Magical Mutant Ape Men!!!!

I’ve been workin’ out the kinks of a race-as-class for a while now. It’s become an obsession.

First, I wanted to build it for Lamentations of the Flame Princess. Then, a heavily house-modified version of LotFP. Now, I am using Dungeon Crawl Classics.

These Ape Men (Women, People, whichever you prefer) were normal run-of-the-mill ape creatures that were suddenly and recently uplifted by some unknown magical means.


 While this is specifically written for DCC, it can easily be modified for any early edition DnD type game.


Yon, the Magical Mutant Ape People

You are a mystically mutated primate with human intelligence and speech! At some point in the near past, your entire species was rapidly evolved to its present state by unknown means. You are a second generation Yon, and you and your people have no real culture of your own. You pick the appealing parts from other cultures to adopt.

You are of a size in between dwarf and human. And you have a vestigial tail that is effectively useless and about half as long as the rest of your body. The exact details of how you look are up to you, the player. Keep in mind though, that based on your character’s visual looks, all other low level Yon will look like you.

Here are some of the things you can do

You receive d6 Hit Points at every level! This is in addition to the hit points you had at Zero level.

You’re trained in the use of the Battleaxe, Club, Dart, Javelin, Spear, Staff, Two-handed club, and Warhammer.

You have big sharp teeth that causes a nasty bite. You can bite as an extra attack when in melee combat! (ATK: d14, DMG: d3+Strength Modifier)

Your feet can grab and hold things. They aren’t nimble enough to be of any use in combat or to juggle, but they can hold your body weight by holding onto something. The big toe is used as a primitive thumb. You tend to walk and run on all fours.

Unlike other classes, Yon gain random mutations as they are exposed to magic. Roll on the Magical Mutation Table once every time you are affected by a magical effect that alters you in some way (fail a save vs Magic). Examples include; Failing a save against a spell, or drinking a magical potion that requires a saving throw.

  • Cleric or Deific magic does not have this effect. 
  • Luck Modifier does apply; higher your Luck mod, the more likely you’ll have a beneficial mutation.
Level
Attack Bonus
Crit Die/Table
Action Dice
Reflex
Fortitude
Willpower
1
+1
D6/III
1d20
+1
+1
+0
2
+1
D6/III
1d20
+1
+1
+1
3
+1
D6/III
1d20
+1
+2
+1
4
+1
D6/III
1d20
+2
+3
+2
5
+1
D6/III
1d20+1d14
+2
+4
+2
6
+1
D6/III
1d20+1d16
+2
+4
+2
7
+1
D6/III
1d20+1d20
+3
+4
+3
8
+1
D6/III
1d20+1d20
+3
+5
+3
9
+1
D6/III
1d20+1d20
+4
+5
+4
10
+1
D6/III
1d20+1d20+1d14
+4
+6
+4

 Yon Titles

As Yon don’t have a culture or society to call their own, they don’t have level based titles. Yon typically take the titles of other classes that they look up to and want to emulate.

Magical Mutation Table

  1. Magical Vulnerability! You take a -1 penalty to all magical saves. 
  2. Big giant head! Your skull, specifically your brain case and brain, grows disproportionately larger than the rest of your body. You can Mind Blast everyone (friend or foe) in a 5 foot radius for d3 damage on a failed Will save of DC 10+your Willpower or Luck modifier. They are -1 to all rolls for d4 rounds. You can do this once per day, for every time you roll this mutation result. Further, the damage increases by one die step, the DC increases by +1, the range increases by 5 feet, and the penalty for all rolls decreases -1. Using this power is painful and causes a piercing headache that forces a penalty of d3 to all your rolls for one Turn. Every time this is rolled, the penalty to all die rolls is made worse by one die step. 
  3. Skin toughens! Bonus to Armor Class: +1 every time this is rolled. This is not in addition to worn armor. There is no penalty the first time you roll this result, however, subsequent rolls of this result incur the following; reduce movement to the point that you move and function as if you were one Encumbrance step higher than you would normally be. 
  4. Intimidate! To intimidate a creature, you beat your chest and growl and roar and pound the ground. They must make an opposed DC 10 Will save if intelligent, or a DC 5 Will save if of animal level intelligence. Failure means they cower or flee. Undead, golems, automatons, and the like are not affected. Add your Personality OR Strength modifier (whichever is higher) to make the DC more difficult. Roll this again and you get the bonus from Personality AND Strength modifiers. Subsequent rolls net you a +1 bonus.
  5. Howler! make loud howls heard for miles. Rolled again and those in close vicinity must make a Fortitude save or go temporarily deaf for d4 hours. Roll this any more times and they suffer a -1 to their save attempt and the length of deafness increases by a die step in hours.  
  6. Prehensile tail! your tail can grab things. It’s not very strong though, 1/4 your Strength ability. Rolling this again increases it’s strength to 1/2, then 3/4, then full strength. With each growth step, your tail lengthens 12 inches. On the other hand, your size decreases by 6 inches each time this is rolled.  
  7. Bite! Your bite damage increases to d4 damage. Roll this again and it increases to d5, then d6, then d7 and so on. As your teeth enlarge, so does your jaw, and your overall features become more menacing; -1 to any Personality based check every time this result is rolled.  
  8. Hyper-intelligence! Choose a new skill to be trained in; roll randomly on the Background Profession table to determine this. Choose a new skill every time this is rolled. This focus is offset by a penalty of -1 to any and all untrained skill attempts. This penalty is cumulative every time this result is rolled.  
  9. Brute strength! add a D3 to any strength check or strength based action, including melee damage. Roll again and it becomes a d4, then d5, and so on. Your Crit Die also increases by one step!The massive increase in muscle mass causes a loss of dexterity, though; suffer a penalty of -1 to Reflex saves, and dexterity based actions. 
  10. Size increase! You are a foot taller, a bit meatier, and your hit die increases to d8 per level. Roll again and you grow another foot and hit die becomes a d10. Another foot and a D12, another foot and a d14, lastly another foot and a d20. After that, every increase is another foot +1 HP. Also, your Crit Table increases to Table IV, then Table V, then the Giant table. Unfortunately, your tail decreases in length by one foot, and you become incrementally less capable of thoughtful action. Every time you roll this, you suffer a permanent -1 penalty whenever you attempt a skill, and a -1 penalty to Intelligence and Personality checks, as well as Willpower saves. Whenever you take damage in combat, you must make a Willpower save or else fly into a berserk rage; attacking any foes within sight without regard for strategy, tactics, or the well being of yourself or other party members. 
  11. Prehensile feet! Your feet become more dexterous and useful. They can be used attack with a weapon and use a d10 as an Action Die. Each time this is rolled, the Action Die increases a die step. After reaching d20, you get a +1 to hit with your feet every time this is rolled. Agility and Strength bonuses do not apply to feet attacks.
  12. Hand-eye coordination! You get a +1 to hit in combat, and your Crit Die increases by one step. 
  13. Magical Resistance! You gain a +1 to s ave against Magic every time you roll this result.  
  14. Color Change! Your skin and hair change colors. These can be whatever colors you wish, or you can roll on a random table to determine color. 
  15.  Hair falls out! All your body hair falls out. Re-roll this and it grows back. Re-roll again and it falls out again.  
  16. Magic Spell! You learn a random wizard magic spell! This spell is determined randomly; roll a d3 for the spell’s level, then roll on that level’s spell list to determine the exact spell. Casting this spell is the same as if you were a wizard, and uses your Action Die to roll the spell check. All consequences for failure (corruption, misfire, etc) also are the same as per the Wizard. Any effect this spell may have on you does not cause another roll on this Magical Mutation table.