present in the novel. The racial traits would include a racial Ex ability related to absorbing the sun for partial sustenance, and the paragon classes abilities would build on her sun-related racial trait and allow her to achieve more with it as long as she has cinnabar in her blood as well: blast people, maybe heal herself.
As for class levels (besides paragon levels), if any, I'd still go for commoner because she's not learned in anything. She's a courtisan, of sort.
So its either LA +0 followed by paragon class levels, or LA +1 to +2 and the abilities that come with such a LA. Its all the same.
But what is cinnabar? Seriously, I don't know what it is... It's just a red rock Mathra eats (I think I remember that it's not even edible for anybody else) and is for sale in Dune Trader. What is it to normal people?
To be blunt, it comes across as a cheap Dune rip off of Spice.
[its funny because it can be take different ways]
Sooo...Your saying that she was pretty hot then! :D
[its funny because it can be take different ways]
If you are into insect mouths and deadly vapors :P
If you are into insect mouths and deadly vapors :P
I like chicks with a hint of danger to them!
Anyway, new idea to continue this thread: How would you guys make a LA 0 or LA 1 New Race, possibly using Mahtra as a prototype?
Also, how would this blend with a human from Faerun, a kender and a Oerthian Elf (who everyone if convinced is a midget)? They don't judge on race really, the rest of the crew is a Giff, a Githyanki, a Warforged, an Illithid, a Beholder, a Shifter, three humans, two gnomes, a drow and a rastipede.
They will be sad that Tktkcht, the thri-kreen died, though. Especially Freezebox, the warforged.
Thanks to everyone who helps!
