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Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 Race - Constrictor Naga

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The Constrictor Naga
A D&D 3.5 Race by KaaFan33

Throughout history, there have always been various kinds of naga.  Most of them have been monstrous, often times threatening or hindering many civilized peoples.  The evil past of most naga races has lead most people to fear the Constrictor Naga, a mostly neutral aligned civilization living in dense forests and jungles.  They are a fairly young race, only recently appearing in comparison with other civilized peoples.  They can be fierce warriors and fierce protectors of their friends.  This loyalty to companions has often times lead experienced adventurers to trust their Constrictor allies and put aside their serpentine appearance.  

Background

When the different gods created the various good, evil, and neutral creatures that roam the world and various planes, the 'constrictor' variant of Naga were never apart of the original plan.  The Constrictor Naga is the result of a union between the constrictor snake and human beings.  This was not a natural union.  Over 200 years ago, large snakes, wolves, and other predatorily creatures of the forest were being killed and over-hunted by human beings.  Stories of people becoming lost in the woods and being eaten by carnivorous animals drove human's to fear the creatures of the forest to an unnecessary extent.  These creatures were hunted in such great numbers that the balance of nature was threatened.  A lone, human female prayed to her god, Obai-Hai, to help her stop the over-hunting.  Hearing her plea, the human female was granted a strange gift and was reborn, half constrictor snake, half human.  With a new found physical strength, she was able to drive many of the hunters out of the woods and save nature.  At least, that's how the legend goes.  There are no writings from this time to confirm it.  

Personality

Most Constrictor Naga are withdrawn from normal society.  They are also not wanted; many of the other civilized races of the world fear them.  As a result, they tend to shy away from large groups of people they don't know.  Of the different races of the world, they get along with humans and elves the most.  In face-to-face conversation, they tend to be more open, sharing their feelings with people they really trust.  In battle, they can be very aggressive, using their tail as a weapon almost as much as the weapon hey wield in their hands.  Constrictor Naga are also very passionate friends and lovers.  They grow close to friends quickly and will lay their lives on the line to protect them.  Sometimes when the Constrictor Naga stays in frequent contact with her human father, she will take on some human personality traits.  

Physical Description

Males are non-existent in this race.  All Constrictor Naga are female, reproducing with human males.  The offspring of these relationships is always a Constrictor Naga, though the naga born tends to take on many physical traits from the human father (such as hair, skin tone, etc).  Their upper body looks almost entirely human, with the exception of a forked tongue and gold eyes.  Instead of legs, the Constrictor Naga has a long, serpentine tail.  This tail is quite large, stretching anywhere from 13 – 25 feet beyond the Constrictor Naga's torso; sometimes this tail stretches even further.  The tail of a Constrictor Naga will never stop growing.  The stronger the Constrictor Naga becomes, the larger and stronger the tail becomes.  Some tails have been said to reach legendary lengths.  A tail size of at least 30 feet is a great accomplishment in a Constrictor Naga's life – and they can grow bigger.  The coloring of this tail is typically tan, dark green, brown, or dark gold in color like many of the constrictor snakes.   In rare cases, the tail is bright yellow, though this is considered a strange deformity and not an advantage.  Being close to nature, most Constrictor Naga wear very light clothing.  Constrictor Naga live slightly longer lifespans then humans do, often times reaching an age of about 100 years.  They reach adulthood at about the same time as humans, roughly between the ages of 18 and 20.  

Constrictor Naga need to eat meat in order to survive, however they have been known to eat some vegetation for medicinal and nutritional value.  Because of their diets, they are very skillful hunters.  With dark vision, a Constrictor Naga can see prey quite easily even if it is night time.  Her tail is very heavy and makes her slow, so she acts like an ambush hunter, hiding and waiting for prey to come into range.  During a hunt, a constrictor naga will use weapons such as her longbow to kill deer and other animals from a distance.  She can also squeeze her prey to death using her long tail as a natural weapon if her prey wanders too close.  After a successful hunt, the constrictor will take her kill back to the village she originates from where she can eat and prepare her meal in relative safety.  All Constrictor Naga are born with detachable jaws and can swallow prey whole.  They only need to eat once a month, but are immobile after swallowing large prey.  Constrictor Naga typically hunt larger mammals such as deer or wolves.  Evil Constrictor Naga may choose to hunt humanoids.  

Society

Constrictor Naga society is very simple when compared to most other races of the world.  They tend to live in very small groups or villages, generally no more than 20 members to a village.  A basic set of rules and guidelines is often times governed by a village elder, which makes all final decisions within the village.  It is often times difficult to tell that you are walking into a Constrictor Naga village.  Their settlements are built around trees, adding branches or small wooden canopies to shield them from the rain and other elements.  They do not require many possessions; all a single Constrictor Naga will ever need is her weapons, her armor, and her clothing.  

This is not to say they are behind in modern technology.  They carried over much of their human knowledge on how to forge weapons and armor.  These small metal forges in the forest are often one of the few ways to tell you are approaching the Constrictor Naga's village.  

The strength of the individual is important in these villages.  Most villages typically consist of a large number of warriors, often times Fighters.  Constrictor Naga with larger tails are respected in their village and group.  The bigger the constrictor, the stronger it is.  This respect towards size was meant to inspire warriors of the villages to become bigger and stronger.  The stronger the individual in these groups, the stronger the group was as a whole.  

The idea of a 'family' in these small villages is much different from the families of other races.  Rather than just having a mother, father, and siblings, the whole village is said to be your family.  Each looked out for your safety and helped raise you.  Since a human male is required to produce a young Constrictor Naga, these relationships can lead to humans living among the group.  These humans were generally fighters or warriors themselves, adventurers who may have fallen in love with a female Constrictor Naga and chose to live in the village with them.  Often times he would be very close to the young Naga, guiding her and teaching her what he knew.  If a member of the village died, it was like losing a member of your family.  The passing was felt by everyone.  

Constrictor Naga feel very out of place in large cities.  Few ever enter one – most other races would condemn them as monsters if they ever did enter a city.  The few that have been to the larger cities of the world are often times nervous, so many people in a single place is not something the Constrictor Naga is used to.  She feels much more comfortable in smaller towns.  Devices coming from larger cities that she has never seen before may confuse her.

If a Constrictor Naga becomes too out of touch with Obai-Hai, she may choose to leave the village on her own or may be expelled for actions she took while living there.  This is generally the result of becoming too chaotic in nature or embracing another deity.  Lone Constrictor Naga are constantly traveling, taking up adventure easily and growing close to adventuring parties, the members of which become her new village family.

Relationships in the Party

As mentioned before, Constrictor Naga tends to get along with humans and elves the most.  Having descended from humans, it is only natural that they gravitate towards humans.  They also respect the elves, who often time hold many of the same respects for nature as the Constrictor Naga do.  Dwarves confuse the Constrictor Naga.  They are not used to such an industrious people.  The Constrictor Naga does, however, admire the Dwarves strength and durability.  Paladins and other very lawful individuals are viewed as being foolish by the Constrictor Naga.  There is only one true law to these naga, and that is the law of survival and natural selection.  Chaotic Constrictor Naga, looking to escape their natural place in the forest and see the world will likely hold even less respect for the lawful adventurer then the Neutral Constrictor Naga would have.  The only exception to this dislike of lawful individuals is if the Constrictor Naga is fighting for a similar cause.  Inside the party, a Constrictor Naga may argue with lawful individuals, never really understanding that person's views.  A chaotic good Constrictor Naga and a lawful good Paladin may see eye-to-eye on the cause they fight for.  

In a party, the Constrictor Naga will become very protective of her comrades.  Goodbyes can become very difficult for bonds that were well built with friends or other adventurers.  If a Constrictor Naga were to spend a long time in a single party of adventurers, often times that party would become like her village family.  She would protect and watch over each of them to the best of her ability.  She may also try to convince each of them to become stronger in their skills, just as she would try to convince members of her village to become stronger and larger.  In the event of a death within the party, she would treat it as if there were a death within her family.  It would likely leave a deep impact on her, especially if the death was not a natural one.  

Alignment

Being so in tuned with nature makes most Constrictor Naga 'Neutral' in alignment.  Some get bored and want to see the world, causing them to venture away from their villages and become more chaotic in nature.  The Lawful Constrictor Naga, on the other hand, is completely unheard of.  The balance between good and evil can vary.  Most remain true neutral, never bothering humanoids that travel through their forests unless that humanoid bothers them or the forest they live in.  Good Constrictor Naga may feel that they need to protect all elements of life – not just those in Nature.  They will give guidance to travelers moving through the forests and may aid them further in their journey.  An evil Constrictor Naga could view most other humanoid races as being weak and 'in the way.'  They might lead themselves into thinking that all other humanoids will harm nature and may choose to hunt them over animals.  

Religion

There are still many followers of Obai-Hai among the Constrictor Naga.  He is the one who, according to the legend, created them.  In a sense, the Constrictor Naga's are his children.  Many Constrictor Naga follow the teachings of Obai-Hai very closely.  In addition, the Constrictor Naga hold high respect for forests and the various creatures that inhabits it.  A few chaotic souls who wish to leave the forest behind to explore the world may follow the god Kord.  Kord encourages strength and competition, something many Constrictor Naga's enjoy having.  

Language

Constrictor Naga all speak common, the human language their race originally knew.  That is typically the only language most Constrictor Naga will ever know.  Because they are so isolated from the world, many of them do not hear another language unless they join an adventuring party.  As such, it typically takes some dedication from a Constrictor Naga to learn a new language.  The 'hiss' in their voice also makes picking up a new language difficult.  With the exception of draconic, language is a difficult thing for most Constrictor Naga.

Names

The names of Constrictor Naga's are almost as diverse as the human race they came from.  Typically names are twists on human names (for example "Sarah" becomes "Syrah" or "Syra"); some differences occurring due to the 'hisses' in their speech.  They also have been known to use Elven names.  As of now, the Constrictor Naga do not have last names.  An example as to how they are introduced in more 'proper' situations is as follows: "Ayssha, daughter of Syrah and Peter."  Most of the time, they are simply referred to by their first name alone.  

Adventurers

Most Constrictor Naga's tend to be withdrawn from a large group, inserting their opinions only if asked.  However, they tend to be social when visiting with individuals they are friendly towards.  They also become very protective of these individuals, willing to risk their lives to protect close friends (unless driven by evil).  In battle, they fight fiercely and passionately.  Their overwhelming strength makes them natural fighters and barbarians.  Rogues are rare due to their large size.  Paladins and other lawful figures are completely unheard of.  

Combat

Constrictor Naga take many traits from both their human and serpentine origins.  Like humans, they are very adept with many weapons and fighting styles.  She may opt to become a fighter and wield a greatsword or greataxe.  The Barbarian Constrictor Naga tends to be faster in combat and far more aggressive.  Because her upper body resembles that of a human, she can only use medium sized weapons.  Like the giant constrictor, she can use her long tail to coil around and squeeze foes close to her for extra damage.  This gives her a good mix of normal attacks and bonus damage to deal in every encounter.  

Constriction: After a successful attack, a constrictor naga can wrap its long body around its enemy and squeeze it for damage.  To do this, perform a grapple check.  A successful grapple check will deal 2d6+ (1.5xStr. Mod) of damage.  A constrictor naga does not lose her dexterity bonus to AC and still threatens squares around her after using this attack.  Enemies grappled by her in constriction will receive constriction damage for every grapple check they fail.  Constrictor naga can opt to use constriction on normal grapple checks with their tail as well.

Racial Traits

• +8 Strength, +2 Dexterity, -2 Intelligence
• +10 in Swim and Climb Checks.  +5 in Balance, Hide, Listen, and Spot Checks.  -10 to Jump checks.
• +4 Natural AC
• Monstrous Humanoid Levels, start with 4d8 HD, +4 Base Attack Bonus, +4 Fort Check, +1 Reflex, +1 Will.  
• Bonus of 2 feats.
• Constrictor Naga take 7 x (2 + Int Modifier) of skills at first level.  
• Huge Creature: -2 to AC.  -2 to Range and Melee Attacks.  +8 to Grapple Special Attacks.  Constrictor Naga do not take a -8 to Hide Checks because of their size.
• Base speed is 20 feet.
• 1d8+8 determines a Constrictor Naga's length.
• For every 1 HD a Constrictor Naga has, its length grows 1 foot longer (includes Monstrous Humanoid HD and Player Class HD).
• Dark Vision of 60 feet.
• Automatically gain endurance and toughness as racial bonus feats.
• Automatically gain the special attack 'Constriction.'
• Constrictor Naga's communicate through Common, their original human language.
• Preferred Class: Fighter, Barbarian
• Constrictor Naga can only use medium weapons and armor regardless of size (Constriction is still a 'huge' attack).
• Constrictor Naga cannot be lawful by nature.  
• Level Adjustment of +6.  A level 1 PC Constrictor Naga is equivalent to a Level 6 PC Human.
Edit on 9-5-2011: Race changed in some important ways. Racial traits expanded and new specials added. Level Adjustments included. See document for details.
Edit on 7-26-2011: Fixed some balance issues with the race. Sorry for the notification a second time.

I know this submission is weird for me... but I really wanted to try doing something like this.

Recently started to play Dungeons & Dragons 3.5e again with my group of friends. I've been a fan of D&D for quite a while now. I've never home brewed much of anything up until this point, but I decided to give it a go. It was a lot more work then I thought it would be and took out a lot of careful planning and consideration of the rules... a few of which I ended up bending. Lets face it, grapples in 3.5 suck unless your some kind of monster with improved grab. The Constrictor Naga's grapple ability with her tail is basically that with one or two differences. If you don't like what I did, you don't have to play with that rule.

Basically, this is a naga player character class. Yes, a naga, not a lamia. I know the differences between the two races traditionally, but D&D seems to refer to just about every half snake/half humanoid race as some kind of naga. In fact when you look up 'lamia' in the monster manual, it describes it as being some kind of half lion creature. Don't take it up with me, take it up with wizards of the coast =P.

Anyway, the idea behind this again was some kind of half human, half snake thing, specifically the giant constrictor snakes, which I took a TON of traits from. You can see it in the swim, climb, and balance skill bonus's. I also gave her a pretty powerful constrict ability. This race is naturally cut out to be fighters for the most part, though you have some other options there as well. I wanted to make fighters more interesting to play while making it. If you've played D&D even a couple of time, you know that SORCERERS AND WIZARDS ARE AMAZING. Fighters are boring D: and if you want to play an interesting fighter you will probably be multi-classing 2 or 3 times. In fact, I don't know ANYONE who has played a single class fighter outside of newbies. And to be honest, I like characters with swords and stuff. So, here's an interesting twist on one. The serpentine tail gives you some pretty interesting attack options. The +2 in strength makes you pretty tough also. The -2 in charisma makes you not want to play a sorcerer, so I've done my job! And besides, if you want a magical snake-person class, look up the Sthein =P.

Anyway, enough rambling :P. This is my first home brew, so I have no clue what the ECL should be on this IF there even is one. Suggestions welcomed.

Dungeons and Dragons belongs to Wizards of the Coast
Constrictor Naga class belongs to KaaFan33
© 2011 - 2024 kaafan33
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can i use for my DnD campaign I like thise race a lot