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Rookwood
2015-05-13, 01:23 AM
I want to run a D&D 3.5 (or pathfinder, depends.) homebrew campaign and have a cool idea for a race, however, I'm new to DMing (just started second campaign, first one lasted 7 levels.) and would probably over power it. I want a heavily themed and specialized race designed around fighting Abberations, Fiends and Undead that were bred and grown by human wizards to fight unnatural enemies. This is what I have (First draft):

+2 Str, +2 Dex, +2 Con, +2 Wis, -4 Cha
Combat Speciality: +2 Insight bonus to AC, attack rolls, damage rolls, Spell DCs and all saves related to Abberations, Outsiders (Evil) and Undead and effects created by them whether they be natural, supernatural, spell-like, spells, psi-like, or psionic powers.
Forbidden Knowledge: +4 on all knowledge checks related to Abberations, Evil Outsiders and Undead. Knowledge (Arcana), Knowledge (Religeon) and Knowledge (The Planes) become Class Skills.
Advanced Weapon Training: Gain Weapon Finesse, Two Weapon Fighting and Gigantic Weapon eats for free.
Mortal Defence: Immune to mind affecting effects, death effects, ability drain and energy drain. Also, they heal ability damage at a rate of 1 point per hour.
LA: +2

So what are your thoughts?

meltodowno
2015-05-13, 06:43 AM
Firstly you might want to put the 3.5 tag on the post to increase traffic.

Secondly - yeah the laundry list of blanket immunities makes this way OP.

ezkajii
2015-05-13, 08:18 AM
+2 Str, +2 Dex, +2 Con, +2 Wis, -4 Cha
This is fine, especially at LA+2.

Combat Speciality: +2 Insight bonus to AC, attack rolls, damage rolls, Spell DCs and all saves related to Abberations, Outsiders (Evil) and Undead and effects created by them whether they be natural, supernatural, spell-like, spells, psi-like, or psionic powers.

Is this intended as a +2 insight bonus to AC, attack and damage rolls, and spell save DCs when used against aberrations, evil outsiders, and the undead? Or are these general, and only the saves are restricted to those types? Either way, it should be a racial bonus (or dodge, for AC). Personally I think it might make even more sense to have the bonus to saves be a +4, and reduce the other bonuses to +1, but it's probably fine either way.

Forbidden Knowledge: +4 on all knowledge checks related to Abberations, Evil Outsiders and Undead. Knowledge (Arcana), Knowledge (Religeon) and Knowledge (The Planes) become Class Skills.
Not a big thing, but I would just clarify that you intend that these skills are considered class skills for members of this race regardless of the class they are taking a level in.

Advanced Weapon Training: Gain Weapon Finesse, Two Weapon Fighting and Gigantic Weapon eats for free.
I don't know that these really seem to all flow together thematically, and I don't think giving three bonus feats is a good idea. Perhaps they all start with a bonus feat, selected from a very limited list (i.e. just these three)?

Mortal Defence: Immune to mind affecting effects, death effects, ability drain and energy drain. Also, they heal ability damage at a rate of 1 point per hour.
Meltodowno is right, that's way too powerful. I was going to suggest providing a racial bonus on saves made against these effects, but I assume you selected these as the most common offenses of aber/outs/und creatures, so it should be covered by Combat Speciality, above. I think the ability damage regeneration can probably stay, though.

LA: +2
Remove the Mortal Defence, and this is probably fine. I could also see it at LA+3 but so many things are over-LA'd anyway.

Yora
2015-05-13, 09:22 AM
For LA+2 this seems okay. Immune to mind-affecting effects is pretty good, but it also means the character can't benefit from a bunch of useful buffs. Immunity to energy drain and death effects doesn't seem that good, as it's not really very common. But I would perhaps change it so that ability drain is coverted to ability damage instead of a total immunity, as now it's immune to the strong version but can still be affected by the weak version.

danzibr
2015-05-13, 01:11 PM
I don't think it's too powerful. For bruisers, compare it to Anthropomorphic Octopus or Obah-blessed.

Now, crunchy people may be opposed to this, but I'd like to see more fluff. Alright, so this race fights aberrations and undead and evil outsiders, but what more?

For the actual abilities, the stat bonuses are pretty weak for +2 LA. So... I'm thinking it has to have potent abilities to make up for it. Good at fighting some niche creatures. Yeah, that's not bad. They're common, but very campaign-dependent.

Forbidden knowledge is flavorful but won't do much. May help qualify for some PrC's, help with figuring out some baddies.

I don't really see the bonus feats. I mean, Weapon Finesse + Gigantic Weapon (is this anywhere other than dandwiki?). Or am I missing some rule about treating more weapons than usual as light weapons with the Gigantic Weapon thing? Essentially... you want a race that can dual wield ``big'' weapons with Dex as their primary stat? Setting people down that path eats up a lot of feats.

People's main complaint, the immunities, I don't find to be game-breaking by any means. I mean, this is the nicest feature of the race (not as many immunities as an undead), presumably how the wizards bred/made them. Were it not for this ability, they'd be a decent LA +1.

EDIT: Oh yeah, type and subtype?

Rookwood
2015-05-13, 03:13 PM
Okay, second draft:

Medium Humanoid (Human)
+2 Str, +2 Dex, +2 Con, +2 Wis, -4 Cha
Combat Speciality: +2 Racial bonus to AC, attack rolls and damage rolls against Abberations, Outsiders (Evil) and Undead.
Forbidden Knowledge: +4 on all knowledge checks related to Abberations, Evil Outsiders and Undead. Knowledge (Arcana), Knowledge (Religeon) and Knowledge (The Planes) become Class Skills.
Advanced Weapon Training: Gain Weapon Finesse, Two Weapon Fighting and Gigantic Weapon eats for free.
Mortal Defence: Spell resistance and saves for mind affecting effects, death effects, ability damage and energy drain gain a +6 racial bonus. Also, they heal ability drain at a rate of 1 point per day.
Spell Resistance: 8+HD
LA: +2

So on the fluff, the city they were created in had been built over an entrance to the underdark, and happened to be eyed by an Archfiend who was particularly fond of necromancy. The wizards took specimens from the city and merged their flesh samples, creating a perfect source for infinite cloning They cloned it, but could only sustain around sixty sane clones. They were taught to fight by grizzled old veteran monster hunters (most of whom gave a flesh sample) and armed by the cities finest smiths and arcane artificers. Still haven't come up with a name for them. Wondering if racial Smite and Favored Enemy would be a good idea.

danzibr
2015-05-13, 05:29 PM
Ya done nerfed it too much!

Also, eats -> feats.