Racial Talents for Non-Ponies

I saw there were a bunch of threads, each for a different pony type, there's also a thread for Changelings, but what about everpony else?

Feel free to post ideas for non-pony racial utility talents here.

BTW - I started this up because I had an idea for a Zebra utility talent, and here it is:

My Zebra Senses are Tingling!
Do to your Zebras' otherworldly and mysterious nature (or perhaps their keen sense of sight and hearing), you get a +10 bonus to checks made against being surprised or ambushed, as your "Zebra Senses" tingle to warn you at the first sign of trouble.

That's all I've got currently (:

In that case, here's some repurposed talent ideas for Hippogriffs.

Birdcall
You can mimic any voice or sound that it has previously heard. It takes a DC 25 Perception check to somepony else to recognize the noise made as fake.

Carry Burdens
You can carry another medium-sized creature on your back while flying without incurring additional penalties to skill checks.

Ride the Lightning Obsolete!
You can expend one Charge (from your Thunderbird ability) can move up to ten times your normal speed for the next fifteen minutes.

Carry Burdens strikes me as an ability that any flying race should be able to get. Is there a reason why you want it to be Hippogriff only?

Also, here's a first shot at a utility talent specifically designed for Zebras, if we choose to go that route -

Rhyme Time
Zebras are legendary when it comes to rhyming, so much so, that they can make it seem effortless. No one knows exactly why Zebras are prone to rhyming, but when they do, sometimes magical things can happen. If a player is able to rhyme a full, coherent sentence (whether the rhyming itself is good or not) before making a skill check, they get a +2 Rhyming bonus to that check.

XandZero2 wrote:Carry Burdens strikes me as an ability that any flying race should be able to get. Is there a reason why you want it to be Hippogriff only?

Well, supposedly hippogriffs in classic myth and legend were supposed to be the ultimate steed; faster and stronger than both horse and griffon, and the "Carry Burdens" was intended to reflect that in a setting where mounted riders are not exactly commonplace. But I suppose the ability could still be opened up to every flying race... which, at this moment, means it could be dropped under the Pegasus utility talents. I suppose I could repost it there later.

Also, with the addition of Fast as Lightning as a hippogriff racial, Ride the Lightning has become redundant, so I'll cross that one off. Additionally, it's been suggested that Thunderbird gets re-labeled as a utility, so I'll do that here and now...

Thunderbird's Gift
While the phrase "lightning-fast" is technically hyperbole as far as most hippogriffs are concerned, the power of lightning and thunder flows through your veins. Outside of combat, you never take damage from electricity. Additionally, you can store within itself up to 5 Charges of electricity, which you can then discharge through your claws to light campfires, cook meat, give other creatures painful (but harmless) shocks, etc. You may also attempt greater feats, such as ignite large, flammable objects, mess with electrically-powered machinery, act as makeshift defibrillators, and so on, but these acts may require additional Charges.
You always start the day with 0 Charges, but may gain them by being struck by lightning. Pegasi can use their Weather-Crafter ability to give you your full 5 Charges, and you can also deliberately fully recharge yourself in existing stormy weather. Either way, this takes a preparation time of 10 minutes and a DC 20 Stunt or Acrobatics check, and can only be attempted once every six hours.

Hmm... Now I'm inspired to try making other potential talents based off of mythological birds. Here's a few more:

Roc's Strength - Magic
Preparation Time: 10 minutes
Some tales claim that a Roc will carry away even elephants and feed them to its chicks. While by no means could you even consider lifting a full-grown bull elephant, with the proper preparation, you could probably manage one of its young... hypothetically speaking, of course. Pick a single object or creature within sight that weighs up to 1,000 lbs. For the next half-hour, you can lift, carry, and even fly while holding that object without penalty for weight (although the struggling of an unwilling creature might still result in penalties).

Stymphalian Armor
Through some odd hereditary quirk or mystical boon, your feathers are metallic and strong as iron. While this is not necessarily particularly helpful in combat, you find that it offers some protection against high speeds. When using your Fast as Lightning ability, you take 25% less damage per second, rounded up (though any rider you may have does not recieve this protection). Additionally, all skill check DCs to smash through objects while using Fast as Lightning are reduced by 5.

Man, I've got to stop making stuff for hippogriffs and work on something else.

Scion of Fleece/Son of Roam: Griffons, Pegusi, Minotaurs, Sheep, Zebras(?)

Your race belonged to a major world power once, and it's infuence still exists in your kin's stories and tales. When dealing with a subject relating to this culture (DM's would know it as real-life Greek Mythology), the creature with this talent gets a +3 bonus to the roll. This bonus could be used, for example, in remembering what a Hydra den looks like, but cannot be used to help hide inside said den when the Hydra comes home. However, if you'r lucky enough to get a talking hydra to be the one who show's up, the bonus helps with making checks to appease it.


The bonus probably need's to be higher, or changed to something else.

Pokonic wrote:Scion of Fleece/Son of Roam: Griffons, Pegusi, Minotaurs, Sheep, Zebras(?)

Your race belonged to a major world power once, and it's infuence still exists in your kin's stories and tales. When dealing with a subject relating to this culture (DM's would know it as real-life Greek Mythology), the creature with this talent gets a +3 bonus to the roll. This bonus could be used, for example, in remembering what a Hydra den looks like, but cannot be used to help hide inside said den when the Hydra comes home. However, if you'r lucky enough to get a talking hydra to be the one who show's up, the bonus helps with making checks to appease it.


The bonus probably need's to be higher, or changed to something else.

Yeah, as it stands, this is kind of like a Freaky Knowledge ability, but it only has one subject instead of two and has a smaller bonus. I like the idea of a racial history bonus, but it's not powerful enough compared to the other utility talents already out there.

Since only griffins and changlings got their own specific utility talents, I took some time to type up a bunch of utility talents for the other races. There's five Baby Dragon', Minotaurs, and Buffalo. I'm kind of at a loss for the others, though I'll probably think of some stuff eventually.

I made it so anyone can edit, so you can add or comment on what's there so far.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1TaclwUakTNYS-arC4hEncEJpzaCRejx_KKJ5jjEZNhY/edit

Here's one I thought up for Minotaurs.
At home down in the underground
gain +5 to perception and streetsmarts checks made while underground.