The Chocobo Project (3.5e Sourcebook)

=The Chocobo Project=

This production of mine is to convert the wonderful creatures from the Final Fantasy world into a playable and balanced Dungeons and Dragons format. There are fifty-five main chobos currently, consisting of eleven colors&mdash;Yellow, Red, Dark Blue, Purple, Brown, Green, Light Blue, Black, White, Gold, and Gray&mdash;and five different qualities&mdash;Poor, Normal, Good, Great, and Wonderful. For players of Final Fantasy VII, the wonderful, great, and good qualities are equivalent, while normal is equivalent to "poor", and poor is equivalent to "bad". Summary::Chocobos can be bred, raised, and raced; they can be used as war mounts, traveling mounts, and pack animals; chocobos can even be played as characters in what I like to call "Chocopaigns".

What does it all mean?
Chocobos can be confusing for many who have not encountered the realms of Final Fantasy. Chocobo are large fowl: taller than a horse but with only two legs, vestigial wings, a large, hard beak, and scaly talons; Many relate them to chickens.

Chocobos are fiercely protective of themselves and their flock, especially their young. Chocobos lay eggs which hatch into Chocolets (not to be mistaken for "Chocolates"). Chocobos are intelligent and strong, usually replacing the function of horses in a world. In fact, chocobos are bred, raised, raced, and mounted very similarly to horses; the key difference is that chocobos are fowl; they are feathery athletes with an amazing ability to sprint, jump, and climb. Their wings make their balance when moving exceptional and sure.

What kind of chocobos are there?
Chocobos come in many varieties, usually by color but also by quality. Poor, Normal, Good, Great, and Wonderful chocobos seem self-explanatory, describing the overall intelligence, stamina, and speed of a chocobo. Their color belies their abilities and natures.

Yellow chocobos are the simplest and most common of all chocobos. Red, dark blue, pruple, and brown chocobos have a slight elemental affinity (in FF VII, such colors were only present as owned by other jockeys in races) and are uncommon in the video games.

Green and light blue chocobos are known as also known as mountain chocobos and river chocobos, respectively, for their abilities to travel easily over those types of terrain. Black chocobos are the result of breeding green and light blue chocobos together, yielding a mountain and river chocobo, capable of traveling over both; black chocobo are often powerful allies and capable defenders of their flocks. A similarly able chocobo, the white chocobo, can travel over the same terrain, but are associated with keen magical ability and healing.

Gold chocobos are renowned as the best, capable of traveling over mountain, plain, river, and even oceans. They are the true masters of terrain. Gray chocobos are a sort of invention of mine, being a slightly less powerful version of gold chocobos.

Chocobos are found in the wild, but can also be bred, usually starting with a yellow chocobo. From there red, dark blue, light blue, purple, brown, and green chocobos can be bred. Green and light blue chocobos can breed to make a black or white chocobo, and golden or gray chocobos are bred from black and white chocobos.

There is another type of chocobo that doesn't have poor, good, great, or wonderful versions. It is a type of chocobo specifically created by me to replace horses at low levels: The Riding Chocobo.

What do you do with chocobos?
The most exceptional of chocobos are raced for profit, with rankings based on the number of wins the chocobo has. Rankings begin with Rank C and proceed to Rank B, then Rank A, and eventually Rank S.

Chocobos are also used as war mounts. They are treated similarly to horses, usuable by trained riders and available as powerful paladin mounts.

Chocobos are also traveling mounts and pack animals for the adventuring group.

Chocobos as Monsters
Chocobos are most commonly encountered as either mounts or monsters; sometimes chocobos encountered as monsters become mounts. However chocobos are encountered, there are always wild and feral chocobos with spirit and determination. Some groups may get into a fight with a chocobo, whatever the circumstances of chocobos in the world. Following are links to the individual monster statistics for each color and quality of chocobo.

Chocobos as Mounts
Chocobos are powerful mounts and capable companions. They are steadfast war mounts and strong pack animals; resourceful in many situations, they are the best mounts&mdash;better than horses or mules.

Buying a chocobo is an expensive investment, but can be well worth the expenditure. Having a sturdy and self-defending pack animal or a steadfast and strong war mount can be invaluable.

The variant rule for chocobo mounts can be found here.

Chocobos as Paladin Mounts
Included in the variant rule are levels needed to acquire a chocobo as a paladin mount of each color and quality. A riding chocobo can be obtained similarly to a horse.

Gear for Chocobos Mounts
Also included in the variant rule is a table of the relevant equipment and costs for keeping a chocobo as a mount. Chocobos are expensive creatures to buy and keep, but are well worth the gold.

Chocobos as Characters
While it is unorthodox, chocobos can be played as characters. To do so, the world should be populated by sentient chocobos primarily, sentient chocobos should be commonplace, or the character should be an awakened chocobo. For more specific rules and details on having chocobos as characters, see the variant rule about it, here.

Chocobo Race
There is only one chocobo race, rather than having a unique race for each color. The character begins as a drab-colored chocobo and later develops its unique color after gaining levels by incorporating a variant rule (scaling races) made by Lord Dhazriel.

The chocobo race can be found here.

Chocobo Base Classes
Chocobos are not like normal character in that they cannot take levels in normal base classes or prestige classes. Instead, they have their own specialized base and prestige classes. There are five base classes: the Choco-Mage, the Choco-Priest, the Choco-Thief, the Choco-Warrior, and the Psy-Cobo (3.5e Class).

Choco-Mages are chocobos who dabble in and attempt to master the arcane arts. Besides the regular spellcasting capabilities you might expect, they can also cast things like ChocoBall and other abilities linked to their color of choice.

Choco-Priests are chocobos who revere nature and draw from it divine power. Some of them are evil, but most are good and helpful. They protect chocobo kind with their abilities, especially the Hallow Forest ability.

Choco-Thieves are sneaky chocobos with a penchant for the seedy. They are skillful and dextrous, and just as capable as a humanoid rogue.

Choco-Warriors are powerful physical combatants and adversaries not to be trifled with. They make use of the chocobo's ability to jump and run in their attacks.

Psy-Cobos, while weaker in power due to their detriment to intelligence, are capable of great things through their psionic powers.

Chocobo Prestige Classes
Like base classes, chocobos have prestige classes all their own: the Archwark, the Chocobo of War, the Choco-Burglar, the Chocomancer, the Choco-Phant, the Chocobo Runner, the Choco-Ssassin, the Choco-Thug, the Divine Wark, the Shadow Chocobo, and the Warkserker.

~ATTENTION~: The Prestige Classes with their names in red have not been made yet, and so the links do not work.

Chocobo Character Equipment
Chocobos have some unique equipment, but much of it is similar to that used by regular characters.

Chocobos have their own weapons, which can be found listed here. They use barding, but their armor is less expensive than regular barding, due to the expected ubiquity of chocobos in a setting that has them as characters. Their armor is listed, along with AC bonuses, armor check penalty, arcane spell failure chance, speed, and weight, here.

Chocobo equipment is very similer to regular characters, using much of the same items changes to the list of equipment for chocobos can be found here.

To Do
Thankfully, this project is basically complete and functional. The only things that remain to be done are not necessary to the function of this project, but would be nice if completed.


 * Make Prestige Classes for chocobo characters.
 * Make more weapons and other miscellaneous equipment for chocobos.
 * Make some chocobo-themed spells.
 * Make Cyberchocobos.