Character 6: Thunderball Rally

So yeah, just to show what I was talking about last post, this character is going to be an Orangutan.

Yep, you read that correctly. An orangutan who can drive no less.

Welcome to Thunderball rally, the game that lets you play a team of drivers racing across the U.S for a fat stack of cash. Also, in case I haven't mentioned it already, you can play an Orangutan.

Thunderball rally appears in Polyhedron #152. It's a game written for those who loved Dukes of Hazzard, Cannonball Run, Every Which Way but Loose and Smokey and the Bandit. Also, like a few other Polyhedron mingames at the time, it served as a preview for part of the upcoming D20 modern ruleset, in this case vehicle combat rules.

It's a fun little game that's about fast cars, fast talking and mayhem in 1970s America. Great for a short campaign.

Now, about my character. Rules for playing an orangutan didn't actually appear until Polyhedron #153. I'm sort of cheating here since they're the equivalent of 4th level characters, rather than starting characters, which =is what I've been doing. But c'mon, orangutans.

Here are my stat rolls:
14, 10, 17, 10, 14, 8

Now, orangutans get some pretty sweet skill bonuses and some penalties, so everything will balance out here. Here's his completed stats:

Manny
Orangutan (no levels)
Hit Points: 30
Initiative: +2
Speed: 30ft
Defense: 12
Reputation: +0
Wealth: n/a
Attacks: +8 melee (1d6+7, claws), or +8/+3 (1d6+5 claws, 1d6+5 bite)
Saves: Fort+6, Ref +6, Wil+1
Abilities: Str 21 Dex 14 Con 14 Int 12 Wis 10 Cha 10
Skills: Climb +10 Listen +5 Spot +5
Feats: none
Class abilities: scent, low light vision


Unfortunately they decided that orangutans don't get stuff like wealth and don't start getting things like skill points, feats or ability score increases until they gain actual class levels, which made building Manny here fairly dull. I positioned the ability scores so that he's fairly well rounded, with a natural bias towards strength and physical stuff, as Orangutans aren't allowed to use some of the more cerebral skills.

The one area where Manny excels at this point is combat, thanks to his awesome strength score. Seriously, annoy this primate and he'll probably rip your face off with his 1d6+7 points of damage per turn.