race creation

[Chaos018]

is there a one stop shop for tips on creating one's own race? Trying to create one for a friend's worldbuilding. You'd think I could just use what has already been made, but none of them come close to what I want.

I am crafting a race similar in hierarchy to ants, like formian and thri-kreen, but LA +0 and CR .5 so as to make them playable if need be. Neither of them has anything I like. So far, I know I want them to be Small, has natural armor, not slowed in soft ground when burrowing. Figured a stat adjustment of +2 Dex, -2 Int actually fit these but they are negotiable. Natural attacks are a maybe, and alignment-wise, they tend towards lawful. There can be a chaotic but these are so rare and taboo that they'll mostly be cast out, most dying soon after. HD should be good with class levels. Type is Outsider (native) btw. I was about to complicate things with gender-different stat adjustment since ant genders also influence them, but I figured a hierarchical system with a high preference to females over males should fit them more easily for me.

What would be your suggestion, GitP? I am flexible and accept everything. I still look at the Formians and Thri-kreen since those are the only insects I know of.

[prufock]

It's something I've struggled with as well in developing my own setting, the Weird West (http://weird-west.wikispaces.com/Races+of+the+Weird+West). It's tempting to give races lots of abilities to make them unique and interesting, but that gets close to making them overpowered. I think mine are a bit above normal +0 LA races, considering I added some things to existing races.

I wasn't able to find a decent guide; just compare to existing race stats.

[Kuulvheysoon]

I'd suggest a look at Dromites (XPH, or I believe that they're part of the Psionics section of the SRD).

Small, insect-based PCs with natural armor and a strict hive society. Mind you, they're LA+1, but they're not a bad place to start.

[Edge of Dreams]

Pathfinder has a guide for creating playable races: http://www.d20pfsrd.com/gamemastering/arg-creating-new-races

You should know, however, that Pathfinder has generally stronger base races overall. For example, Dwarves get +2 Con, +2 Wis, and -2 Cha, Elves get +2 Dex, +2 Int, and -2 Con, and Humans get a +2 to any one stat of their choice.

[Flickerdart]

Honestly, the effects of a balanced ECL0 race don't matter all that much. It's only the obscenely strong ones (Human, Illumian, etc) that have fancy stuff attached. +Dex/-Int is a pretty balanced pair, since the classes that like tons of Dexterity are usually also the ones that want a good Intelligence score (for skills, mostly). Ants aren't particularly agile, though, are they? I'd go for something like +2 Con/-2 Int, personally - big dumb fighters become bigger and dumber, and casters don't care. Throw in a bite attack, some skill bonuses (+2 Climb and Survival, perhaps) and you've made a passable race.

If you want to represent different castes, it might work better to have a basic race and then a template that goes on top.

[Stegyre]

I have been a fan of Baron Corm's homebrew for designing races. Check it out: Generic Race 2.0 (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=133269).