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View Full Version : Need help deciding on what to use to balance homebrew Ronso race from Final Fantasy X



The-Marksman
2009-12-14, 09:33 PM
Ive created a homebrew Ronso race from the Final Fantasy X game. The Ronso are a large humanoid race of leonine looking creatures with a nearly 1 foot horn on their forehead and are known for their strong sense of honor and loyalty, and their pride and quickness to anger. Ronsos also are not very smart or educated and speak very poor and badly broken common. Like for example, in the game Kimahri is a Ronso who is a bodyguard to a summoner named Yuna. If Kimahri were trying to protect Yuna from another Ronso named Biran, his grammar might sound like: "Kimahri like Yuna, Biran leave Yuna alone." For those unfamiliar with the race, here is a picture of some Ronso.

http://i670.photobucket.com/albums/vv67/Golbez01/Ronso.jpg

The problem Im having is Im not sure how to balance them: if I should use an LA, or if I should use racial hit dice to balance them, and then once I decide which one, how much of that one to use?

They are extremely similar to Goliaths from Races of Stone, but have MUCH more than Goliaths who are LA +1, but Im not sure they justify an LA +2. Not only that but with custom rules all over for removing LA, LA isnt as strong of a balancer as Racial HD.

One idea given to me was to have them have 1 racial hit die and +0 LA, but since 1 racial hit die is replaced when you gain 1 character level, the idea given to me was to include a custom rule that unlike standard racial HD, this racial HD cannot be substituted by class levels in any fashion or replaced. Which I like, but Im not all that experienced, so I dont know that that idea will balance it suffiently.

Any opinions in favor of, or against any of the ideas laid out here would be appreciated and Im open to other ideas for balancing as well. Although Im not really here to debate racial features I am open to hearing other peoples opinions or ideas for the Ronso. When this is complete, Im going to be posting it on http://dungeons.wikia.com/wiki/Dungeons_and_Dragons_Wiki

Heres what I have so far:


Ronso

+2 Strength, +2 Dexterity, +2 Constitution, -2 Intelligence, -2 Charisma: Ronsos are very big, strong and agile, but are quick to anger and are gruff and reserved. They live a very tribal, almost Neanderthal lifestyle that lacks thorough and formal educations. causing all Ronso to speak broken common and refer to themselves in the third person.

Monsterous Humanoid: As monsterous humanoids ronsos are proficient with all simple weapons, but they have no proficiency with any armor or shields.

Medium: As a medium creature a Ronso takes no penalty to attack rolls or AC.

Ronso have a land base speed of 30 feet.

Low light vision: Ronso can see three times as far as a humans in starlight, moonlight, torchlight or other similar conditions of poor illumination. They retain the ability to distinguish color at these distances.

Darkvision: Ronsos can see in the dark upto 60 feet. Darkvision is black and white only, but is otherwise like normal sight, and ronsos can function just fine with no light at all.

Powerful build: The physical stature of a Ronso lets him function in many ways as though he were one size larger. Whenever a Ronso is subject to a size modifier or special size modifier for an opposed checks (such as a grapple checks, bullrush attempts or trip attempts) the Ronso is treated as one size larger if doing so is advantageous to him. A Ronso is also considered one size larger when determining whether a creatures special attacks based on size (such as improved grab or swallow whole) can affect him. A Ronso can use weapons designed for a creature one size larger without penalty. However his space and reach remain that of a creature his actual size. The benefit of this racial trait stacks with the effects of powers, abilities and spells that change the subject’s size category.

Mountain Movement: Because ronso practically live on the ledges and cliffs of the most forbidding mountains, they are practically adept at negotiating mountain hazzards.Ronso can make standing long jumps and high jumps as tho they were running long jumps and high jumps.A ronso can engage in accelerated climbing (climbing half his speed as a move action) without taking the -5 penalty on climb checks.

Acclimated: Ronsos are automatically acclimated to life at high altitude. They don’t take the penalties for altitude described in the Mountain Travel section on page 90 of the Dungeon Master's Guide. Unlike other denizens of the mountains, Ronso do not lose their acclimation to high altitude even if they spend a long time at a lower elevation.

Natural Weapons: Bite (1d6), Gore (1d6)

Special Qualities: Scent

+4 racial bonus on Move Silently checks. All Ronso walk on the tippy toes of their padded feet, which softens their footsteps while they walk.

+2 racial bonus on jump and climb checks. Growing up on the mountains, Ronsos find themselves constantly jumping and climbing over obstacles and are racially adept at doing so.

+2 racial bonus on listen and spot checks. Ronso have very keen senses and are more aware than some other races.

+2 natural armor bonus, all ronso have a tough hide and thick fur covering their bodies.

Automatic languages: Common. Bonus Languages: Giant, Dwarven, Gol-Kaa, Feline, Gnoll, Terran, Orc.

Favored class: Barbarian. A multiclass Ronsos Barbarian levels do not count when determining whether he takes an experience point penalty. The tribal life of the Ronso produces many Barbarians.

Level adjustment: +? Help here please

Temotei
2009-12-14, 09:37 PM
Or you could just look at FFX-d20 by Zeta Kai. The ronsos are included within. I think their statistics are:
+4 Str, -2 Int, -2 Cha
Large size
Gore attack (I know I'm missing another natural attack...)
+1 LA

Maybe some other things. I'm being far too lazy right now to look it up. Seriously though, look for Zeta Kai and find the FFX-d20 PDF.

EDIT: Here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=4276133#post4276133).

erikun
2009-12-14, 09:47 PM
I don't mean to sound overly harsh, but virtually every "big strong brute" race has a penality to Intelligence and Charisma. I can't help but wonder how everything over 7 feet tall ends up being stupid and antisocial.

Not really a critique or anything, just a pet peeve. I have heard good things about Zeta Kai's project, though, and would recommend checking it out. (link in post above)

Temotei
2009-12-14, 10:05 PM
I don't mean to sound overly harsh, but virtually every "big strong brute" race has a penality to Intelligence and Charisma. I can't help but wonder how everything over 7 feet tall ends up being stupid and antisocial.

Not really a critique or anything, just a pet peeve. I have heard good things about Zeta Kai's project, though, and would recommend checking it out. (link in post above)

It's not our fault the ronso are idiots by our standards. :smalltongue:

The Tygre
2009-12-14, 10:13 PM
A primeval memory of Neanderthals, maybe? It's always been like that, even to the Babylonians. Giants were usually depicted as stupid and brash. It's the giants that have changed, not the storytellers.

lesser_minion
2009-12-14, 10:45 PM
I don't mean to sound overly harsh, but virtually every "big strong brute" race has a penality to Intelligence and Charisma. I can't help but wonder how everything over 7 feet tall ends up being stupid and antisocial.

Not really a critique or anything, just a pet peeve. I have heard good things about Zeta Kai's project, though, and would recommend checking it out. (link in post above)

Heh. The only person I've known who is over seven feet tall happened to be very popular. I lost touch with him after he started a course at a relatively prestigious university.

In this case, I think it's how the Ronso are depicted in the game, however.

Zeta Kai
2009-12-15, 12:32 AM
Well, the Ronso (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=4276133#post4276133) are invariably depicted in the game as strong (Str), agile (Dex), hardy (Con), & wise (Wis). The only stats that they could plausibly consider a dump are Intelligence & Charisma, which are both fitting. Taking the three Ronso that you have in that image above, we have:

Yenke Ronso, an aggressive sociopath who bullies everyone in sight & would kick in a door even if he had the key.
Kimahri Ronso, a silent protector with a personality so reserved that the main character is shocked to hear him speak 1/3rd of the way through the plot.
Biran Ronso, a callous moron whose dialogue is primarily repeating any insult that Yenke yells loudly enough.

+4 Str, -2 Int, -2 Cha? Yeah, I'll stand by my assessment. I think that I did a decent job of emulating the class without over-crunching them.

Check out the free PDF (http://www.filefront.com/14133637/FFX-D20-v1.1.pdf/). I hope that you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

The-Marksman
2009-12-15, 01:43 AM
I think you did an amazing job with the entire conversion. I think thats another view point of the Ronso, but I just feel that my version is more accurate, especially with the Mountain movement and acclimated traits. None of the Ronso appear to be over 8 feet tall, most of them appear to be in the 6'5" - 7'2" range, which is still a medium creature, hense the powerful build ability as opposed to being a large creature which would be 8' -16' feet tall for a large creature according to the monster manual.

In the monster manual, under the glossery heading of Monsterous Humanoid, it states that unless otherwise stated in the creatures description, that monsterous humanoids have darkvision 60 feet, and most cat-like beings can see better than humans in low light so hense low light vision. All big cats have pads on the bottom of their feet and wouldnt make as much noise as You dont take into account their innate jumping ability, and their enhanced agility, your PDF says -2 Dex. The Ronso dont seem to have a strong educational system and speak horribly broken common, which I attribute to having a tribal life and low intelligence. None of the ronso in the game are depicted as smart or great thinkers. I feel this fact justifies the logic of a penalty to intelligence. Most big cats such as tigers and lions have the scent ability and Ronsos are built very similarly to those animals, so it is within the realm of possibility that they have similarly constructed noses. In the monster manual, the list of natural armor bonuses is +1 - +3 for tough skin or thick fur, and Lions get +3 natural armor, and they dont even have as much fur as Ronsos. So I feel a +2 is perfectly justifiable, and makes them all that much better as warriors. I make so many references to animals and the monster manual, because the very deffinition of monsterous humanoid is a humanoid with animalistic features. Which the Ronso obviously have.

Again, the issue Im bringing before everyone isnt about the mechanics that Ive laid out, I just need help deciding what LA, or racial hit dice balances the abilities out lined above. In my first post, I say which things I have concidered and would like the major topic of conversation to be about the balance given the racial abilities already outlined. I appreciate everyone commenting so quickly and I look foward to hearing more from each of you.

Temotei
2009-12-15, 01:48 AM
Okay...it's monstrous humanoid. That's been bothering me for a while. Monstrous.

The-Marksman
2009-12-15, 08:22 AM
Sorry about the spelling, havnt been running on a whole lot of sleep lately. Reguardless, the main point of the topic has yet to be addressed.

What do you guys feel is a good balance for the racial statistics described?