New Animal Form - Vipers

[duane]

I played the rabbit form over Easter and liked it so much I thought I would try to make up a new animal for fun.

Overview

Animal Form : Vipers sssssss

Background
Mud-encrusted, Norbert was baking under the island sun after a particularly good mud bath. Several Animal Town issues on his mind were gone and he cared little to think about anything else. Norbert’s only distraction was Spot sleeping in the adjacent mud bath and snoring loudly at times.

A nearby bush rustled until an unfamiliar creature appeared. A viper was a rare visitor to the Sun Vale town. Beautiful green scales glistened from the tropical sun and alert, but cool golden eyes narrowed on the pig. Norbert found the constant distraction of the tongue sticking in and out a little unnerving, but this was an animal citizen. In fact, on close inspection by the pig this was an intelligent viper adorned with a medallion and hiding a recent battle wound.

“Hello there...?” Norbert raised his head and greeted the unfamiliar creature. Silence was the only response from the snake.

The viper remained quiet and guarded. Norbert offered his name, but the stranger reptile only returned silence. Norbert was on guard too but uncertain why. Never welcoming an uncomfortable silence, Norton huffed up, shook off some mud and provided a rundown of Animal Town protocols. The normally sullen pig felt enthusiastic about sharing information and tidbits about Sun Vale. After a few minutes Norbert punctuated his speech with a grunt and turned for a better view of the serpent stranger, but something was wrong.

Norbert called out. The viper did not move and offered even less of a response than before. Concerned, Norbert lurched forward from his resting location and trotted across the way to the bush. The viper offered no reaction to the approach and Norbert became more concerned the snake had expired. The viper’s eyes appeared clouded over if not absent.

With a cautious examination and a good poke with his hoof, Norbert discovered the viper was gone. Not dead, but really gone and leaving behind a recently moulted skin. During his elaborate introduction not only was the stranger rudely quiet but departed and did not provide the courtesy of cleaning up after its own body.

Norbert decided there was little left to do so he kicked the skin under the bush and returned to his mud bath.


Animal Form Mechanics and Equipment
No gloves and no pants for snakes! Foraging for wood and minerals is impossible too. The serpent is adept in nature and can usually pull an extra apple from trees and bushes.
Established elder snakes are known to wear an occasional ring or necklace especially if associated as magic users or companions. In rare occasions hats and makeup but it is often thought those snakes are shape shifters who have not completely abandoned their humanoid habits.

Travel
The snake sticks closer to the ground but still can use ladders and limited vertical surfaces to scale an object.
Snake movement is unfortunately slow. After level 10 the snake can ‘sprint’ but that is short term. Snakes at level 25 or greater can call upon an enchantment to sprout leather wings and glide a longer distance but still close to the ground.

Magical vipers
Creatures of nature the viper are adept at forests, deserts and the jungle. When in cold environments they are vulnerable to the cold unless protected. Some of the magical vipers will acquire protections from both good and evil magics.

Dancing and arts
Snakes oddly love to dance and can be seen charmed by music or with an accomplice bard charming an audience. Snakes are subjects of art, sculpture and lore throughout history.

Interactions
Scorpions, wolves, bats, spiders, vermin or the undead are fine with vipers and go as far to team with them as way finders in deserts and foreign jungles.
Pigs and Cows are tolerant but wary of vipers. These animals quickly become on guard with the larger serpents, especially when around the piglets and calves.
Birds and horses will have nothing to do with snakes. There is a long history of distrust with the creatures resulting in outright hostility.
Humanoid interactions with vipers range from avoidance to hostility as well. Humanoid shopkeepers will not interact unless disguised or earn their trust. Few humanoids are fanatical about their snakes and keep them as pets or weapons.

Skill Synergy
The viper would work with the following battle skills as a combination:
• Animal Handling, Ice Magic, Fire Magic, Mentalism, Necromancy, Priest, Psychology and Unarmed
The viper would NOT work with the following battle skills as a combination:
• Archery, Bard, Battle Chemistry, Hammer, Knife Fighting, Shield, Staff, Sword and any other beast forms
It is unknown if the viper would work with the following battle skills:
• Druid, Fairy Magic, Weather Witching and Warden

Religion
Serpents are born under the protection of Dreva but a subset of the species is thought to follow the god of secrets Zare. No one knows why.

Name	Level	Description	Effect	Type
Strike!	0	With lighting speed, you bite and release.	Piercing damage	Basic Attack
Bite and Hold	1	Your bite is more effective. You lunge, sink your fangs in and hold in place pulling at the wound. You pull away severely damaging local tissue.	Piercing/crushing damage	Core Attack
Bite of the fer-de lance.	2	Older serpents with matured poison glands deliver a devastating attack with damage over time after the bite.	piercing damage poison DOT for 10 seconds	Signature Debuff
Coiled Attack	3	From a coiled position you lunge hitting the target for knock back and short stun. Effective to disorient a target before performing additional attacks.	Crushing Knock back Taunt +	Nice Attack
Warmth of Caduceus	4	With concentration you perform a minor self healing. This action will allow you a moment to possibly live to fight another day.	Restore: 30	Power Cost: 20
Gorgon's Gaze	5	Fear. Your hiss or rattle your tail while gazing into the eyes of your target which causes psychic damage and your intended target weakens a little, if not pee their pants. Small damage to armor, and next strike does more damage.	psychic damage Armor damage	Next strike does 20% more damage
Sneaky	6	Snakes are sneaky. Evasion is easy from physical damage.	10% chance of evasion 25% projection from psychic damage
Moult	7	Tired? Battered? Need a change of pace? Leave your old skin behind. This ability heals you completely, but your armor and energy are lost until naturally regenerated. Ability also roots for 5 seconds 50% chance to gain snake scales in inventory.	100% health after 30 seconds	Recharge 10 minutes
TBD	8
Travel - Dart	9	Increase your movement dramatically for 5 seconds in one direction. Useful in the event you need to evade a situation or directly attack an enemy.	You gain 15 sprint speed for 5 seconds	Power Cost: 20
Stare Charm	10	Briefly fool a humanoid and convince them they are their species for 10 minutes. Consume a TBD item	Can be on sidebar
Strike!2	11
Bite and Hold2	12
Bite of the fer-de lance2	13
Coiled Attack2	14
PoisonSpray	15	As a fully matured (and pissed off) reptile you generate sufficient acidic poison that you can direct a discharge of the vile juices at up to 3 enemies in front of you. This is a horrible attack that melts armor and performs direct health damage too. Enemies are unable to call for help for 10 seconds even as they drip in this caustic mess. It is quite gross.	direct health damage armor damage poison and DOT for 10 seconds	Nice Attack
Gorgon's Gaze2	16
	18
	19
Cold Protection	20	You know snakes are cold blooded? You have no business in Kur Mountains, but you don’t listen. Cold protection reduces environmental effects and ice magic damage.	+10 Protection for 10 minutes
Travel - Dart2	21
Strike!3	22
Warmth of Caduceus2	23		Restore: 55	Power Cost: 30
Bite and Hold3	24
Shapeshift Travel - Glide	25	Snake travel is limited, but snakes are creative and call upon the gods to aid them in their time of need. Through TBD contact the wily serpent may obtain a skill to allow the snake to grow temporary wings and glide close to the ground for a few minutes.		Power Cost: 50 Consumes TBD item
Bite of the fer-de lance3	26
PoisonSpray2	27
Moult2	28
Gorgon's Gaze3	29
Strike!4	30
Bite and Hold4	31
Bite of the fer-de lance4	32
Coiled Attack4	33
PoisonSpray3	34
Warmth of Caduceus3	35		Restore: 72	Power Cost: 35
	36
	38
	39
Cold Protection2	40		+20 Protection for 10 minutes
Gorgon's Gaze4	41
Moult3	42
Strike!5	43
Travel - Dart3	44
Bite and Hold5	45
Bite of the fer-de lance5	47
PoisonSpray4	48
Warmth of Caduceus4	49		Restore: 90	Power Cost: 40
Strike!6	50
Trial of the Viper: Boa constrictor	51A	Eat a foe for health and energy. This is kind of gross, but the viper acquires the ability to rapidly eat a foe and regain 100% of everything. This power is available once every 15 minutes.	You may only select one of 51A, 51B or 51C. Choose wisely.
Trial of the Viper: Kiss of the Cobra	51B	Poison amplified All poison attacks from this viper are 200% effective for the following attack. This power is available once every 20 minutes.
Trail of the Viper: The anaconda	51C	Enhanced armor With a moment of concentration, the viper’s armor doubles for 10 minutes allowing the viper to become incredibly damage resistant and formidable. This power is available once every 30 minutes
Bite and Hold6	52
Gorgon's Gaze5	53
Bite of the fer-de lance6	54
Coiled Attack6	55

[ShieldBreaker]

Wow, really detailed post.

Some neat ideas in there. Kind feel like Norbert was uncharacteristically brave in the intro, pretty sure he would call Raul for backup, just to be safe.

[duane]

Thank you a bunch. I was feeling creative. Oh yeah, Raul should be in there!