Charisma-based race (D&D 3.5)

[Tanaar]

Perhaps it's just the munchkin or power gamer part of me, but I greatly prefer to choose a race that has a natural bonus to my primary stat, or at least one that's significantly important. I justify this by rationalizing that hey, those races have those bonuses because they really are more adept at this class, and more likely to be it. For example, a half-orc or dwarven fighter, elf archer, grey elf wizard, halfling or tiefling rogue, aasimar paladin or cleric. Makes sense, right? The problem I'm having is with Charisma-based classes. I've wanted to run a Dread Necromancer (Heroes of Horror) for a couple years now, but in thee rare circumstance where it might be allowed, I can never decide on a race. There appears to be a total lack of Charisma bonuses out there. Drow is the closest you come, but they're LA +2, and are themselves hard to justify in a campaign.

So here's the question. Does anyone know of a race with Level Adjustment of +0 or +1 that has a Charisma bonus?

[Yukitsu]

Catfolk has +4 dex, +2 charisma for LA1. A star elf has +2 charisma for 0 level adjustment.

[Stormageddon]

Aasimar LA 1 - +2 cha

[Jera]

Melphings(planar pg 10) have +2 cha and some other bonuses depending on the type for +1 la

[Zemro]

Spellscales in Races of the Dragon have +2 Charisma, -2 Constitution for their stats at +0 LA.

They also gain a selection of rituals to use to empower themselves.

[Harperfan7]

There was a race in the fiend folio, feytouched I think, that again, I think had a bonus to charisma with either LA+0 or LA+1.

But that begs the question, would you really play a feytouched necromancer?

[monty]

I think the lesser aasimar still gets a Cha bonus, and it's LA 0.

[Dixieboy]

There was a race in the fiend folio, feytouched I think, that again, I think had a bonus to charisma with either LA+0 or LA+1.

But that begs the question, would you really play a feytouched necromancer?

*rolls character*

Imma do a pixie Necromancer now >.> Thanks for the idea.

[amanamana]

http://wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/sp/20040213a

Behold the link!

[CthulhuM]

Or this (http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?p=10002276) link. It's a list of every LA0 race in the game, complete with stat adjustments for each. If you're looking for your ideal sorcerer race, it's in there somewhere.

[Tanaar]

But that begs the question, would you really play a feytouched necromancer?

Exactly. Apologies, perhaps I wasn't clear. There's a couple of races that are obvious, such as Aasimar or drow. The problem with them is that they either don't make any sense (aasimar), or have a LA higher than 1 (drow), or are hard to get a DM to approve (drow and other exotic races).

Feytouched, catfolk, star elf, and melphings. Will keep them in mind.

And pixies have at least a +4 LA! The whole idea is to get a CHA bonus, but avoid losing levels. For a martial class, trading class levels for racial abilities is often beneficial, but it is of limited use to a primary spellcaster.

[Xyk]

Spellscales in Races of the Dragon have +2 Charisma, -2 Constitution for their stats at +0 LA.

They also gain a selection of rituals to use to empower themselves.

Do that. My spellscale sorcerer kicked ass.

[Lys]

If the Dragon Magazine are legal, then there is a race called DeathTouched in the Dragon #313.
DeathTouched trace their ancestry to an undead being, or half undead.

LA +1
+4 Cha, +2 Wis and -2 Con
+2 intimidate and move silently
Resist 5 cold and electricity, darkvision 60ft and chill touch 1/day.

I'm currently playing a Death Touched Dread Necromancer in a campaign, quite fun :)

[AmberVael]

If you follow CthulhuM's link, you'll find the Hellbred race. It's fairly interesting- no LA, +2 cha and -2 con, along with some other bonuses.

[Darrin]

In addition to Spellscales and Hellbred, there are Star Elves (+2 Cha, -2 Con). Although they're in a FR-specific book (Unapproachable East), they are extraplanar, and could reasonably be encountered on some other non-FR plane.

There's also the Magic-Blooded template from Dragon #306. It can be added to any base race for +2 Cha, -2 Wis (including Star Elves, Spellscales, or Hellbred for +4 Cha) and has a +0 LA.

Oh, there's also a Venerable Dragonwrought Earth Kobold, which I think has the stats: -2 Str, -2 Con, +3 Int, +3 Wis, +3 Cha. It costs a feat, but add Magic-Blooded and you could start with a +5 Cha bonus.

[AB]

I´ve played a lesser Aasimar Dread Necro which quite kicked ass. Lesser A. is in the Players Guide to Faerun, and, honestly, as a GM, I wouldn`t allow it ;) but a a player, it`s quite funny.

[Michaelos]

I remember adding 3 Human Variants to my campaign world because I wanted races with bonuses to mental modifiers to be available and I was unaware of existing ones. They did not have the default human bonus of +1 Skill point per level, but they did have these adjustments:

Michaelian:+2 Int, -2 Wis
Mountain Human: +2 Wis, -2 Cha
Darktonian: +2 Cha, -2 Int

Since they're human variants, they might fit into some campaigns better, so feel free to suggest em if your DM doesn't have any idea how to explain star elves.

[Dixieboy]

If you follow CthulhuM's link, you'll find the Hellbred race. It's fairly interesting- no LA, +2 cha and -2 con, along with some other bonuses.

Though they also have another variant :O

But yea, Hellbred kinda have to be good guys from what i understand, doesn't seem that necromancy to me.

[Bugbeartrap]

Or a Half-giant (XPH) with the primordial giant template (Secrets of Xendrik) for a -2 Dex, +4 Int, +4 to Cha. Might even be a +2 Con I think... Plus a slew of other abilities, including casting all Spell like abilities at +1 caster level. Is charnel touch Spell like?

[Chronos]

But yea, Hellbred kinda have to be good guys from what i understand, doesn't seem that necromancy to me.Hellbred start off as good, when they're sent back from the Lower Planes, but they can and often do backslide. The example Hellfire Warlock character, for instance, is an evil Hellbred.

[monty]

But yea, Hellbred kinda have to be good guys from what i understand, doesn't seem that necromancy to me.

Nothing has to be anything. The fluff of your character is ultimately up to you, unless your DM is a jerk who won't let you change a single detail from the books.

[Tanaar]

Thank you all for the advice, I'll see what I can do with the suggestions you've given me. If all else fails...drow's still an option. And the DM of the game I want to apply to is doing something nifty with level adjustments. He's just raising the experience needed to advance levels by a bit, not outright denying them.

[Bayar]

Oh, there's also a Venerable Dragonwrought Earth Kobold, which I think has the stats: -2 Str, -2 Con, +3 Int, +3 Wis, +3 Cha. It costs a feat, but add Magic-Blooded and you could start with a +5 Cha bonus.

Nonono, you do not use a kobold with a penalty to CON. Take the one with penalty to INT or WIS (whichever stat you dump with your char). STR is not all that important. Heck, a kobold barbarian would enjoy more a non-penalised CON than a -2 STR.

[BlueWizard]

Star Elf? Sounds the best to me.

[Narmoth]

Hm... a half fey warlock would be an interesting concept. Take the LA+1, and I get an insane Cha-boost.:smallamused:

[Glimbur]

The Gloura is interesting, but lots of racial hit dice. It's really only practical for a bard going into Sublime Chord... but for that it's quite nice. You'll hurt for music uses, but that's about it. Cha to AC and saves.

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ex/20031003e

[Darrin]

Nonono, you do not use a kobold with a penalty to CON. Take the one with penalty to INT or WIS (whichever stat you dump with your char). STR is not all that important. Heck, a kobold barbarian would enjoy more a non-penalised CON than a -2 STR.

The only two Kobold variants that don't have a -2 Con are Desert Kobolds (-2 Wis instead) or Jungle Kobolds (-2 to Int instead). You could also add Dragonborn of Bahumat for +2 Con, -2 Dex, although you lose all your other racial abilities.