Balancing New Races

[Else Fangorn]

So, I've created four "races" for my campaign world, all of the varieties of human. I know for sure that the Old Eire need something more, but how do the others look? These will be the only four options available in the world (it's a small campaign area), so they don't need to fit with anything else. Thanks for your help!

Angle
Ability Score Increase. One ability score of your choice increases by one.
Age. Angles reach adulthood in their late teens and live less than a century.
Alignment. Angles tend to be Lawful.
Size. Angles tend to be taller than other humans. Your size is Medium.
Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
Steelcunning. You gain proficiency with smith’s tools. You can work steel, including reforging existing items into other items, if you have sufficient material.
Nobleborn
Ability Score Increase. Your Charisma score increases by one.
Languages. You can speak, read, and write Anglo and one other language of your choice.
Lowborn
Ability Score Increase. Your Constitution score increases by one.
Languages. You can speak Anglo and one other language of your choice.
Honed Senses. You have proficiency in the Perception skill.

Fey-Touched
Ability Score Increase. Your Charisma score increases by two.
Age. Fey-Touched reach adulthood in their late teens, but they live somewhat longer than other humans because of their fellowship with the fey.
Alignment. Fey-Touched tend to be Chaotic.
Size. Fey-Touched tend to be smaller than other humans. Your size is Medium.
Speed. Your base walking speed is 35 feet.
Fairwed
Ability Score Increase. Your Wisdom score increases by one.
Languages. You can speak, read, and write Fair and Eire.
Speak with Small Beasts. Through sounds and gestures, you can communicate simple ideas with Small or smaller beasts.
Jack-o’-Lantern. You know the dancing lights cantrip. Charisma is your spellcasting attribute for it.
Nearfolk
Ability Score Increase. Your Dexterity score increases by one.
Languages. You can speak Fair and Eire.
Feystep. You can attempt to hide even when you are only lightly obscured by foliage, heavy rain, falling snow, mist, and other natural phenomena.
Alien. You have proficiency in the Intimidate and Persuasion skills.

Kundaman
Ability Score Increase. Your Strength increases by 2 and your Constitution increases by 1.
Age. Kundamen reach adulthood in their late teens and live less than a century.
Alignment. Kundamen tend toward no particular alignment.
Size. Kundamen tend to be broader than other humans. Your size is Medium.
Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
Savage Attacks. When you score a critical hit with a melee weapon attack, you can roll one of the weapon’s damage dice one additional time and add it to the extra damage of the critical hit.
Kunda Ancestry. You have resistance to lightning and thunder damage.
Languages. You can speak, read, and write Kundaord and Eire.

Old Eire
Ability Score Increase. One ability score of your choice increase by 1.
Age. Old Eire reach adulthood in their late teens and live less than a century.
Alignment. Old Eire tend toward no particular alignment.
Size. Old Eire come in all shapes and sizes. Your size is Medium.
Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
Feat. You gain one feat of your choice.
Languages. You can speak, read, and write Eire and one other language of your choice.

[D.U.P.A.]

Angles should be divided by acute, right and obtuse :smallbiggrin:

[Else Fangorn]

Well, of course I considered adding a hypotenuse subrace as well, but I realized that they were angles and wouldn't take sides.

[Ninja_Prawn]

Being serious for a minute, Angles are way underpowered*, especially the nobleborn. Why do they only get two +1s to their ability scores?

I'm inclined to say Old Eire's feat makes them the best choice for any class or character concept - variant humans are among the best of the PHB races because of their feat, and the target power level of these homebrew races is clearly some way below that of the standard races. I'd cut them down to just one +1 (their choice), or even none at all.

I'd also recommend having this moved to the homebrew subforum.

*And I say that as someone of Norman ancestry; ancient enemies of the real-life Angles.

[Paeleus]

Shouldn't these angles have abilities based off of their sine cosine and tangent??

[Else Fangorn]

The Old Eire are essentially Vumans minus the free skill proficiency, so I didn't think there would be a problem. I think I'd rather buff the other races than nerf the Old Eire. Any recommendations for that?

[Ninja_Prawn]

The Old Eire are essentially Vumans minus the free skill proficiency, so I didn't think there would be a problem. I think I'd rather buff the other races than nerf the Old Eire. Any recommendations for that?

Well, let's look at the balance the way Musicus would.

Angle (2.25 to 2.75)
1 Ability Score Increase
.25 Steelcunning (rises to 0.5 if smith's tools do not allow other races to work steel)

Nobleborn:
1 Ability Score Increase
0 Languages

Lowborn:
1 Ability Score Increase
-.25 Languages
0.5 Skill

Fey-Touched (4.25 to 4.75)
2 Ability Score Increase
0.5 Extra Movement

Fairwed:
1 Ability Score Increase
0 Languages
0.5 Speak with Small Beasts
0.25 Dancing Lights

Nearfolk:
1 Ability Score Increase
-.25 Languages
0.5 'Feystep'
1 Skills

Kundaman (4.5):
3 Ability Score Increase
0.5 Savage Attacks
1 Resistance
0 Languages

Old Eire (6):
2 Ability Score Increase
0 Languages
4 Feat
So, it looks like you're aiming for a balance point around 4.5 - 5 (the PHB races cluster around 5.5 - 6; Mountain Dwarf hits 8). You can therefore bring Old Eire into balance by cutting their ASI to 1no +1. Angles need about 2 'musicus points' to become competitive... that means something big like Gnome Cunning, Toughness or Natural Armour - or another +1 and something moderate like a burrow speed, breath weapon or Naturally Stealthy. I would encourage you to come up with something of your own that fits into your world. Real-life Angles were big on law & order, family and metalworking (which you've already included), so maybe take some inspiration from that.

[Else Fangorn]

I'll adjust the Old Eire down a bit, then, so they don't overshadow the others. Since I already have metalworking represented for the Angles (they are the only race in the world that can work steel, the other races have lost or never had the art), I'd like to have something else for them. The island that the campaign takes place on, the Eire, is cut off from the rest of the world by a magical force. The Angles invaded from another island to the east, but now they are cut off from home. I'd like something that shows their stalwart nature, reflecting their years of isolation from their people and home. Any thoughts on that?

[Ninja_Prawn]

I'll adjust the Old Eire down a bit, then, so they don't overshadow the others. Since I already have metalworking represented for the Angles (they are the only race in the world that can work steel, the other races have lost or never had the art), I'd like to have something else for them. The island that the campaign takes place on, the Eire, is cut off from the rest of the world by a magical force. The Angles invaded from another island to the east, but now they are cut off from home. I'd like something that shows their stalwart nature, reflecting their years of isolation from their people and home. Any thoughts on that?

Straight off, the Hill Dwarf's Toughness is worth 1.5 Musicus points, and Weapons Training (I'd give them Longsword, Battleaxe and Warhammer) is 0.5. That would seem to fit pretty well, though it does risk making them look like dwarves with the serial numbers filed off...

The weapons training should probably be a subrace trait (though I'm actually struggling to work out which one it belongs to). Given that Lowborn have Perception, I'd stick it on the nobles. Say they're like Housecarls; semi-professional soldiers. Then maybe give the Lowborn a ribbon about being able to survive on meagre rations. Maybe something like:


Hardened to Hunger: You can survive without food for longer than most. You do not gain exhaustion from starvation until you have gone without food for a number of days equal to 6 + your Constitution modifier + your Wisdom modifier.

[Else Fangorn]

What about this to round them out:

Militia Training. You have proficiency with Longswords, Halberds, Battleaxes, and Shortswords. You gain a +2 bonus to Initiative.

[Ninja_Prawn]

What about this to round them out:

Militia Training. You have proficiency with Longswords, Halberds, Battleaxes, and Shortswords. You gain a +2 bonus to Initiative.

Is that in addition to Toughness, or just on its own? A +2 initiative bonus is nice, but doesn't make too much difference in the grand scheme of things. I don't think it's too much to add in there, given that the race doesn't offer any +2 ASIs.

[Else Fangorn]

I was thinking on its own. I'm trying to avoid the dwarves with no VINs kind of thing. I'd be open to adding something else, too, though, I'm just not sure what.

[PoeticDwarf]

Old Eire: a very bad variant human.

[Sindeloke]

When working with a point system like Musicus, keep in mind that they're never more than a guideline because they can't properly account for applicability (and most don't even try). Vumans, for example, are undervalued point-wise because they mainly offer "a feat." Which is generally valued at +2 to any given ability score. But it's not "a" feat, it's exactly the best possible feat you could take for your build. It will always be extremely useful. +2 Int, on the other hand, is only useful about 10% of the time, and even wizard build guides have feats they tell you to get first because the right feat is worth more to you.

Dwarves on the other hand at overvalued for the same reason. A strength bonus is potent; so is armor proficiency under BA. But remember that no dwarf actually gets both. If you're pumping Str you're a pally, fighter, barb, maybe rarely a ranger. You already have good armor proficiency. If you're getting great AC from your new dwarf proficiency you're a caster and the ability boost is a wasted fluff to your dump stat. The Musicus points don't stack, as it were.

[Ninja_Prawn]

When working with a point system like Musicus, keep in mind that they're never more than a guideline because they can't properly account for applicability (and most don't even try). Vumans, for example, are undervalued point-wise because they mainly offer "a feat." Which is generally valued at +2 to any given ability score. But it's not "a" feat, it's exactly the best possible feat you could take for your build. It will always be extremely useful. +2 Int, on the other hand, is only useful about 10% of the time, and even wizard build guides have feats they tell you to get first because the right feat is worth more to you.

Dwarves on the other hand at overvalued for the same reason. A strength bonus is potent; so is armor proficiency under BA. But remember that no dwarf actually gets both. If you're pumping Str you're a pally, fighter, barb, maybe rarely a ranger. You already have good armor proficiency. If you're getting great AC from your new dwarf proficiency you're a caster and the ability boost is a wasted fluff to your dump stat. The Musicus points don't stack, as it were.

Fair points, of course. The OP has the advantage that they're not allowing these races to stand alongside the PHB races, so they only have to be internally balanced.

At the end of the day, my first reaction to 'version 0' was "Angles are way underpowered". My second reaction was "Old Eire are slightly overpowered". The points analysis (rough guideline as it may be) seems to back that up. So I stand by my suggestions.

[Sindeloke]

I don't disagree at all. I'm just saying, in terms of the Eire, remember that it's worth even more than the points indicate. :smallsmile: