Sil-Karg Revisited [Hackmaster]

This addresses a few things about sil-karg that annoyed me. First of all, the text in the PH indicates that they're great physical specimens ("Most human societies distrust them, but value the impressive physical skills of fully-grown specimens should they live that long."), but that translates to a +1 to Dexterity. When compared to the hobgoblin stats in the HoB, they're further anomalous, since those Hobgoblins have a bonus to Strength and no penalty to Charisma... arguably, given their stats, they even have a bonus to Charisma. It is also noted in the PH that many sil-kargs are able to pass for human, but how they might do this is never explicated. Here, I give them a chance of passing based on their base Looks, with human-raised sil-karg having a bit of an advantage (since they, after all, at least come from a human culture). I also translated the PH's percentage penalties into the modifiers from the GMG, based on the Racial Preferences table.

I also added a talent for half-humans and halflings who want to pretend to be human.



Half-Hobgoblins (Sil-Karg) at a Glance
Ability adjustments
+1 Strength
+1 Dexterity
-2 Looks

Human Reared Sil-Karg Pros
*Size medium for HP (i.e. 10 hp + Constitution + class roll)
*Low light vision
*One free purchase of the Listening skill
*Native Human Language
*Laborer proficiency
*Passing: Human-raised sil-karg might pass for human; based on their Looks after Step 5 of character creation, they have a 7% chance per point of Looks to pass as human in most circumstances. Subsequent changes to Looks (due to quirks and flaws, effects of criticals, or points spent to increase Looks at level up) do not affect this chance. It is rolled only once. If able to pass for human, they may do so with an Unskilled Disguise check.

Human Reared Sil-Karg Cons
*Sil-karg who cannot or will not pass for human have a terrible reputation. They receive a -8 reaction penalty from dwarves and gnome titans, a -10 reaction from pixie-faeries, and a -4 from almost everyone else (these are the penalties from Racial Preferences, as laid out in the PH and GMG). Only Grel and other sil-karg do not intensely dislike them. “Passing” sil-karg who are discovered must immediately reroll encounter reactions with this penalty.

Hobgoblin Reared Sil-Karg Pros
*Size medium for HP (i.e. 10 hp + Constitution + class roll)
*low light vision
*One free purchase of the Listening skill
*One free purchase of the Mining skill
*Laborer proficiency
*Hobgoblin-raised sil-karg might pass for human; based on their Looks after Step 5 of character creation, they have a 5% chance per point of Looks to pass as human in most circumstances. Subsequent changes to Looks (due to quirks and flaws, effects of criticals, or points spent to increase Looks at level up) do not affect this chance. It is rolled only once. If able to pass for human, they may do so with an Unskilled Disguise check.

Hobgoblin Reared Sil-Karg Cons
*Character’s native language is Hobgoblin - Kargi or Krangi as appropriate (must purchase any additional languages)
*Sil-karg who cannot or will not pass for human have a terrible reputation. They receive a -8 reaction penalty from dwarves and gnome titans, a -10 reaction from pixie-faeries, and a -4 from almost everyone else (these are the penalties from Racial Preferences, as laid out in the PH and GMG). Only Grel and other sil-karg do not intensely dislike them. “Passing” sil-karg who are discovered must immediately reroll encounter reactions with this penalty.

Preferential talent access
May purchase the following Talents at 50% BP cost
Fast Healer, Pain Tolerant, Poison Resistant, Resolute, Tough as Nails, Tough Hide

New Talent
Human-looking (20)
Prerequisite: Half-human, halfling
Regardless of the character’s Looks, they are able to pass as humans quite easily (halflings passing as human children). Noticing that they are not human requires a Difficult Observation or Scrutiny check by someone specifically looking at them, followed by an opposed check between that skill and the character’s Disguise.

Class Costs (regardless of upbringing)
Fighter: 20
Assassin: 35
Fighter/Thief: 35
Barbarian: 40
Cleric: 50
Fighter/Mage: 50
Ranger: 50
Rogue: 50
Thief: 50
Mage/Thief: 65
Mage: 75