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Ramshack
2014-10-30, 09:01 PM
Homebrew Races (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1zEWMb-kDycevY3ad58sxPsrNV-erPaZqJTzY17egvbM/edit)

I put together several Home Brew Races of some of the more iconic fantasy races, not necessarily just from DnD but popular races my players asked for and would enjoy.

I used this link (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ViqLSEN67mmd2Lo_OJ-H5YX0fccsfI97kFaqx7V1Dmw/pub) as a guideline to put these races together. Most of them score in the 6 - 7 range. So they are on the strong side but I still feel pretty balanced. The highest score was the Warforged and the Asura and would love positive and helpful advice on these.

This is just a first pass on these and I value this communities opinions. No need to be rude if you disagree with something :)

Ramshack
2014-11-19, 09:27 AM
We're about to start a campaign this weekend and was thinking of allowing these. Would appreciate any feedback especially on the Asura and War forged.

Thanks for any feedback.

Amnoriath
2014-11-19, 01:28 PM
We're about to start a campaign this weekend and was thinking of allowing these. Would appreciate any feedback especially on the Asura and War forged.

Thanks for any feedback.

1. The Asura is in most instances a better Rock Gnome. You really ought to cut down and prioritize what it is good at. Also for something so intelligent it has a surprising lack of languages.
2. The Breton, the only thing I have a quarrel with is Magic Resistance as many think the Gnome's ability is too good when this is twice as good. It also isn't a very common thing among Fey.
3. The Dhampir subraces are a bit troublesome. The closest thing we have to compare it to is a Dragonborn which has what amounts to a powerful cantrip for the same amount of time these are casting a 1st or 2nd level spell as well as a proficiency as well as Darkvision.
4. Nephilim, no 1st level character has 2 energy resistances much less a race. I would suggest go look at the Tiefling.
5. Pandaren, the best thing to compare this to is a Dwarf which always had a reputation as one of the most optimal choices. Insight is a better skill than History and this has 2 save advantages but less hit points as well as battle stats. So, this one might be good as is.
6. Tibbit is good as is as while it has some interesting utility and movement there are better choices in either category.
7. The Warforged here is actually less controversial than it was in 3.5. However in 3.5 they weren't immune to charm. Otherwise to me the Warforged say to me Unarmored Defense. I think you have a good base but if you curtail it you could make some decent subraces.

Demonic Spoon
2014-11-19, 02:12 PM
1. I get that certain classes should be good at different things, but Potent Magic straight up shoehorns the Asura into wizard or sorcerer. Also, as mentioned before, they're pretty much just better gnomes.

2. I'm concerned that you're just handing out gnome class features to a bunch of other classes (Arcane Cunning/Magic Resistance). Come up with something that doesn't step on existing toes, unless you plan on replacing gnomes with these new races.

3. Dhampir seems...very strong. It almost seems outright better than half-orcs.

Ramshack
2014-11-19, 03:47 PM
Thanks for the opinions guys. I do agree the Asura needs a rework.

I'll remove the charm person from the warforged as well

I actually looked at the creating custom races excerpt from the DMG that was released and the Asimar had resistance to necrotic and radiant since the tieflings fire resistance was much more common.

I also really liked the flavor of the Dhampir, can you elaborate on what you feel is too strong?

Demonic Spoon
2014-11-19, 04:36 PM
I also really liked the flavor of the Dhampir, can you elaborate on what you feel is too strong?

I don't have my book in front of me, but compare them to half-orcs. From memory, I think half-orcs get +2 STR/+1 CON (equivalent to Dhampir). They get proficiency in Intimidate (equivalent to Dhampir, who get one other skill proficiency). Both get darkvision.

Half-orcs get:

-Extra damage die on a crit; for a greataxe that's ~6.5 extra average damage on crit.
-1/day avoid going down and go back to 1 HP instead

Dhampir get:

-Damage resistance to necrotic (not as great as fire resistance, but still fairly good)
-1/short rest spellcasting, and you chose really good spells for this. Creature of the Night is even a reaction.
-A bonus action attack that provides a bunch of extra effective hitpoints and free damage.


It's not as egregious as I originally thought, but I do think the Dhampir end up much better than half-orcs. You could drop the damage resistance entirely and i'd still say Dhampir are better than half-orcs; the spellcasting is probably as good or better than the extra crit damage, and the 1/short rest bonus action attack is probably better than 1/day not going down.

Ramshack
2014-11-19, 04:44 PM
I don't have my book in front of me, but compare them to half-orcs. From memory, I think half-orcs get +2 STR/+1 CON (equivalent to Dhampir). They get proficiency in Intimidate (equivalent to Dhampir, who get one other skill proficiency). Both get darkvision.

Half-orcs get:

-Extra damage die on a crit; for a greataxe that's ~6.5 extra average damage on crit.
-1/day avoid going down and go back to 1 HP instead

Dhampir get:

-Damage resistance to necrotic (not as great as fire resistance, but still fairly good)
-1/short rest spellcasting, and you chose really good spells for this. Creature of the Night is even a reaction.
-A bonus action attack that provides a bunch of extra effective hitpoints and free damage.


It's not as egregious as I originally thought, but I do think the Dhampir end up much better than half-orcs. You could drop the damage resistance entirely and i'd still say Dhampir are better than half-orcs; the spellcasting is probably as good or better than the extra crit damage, and the 1/short rest bonus action attack is probably better than 1/day not going down.

Good points, I've removed the resistance effect and changed the Blood Drinking effect in a way that makes its use more strategic. Let me know what you think. I've also removed the cast as reaction part and kept it as a bonus action.

Demonic Spoon
2014-11-19, 04:48 PM
Good points, I've removed the resistance effect and changed the Blood Drinking effect in a way that makes its use more strategic. Let me know what you think. I've also removed the cast as reaction part and kept it as a bonus action.

I don't see the change to Blood Drinking, aside from taking damage if you use it on an undead...but that hardly seems like a downside, since most of the time it's pretty obvious if the thing you're fighting is undead.

Ramshack
2014-11-19, 04:52 PM
I don't see the change to Blood Drinking, aside from taking damage if you use it on an undead...but that hardly seems like a downside, since most of the time it's pretty obvious if the thing you're fighting is undead.

True, but it removes an entire creature type from the type of monsters you can use it on, additionally there are many other creatures the healing effect wont work on. The extra damage is at most 11, so I'm not too worried about that, Considering the Dragon born can do 12 damage in a cone

Demonic Spoon
2014-11-19, 04:54 PM
True, but it removes an entire creature type from the type of monsters you can use it on, additionally there are many other creatures the healing effect wont work on. The extra damage is at most 11, so I'm not too worried about that, Considering the Dragon born can do 12 damage in a cone

I added something, but you quoted me before I did:

What about some mechanic that better represented the fact that leaning in for a chomp isn't all that easy? Instead of making the ability really situational via penalties against creature types and such, maybe the attack is only usable if you have advantage on the attack roll. That would allow you to learn down and bite someone who is knocked prone, or bite someone when you're attacking from hiding, but not bite someone when you're just standing toe to toe fighting with swords. And you could still use this on blooded undead.

Ramshack
2014-11-19, 04:55 PM
I've also changed the Breton's resistance to strictly arcane spells (trying to keep the theme from their Elder Scrolls origins), and reworked the Asura into more of a magical lore finding theme.

Ramshack
2014-11-19, 05:00 PM
I added something, but you quoted me before I did:

What about some mechanic that better represented the fact that leaning in for a chomp isn't all that easy? Instead of making the ability really situational via penalties against creature types and such, maybe the attack is only usable if you have advantage on the attack roll. That would allow you to learn down and bite someone who is knocked prone, or bite someone when you're attacking from hiding, but not bite someone when you're just standing toe to toe fighting with swords. And you could still use this on blooded undead.

Perhaps, but other bite attacks aren't restricted that way. Let me think on it.

I have to run for a bit. I appreciate all the help!

Demonic Spoon
2014-11-19, 05:04 PM
Perhaps, but other bite attacks aren't restricted that way. Let me think on it.

I have to run for a bit. I appreciate all the help!

Most other bite attacks are performed by quadrupeds; lunging in for a bite would be a bit easier than it would be for a medium-sized humanoid.



The new Asura are awesome.