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Reiko-Foxx — Courage is Magic: Sphinx
#mlp #rpg #sphinx #courageismagic #rpgcharacter #mlpmylittlepony #mlpfriendshipismagic
Published: 2016-09-21 20:37:37 +0000 UTC; Views: 1614; Favourites: 23; Downloads: 21
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Description
Sphinx TraitsAbility Scores: +1 Knowledge, +1 Agility
Size: Medium
Speed: 5 Squares (Ground), 4 Squares (Flight)
Vision: Low-Light
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Bonus Skill Training: History and Perception
Flying Creature: You may choose Spirits, Destinies, and Merits that require Flight.
Natural Predator: You are always considered Armed. Treat your Unarmed Strikes as melee weapons of your level.
Riddle Me This: Whenever attempting to solve a riddle or puzzle, you get an immediate second chance to do so if the first attempt fails, with no penalties. this is treated as one attempt and does not cost any additional actions. You also get the I'm a Treasure Hunter Merit for free, even if you do not meet the prerequisite.
Vigilant Stone: You can temporarily transform into a stone statue of yourself. While in this state, you remain aware of your surroundings, require neither air nor sustenance, and become difficult to harm in any meaningful way (+5 AC, +1 points of Damage Reduction per Level, and any previously existing Ongoing Damage is put on hold). However, while you are stone, you may neither move nor take any actions other than leaving this state. While this statue form can be maintained indefinitely, being stone does not count as any form of rest, so no Life Points or abilities are recovered while you are in this state. Worn and carried items are not affected by this ability.
These graceful and enigmatic predators are said to have once served as guardians of ancient tombs and treasuries in distant lands. Their ability to turn themselves into unyielding stone allows them to remain ever vigilant at their posts, though they must revert to flesh and blood should they decide to act. Many would be thieves have met their end due to the ever watchful gaze of a guardian sphinx.
These beautiful, deadly creatures greatly value cleverness and wit, and often take great pride in their ability to create (and solve) riddles, traps, and puzzles of all kinds. In fact, their love for such conundrums can sometimes be used to distract them from their posts. Beware though, for while they may reward a cleverly applied loophole or alternative answer, they have little tolerance for liars and cheats.
Play as a Sphinx if you want…
> To be considered to be mysterious, clever, and wise
> To come up with clever solutions to unusual problems
> To be a predator among herbivores
> To be mistaken as a statue while keeping watch over your friends and companions or guarding a specific location.
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EDITS: I made the adjustments to the Riddle Me This and Vigilant Stone traits to bring them more in line with the traits available to the other races.
Riddle Me This: While I kept the second chance to solve riddles and puzzles, I felt that dealing with traps would be better served by giving sphinxes the already existing I'm a Treasure Hunter Merit as part of this trait.
Vigilant Stone: 10 full points of Damage Reduction was a bit much, considering that dragons only get 1 point of Damage Reduction per level as part of their Shining Scales trait. So now it's also 1 point per level.
I'll try to edit the text in the picture to match these edits later.
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I managed to convince my group to give Courage is Magic a try. We are still in the setup phase (character creation and campaign design), with a dragon and a griffon selected so far. Another player, who really likes cats, was interested in playing a sphinx based on the concept I had come up with for my MLP fanfic: My Little Sphinx ( reiko-foxx.deviantart.com/art/…).
Please note that, like ponies and griffons, sphinxes have many body types. I just chose to use Nabiki the Sphinx (presumably at some point where she 'regains' her wings) to represent the sphinx race because she was what I had available. Also, there are several headcanons among the fandom as to the general appearance sphinxes might have in the MLP:FiM setting, so I'm hoping that these stats and abilities are broad enough to encompass most of them while still being unique enough to make having a sphinx in the campaign an interesting experience. However sphinxes appear in your campaign, I hope you find your games enjoyable.
O O O
Feedback on these traits would be appreciated. I tried to keep them comparable to those of the other races in Courage is Magic, with a bit of unique flair of their own, but I'm unsure about how balanced certain aspects (such as the Vigilant Stone ability) are when compared to the abilities of the other races.
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Inspired by LittleLunaMoonMatrons's Courage is Magic project: littlelunamoonmatron.deviantar…
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Comments: 9
Do you become fatigued while in Vigilant Stone form?
For example, does taking that form while on watch at night negate the need to roll to stay awake? Or stuff like that?
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You might get bored, but you don't get any more fatigued than you already are. However, you don't get any less fatigued either, as being in Vigilant Stone form doesn't count as rest. Any Ongoing Damage effect that you interrupted by entering the Vigilant Stone state will automatically resume once you leave it again.
Also, since you can't take any actions other than to dismiss your Vigilant Stone state, it is important to pick your field of view wisely (as you can't even turn your head).
I also came up with two race specific Merits, Living Stone and Rough Hewn, both of which add more utility to the Vigilant Stone ability. Taking both would essentially turn a Sphinx into a monster tank (especially at higher levels) at the cost of taking up valuable Merit slots. Do note, however, that even with one or both of these merits the character technically cannot rest while maintaining his or her Vigilant Stone form, so Life Points cannot be recovered. And just because Ongoing Damage effects are paused while in Vigilant Stone form doesn't mean that the character can't still accumulate them (it is hypothetically possible to focus down a level 10 DR 20 sphinx just by stacking enough Ongoing Damage effects on them that they can potentially die the instant they leave their Vigilant Stone state).
Living Stone
Prerequisite: Sphinx
Benefit: You are now more attuned with your Vigilant Stone form, enabling you to maintain your mobility while retaining the attendant AC and DR bonuses. However, while you are stone, you are too heavy to fly.
Rough Hewn
Prerequisite: Sphinx
Benefit: You are now more attuned with your Vigilant Stone form, increasing your DR to 2 per level while you are in that form.
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In that case, I'd want as part of my carried equipment a magically powered turn table.
When it's time for my shift on watch, I set it up in the exact center of camp, switch it on, sit on it, and activate Vigilant Stone. I am now constantly rotating to take in the entirety of my surroundings.
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Sweetie Belle: "Why is that statue spinning?"
Applebloom: "Ah dunno."
Scootaloo: "Wanna see if we can get it to spin faster?"
*8 hours later* INSTANT NAUSIA!
Sphinx: "Blargh!"
In all seriousness, that actually sounds like a useful device to cart around. As long as nopony can mess with the RPM speed...
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Hey, maybe something like that should happen in Nabiki's story!
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