#shobhad

[gait-way]

I don’t know what I’m going to do when this campaign ends

[dailycharacteroption]

Prestige Class Spotlight 9: Esoteric Knight

 We’re starting another prestige class special, and with it, another great Prestige class, one hailing from the very last paperback rulebook of 1st edition!

Chronicle of Legends may not have any new archetypes and the like for us, but it did nicely fill out some conceptual gaps here and there, one of which is new prestige classes to function with some of the new classes and subsystems that the game has introduced since the last time that they focused on prestige classes in earnest.

Today, we’re looking at an option for those looking to master characters that have both a martial bent, but also want to explore the various occult classes, the Esoteric Knight!

As one might expect, this prestige class is something of a psychic spellcasting equivalent to the eldritch knight, but while the eldritch knight focuses almost entirely on just having a full base attack while giving you the most spellcasting per level as possible, today’s subject has it’s own set of special abilities, and specifically also has function for use with the one non-spellcasting occult class, the kineticist as well!

Sadly, this prestige class, giving only half the effective levels of spellcasting in comparison to the eldritch knight, definitely is more for martial characters that want to dabble in occult classes with some new tricks, but it still can be effective.

 As mentioned previously, this prestige class compounds the spellcasting knowledge of the character as they grow, but leaves other secrets of those classes unknown, as one would expect from a prestige class. However, only half the levels do so to make room for other abilities granted by esoteric knight training. That being said, those that instead have kineticist levels still gain wild talents and some benefits of their defensive wild talent and blasts, but strangely enough, not the damage increase.

Since half the esoteric knight’s training is the martial sphere, it only makes sense that for half their levels, they learn the secrets of various combat techniques. However, their mental prowess means they can alter the nature of their most recently learned technique with an expenditure of magical energy or burn. Effectively, this means they gain a bonus combat feat that can be switched out regularly until a new such flexible combat feat is learned, locking the previous one in with whatever they last set it as.

The other half of their levels focuses on the psychic side of things, and grants them a selection of new psychic abilities to choose from, some requiring either a burned spell or an amount of burn to activate. These abilities include Increasing focus to bolster spells by removing certain components from the casting, or fine-tuning the aim of a blast; creating phantom copies in a foe’s mind to flank them; enhance armor or shields with various benefits; do the same with weapons; add ghost touch to armor or weaponry; create a temporary shadow ally; or teleport short distances.

To be honest this archetype is very much multiclass fodder, and you’ll probably take more levels in the martial class of your choice than the occult class. That being said, it can be used to create an interesting character out of any occult class, though I will admit, if you’re used to playing those classes rather than martial classes, you’re probably going to miss their higher-level abilities.

 In-universe, I imagine this prestige class to be part of some esoteric order of warriors seeking to link both body and mind in combat. Kineticist warriors channeling the elements with one hand and a blade with the other, mediums focused on their martial spirits seeking to understand their ways, mesmerists that seek to dominate foes in both mind and body, occultists with powerful relic blades, psychics blending the mind and body, and spiritualists that work in perfect tandem with their phantoms and more.

  Among the shobhad of Caercas, psychic power is rare, but treated equally to all other forms of power among their kind, and many go on to become great leaders. Some, however, refuse to give up the greatness of glory in physical combat, and seek to master both. This does mean, however, that they must accept training in more disciplined forms of combat, as the rage of a barbarian is a poor fit for most save for those that command the elements psychokinetically.

 The party is cornered in the underworld by a rock troll, when suddenly the great beast stumbles back as if struck by an unseen blow. Their savior is a drow whom seems to be fighting in concert with an unseen ally, judging by how the brute reacts to strikes to the mind. Who is this mysterious being, and are they friend?

 Though unnerving, there is no denying the value of the ghostly form that Sir Armage calls his “sparring partner”. Together, they form a deadly duo defending the land. That is until last month, when they both went missing.

[dailycharacteroption]

Races Among the Stars 13: Shobhad

It’s really fascinating how the look of a fantasy species can change over time as the writers develop them and the collective consciousness changes. Kobolds used to have much more canine features while still being scaly, which caused Japanese rpg players and writers to represent them as dog people while western audiences downplayed the canine aspects for more draconic ones.

But perhaps nowhere are these changes so blatant and relatively fast than with the shobhad-neh. This nomadic warrior people exist primarily as an expy for the green martians, or Tharks of the Barsoom series by Edgar Rice Burroughs, but their appearance varied a lot even within their introduction in the Distant Worlds book, with the cover art and bestiary back matter painting them as blue-green skinned almost-ogres with four arms, while one of the chapter splash images making them look like what if grays were twice as tall, had four arms, and hit the gym.

Starting in Starfinder, however, Shobhad-neh were redesigned to cleave a bit closer to Burroughs’ design, though being more broad-shouldered and having prominent tusks.

What remained the same, however, is the shobhad-neh culture of nomadic hunter-gathering, a warrior lifestyle, and self-sufficiency, building and maintaining their own equipment to last generations and occasionally raiding when they needed something.

Not much has changed in the far future of Starfinder, and their self-sufficiency meant they were less affected than most Akitonian peoples when the Thasteron Crash happened. Still, in this modern era shobhad-neh are not as isolated as they once were, and plenty find work as guides or even as mercenaries if they find that life in the Akiton hinterlands is not for them.

Recent updates to their lore in Pathfinder claim that the shobhad-neh are a warrior offshoot of witchweirds in the same way that the kasatha are, but I still find it bizarred that the witchweirds are digitigrade in their leg anatomy, but both kasatha and shobhad-neh are plantigrade. It can still be true, but it’s an odd choice on a Watsonian and Doylist level.

A shobhad stand 12 feet tall, and these powerful humanoids sport angular, almost warthog-like craniums with prominent tusks. From there, they have powerful bodies most notable for their four strong arms. While they do wear modern armor, they also favor traditionalist clothing in the form of leather or rope harnesses

As a society, the shobhad-neh define themselves by self-sufficiency and an unbreakable code of honor. If a shobhad makes an agreement, they can be expected to honor it. However, that agreement is the only form of law that shobhad respect, with the laws of civilization meaning little to them unless pulled aside and asked to honor them before entering. While many remain on Akiton surviving off the land, some individuals and indeed entire clans have traded their caravans for starships, hiring themselves out as scouts and mercenaries as needed.

Shobhad are massive and very strong, but their cultural lack of interest in intellectual and scientific pursuits makes them somewhat slow to learn.

They also hunt both at day and at night, giving them keen night vision.

Their four arms are fully functional, allowing them to wield multiple pieces of equipment as need be.

Fearsome and deadly in combat, shobhads take a page out of the orc book and are frighteningly difficult to actually drop in a fight, buying them a few more precious seconds.

Their long legs give them an impressive stride, making them highly mobile.

Finally, the shobhad-neh are inured to the chill of Akiton’s atmosphere, making them resistant to cold.

With the reach of a large size, big strength bonus, and four arms, a shobhad seems perfectly geared towards melee combat, with soldier, solarion, evolutionist, vanguard, and nanocite all being powerful options. However, don’t write off their ranged game, as the shobhad even have their own traditional horizon striker sniper rifles which their ancestors were using back during the days of Pathfinder, now upgraded to modern tech. Most spellcasters work pretty well with them too, as they do have their spiritual and mystical guides of all stripes. Their only big weakness is the Int penalty, which inhibits skill classes and builds like operative or mechanic, as well as technomancer, but that can be worked around as needed. Rest assured such skillful and technologically-reliant classes and builds custom-built and scavenged pretty much everything they use, favoring such refurbishment and fabrication over anything pre-made.

That will do for today, but our last entry this week will prove less fearsome and more whimsical.

[dailycharacteroption]

Roleplaying Races 14: Shobhad

Though many erroneously assume that D&D and subsequent games like Pathfinder were exclusively inspired by the works of Tolkien, in truth tabletop gaming has been influence not just by the wide gamut of fantasy fiction, but also science fiction as well.

Notable today is the Barsoom series, also known as the John Carter of Mars series of pulp sci-fi stories and novels written by Edgar Rice Burroughs, a sci-fi series in which the titular hero is transported to Mars an encounters the many strange beings that live there, including the Tharks, also known as Green Martians, massive greed humanoids notable for their four arms, lanky yet powerful builds, and tribal lifestyle. Other such beings like the white apes of mars would serve as inspiration for fantasy gaming’s girallons, but it is the Tharks that inspired today’s playable ancestry, the shobhad!

Heavily inspired by the thark, the shobhad first appeared in the Distant Worlds book as the first look into the solar system that Golarion resides within, and as a healthy injection of pulp sci-fi com complement the already present amount mostly concentrated in Numeria.

The shobhads hail from Akiton, which is heavily inspired not just by the real planet Mars, but also by pulp science fiction stories about Mars, ranging from the shobhad themselves, girallons being from there, red-skinned humans, as well as beyond Burrough’s influences with figures like the contemplatives of Ashok.

The shobhad themselves actually underwent a facelift after their initial appearance. While initially looking like brutish blue-skinned humanoids with four arms, shobhad were later re-imagined in Starfinder and later Pathfinder 2e to be closer to their thark inspiration, having pronounced facial shapes and powerful tusks alongside the four arms and wider variety of skin tones.

Living on a harsh world, shobhads prize strength and resilience above all, and place a strong focus on personal honor and the ritualized ways in which one can improve their status. They view those living in permanent settlements as weak and lacking the identity that personal accomplishment can grant one even after death. As such, they are disdainful of “soft folk” and rarely extend to them the same honorable practices they use with their kin, instead remorselessly culling them if they prove a problem to the tribe, unless of course they manage to impress them.

Of course, there are some outcasts that act as mercenaries, venturing into settled places to offer their services, though this is clearly an exception, and looked down upon by the shobhad.

It should be noted that these mighty giants are not truly evil, but their harsh way of life leaves little room for compassion that they cannot afford, such as to strangers that they feel cannot contribute in a meaningful way.

Shobhads are large, strong, and insightful, and surprisingly nimble for their size.

They are also raised as warriors, and learn how best to roll with and avoid incoming blows.

Their natural ferocity also makes them hard to put down, letting them fight past pain where others would be brought low.

They also prove to bey surprisingly stealthy and keen hunters as well.

Physically athletic, they can leap great heights and move across the desert with ease.

Their four arms are not just for show either, and they can fully utilize them while wielding objects.

Now, the shobhad is difficult to justify using unless your campaign takes place on Akiton or a similar Mars-like world, but if you have the opportunity to do so you won’t be disappointed by this ancestry. Their large size and strength bonus from size does mean that they can be excellent melee combatants, and their wisdom makes them a good choice for most divine classes like druid, cleric, and especially warpriest. However, a sleeper hit you might not think about is their association with their shobhad longrifles, making potential sniper gunslingers and other gun-focused builds a possibility, albeit one that will require some replacement if your campaign functions in normal gravity. Honestly there’s no class in which they find themselves lacking, though even with their stalker ability the dex and stealth penalty are an uphill battle if you want to build them as a stealth character.

That does it for today, but we’re only halfway through the week, and not done with big burly ancestries at all. Tune in tomorrow for more!

[wolfoftonight]

Prompt: Vesk arm wrestles a Shobhad

[wolfoftonight]

This was supposed to just be a body practice, but I had to put pants on him after taking a step back