[swichfang]

I have been working with an idea for a lost continent sort of world. The setting is dark jungles, hostile natives, flaming mountains, and unsizable amounts of riches.
I am working on a set of gods for this continent. Here they are
*God of War/Sun
*God of Civilization/Learining/City
*God of Night/Sorcery
-God of Agriculture
-God of Healing/Feasting/Games
-God of Underworld/Death
God of Fire/ Volcanoes
God of Music and Dance
* Greater God, - Intermidient God, (no mark) Demi God.
Just wanted to put it all out in front. I really need some ideas and help. Thanks

[WoeTheSinner]

Are you looking for ideas with the continent in general or with the gods specificaly? Some basics to think about if this is going to be a lost continent is that your PCs would know nothing about it, so its going to be your job to give them a few hints as to where they can get help, where they can get healing where its safe to rest for the night. It wont help to have untild riches if they have nowhere to spend it. I usualy throw in a druid or a friendly ranger with a few words of wisdom and maby a small map. Especialy in more primal setting I find this makes the most sense to me and hte PCs.

Please get back to us with a few more specific questions, trust me if there is anything we are good at it is building up fantasy worlds...have you thought of bringing in an ancient magic Space Golem ?? hehe jk

-Woe

[swichfang]

Sorry if I was unclear . What I was pondering is a large empire to one side of the continent sorta like the Aztec's but bigger and stronger. Possibly lizard-folk, mabe even coming up with a half-lizard folk race. There favoed class would be cleric or sorcer. They would be hostile to everyone and a big problem to would be treasure seekers and explorers. Then on just a little to the soulth is a huge jungle like the congo and the amazon mixed but even more ancient and littred with ruined temples and cities. Here bands of barbaric natives would live in refuge form the empire. They would be freindy to anyone that could help them survive. Just to let you guys know this is a campain world all of its own. I have noting built and wanted to start on this part first then build the civilized lands. But any way I am having the PC's start at 3rd level. They are part of a exploration team sent by a orginazation who just uncovred a small chect in there old now-dead master estate filled with burned maps and things of a lost continent. The player's ships wrecked ashore and they must make it inland to seek help. I am hoping to create a lot of new races/prestige classes/mosters/ and other things to give the continet flavor.

For now lets start out with the empire. I think there should be a emporer (20th level sorcrer) and a council of the gods ( a bunch of 10th-15th level cleric's). Any one got any ideas because right now I'm coming up dry. Thanks

[Dthclaw]

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What I was pondering is a large empire to one side of the continent sorta like the Aztec's but bigger and stronger. Possibly lizard-folk, mabe even coming up with a half-lizard folk race.

Well, if you're looking for lizard-folk variants, check the races section of the Resources area of the site. The race listed as Bysri is a homebrew PC lizard-folk race from my own campaign. Feel free to use that one if you wish. Or you can use the Mixed Heritage template, take a standard race, and make it more exotic.

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I am hoping to create a lot of new races/prestige classes/mosters/ and other things to give the continet flavor.

Races, no problem. Just give a few archetypes you'd like and we can hook you up. PrCs and monsters are more work, and we can help you create your own; asking us to create them for you is a disservice to you, as it invariably will lack the flavor you want it to have. As far as PrCs... I would suggest looking at the Complete series (Arcane, Warrior, Divine, Adventurer), as they have a butt-ton of PrCs and "exotic" things you can adapt for quick-fixes. Custom monsters are the most difficult, and they take a long time to tweak to perfection (or even balance). We can help you adjust your own, but any custom critters should be designed to fit right into your campaign as you want it to. If you need them fast, try 3rd party sourcebooks, as players are much less familiar with them; the flip-side is that they usually undergo a lot less playtesting than WotC material. But, on the third hand, there're some here to fill a few niches.

Especially the moa-ri I like my moas.

[swichfang]

I have started to work on the half-lizard race here is what I got.

+2 Dexterity -2 Charisma: Half Lizards are limber and graceful but some what unreformed.
Medium: As medium creatures Half Lizards have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size.
Half Lizard base land speed os 30ft.
Low-Light Vision: A Half Lizard can see twice as far as a human in starlight, moonlight, torchlight, and similar conditions of poor illumination. She retains the ability to distinguish color and detail under these conditions.
+4 Racial bonus on Climb Checks: Their slightley longer arms and rough skin tgives them the edge when scaling walls and clifs
+4 Racial Bonus on Hide Checks: Because of the musty green and brown color of hides Half Lizards blend in better with their sorundings
Half Lizards gain 2 claw attacks(1d4) and a bite attack (1d6)

Any sugestions

[Dthclaw]

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+2 Dexterity -2 Charisma: Half Lizards are limber and graceful but some what unreformed.

Do you mean unrefined? If you are basing this culture off the pre-Spanish Meztican socities, I would change the reasoning behind the charisma penalty to one of a difference between psychological (and biological) outlooks, not mannerisms. The Central American societies were actually incredibly advanced, with mathematics and astronomy rivalling that of modern day (their calender, for one, perfectly tracks time, and loses only a second or two each year... compare that to the modern calender, which has to adjust every four years for the hours they waste each year). Their mannersims were also very refined and formalized. They just struck the Spanish as unrefined because they didn't follow their practices.

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Medium: As medium creatures Half Lizards have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size.

I would give them the Reptillian subtype. They are Humanoid, right? Not monstrous humanoid?

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+4 Racial bonus on Climb Checks: Their slightley longer arms and rough skin tgives them the edge when scaling walls and clifs

I would also change the reasoning behind the Climb bonus. If they have claws, that's going to be a lot more likely for a Climb bonus than rough skin. If they have a tail, I would highly suggest giving them at least a +2 Balance bonus as well.

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+4 Racial Bonus on Hide Checks: Because of the musty green and brown color of hides Half Lizards blend in better with their sorundings

I would add the stipulation that the quantity of clothing affects how much (if any) bonus they get to Hide. This would also lend them towards a more Meztican style, as they typically wore very little clothing. So a fully-armored member of this race shouldn't get any bonus to Hide, as the entire bonus depends on how much skin/scales are visible.

Make sure that their bonuses reflect their forms. Any race that has a tail, for example, should have a balance bonus (or a good reason why they don't have a bonus). Also, I would suggest a race name. It would be a very odd society that refers to themselves as the "Half-Lizards." Other than that, seems fine.

[swichfang]

OK took it all in and here is what I got.

Meztil
Humaniod (Meztil)
+2 Dexterity -2 Strength
Medium: As medium creatures Half Lizards have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size.
Meztil base land speed os 30ft.
Low-Light Vision: Meztil can see twice as far as Human's in starlight, moonlight, torchlight, and similar conditions of poor illumination. She retains the ability to distinguish color and detail under these conditions.
+2 Racial bonus on Cimb Checks: Meztil are experinced at climbing sheer rock and there claws give them an extra boost
+2 Racial bonus on Balance Checks: Meztil can use there tails to steady them selfs on uneven or slippery terrain
Meztil gain 2 claw attacks (1d4)
Meztil gian 1 bite attack (1d6)
Racial Weapon Proficiency: Meztil recive the Martial Weapon Proficiency feats for the Battleaxe, Short Sword, and Shortbow (not composite shortbow) and the Exotic Weapon Proficiency feats for the Blowgun, Greater Blowgun, Bolas, Net, Whip,
Favored Class: Cleric or Sorcerer

It seems ok to me and the name is sorta ketchy Meztil..... I like it, gots flavor.

[Dthclaw]

Okay, well, only bone I got to pick with this draft is the weapon proficiencies. No race is automatically granted proficiency with exotic weapons; I would change the proficiencies to weapon familiarity, where they can treat the listed exotics as martial weapons. Thus, a member of that race can take the Martial Weapon Proficiency feat to become proficient, or a Fighter (or Barbarian) would be proficient automatically with them. The weapons already listed as Martial are fine: Elves get a handful of martial weapons as proficient, so no problem there. But I would change the automatic Exotic Weapon Proficencies to Weapon Familiarity.

And I like the name

[swichfang]

One comment woudent any class then has martial weapon proficiency gain proficiency with thos weapons, such as the ranger.

Meztil
Humaniod (Meztil)
+2 Dexterity -2 Strength
Medium: As medium creatures Half Lizards have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size.
Meztil base land speed os 30ft.
Low-Light Vision: Meztil can see twice as far as Human's in starlight, moonlight, torchlight, and similar conditions of poor illumination. She retains the ability to distinguish color and detail under these conditions.
+2 Racial bonus on Cimb Checks: Meztil are experinced at climbing sheer rock and there claws give them an extra boost
+2 Racial bonus on Balance Checks: Meztil can use there tails to steady them selfs on uneven or slippery terrain
Meztil gain 2 claw attacks (1d4)
Meztil gian 1 bite attack (1d6)
Racial Weapon Proficiency: Meztil recive the Martial Weapon Proficiency feats for the Battleaxe, Short Sword, and Shortbow (not composite shortbow).
Weapon Familiarity: Meztil may treat Blowgun's, Greater Blowgun's, Bolas's, Net's, and Whip's, as Martial weapons rather than exotic ones.
Favored Class: Cleric or Sorcerer

Also am working on a Cleric domain for volcanoes. It's special power would be a breath weapon (30ft cone of fire, 6d8 points of damage,successful reflex save [DC 10 + 1/2 of users HD + users constitution modifer] reduces damage by half. Useable 1/day.)

[Axel]

I'd look into the patron deities of the respective peoples, their typical behaviour, and as a result their available classes. I assume from your statements that the Meztil engage in humanoid sacrifice, who do they perform sacrifices to? Which gods do they worship and which do the jungle-folk worship? Are the meztil prone to berserker behaviour? Or would that fall more under the jungle-folk's range? Are the meztil disciplined, or prone to erratic behaviour? How do the two societies act and interact?

[swichfang]

I havent started to work on religions but was planning on having them sacrifice prisoners. If there main god accepted and demanded ssacrafice would that makehis alignment evil. Also how would alignments work. The Meztil are very unfreindly to outsiders but in there own culture are ok with eachoter. Whould that make them neutal or evil.

But anyway the Meztil are a warlike country but they are not prone to bits of erratic rage like barbarions. They are a magic using nation. Probobally because of a possible draconic heritage. Most of their society are commoners 80%, then warriors 15%, arcane users 3%, and clerics 2%.

It would be cool if one of the gods was a old emporer who rose to deityhood. But he needs sacrifice to keep his power. On months with out sacrafice he cannot grant his cleric's their spells. But this never before happaned. (I'm thinking campain idea).
The deity emporers whole pantheon could be evil aligned and the jungle dwellers god could be good aligned. The jungle dwellers want to stop the Meztil from making sacrafice so thir gods can retake thee former power and peace can come once again. Wow a sorta sroke of brillance {not really} but any way i'm over my writers block.

[Axel]

A little cliche. Ignore alignment and proceed with how you think the people involved would act simply as people. Although you've got something good going with the Meztil, you might want to throw in a loop. True they're nasty people who regularly engage in war against their neighbors for slave labor and sacrifices. On the other hand, before the Meztil empire the region was covered with petty tribes engaged in futile wars with each other. Once that empire falls the region could again fall into that chaos, factions united against the Meztil would resume old conflicts. The apparently evil empire is also the only thing that keeps order in the region. Perhpas a religious setup more like this:
The Meztil gain their power from a god-king, whose power in turn is derived from sacrifices. They worship their draconian ancestors (now gone) and believe that the kings are the pure decendants of the old Dragon-gods.
The jungle tribes worship a slew of gods, primarily earth and sky gods. Gods of the rain, thunder, rock, and tree. Each race, or even tribe, with its own patron deity. Though their pantheon is diametrically opposed to the dragon pantheon (you can expand that into a history as you see fit) their gods are also prone to infighting. Without the common enemy of the Meztil they would readily resume old conflicts, possibly centered around earth vs. sky or perhaps more convoluted.

[Dthclaw]

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One comment woudent any class then has martial weapon proficiency gain proficiency with thos weapons, such as the ranger.

Yes, any class that grants Martial Weapon Prof. gives the creature proficiency in the exotic weapons listed as familiar.

I would suggest that, as a culture, you render them lawful evil. They have highly formal rituals, they are not prone to random violence, and they do not have the backstabbing nature of the drow. However, they have no concept of non-Meztil living rights, and cannot view non-Meztil as equals. As they are not outsiders or truly dragons, etc., I would suggest that for alignment they be listed as "Usually lawful evil."

I'll leave the gods for you to work out.

[swichfang]

Axel I like your idea. But i was planning on having at least on of the tribes freindly to the PC's. Mabe the empire could see the PC's as a group of spy's or somthing like that form one of the jungle tribes gods. And what about a hidden empire og good Meztil that are far enuf away to be out of reach of the empire's direct conflicts/ slave captures but just close egnuf to mabe want to upset the old empire.

Or how about this; if all of the jungle tribes are divided what if the PC's or a NPC shaman or somthing united them sorta like the native americans aginst the empire. They would a worship the same relative pantheon but diffrent gods or branches of it. The PC's would be forced to take sides and remember they just want to get home and report of the lost continent to their guild/orginazation. Or at least that is their main goal.

That could represent alot to. If the guild was good they might side with the jungle dwellers after a few hard luck stories. Or if they where a group bent on arcane knowlege they might side with the empire in hopes of learning a few new spells. If they where treasure seekers they might side with who is the most powerful at the time in hopes of lootin bodies.

I also have to figure out what happend to the rest of the crew, how the natives and barbarions react to the possibly new (not gunpowder, not horses {no room on ship}) technology. The PC's are going to start off at low level so I think the empire will not be overly impressesd my their arcane abilites.

That's all for now. Thanks for the ideas.

[Axel]

Again, factions once allied against the Meztil would resume old conflicts once they're gone. As long as they have that mutual enemy old fueds can be put on the backburner, at least they can avoid open warfare. But without that they would quickly fall back into their old wars. Which is probably why the Meztil could rise as they did, there was no unified force to oppose them.