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Kelryn_grey
2013-11-10, 10:26 AM
My friends and I are working on a homebrew setting, we decided to go through and drastically alter the basic and extended races for our setting. One of the ideas we're kicking around is to strip the racial ability bonuses from each race and simply give them all a +2 to the stat of their choice, like a Human.
Non-numerical bonuses, such as spell-like abilities, or Halfling Luck would stay. The idea being to make race a (mostly) cosmetic decision. We will likely fold skill bonuses into a background type feat selected at creation.
What do you think? Is it a foolish idea that will quickly break the game? Do we need to buff non-human races a bit more? I appreciate any feedback.

Xianthe
2013-11-10, 05:59 PM
According to the PF race creation rules (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/gamemastering/other-rules/creating-new-races#TOC-Ability-Score-Modifier-Quality) the flexible +2 to an ability of your choice (human heritage) and the standard array of +2 to a physical, +2 to a mental, -2 to another trait, are both 0 race point options.

That says to me that Paizo at least considers them functionally interchangable as far as balance goes.

AttilaTheGeek
2013-11-12, 07:43 PM
I think it's certainly a fine option. I'm ambivalent either way.

Kasbark
2013-11-13, 04:16 AM
That's what i did in my homebrew (well, I gave all races a +2 and a +1 of their choice, but that's offset by our generally low point-buy)

My reasoning was that i didn't want there to be a race that was always better or worse than the other races at a given class. I don't want dwarf to be the best druid simply because they get +2 con and +2 wis, which is just what a druid needs.

My justification was that, even if most dwarfs are tough and wise, there is no reason the player could not be that one dwarf who was very nimble and charismatic, but also kinda sickly.

TuggyNE
2013-11-13, 05:14 AM
My justification was that, even if most dwarfs are tough and wise, there is no reason the player could not be that one dwarf who was very nimble and charismatic, but also kinda sickly.

And, what, they couldn't just buy 16 in Dex, 16 (14) in Cha, and 7 (9) in Con? :smallconfused:

Kasbark
2013-11-13, 05:35 AM
And, what, they couldn't just buy 16 in Dex, 16 (14) in Cha, and 7 (9) in Con? :smallconfused:

They could, but they would end up with a severely worse character than if they could move their racials around (worse overall stats) - and i don't want to punish my players for wanting to play a charismatic but sickly dwarf.

IT would also be impossible for them to be a Dwarf Bard with 18 charisma under the normal rules, but at my table that is possible.

Kelryn_grey
2013-11-13, 08:37 AM
They could, but they would end up with a severely worse character than if they could move their racials around (worse overall stats) - and i don't want to punish my players for wanting to play a charismatic but sickly dwarf.


This. Current racial stats are prohibitive in a lot of ways - though part of me is laughing as it thinks about 2e race/class rules, so they're not REALLY restrictive.