Touhou Races
Post date: Mar 31, 2019 7:00:16 AM
Alright, I had some time today, so I went ahead and worked out the crunch for a number of player races:
So, a little on the design. So far, the goal is to capture the playstyle or appeal of the different races. I'll see about adding fluff at a later time.
A Beast Youkai is meant to represent an animal that has turned into a monster for one reason or another. The idea it to take elements from those animals, and incorporate them into the race's abilities. Honestly, the amount of animals is a bit too broad for me to be specific, so I might change the subraces in the future to be more generic and broad.
Celestials are a bit trickier, especially since the prominent one in the setting, Tenshi, is a rowdy teenager, quite unlike her more modest and enlightened peers. Still, their main two features, being immortal and dangerous to Youkai, do provide enough power within a single race to cover abilities, especially since regeneration is a very powerful effect. I'm still determining what to do as for the definition of a Youkai, though. So far, I've been tagging monsters with the Youkai creature type, but I'm not sure if I'll do that for player races. It'd also set me up to tag things such as gods, humans and spirits as well, so I'll need to consider it further.
Fairies were a bit odd. I think their Determination mechanic suits them in concept, though I'm not sure about in practice. The respawn function was what gave me the most trouble, so I've copied the Revenant's from the UA, at least for now. They also don't lend themselves to any particular role, so they feel a bit flat.
Humans I wanted to make more unique than in other settings. I settled on magic, since that's what gives them an edge over the physically powerful Youkai in this setting; it's why there aren't really any human fighter types, and they're all magic users. Except Kiyohime, maybe? But we don't talk about her. And Byakuren, but even she's got magic to make her as strong as a Youkai. Youkai are supposed to be too physically powerful for humans to contend with, but are vulnerable to spiritual attacks, which is what a human would need to be able to function when interacting with them. So, that's what they get.
Lunarians I pictured as a race that is unfazed by most of what other races try to do to them. So, they get the ability to shrug off spells and abilities. That's basically all they need; they're a versatile enough people that the rest can be covered by background or class.
Magicians were a bit risky to design. They've got some more unconventional buffs, but I like the idea that they can read magic so well that they always know what's going on. They also always know when to Shield. Another race that feels a little uninspired, but I tried to make them interesting.
Moon Rabbits are fun. They come with a built in ranged attack, and can put things between themselves and things trying to get them better than anyone else. The effectiveness of getting Moon Rabbit weapons will depend on what they end up being; at present, they're just assumed to be the same as mundane human weapons, except that they cannot be used by someone not practised in using them.
Oni were simple to design, but also quite fun. They're designed to grab something and beat it to death with their bare hands. They're quite lethal to anything that gets within reach and doesn't have an escape ready, particularly with the grapple/shove prone combo that is favoured among grapplers. I wanted to give them physical resistance, but that would be too much for one race.
Tanuki were basically a copy of the Changeling from the Eberron UA, with an extra escape if they need it. Nothing special here.
Tsukumogami were a bit difficult to communicate, since there are many who don't understand the relationship between a the humanoid and item forms; the item is the character, while the humanoid is just a projection of sorts. Plus, I also like the idea that they can be used by other players if needed. The increase to their effectiveness based off their proficiency was because I didn't want them to fall behind other magical items; a Tsukumogami fighter should be able to use the sword that they are based off throughout the entire game without feeling like they're falling behind.
Lastly, the generic Youkai. The Enigma feature came about because typically, the best way to emulate a certain archetype is to use different classes. The Youkai, then, gets to mix and match the classes more freely to get the abilities needed to make the character they want. It could be as simple as taking the monk who takes the warlock's magical darkvision to emulate someone like Rumia, for example. The other thing was the aspect of the "killer in the dark", so they get Darkvision and physical resistance.
Anyway, that's all for now. I'm not sure how many races I'll add in the end; while a number of them are covered by Beast Youkai and Youkai, I might want something more specific for Kitsune or Nekomata, for example. But that's for later; for now, I want to add fluff for the races, and clean up the characters I already have done.