Aquatic Adventure Guides

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snakewing
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Aquatic Adventure Guides

Post by snakewing »

This should definitely be the next three part Adventure Guide series. Underdark is supposed to be the next adventure guide but one based around an aquatic campaign would be interesting.

There are a number of aquatic races which could be playable, not to mention inspirations for new playable races (the arachial-like race could even be some sort of Octo-men, half man/half octopus).
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Post by Mr. Author »

Hey, now that would be useful. I've had to come up with a lot of water-combat and adventuring rules for Aesca, but I'd like to see something come out of a published company about that kind of stuff.

Lesse, 2ed D&D had an underwater octopi race...called Zoveri, I think. They were celestial.
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snakewing
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Post by snakewing »

Well, I was thinking, as far as an octo-man race goes, about the top half, or just the head, being an octopus, with the rest being a human's body.
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Post by snakewing »

Well, I was thinking, as far as an octo-man race goes, about the top half, or just the head, being an octopus, with the rest being a human's body.
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Post by Mr. Author »

That'd look too much like a mind flayer for my tastes.

What if they were vaguely humanoid, not possessing arms or legs, but with two pair of tentacles further up along their "torso?" They could have a myoskeletal structure to most of their bodies, with cartilage in the face and surrounding the vital organs. They'd have to have iron-based blood, of course.

Of course, they needn't be humanoid at all, but that might get a little wierd.

Hmmm....I know can make this work. I'll sketch up a couple of ideas and get back to you.
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Post by Mr. Author »

Okay, I got it. Here's an idea.....it looks kinda like the zoverii, but appearances are deceiving.

Let me give you an idea of what you're looking at. The head really isn't a head at all. Only the eyes and mouth function, but the mouth isn't attached to the digestive system at all. Instead, it's only for taking in water for the siphon (on the creature's back, usually on the left side). The hair on the head is actually a pair of modified skin flaps. The face is held in position by the pin, highly modified and back by calcium and spiral layered muscle fibers.

The upper pair of arms is for manipulating objects.....perhaps, in hindsight, I should have put a split on the end to make it easier to manipulate objects. The lower pair of arms contain the creature's reproductive organs, much like an octopus of earth. I almost put a pair of breast-like structures on the torso (because it's female), but decided against it (it's not a mammal, but they could have a different function. Egg cases, maybe? I don't know......).

The real mouth is underneath the "dress" of tentacles....the beak. The dress contains four tentacles, as the other two pair are on the torso of the creature.

I imagine it being a uniformly reddish color, perhaps being able to change its skin color and texture like an octopus, perhaps building a language around it. It's not too hard for me to imagine these things being psionic, either.

Heh. What do you think? I go too far overboard on this?
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snakewing
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Post by snakewing »

Very nice. That's all I have to say. Though your explanation is a little complicated.
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Post by Mr. Author »

No, that's not complicated. You haven't seen complicated.

I once created an entire planet (still working on it, actually....5 years and counting) where the natives are descendants of echinoderm-like creatures. I have their internal biochemistry, molecular diagrams of new enzymes, gravity measurements, atmospheric pressures, composition, continental drift, 200 million years of evolution, and predator-prey relationships. I have a huge map of the surface taking up one of the walls in my room. I have a "dissectable" stagjaw in photoshop detailing its internal organs and bone structure.

The above drawing and creature is not complicated. I came up with that in a few minutes.
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Post by RSKennan »

Great creature. Have you got any other info on it? I agree that splitting the end of the armlike tentacles would be a good idea.
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Post by Mr. Author »

I dunno...I just made it up on a whim. What exactly do you want? Society? Anatomy? D20 game statistics? More pictures? A name?
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snakewing
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an aquatic race and other aquatic adventuire guide stuff

Post by snakewing »

I've known about this race for a while now, but didn't get around to posting the info until now.

This race is free material on the hunt: rise of evil website called the ichtyoids.

Here's the link to the downloads page:
http://www.huntroe.com/downloads.php

Reading the description, they sound like a shellfish version of the sahuagin (probably mispelled), based on the evil alignment and hatred of surface dwellers. Heck, an aquatic campaign could probably be based around the idea of both races forming an alliance to destroy all the ships in a given area.

For good campaign ideas on the sahuagin, I'd suggest the Hostile Climes: Depths of Despair book published by Pinnacle. It givers rules for player character sahuagin as well as for tritons (sea elves, basically). It even has a few aquatic monsters described.
snakewing
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new monsters for an aquatic campaign

Post by snakewing »

This issue of d20Zine, a mag dedicated to d20 gaming, has a few new monsters which were created for the Hostile Climes: Depths of Despair book from Pinnacle Entertainment Group, Inc. It's an underwater world that would make a great campaign setting (one I eventually hope to use).

Here's the link:

http://www.d20zines.com/html/downloads/ ... 20zine.pdf

The monsters are on pages 19, 20, and 21.

Tim
snakewing
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Post by snakewing »

Oops, i just now noticed that I never posted what the name for the aquatic race on the Hunt: Rise of Evil downloads page is. It's The Ichtyoids. It's under the HUNt: ROE world book downloads.

Tim
snakewing
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two more aquatic beasties

Post by snakewing »

two more WOTC monsters for aquatic adventure.

http://wizards.com/dnd/article.asp?x=dnd/mm/mm20021124a
Underwater fairies

http://wizards.com/dnd/article.asp?x=dnd/mm/mm20020112a
underwater nymphs ... who are evil!!

Tim
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Re: Aquatic Adventure Guides

Post by Guest »

snakewing wrote: There are a number of aquatic races which could be playable, not to mention inspirations for new playable races (the arachial-like race could even be some sort of Octo-men, half man/half octopus).
In my undersea campaign, I have tauric octofolk as well as two varieties of half-kraken and a sea flayer. Lots of tentacles ;)
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Post by Aeolius »

Would it be bad form, to put a link to Boundless Blue on my website?

http://www.lobi.com/bpaa

Aeolius
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Post by goodmangames »

Aeolius wrote:Would it be bad form, to put a link to Boundless Blue on my website?
Not at all. Looks like an interesting site!
Joseph Goodman
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www.goodman-games.com
losloris
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Re: Aquatic Adventure Guides

Post by losloris »

About to use Sea of Death from Dungeon magazine where the party will meet a manta ray and it occurred to me that the AC for MR is low. I understand that it is all fleshy and such. However it should also be really agile in water where I would not.

Is there a section of rules that considers underwater movement in combat? I'm thinking along the lines of basic ideas, like a dwarf fighting a giant and how that +/- goes depending on who is doing what.

The way I see it, from a launched attack the manta ray's AC will be low but would receive a benefit in hand to manta combat.

Losloris
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