[Racial Template] Na'vi (Avatar)

[giganerds]

Originally Posted by Imperial

I think they have Catfall

Good point. This put more 10 points in the template.

[Bira]

The braid thing is simply a Neural Interface of the kind that's statted up in Ultra-tech. It's a natural, biological feature instead of an eletronic implant, but it works pretty much the same. It gives you a bonus to Ride animals that posses neural interfaces of their own, and allows you to access the planet's mind in the same way the implant version allows one to access computers. I would just charge points for the neural interface itself, rather than for Racial Memory or something like that. The latter is a feature of the campaign.

[SuedodeuS]

Just saw the movie last night - outstanding.
As a forewarning, this post contains spoilers.

Bow: The bows in the movie are highly cinematic, as realistically one pretty much can't have something that is both an effective staff and an effective bow at the same time. That said, I'd give the weapons the stats of a scaled-up quarterstaff and a composite bow. Although they are self-bows, I suspect the material used for them has composite properties (like yew). The bows are probably generally Fine (Balance) and Fine (Materials), and the bows hunters make following their coming-of-age ceremony are Fine (Balance) and Very Fine (Materials).
I would probably give the arrows an armor divisor based on material rather than construction - the arrowheads looked like they were made of something that would tear through armor readily.

Vehicle glass: The arrows appear capable of readily penetrating the glass on the mechs and smaller vertols reliably, so long as they are within 1/2D range (beyond this they just scuff it up a bit). The bullpup rifle the commander uses is good enough to reliably penetrate the glass on the smaller vertols (which appears to be about as thick as that on the mechs). The rifle is small IIRC, meaning maybe somewhere around 5d. This gives an upper limit of between 15 and 20 DR. The bow should have similar performance, meaning it needs a whopping 5d - of penetration. 2d+2 (2) for a composite bow firing Fine arrows requires ST 17-18. The Na'vi bowmen probably have Strongbow, Weapon Master (Bow), and Bow at DX+2 or higher, so in theory they could get away with ST 13-14 if you let Strongbow and WM stack, 15-16 if you do not (this is probably closer to their actual ST). I don't think they are ever shown bringing down any of the creatures the Na'vi sized firearms cannot (like the bull and panther like creatures). Their incredible strength in throwing people around could be an aspect of the world's low gravity (referenced only once, when the CO is lifting weights to stop himself from going soft).

Neural uplink: Everything on the planet has these. Interestingly, however, the Na'vi seem to be the only ones that have a single tentacle braid - everything else has two (except for plants, which have an uncountable number). Treating it as a UT neural interface seems appropriate to me.
As an aside, I was actually surprised there was never a link-up between two Na'vi. I was certain that would have been part of the mating ritual.

[Johan Larson]

Couldn't the Na'vi relationship be modeled with a Patron/Duty ad/disad pair with the Patron being Eywa? After all, the Na'vi do have minds of their own, and while Eywa can be asked for favours, they are not always granted.

[Þorkell]

I just have to ask. Why ST+10?

[Langy]

The Na'vi are twice the size of humans and probably considerably stronger. I doubt there's any specific reason why they chose +10 instead of +5 or so, though.

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by Langy

The Na'vi are twice the size of humans and probably considerably stronger. I doubt there's any specific reason why they chose +10 instead of +5 or so, though.

Well, they need huge ST to make those powerful bowshots.

[Phoenix_Dragon]

Originally Posted by Langy

The Na'vi are twice the size of humans and probably considerably stronger. I doubt there's any specific reason why they chose +10 instead of +5 or so, though.

The Na'vi are apparantly listed in some "official" material as being four times as strong as humans, which lines up perfectly with ST20. And they look to be at least that strong compared to the humans in the movie. They're certainly proportionally stronger than humans, and considering their size, and what they do in the movie, ST20 seems about right.

[Þorkell]

Originally Posted by Molokh

Well, they need huge ST to make those powerful bowshots.

Or kick-ass bows with super arrows.

[Phoenix_Dragon]

Originally Posted by Þorkell

Or kick-ass bows with super arrows.

Hmm... Considering the reinforced bones (What did they say, a sort-of natural carbon-fiber?), the materials they're making the bows and arrowheads out of might be significantly better than what similar-TL humans would have used. The effects for the arrowheads alone could be vicious.

Just in case shooting people with javelins isn't bad enough already. Oh yeah, neurotoxin-treated javelins. Those were some vicious arrows.