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View Full Version : Two Questions About Races [3.5]



UserShadow7989
2010-06-02, 03:18 PM
I'm very inexperienced with D&D as a whole, beyond what I've learned from lurking around these boards. I've hardly played myself, but I love to watch others play, and love to home brew. I want to homebrew some races, but I don't know what races I should be balancing against and what to avoid (I know Half-Elves and Half-Orcs are week, but beyond that I'm clueless).

Of the core races, which ones are weak/strong/balanced, and why?

Siosilvar
2010-06-02, 03:42 PM
In my opinion and in-core, the good races are:

Dwarf (spells and poison are the two most common saves you'll make. 20ft base speed does bite a bit but isn't that hard to get around. Constitution is always good and Charisma is usually dumped anyway.)

and

Human (bonus feats FTW!).

Elves are a little on the low side (Constitution penalties hurt, and weapon proficiencies and auto-search are dependent upon actually using them).

Halflings are rather good unless used as a primary melee fighter. The saving throw bonus is applicable in 9 out of 10 situations you're in, though the Strength penalty only compounds the problems of being Small sized.

Gnomes are probably right around the "average" LA+0, though having all of those situational bonuses is annoying, but the spell-likes are effective if you use them right. Again, they're Small sized and have a Strength penalty, which is annoying until carry capacity is not limited by your Strength.


Going into monstrous races,

Orcs are situational. Not necessarily a bad thing, but keep in mind that a race should be at least decent no matter what you do with them. Shoehorning a player into one set of classes because they picked this race over that one isn't a particularly enticing thing to do.

Goblins have practically nothing interesting about them to invite a player.

Hobgoblins are probably not worth LA+1, but are on the strong side of LA+0, if only for the bonuses to ability scores without any penalties whatsoever.