The Hooved Races

Donkey
Donkeys migrated to the Equestrian continent in the pre-equestrian era, arriving out of former slavery by the Sphinxes. They have since become a staple of the nations, not necessarily achieving recognition but most definitely being an important part of the work force. Donkeys don't have the magic connection ponies have, but make up for it with big hearts and an innate understanding of the peoples of the land.

Racial traits:
--Stalwart: Donkeys gain an additional 2 attribute points at creation.
--Intense: Instead of a 10 point attribute max, donkeys have a 12 point attribute max.
--Hardworking: Donkeys gain two magic points instead of one every day.

Pig
Prior to the arrival of the Windigos, Pigs were in charge of the Roaming Empire in the land that would become Equestria. However, the coming of the great winter destroyed their empire; the survivors would later integrate with Equestria as a mercantile culture. Modern pigs are eager to earn bits and, in fact, have no qualms selling their dead to carnivores, a fact which creeps ponies out.

Racial Traits:
--All the training: Pigs get trained in an additional skill.
--Conniving: Once a day, a pig gets to roll two d20 instead of one and choose the higher result.

Zebra
The natives of the foreign lands, Zebras live in small tribes and places filled with large carnivores. Zebra culture practically devotes itself to the ideals of harmony, and Zebras will work for the greater good in any situation. The fact that they live in dangerous and unusual environments gives them a hardier work on life.

Racial Traits:
--Tribal tattoo: Zebras gain a cutie mark bonus.
--Dangerous domain: Three times a day, a Zebra can ignore a critical failure. That is, they will not automatically fail on a critical failure, they will only fail after bonuses.

Cow
Cows cohabited the lands ponies lived in during the pre-equestria era, and a number of small cow families joined them in their migration. However, the majority of cows remained in the old lands, forming their own empire in response to the rise of Celestia and Luna; while Equestrian cows and Astarian cows are friendly, there is a constant presence of potential war between the two countries as a whole.

Racial Traits:
--Herd Mentality: Cows gain access to a second Element of Harmony.

Goat
Goats are arrogant, intelligent, and antisocial. A large majority of technological innovators have been goats, and they are currently spearheading the field of electronics. Despite this, they remain diplomatic to the other Hooved races and are loyal to a fault with those they consider their friends.

Racial Traits:
--Inventor: All goats get Create Crazy Contraption as a racial.
--Thick-headed: Goats get a +3 bonus to all save rolls.

Buffalo
Broad in shoulder and in soul, the Buffalo roam the great painted desert to the west. While they do not agree with the way that the ponies handle their cities and lands, they do feel that there is good in the hearts of their neighbors and thus will assist when necessary.

Racial Traits
Thunder Hooves: Buffalo get the Yee-Haw talent as a free talent.
Little Strong Heart: Daily. Buffalo can re-roll a critical failure with a +5 bonus.
Earth Soul: Whenever a buffalo successfully aids an ally, they get a +4 instead of a +2 bonus.

The goats could have a natural trait that lets them eat anything, similar to a dragon.

Steel stomach
You can swallow almost anything that can fit into your mouth, regardless of material or composition, without harm or penalty. Anything that is not naturally digestible remains in your stomach unharmed (Up to three small objects), and can be regurgitated at will. Poison substances have no effect when consumed, and give a temporary bonus of +5 to any saves against that type of poison in the future. Due to still being a herbivore, attempting to eat any kind of meat (Including meat you haven't identified as such) forces you to regurgitate the meat and anything currently in your stomach instantly.


Minotaur

Minotaurs are a somewhat rare in Equestria - Most of them live secluded inside labyrinths of personal make or any other place where one can easily get lost, though they almost always settle on the outskirts of highly populated towns, where they can go work or do grocery shopping. Their strong physique is their pride, and they love flaunting it, as well as employing it. Motivations vary, but most are driven either by pride, ambition, desire for wealth or honor. They often make deals with other races, seeking employment as workers, guardians, muscles-for-hire, or offering their own specialized services to others. They honor and stick to these deals, and take great offense to being tricked, scammed or cheated out of their rightful share.

Traits

Half-Manly physique
-Your unique hoof-less upper body allows you to hold and manipulate two objects of up to 50 pounds at once, or one object of up to 100 pounds with ease.

Spatial sense - 1/session
Living in a maze all your life made you incapable of being lost. The DM describes the layouts and positions of various rooms, chambers and other geographic features of a chosen area. He can also provide a featureless map with rooms and doors.

Creepy admirer - 3/Day
-A strange pony is obsessed with you, and is stalking you occasionally, sending you packages with your name on it. It will contain a single tool that requires hands to be used, of your choice, as well as pictures of your hands, taken without your knowledge.

Let the muscles do the talking
- Your persuasion checks gain bonuses from both the Athletics and Horse-Sense attributes.

Utility talents (Minotaurs only)

Pep talk - 3/day
Boosts the next three skill checks of a chosen ally, and prevents critical failures.

Rigorous exercise
Choose 9 combat skills instead of 8, and you can bring 6 combat skills into an encounter instead of 5.

Bull rush - Daily
You charge at something at ten times your normal speed, and do the following, depending on the target:
- Against sturdy, immobile objects (like walls), roll endurance vs the target, with bonuses depending on the length of the charge. If successful, the object is either no longer immobile, or is completely destroyed (E.g. a wall can be shattered to pieces, or a minotaur-sized section of it can be seperated from the rest of the wall).
- Against movable/flimsy objects or living creatures roll either stunts or endurance vs the target. If successful, they are knocked flying, traveling up to double the charging speed, to a location/object of your choosing within that range.

Combat abilities (Minotaurs only)

[+2]Drop and give me twenty!
Target enemy skips it's turn and starts doing pushups. It gains 3 resistance on the following turn, for one turn.

[-2]Furious charge
Deals 1d10 damage to target enemy and knocks it on top of another one, making the enemy act as adjacent to it until the end of it's round.

(e.g. if there are creatures "a", "b", "c", "d", creature "a" can be knocked onto creature "c". Hitting "c" or "a" afterwards will damage every creature)

[-6]Get up RIGHT NOW!
The sheer intimidating power of your voice "motivates" an unconscious ally to get up. They immediately recover with 1d4 hit points and perform one of the three (their choice) effects of their special ability.

Never heard of Ruby Quest. And Steel Stomach seems to be... more of a utility Talent then a racial trait. Maybe a Goat-specific talent?

On the Minotaur.... StairC himself helped me in designing the hooved races, and one of his guiding comments was "don't give racial combat bonuses."

Fair enough. Editing them out then.

Added the Buffalo!

Zarhon wrote:Fair enough. Editing them out then.

Yep. You can take a look at the "How to Design Races" thread I just made for any quick tips on what I have in mind. =)

It's so great to see so many awesome ideas.

Edit - That said, make sure you take the combat talents you came up with and post them in the Combat Talent thread! They're all excellent - I can see including all of them after a little feedback from the rest of the community.

Wow. The Buffalo option is so simple but so flavorful and genuinely awesome. I think it needs another tiny boost that isn't a daily or a magic point - even if just a reskinning of the Friend In Deed racial trait... And then I'd give it the Stairc Stamp of Approval!

That means I'd add it to an Official Expansion.

Your wish is my command. Edited!

Masterweaver wrote:Your wish is my command. Edited!

Sweetness. That buffalo, or something very close to that, willd efinitely make it into an official expansion. I should set that document up. Need to go run D&D camp now though

Now I need to figure out sheep.

They should focus on copying what other people do. =P

You know what race I really want? Reindeer.
Okay, that's one I particularly want, but if you want more ideas...
Have the entire list of ungulates! =D
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ungulates
The top ones that pages lists are:
rhinoceri, camels, hippopotami, tapirs, giraffes, okapi, moose, elk/deer, antelopes, and gazelles.

You've got more ideas. Get to it!

Actually, headcanon, the deer tribes went into hiding after the Age of Discord. Everyone knows they're out there, but... they're hardly seen.

Personal gripe, but I don't think that any of the races should have an explanation of where they originated from, their history, etc. Or at the very least, make it clear that it's optional, so that the DM isn't forced to use a campaign world with unwanted elements.

Masterweaver wrote:
--Dangerous domain: Three times a day, a Zebra can ignore a critical failure. That is, they will not automatically fail on a critical failure, they will only fail after bonuses.

I feel obtuse, but could you perhaps explain in a little more detail what the last sentence means? Thanks!

Videocrazy wrote:Personal gripe, but I don't think that any of the races should have an explanation of where they originated from, their history, etc. Or at the very least, make it clear that it's optional, so that the DM isn't forced to use a campaign world with unwanted elements.

Most of the "history" is in fact an interpretation of their real-world analogue. But you're right, I shouldn't force it. Um... alternate descrips please?

As for Dangerous Domain, what it means is that a roll of one does not become a crit fail. It just becomes a regular roll.

Philadelphus wrote:

Masterweaver wrote:
--Dangerous domain: Three times a day, a Zebra can ignore a critical failure. That is, they will not automatically fail on a critical failure, they will only fail after bonuses.

I feel obtuse, but could you perhaps explain in a little more detail what the last sentence means? Thanks!

I got this. =)

Basically, getting a 1 isn't automatically a failure. If you have a huge boost or the DC is low enough, you may still be able to succeed on a 1 if it wasn't for the "auto-fail" rules. If you have +18 to a skill and the DC is 15, getting a 1 would still give you a 19 as a Zebra and allow you to succeed.

I think Buffalo is amazing, Donkey is great (maybe a mite too powerful, I haven't really gone over it yet) and Minotaur is fantastic-flavorwise but a bit too cluttered with so many abilities at present.

I can see all these three being added in an official Hooved Races expansion later on. I'd want to get a total of at least 5 new racial options equally flavorful, exciting and balanced before that expansion is released.

Stairc -Dan Felder wrote:

Philadelphus wrote:

Masterweaver wrote:
--Dangerous domain: Three times a day, a Zebra can ignore a critical failure. That is, they will not automatically fail on a critical failure, they will only fail after bonuses.

I feel obtuse, but could you perhaps explain in a little more detail what the last sentence means? Thanks!

I got this. =)

Basically, getting a 1 isn't automatically a failure. If you have a huge boost or the DC is low enough, you may still be able to succeed on a 1 if it wasn't for the "auto-fail" rules. If you have +18 to a skill and the DC is 15, getting a 1 would still give you a 19 as a Zebra and allow you to succeed.

Oh! That makes sense. Thanks for the explanation. Sounds like an interesting ability.

I'm surprised at you guys. Pigs and cows - but no dragon babies?

I would like to see that happen. Maybe give them magical abilities for their fire breath?

I saw one other Pony RP system do that, and it looked like a cool idea.

Yep, people have brought it up but no one's made a template for it yet. I heartily look forward to someone trying it out.

Also want to see Minotaurs developed further.

On another note, the Goat race is still getting its +3 to saves... Which is a predominately combat effect. This means that the goat race is currently superior in combat to every official race and most of the others too. Might want to think about making that trait a non-combat bonus.


Here's a sample Donkey character, intended to playtest the race in Masterweaver's hooved race campaign.

Meet Balthazar Bronx

What's a good "They're stubborn" trait?

Masterweaver wrote:What's a good "They're stubborn" trait?

Immunity to mind-affecting powers? Provided it's clear that this isn't for combat, of course.

That's all I can think of at the moment. Not necessarily a good idea.

Stairc -Dan Felder wrote:Also want to see Minotaurs developed further.

Mind giving some feedback on their current stuff?