A new take on templating

[CountFalchiezVander]

Back in the day (which was a Wednesday, if you didn't know) I began construction on a whole new world in which to play D&D, and created a few new races and Gods. The final piece to the puzzle was creating at least one new core class that fitted the theme of the world, which was race eliteness and religious fervor. So I was toying with the idea of a class that could not only enhance themselves and those of their race, but also, as they progressed in levels, gain the ability to sugerically enhance them with templates. I had the build once, but left it home when I moved to my current locale. I wish to build it again, and was wondering what suggestions people might have?

[Vivamort]

Within Masters of the Wild, there is a prestige class named: Eye of Gruumsh, A barbaric-like prestige class mainly for orcs and half-orcs. This can be altered to make a core class to be used for any race and by reducing the advantages of the class, you can assure balance. Below is the excerpt of this example.

Requirements

Alignment: Chaotic evil, chaotic neutral, or neutral evil.
Racial: Orc or Half-orc. (The DM may also permit characters of other races to pursue this class, but the character would have to have grown up around orcs.
Base Attack Bonus: +6.
Feats: Weapon Proficiency (orc double-axe), Weapon Focus (orc double-axe).
Special: In a special ritual dedicated to Gruumsh the character must remove his right eye. (Note: should the character ever gain sight in both eyes, all special abilities granted upon the Eye of Gruumsh are un-usable.

[Regnier_Leinhart]

You should probably look at the Geomancer in Complete Divine. It's kind of like what you are looking.

[Barrok]

erm all you have to take is certain feats if you are a certain race to add grafts onto people. You could though easily make a class or PrC which could be called a Chirurgeon or some such (just like a goblin Chirurgeon from MtG) where by using certain bits of flesh you could bolster your specified race (a bit like ranger's chosen enemy except you have a chosen race you can work on and enhance). The major drawback really is that t5his is mopre a NPC class than a PC one as it may not lend itself to much to the whole enjoyment when you are n a massive dungeon crawl that you want to sit down and sow flesh onto people.... which lets face it takes a bit of time to do.

[MindForge]

I made a religious human race that was like this for my home campaign. Their priests genetically augment their own kind through divine manipulation and holy grafting. The race had direct communication with their god and understood that there was an afterlife for them and many even get a glimpse of it now and again. Because of the way that they are brought up - in communal batches and their vocation is decided before they are 5 or 6 they are genetically altered through magic to better serve in their duty.

Their stat bonuses change depending on what their chosen career path is.
1 to any two ability scores (they can be the same) and -2 to a single score other than Charisma.
Instead of gaining the human skill bonus they gain +2 racial modifier to all class skills from their first chosen class.

I have levels in all races. I really like the evolution idea and I have created a very flexible 3 level progression for every race in my game. These levels focus on the race as a whole. In this particular race (called the Tahn by the way) gain grafts that aid with their starting class. These are preset grafts that must be chosen by prerequisite stats. A mage might get an eye that allows them to constantly see magic (3rd level) or a ranger may gain the scent feat (2nd level). It really depends on class....

The downfall to the Tahn race is their fanatic belief and adherence to their canon. They believe in their god wholeheartedly because they know what awaits them, few fall from the path of their belief. The strange thing also is those that have fallen have found themselves cursed - any grafts turn into corrupted (but still helpful) versions. I tried to make the race even compelling to those that want to play Tahn that have fallen from grace. I have made two versions of the race and like this one the most.

I have short class templates for this race that I had to make and it came out really well... I even have a player character that uses one in the group.

[colonialbob]

That Tahn race sounds really interesting... I'd like to see them statted. And/or some of those three-level racial progression things... good ideas (not that you didn't already know that).