"Snek" meme/joke/whatever aside, is there seriously no race that's like Naga, or Krait (the latter are a gw2 race, but you get my point)?

I had a character idea for a "naval" campaign (game based on coasts, islands, and oceans. Ex: pirates) that involves the character being a Naga/etc, but I can't find a race thingy that lists them as a potential playable race.

Help me out here. Naga/Krait are cool.

Old World of Darkness Naga's are a shape shifting race. does that count?

D&D/Pathfinder use a version of Naga that are very different from what you describe.

Pathfinder has Gillmen and Merfolk, which are relatively close to what you're probably after.  3.x has a whole bunch, if you go looking widely enough.  Heck, 5e has a version in the MtG Unearthed Arcana.

Huh. Mind rMailing me a few links? I'd like to see. Preferably the things most similar to what I'm talking about.

Thanks

The Pathfinder stuff is all in the ARG, which is part of the PRD.

Gillmen: http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG...onRaces/gillmen.html
Merfolk: http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG...onRaces/merfolk.html

There are also Undines, which are humans with elemental water heritage: http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG...edRaces/undines.html

Naga also have servitors, though they're very different from what you're talking about.  Still, they're called Nagaji: http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG...monRaces/nagaji.html

---

The merfolk for 5e are here (well, in the download linked here):

http://magic.wizards.com/en/ar...-zendikar-2016-04-27

I'm looking for races that bear resemblance to naga/Krait. Serpents. I'm not looking for a humanoid fish or human with water elemental affinity. Nor Genasi

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/races/other-races

http://shadowrun.wikia.com/wiki/Naga
Playing them is in the rules in run faster.

In reply to RedTeamPyro (msg # 6):

Well, I'd have to check my books again to verify that Pathfinder has Naga, but I know 3.5 has them. Just got through a session not too long ago in which we fought a naga.

To add image specification to what i'm looking for, think this. Stuff like that.

https://i.gyazo.com/b9a7c1db1b...6f3665e6ebbb20b2.png

*EDIT*

Looks like that doesn't work here
This message was last edited by the user at 21:05, Fri 02 Sept 2016.

In reply to RedTeamPyro (msg # 9):

No, images can not be posted in public forums.

What about this one?

http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG...aces/vishkanyas.html

@bigbadron
Huh, alright. That's understandable.

@Lxndr

Judging by what i could get appearance-wise and through a search, not even close. This is a good image to refer to what i'm looking for.

https://i.gyazo.com/121dc37ebe...4feb8989b50be916.png
This message was last edited by the user at 21:16, Fri 02 Sept 2016.

D&D (various editions) have the Yuan-Ti who can have legs but are mostly just giant serpents with arms.

Oh, awesome. Thanks dude.

Did a little reading about them.

Now for the harder part; finding someone who'd tolerate a Yuan-Ti in their game.

Idk how many would let one into their group, but I could see a game where the party was doing a evil campaign of them. That could be doable, I'd think.

I was planning on using him for a naval campaign. Pirate stuff. Think he could be chaotic neutral?

D&D also has Nagas, including Water Nagas.

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/naga.htm#waterNaga

However, they don't even have an LA, which means they were never intended to be played. Any DM allowing it would have to make adjustments. (Bit too strong for it to really have +0 LA.)

Lamia Nobles (NOT regular Lamias) are also snake-like, but I seem to have displaced my books and they're not in the SRD. Pretty sure those are also evil though.

In Savage Species there is a template to turn any animal anthropomorphic, you could play an actual snake turned human. Do note that Savage Species is sort of "3.25", stuck between the two editions, so may require a little fixing.

Serpent Kingdoms apparently has (I read so, don't remember) a Replacement Tail graft, which replaces your legs with a huge snake tail. Kind of a poor man's version. (Not a literal poor man though, it's costly.)

Also I hear PF Merfolk have a "strongtail" version, which is slightly less fish-like and more snake-like. Still lame though.



That said, although most of these are "evil", this is D&D. There can certainly be exceptions. *cough* Drizzt *cough* You want to convince a DM to let you play one of these, try to find one who reads the webcomic Goblins.

SPOILER:

There's a really nice female Yuan-Ti. Smart too.

The rules I remember for level adjustment are that you take the racial hit dice, add any class levels, and that is your adjusted level. As I don't know how many RHD a naga has off the top of my head, I will use Drow for my example.
Drow have 3 RHD. So, a Drow with 1 level in Rogue, for example, would have 3 levels from race, and then 1 from Rogue. That would make an effective 4th level character.

You'd just do the same thing for the Naga pirate. How many RHD, and then the levels of whatever it is that your naga has taken levels in, and walla. That's your character level.
This message was last edited by the user at 13:01, Sat 03 Sept 2016.

In reply to Lord_Johnny (msg # 19):

I don't know how it is in PF, but that's certainly wrong in 3.5.

Racial HD and Level Adjustment are two different things and a race can have one, both, or neither.

For example, 3.5 drows actually have +2 LA but no racial HD. (Well, technically they have 1. But humanoids with 1 racial HD lose it when they take class levels.)

So a Drow with 1 level of Rogue would be ECL 3, but still have 1 HD. Level Adjustment does not add HD.

As a different example, a Minotaur has 6 Racial HD and +2 LA. If it takes 1 level of Fighter, then it's ECL 9 but it has 7 HD.

A Dwarf has 1 racial HD (which is lost when it takes class levels) and +0 LA. So with 1 class level it is ECL 1 and has 1 HD.

ECL does absolutely nothing except for calculating how much xp you get and which encounters are appropriate for you. All game mechanics such as spells use HD.

The Nagas have LA "-" rather than "+0". This means they were not meant to be played. This doesn't mean they CAN'T be played, but the DM needs to make a judgement. I THINK I read guidelines somewhere, though I have no idea where or what they were. Perhaps Savage Species, perhaps somewhere in the SRD and perhaps some article on the Wizards website. Still, I'm pretty sure those were guidelines, not rules.

As a DM, I would say that giving a player a Naga at +0 LA is a little overpowered as they can cast spells as a sorcerer of the same level and have decent stats and defensive bonuses. Maybe a +1 or +2, nothing huge.
This message was last edited by the user at 14:38, Sat 03 Sept 2016.

Pathfinder has much simplified rules that equate CR to starting level and then grants the monster a "bonus level" every three levels the rest of the party earns.  Given my 3.x experience, I think this is actually a superior way to handle it, at least for the low-mid CRs.  Racial hit dice are occasionally awesome, but usually are terrible.

Now that I think about it... if you want a "has a snake tail naga" race, there was a d20 Warcraft game and a d20 version of Legend of the Five Rings.  Both settings include naga that are as you describe, though I can't vouch for whether the rules contain those as playable races or not.

In terms of Pathfinder, the closest thing to half-snake characters would be the Serpentfolk; they're a major part of Golarion lore, just google "pathfinder serpentfolk" and you can get a dozen or so of images for the different named characters of that species. Problem is, they're actually a CR 4 monster race (with SR, spell-like abilities which scale with character level, innate telepathy, stat modifiers on the order of +6 to each rolled stat, and more), so it'd be really GM dependent if they'd want to allow one of them in their game. On the plus side, they have specialized feats and other such stuff which can be found on the d20pfsrd.

http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG...ry2/serpentfolk.html

The other main type, as people have said, is the d&d 3.5 Yuan-Ti (also easy to get lot of images for just by writing that into google), but that's an even stronger monster type. Still, being 3.5, there's plenty of variants for it, so finding one that would be acceptable by a GM as a player race should be easy - it's just a matter of shifting through all the variants to find one that's good for the game one has in mind.
This message was last edited by the user at 15:17, Sat 03 Sept 2016.

So, I assume 3.5 is the recommended edition for a Yuan-Ti? Hm. Anyone got a PDF of the 3.5 handbook?

It's available through the dmsguild website that WotC has.  http://www.dmsguild.com/produc..._45381_0_0_45348_0_0

There's also the free SRD if you're looking for free.  http://www.d20srd.org/

Alright, thanks

I can vouch that the d20 WarCraft material is pretty much usable directly in 3.5, more or less.

One major problem with looking for the Yuan-Ti is that they, along with Beholders and Illihids (and possibly other monsters), are considered intellectual property. As such, you won't find them on the SRD.

Most 'snakelike' races that were made for players are humanoid, unfortunately. There seems to be a general consensus among game developers that if it isn't humanoid in shape, it's a 'monster'. And while rules exist for playing monsters, they tend to be difficult, anti-intuitive, and hard to convince a GM to use. In 3.X in particular, they almost always are shackled with racial hit dice, which take the place of class levels. And since racial hit dice rarely grant things on par with class abilities, this means you'll find yourself a little behind a 'humanoid' character.

Well, even if i'm accepted into a game, it's likely that it won't be a "normal" one. There will probably be modifications in order to suit a character such as that i'd like to use. There's usually alternatives or ways to make things work, right?

In reply to Flint_A (msg # 20):

That's certainly not wrong for 3.5. I recently looked it up for a game here on RPOL for a game featuring Drow, and that is almost a word for word recounting of what the book said.

Except Drow don't -have- racial hit dice. LA does not add to hit dice; but if a monster has racial hit dice, you have to add that as well as LA before you start your class. The hit die a Drow has in the Monster Manual is due to an assumed Warrior class.

They're in the SRD, you can just look at it. They do not have racial HD.

In reply to willvr (msg # 30):

RHD do however effect the EL of the monster, and additionally, Drow count have 3RHD. Like I said, I just pulled things right out of the book.

Which book is this? I have the Monster Manual in front of me (where the SRD draws from) and it says +2 LA, no racial HD. There is even an example of 1st level drow with 1d8 HP. (Which, again, you can see in the SRD. http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/elf.htm )

Are you perhaps looking at Pathfinder?

Nope, looking in the Races of Faerun, where it talks about using Drow as PC race possibilities.

So uh... I get that Drow are PC race possibilities, but are Yuan-Ti? Things derailed and i'm confused now.

Anything could be a playable race. That's why there is the template for how to convert them to playable races.

Additionally, Pathfinder has several Naga races.

*Sigh* I'm aware, however as stated earlier, the Naga i'm looking for is NOT a snake with a human head pasted on to it.

Ahh, I must have misunderstood that. My apologies.

In that xase, yes, just look at the die used to create a monster's HP, and that constitutes the number of RHD, with 1 Die per level. That gives you the base level for a PC character.

In reply to Lord_Johnny (msg # 32):

Drow do not have racial HD. In fact, Races of Faerun specifies that a Drow of any class is equivalent to a third level character, purely due to an LA of +2. No racial HD.

I was going to say maybe Forgotten Realms has different Drows (for example, Dragonlance has Minotaurs that are different from the Monster Manual) but then willvr responded. (Incidentally, is this it? http://alcyius.com/dndtools/ra.../drow--96/index.html Because that, like the Monster Manual, says +2 LA and no racial HD.)

Pyro: You can play ANYTHING that has at least 3 Int and at least 1 Wis&Cha. (You could play something with 1-2 Int but your options would be severely limited.) Here's the problem. If the 3.5 stats of the race give you an LA, whether it's +X or +0, it's ready to play. You don't need to do anything else. If it doesn't list stat modifiers, subtract 10.5 from every stat and round towards 0. (So 12 becomes +2, 13 becomes +2, 8 becomes -2, 9 becomes -1.) Other than that, look at the stat block and remove everything that comes from class levels or equipment. The rest is what you get.

But if the race lists LA "-", this DOESN'T MEAN an LA of +0. It means there is no ruling and it requires GM fiat. The GM decides on an LA based on what feels right, then you can play it. (Again follow the previous paragraph.)
This message was last edited by the user at 07:29, Wed 07 Sept 2016.

In reply to willvr (msg # 39):

It specifically mentions that they have hit dice, and these are called RHD. I'd like to invite you to go reread the books.

In reply to Lord_Johnny (msg # 41):

I dug up Races of Faerun. It says +2 LA, like every other source, then it tells you to refer to the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting entry for racial stats. (This is all pg. 34.)

I see no other stats mentioned for drow in this book. Where exactly are you pulling this information from? Can you copy and paste the paragraph, or at least give us a page number?

Edit: In fact, yes, as willvr mentioned, page 6 pretty unambiguously explains that drow have +2 LA and are therefore the equivalent of a character two classes higher, but have no racial HD just like most other humanoids.)
This message was last edited by the user at 01:16, Thu 08 Sept 2016.

Drow do have racial hit die.

Its just that if you only have 1 racial hit die, that single hit die is replaced by one's first class level.

SO technically Lord_Jhonny is correct. Drow have 1 RHD, its just when they take a level in some class POW they lose that lone racial hit die.

While we're here, I have another question in regards to races...

Gargoyles. Do they exist and are they playable?

Like the other options mentioned in this thread, yes and no.

As of 3.X, they have 4 racial HD and a +5 LA, meaning that they can be played at 9th level and up.

In reply to ricosuave (msg # 43):

Actually, no they don't. If you read the descriptions carefully, it states that they are assumed to be a Warrior; so they have 1d8. Like humans, and dwarves.

Every race has at least 1 RHD, in theory. But humanoids with 1 RHD lose that when they take class levels. The only way they would have that RHD would be if they somehow did not take any class levels. (Which is technically possible, especially for an NPC.) This doesn't make him right, because he's been insisting they have 3 RHD.

Pyro, Gargoyles are in the SRD: http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/gargoyle.htm

What little bonuses they give absolutely aren't worth 4 RHD and +5 LA though. I mean, +5 LA? Damn. That's the most preposterous nerf I've seen since vampires. I get that they're tough and they fly, but it's unplayable.

I think there was a template that turns you to stone, though I can't remember where. Put that on a Kobold, then take the feat that gives them wings. (They get the "looking like a monster" for free.) Boom, you have a budget gargoyle.

Again races with only 1 racial hit die lose the racial hit die upon their first acquisition of a class.

Its not about the monster description. its about the actual rules and how they operate in regards to creatures with only 1 hit die. Which are as follows.


Creatures with 1 or less HD replace their monster levels with their character levels. The monster loses the attack bonus, saving throw bonuses, skills, and feats granted by its 1 monster HD and gains the attack bonus, save bonuses, skills, feats, and other class abilities of a 1st-level character of the appropriate class.

Characters with more than 1 Hit Die because of their race do not get a feat for their first class level as members of the common races do, and they do not multiply the skill points for their first class level by four. Instead, they have already received a feat for their first Hit Die because of race, and they have already multiplied their racial skill points for their first Hit Die by four.
This message was last edited by the user at 12:21, Fri 09 Sept 2016.

In reply to ricosuave (msg # 48):

The -rules- actually state that the 'd8' HD that Drow have, is due to having a warrior class. The rules state that certain races -must- have a class, and that the description in the monster manual is due to an NPC class, usually warrior.

I understand that.

What I am trying, and failing it seems, to get across is that npc class hit die is not their 'natural' hit die. that warrior hit die replaces their singular racial hit die because as the rules state. creaures with 1 hit die or less (not sure exactly how you get less than 1 hit die though)replace that hit die with what ever class hit die they get upon taking the first level of a class. In the case for drow that would be the d8 for taking the first level of warrior.

Humanoids have a d8 as a racial hit die, you can look at examples where the particular race has more than 1 racial hit die such as a gnoll.

once more, things that only have 1 racial hit die, such as human, goblins, dwarves, drow, goblins, orcs, halfings, gnomes, half elves, elves, kobolds, half orcs, tieflings, aasimar, etc etc. All lose that racial hit die when thay become first level characters. Some may take bard as their first class level thereby losing their d8 single racial hit die and gaining a d6 class hit die, others maybe that big scary orc over there takes barbarian and gains a d12 instead.

They don't actually have a racial hit die. That's why they have to have a class of some description. Yes, humanoids with more than one HD have D8 HD. A monster with only one HD, has to have a class, because, effectively, without a class they don't have HD.

It's all pretty immaterial. It doesn't actually change anything. Whether you take it as it being a racial HD, or a class HD, it actually comes out to being exactly the same thing. The reason I steer clear of calling what they have as 'racial HD', because racial HD gets added to LA; and it's easier to explain why it doesn't happen if you can just say "that's not a racial HD. That's is an NPC warrior stat block there". If you look at an entry for playing Drow, or any other 1HD creature, there is no mention of racial HD.

I don't know this for sure, but that may be a memory of First Edition.  Where one dice was 1d8. and smaller [1hp,1-2hp,1d4,1d6] single racial dice were fractional dice.  They were still considered zero-level if they didn't have a "semi-" or "full-talent" heroic class level, whose dice would override their race dice anyway.

You are not reading me correctly or maybe not understanding.

there is no such thing as any single creature in the entire d20 rules  (3rd party included)that does not have at least 1 racial hit die.

and according to the very ruleset of d20. a creature with just 1 (and only 1) racial hit die automatically replaces said racial hit die with the specific hit die type of its class.
Drow, humans, orcs, and everything else in the rules with 1 hit die automatically switch out  that lone hit die gained from being humanoid to whatever class they have, most of the time its the warrior NPC class' d8.


I am at a loss to explain this in any more simplified of a way. SO this is my final attempt to explain how the rules work in regards to creatures with 1 hit die and the gaining of class levels.

Err, no.

If it is -automatically- replaced, no matter what, it's not a racial hit dice. It is not possible, as a human, elf or whatever, to not have a class. Racial hit dice are what you get purely for being your race. If you can't -not- have a class, you can't -not- have HD for your class, you're not replacing them. That's like saying you're replacing the hit dice you'd have for being a cleric, with your fighter HD because you've chosen to be a fighter.

To quote the 3.5 SRD:



Monsters as races has slightly different rules:



So... from those two things, if you are a humanoid, you must have a class if you don't have 2 or more racial hit dice.  If you are not a humanoid, you may have a single racial hit die, but if you gain class levels, you replace your monster hit die with the class levels.

This is true for 3.5.  Pathfinder includes the first rule re humanoids, but I didn't spot the second in a quick scan.

   It is completely legal to create your own monster for your campaign.
   So if I create my own Monster, called Mundane "*" which is simply a template for humanoids and monsters that requires the "Mundane feat" to be choosen as its first act.  Requiring the creature to only advance by Racial or Clan dice unless it gains a position in an organization that includes a Semi-talent heroic-class as part of the position.

   Which allows me to return the first level Heroic class Character to fantasy Hero status in his world.

Just because the "new monster" is a traditional template from the past.  doesn't make it impossible.
   And it allowed me to start to bring an old campaign where Class levels was the definition of Fantastic Heroism.

That's kind of the point of the NPC classes vs. the PC classes.  A warrior is inferior to the fighter in pretty much every way (including not getting their full hit die in hit points at first level).  The average person is a commoner, the average guard is a warrior, the learned scholars are adepts, and the skilled craftsmen are experts.  The leaders tend to be aristocrats/nobles/whatever they call it.  All of these classes are flat-out inferior to the equivalent PC classes.

I don't really see why you'd need to invent something new to do that same task.

You could, theoretically, create a classless humanoid; but there would be absolutely no reason to do that. Notice how it says "Humanoids with 1 Hit Die exchange the features of their humanoid Hit Die for the class features of a PC or NPC class."(emphasis mine) The race in theory has 1 racial HD, but they exchange that with a class. As soon as they take the class, THEY NO LONGER HAVE RACIAL HD.

As for "racial HD gets added to LA", there is no such thing in 3.5, LA is LA. RHD gets added to ECL, but so do class levels.

Humanoid racial HD are pretty much worse than even NPC classes, and humanoids don't really have fancy special abilities or racial classes that stack with racial HD the way other types sometimes do. Therefore races like Gnolls who have and keep several humanoid RHD kind of get screwed.

Elves, including drow, have only 1 RHD, which they lose the moment they take a class. They then only have 1 HD from their class.