variant races for a homebrew campaign world [peach]

[armouredbear]

i was wondering if folks might have time to take a look at some variant races i have made up for a homebrew game i am working up. what i'm interested in hearing is whether you think these are balanced. i've modified many of the base races with world specific traits, but am worried that they will be overwhelming. any specific questions i've put in italics. thanks in advance!

[armouredbear]

In the campaign, mountain dwarves have all the dwarf traits listed on page 13 of the Player’s Handbook with the following exception:

* mountain dwarves receive a +1 racial bonus to all attack rolls against Aberrations and a +4 dodge bonus against Aberrations due to the training they undergo fighting the bizarre horrors that are common in the underground caverns in which they make their homes. This replaces both the +1 racial bonus v. orcs and goblinoids and the +4 dodge bonus v. creatures of the Giant type

The Legionary dwarves, as descendants of the notorious dwarven legions of the xxxxx, still practice the martial rigor of their ancestors, and are uniquely adaptable to any combat situation.

* Legionary dwarves receive a +1 racial bonus to all attack rolls. They do not receive a dodge bonus. In all other ways, they conform to the description of dwarves in the Player’s Handbook.

[armouredbear]

In the campaign, elves conform to the description given in the Player’s Handbook, with the following exception:

+2 dexterity, +2 intelligence, -2 charisma. Elves are possessed of minds as keen as their reflexes, but have a bad reputation for their brusqueness and elitism. In addition, Bluff, Diplomacy, Gather Information and Perform are always counted as cross-class skills for elves when dealing with non-elves (divide ranks in half, rounding down).

Half-elves retain all the abilities listed in the Player’s Handbook with the following exception:

Because of their association with the elves, half-elves do not receive a +2 bonus to Diplomacy and Gather Information checks. Rather, half-elves take a -2 circumstance penalty to all Bluff, Diplomacy, Gather Information and Perform checks, since they are mistrusted by both elves and non-elves. However, this has forced half-elves to become more adaptable because of their outcast status, and thus half-elves receive +1 skill point every even skill level (2nd, 4th, &c.).

are these penalties too severe? elves in this world are slavers and exceed the stereotypical elf "aloofness" by about an order of magnitude.

[armouredbear]

Possessed (warforged bodies that have been possessed by the mind of another living creature)

Possessed also have the same traits and abilities as forged with the following exceptions:

* Mental Transfer: When creating a possessed character, roll mental attributes (Int, Wis, and Cha) as per the original race of the creature (usually a Koshan human – in which case this consideration is unneccessary – but there are non-human possessed) including all standard racial modifiers. Unlike with forged, possessed do not suffer the -2 wis modifier, but do take a -2 charisma penalty as their mind becomes distant and cold after the procedure.
* Coldly Calculating: Possessed also receive a permanent +2 circumstance bonus to all Int-based skill checks, and a -2 penalty to Cha-based skill checks.
* Mental Instability: Possessed have a tenuous grasp on their own sanity. A possessed begins play with a maximum sanity point total equal to wis x5. When a character encounters a gruesome, unnatural, or supernatural situation, the DM may require the player to make a Sanity check using percentile dice (d%). The check succeeds if the result is equal to or less than the character’s current Sanity. Possessed are also subject to sanity loss for casting arcane spells equal to the spell’s level (for instance, a casting fireball, a third-level spell, will cause 3 sanity damage, while teleport, a fifth-level spell, will cause 5, and so on). Sanity damage may cause the possessed to go insane temporarily, or even permanently. See “Types of Insanity” on p. 199 of Unearthed Arcana for more information. For this reason, there are few possessed sorcerers and wizards. Finally, for every 10 years of a possessed’s life, the their maximum sanity decreases by 1.
* Automatic and Bonus Languages: As base creature.
* Favored Class: As base creature.

i'm not sure that this is really a player race - but regardless, are the sanity problems too severe for this to work if someone wanted to? if so, what would you counter it with?

[armouredbear]

* Northern (wolf) Gnoll: Strength +4, Constitution +2, Intelligence –2, Charisma –2.
* Southern (coyote) Gnoll: Constitution +2, Intelligence -2, Wisdom +2, Charisma +2.
* Size Medium.
* Natural Armor +1
* A gnoll’s base land speed is 30 feet.
* Darkvision out to 60 feet.
* Automatic Languages: Gnoll. Bonus Languages: Common, Draconic, Elven, Goblin, Orc.
* Favored Class: Ranger.
* Level adjustment +1.

The "northern gnoll" is as per the MMI. the southern is just an ability variant. still +1 level adjustment?

[armouredbear]

Gnomes differ somewhat from the rock gnome from the Player’s Handbook

* -2 Strength, +2 Constitution
* Small size. +1 bonus to Armor Class, +1 bonus on attack rolls, +4 bonus on Hide checks, –4 penalty on grapple checks, lifting and carrying limits 3/4 those of Medium characters.
* A gnome’s base land speed is 20 feet.
* Low-light vision.
* Weapon Familiarity: Gnomes may treat gnome hooked hammers (see Chapter 7 of the Player’s Handbook) as martial weapons rather than exotic weapons.
* Add +1 caster level to all magic items and artificer items crafted by gnomes
* +4 dodge bonus to Armor Class against creatures of the giant type (such as ogres, trolls, and hill giants).
* +2 racial bonus on all Craft checks.
* Spell Resistance 11 + class levels. As a result of their constant exposure to often dangerous magic, gnomes have evolved to be resistant to magic.
* Automatic Languages: Common, Gnome. Bonus Languages: Draconic, Dwarven, Elven, Giant, Goblin, Orc.
* Spell-Like Abilities: A gnome with a Charisma score of at least 10 also has the following spell-like abilities: 1/day — unseen servant and mending. Caster level 1st; save DC 10 + gnome’s Cha modifier + spell level.
* Favored Class: artificer.
* Level adjustment: +1

too crafting specific? level adjustment too low?

[armouredbear]

ok, that's it for now - let me know what you think!

[Xefas]

* Legionary dwarves receive a +1 racial bonus to all attack rolls. They do not receive a dodge bonus. In all other ways, they conform to the description of dwarves in the Player’s Handbook.

I think I'd give them something like this instead:

"A Legionary Dwarf whose first class does not grant proficiency with martial weapons spends their time honing their skills with military arms, and gains proficiency with one martial weapon of their choice.

Otherwise, a Legionary Dwarf spends their time perfecting their mastery of a particular weapon, gaining Weapon Focus as a bonus feat with a martial weapon of their choice."



+2 dexterity, +2 intelligence, -2 charisma. Elves are possessed of minds as keen as their reflexes, but have a bad reputation for their brusqueness and elitism.

Why does their brusqueness and elitism make them worse at being Sorcerers? Charisma is not kindness or how much people like you.


In addition, Bluff, Diplomacy, Gather Information and Perform are always counted as cross-class skills for elves when dealing with non-elves (divide ranks in half, rounding down).

This is really something that should be handled by the DM in particular confrontations. What if they're interacting with a human who just happens to like elves? Or was raised by elves? Or is insane and thinks their an elf? Or what if the elf is disguised magically or otherwise? Or what if both of them are drunk off their rocker and social convention is out the window?

Or, heck, all non-elves? What about some demon thats never heard of an elf? or thinks their brand of tyranny is small stuff and is unimpressed? Cthulhu-esque old gods who could care less about mortal going-ons?

Same thing goes for the Half Elf penalties. Y'know, there is such a thing as a purely roleplaying penalty. D&D hates mixing roleplaying with mechanics, but there are plenty of systems where you can get an actual mechanical bonus for some kind of mannerism or social quirk that exists only in roleplaying. If you have players that are halfway into actually speaking instead of rolling dice for everything, you might think about adding something like that in instead of a flat mechanical penalty.

I haven't gotten to the other races, yet. Still reading.

[armouredbear]

Xefas, thanks for the input. you know, i was thinking the same thing for the elf interactions, but if standard d&d half-elves get a +2 bonus to diplomacy and gather info because "half-elves get along naturally with all people," then why not give a -2 penalty because everyone else hates them? racial interactions in d&d are always presented as monolithic, and circumstances within game often change that. but i figured i was going to start from the admittedly broken PoV that "this race is like this all the time." and yes, to be fair, this group i'm going to be playing with is a much more role-play-ey group, so i figure that mechanical penalties are worth less than role playing penalties. i tend to be a very mix-it-on-the-fly kind of dm, but i'm just giving some guidelines so people know what to expect.

i like the martial weapons idea for the dwarves. but in my game, orcs and goblinoids are not the bogeymen of regular d&d, so it didn't make sense to have the dwarves (and gnomes) with bonuses to fight these creatures. do you think it would overpower the race to have both the MWP and the to hit bonus?

[Xefas]

Well, Wizards of the Coast has never been consistent. With anything. Personally, I don't even use Half-Elves or Half-Orcs in my campaign setting. I might once I also get around to homebrewing Half-Dwarves, Half-Halflings, Half-Goblinoids (with choices for Goblin, Hobgoblin, and Bugbear ancestry), Half-Spellscales, Half-Kobolds, and Half-Lizardfolk. And even then, I'd probably make my own Half-Elf with choices for Drow, High, and Wood Elf ancestry.

And if I was going to do that, why not just overhaul all the races and make all of them more interesting and have more of an impact on the game beyond the first few levels where errant +2s are actually worth something.

It's a slippery slope.

Anyway, about the dwarves. Do I think they're "overpowered" in that they're straight up better compared to the standard Player's Handbook Dwarf? Yes.

Do I think they're "overpowered" in that they'll unbalance your game? No. Not by a long shot. A couple extra points of weapon damage being thrown around is not going to upset your game, even at the lower levels.

[armouredbear]

Well, Wizards of the Coast has never been consistent. With anything.

true dat. double true. case in point, dwarves and half-orcs both have a -2 cha because they are "gruff and reserved" and "crude" respectively, yet charisma is "not merely how one is perceived by others in a social setting." that said, i was going for the kind of perverse repellence of the elves of Melniboné, but not quite that gross and evil. i'm probably going to overhaul it to be a negative reaction mod when dealing with Human NPCs and go with the racial stats for the Grey Elf (+2 int, -2 con).


And if I was going to do that, why not just overhaul all the races and make all of them more interesting and have more of an impact on the game beyond the first few levels where errant +2s are actually worth something.

It's a slippery slope.

yeah, i agree - it's really all about local flavor. i'm just trying to stay consistent with the design ethic. as far as that will take me :smalltongue:


Anyway, about the dwarves. Do I think they're "overpowered" in that they're straight up better compared to the standard Player's Handbook Dwarf? Yes.

Do I think they're "overpowered" in that they'll unbalance your game? No. Not by a long shot. A couple extra points of weapon damage being thrown around is not going to upset your game, even at the lower levels.

i should have been clearer about that mod. it's supposed to be a +1 on all to hit rolls, not all attack rolls. and yeah, i guess a +1 to hit all the time is better than a +1 to hit some of the time and a +4 dodge even less of the time. thanks for the input. it's good to have another pair of lobes on this.