Increasing Racial bonuses

[Blackhawk748]

Ok i am working on a new campaign setting, its little more than a bunch of cool ideas right now, and one of those ideas is increasing Racial Ability bonuses. I am aware that they did this in Dark Sun so it has precedent. Im just not sure how much of an increase is ok.

Heres one example.

High Elf, +2 Str, +4 Dex, -2 Cha

(Most elves in this setting are jerks)

So right now im working on a 3 bonuses (in increments of +2) and 1 penalty, with no more than a +4 to a single stat. So would this be ok if all the base races got the same treatment?

[Urpriest]

Dark Sun did this by giving all the base races LA +1.

That said, I don't think bumping up typical ability scores a few notches will have a huge effect on balance. Not something you need to worry about.

[Drachasor]

Increasing racial bonuses isn't a very "cool idea" imho. It's a boring one. Though I could see going a PF route and giving +2 to two stats and -2 to one (with humans having +2 to any stat).

More cool and interesting is giving unique powers/abilities/whatever to races rather than a flat +X to Y. That was one of the cool things about 4E (which had many uncool things).

[Malcador]

Stronger racial bonuses will encourage certain race/class pairings. For example, the ability bonuses that you have given the high elf do much more for most rogues than they do for most sorcerers. You will have to decide whether this is good or bad. The effect of this is considerably stronger for races that you give +4/+2/-2 than for those that get +2/+2/+2/-2.

As this would represent an approximately equal power increase for everyone (every player and every NPC), balance isn't so much of a concern. If you add higher ability scores to both sides of a scale, the scale is just as balanced as it was before. If you only do this for standard races, you might want to give most monsters two +2's to compensate.


Increasing racial bonuses isn't a very "cool idea" imho.
I agree with you there: the greatest effect of ability score increases is +1 or +2 to some die rolls. Players will forget where these came from the instant they write them down on their character sheets. Unfortunately, coming up with original racial traits is kind of hard, and coming up with original racial traits that stay relevant (but not over the top) throughout the game is even harder.

A quick and dirty idea would be to give every race a minimal version of its favored class's iconic ability. Halflings would get +1d6 sneak attack (stacking with any sneak attack from rogue levels), half-orcs would get rage 1/day as a first level barbarian (becoming +1 daily use of rage if they take barbarian levels), etc. I'm not sure what you would give humans and half-elves with this system; maybe you could let them choose another race and gain that race's bonus?

I have no idea how balanced this would be, but it sounds cool and should be more interesting than just numeric bonuses.


Most elves in this setting are jerks
Really? That's the best you could do? Elves are always elitist jerks. Shake things up in your setting!

[Honest Tiefling]

I don't know how flexible races are in your world, but I am personally a fan of the more adjustable stat bonuses from 4e. Not really an increase, but makes things more flexible.

[Blackhawk748]

Really? That's the best you could do? Elves are always elitist jerks. Shake things up in your setting!

Oh ive taken it past standard elitism, these guys are like the friggin Nazis, and if you not an Elf you are immediately less important and treated as little more than we would treat a dog, meaning they treat their dog better than they treat humans. Also they are Lawful, yes Lawful Elves. The laws they follow? The Laws of Nature, and they dont like what other kingdoms do to nature, so they may just send an army of plants and slave humanoids to wipe you out.

If you are at all familiar with the Malazan Book of the Fallen series, im basing the Elves off of the Forkrul Assail.