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View Full Version : D&D 5e/Next Goliath with subtle-ish adjustments, what do you think?



Arkhios
2016-01-14, 04:17 PM
I made some adjustments* with the Goliath race presented in EEPC a while back, what do you think?

Goliath traits
Goliaths share a number of traits in common with each other.
Ability Score Increase. Your Strength score increases by 2, and your Constitution score increases by 1.
Age. Goliaths have lifespans comparable to humans. They enter adulthood in their late teens and usually live less than a century.
Alignment. Goliath society, with its clear roles and tasks, has a strong lawful bent. The goliath sense of fairness, balanced with an emphasis on self-sufficiency and personal accountability, pushes them toward neutrality.
Size. Goliaths are between 7 and 8 feet tall and weigh between 280 and 340 pounds. Your size is Medium.
Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
Natural Athlete. You have proficiency in the Athletics skill.
Stone’s Endurance. You can focus yourself to occasionally shrug off injury. When you take damage, you can use your reaction to roll a d12. Add your Constitution modifier to the number rolled, and reduce the damage by that total. After you use this trait, you can’t use it again until you finish a short or long rest.
Powerful Build*. You count as one size larger when determining your carrying capacity and the weight you can push, drag, or lift. In addition, goliaths can wield two-handed weapons in one hand as if they were versatile weapons with their damage die reduced by one step. (a 2d6 or 1d12 becomes 1d10, 1d10 becomes 1d8, 1d8 becomes 1d6, and so forth).
Mountain Born. You’re acclimated to high altitude, including elevations above 20,000 feet. You’re also naturally adapted to cold climates, as described in chapter 5 of the Dungeon Master’s Guide.
Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common and Giant.

PS. With minor changes, I think a goliath would work well as a Mul (the half-dwarf of Athas, Dark Sun).

Mul
Muls, or half-dwarves, are a sterile half-breed of dwarves and humans, and can not reproduce. Muls combine the strong build and longevity of dwarves and the general size of humans to a hardy nature. Thus, Muls are often bred and raised in slavery to work as gladiators and heavy laborers.

Age. Muls mature at the same rate humans do and reach adulthood around the age of 20. They live much longer than humans, however, often exceeding 120 years.
Size. Muls stand between 6 and 7 feet, but weigh as much as a goliath.
Iron Will. Replaces Natural Athlete. The dwarven stubborness and human unrelentless nature epitomizes in you, and your will is like iron, hard to bend. When you roll a 1 on a Wisdom or Charisma saving throw, you can reroll the die and must use the new roll.
Tireless. Replaces Mountain Born. You can function longer than others without sleep. You won't have to make a Constitution check to continue until after being awake for 72 hours straight.
Powerful Build. Muls can not wield weapons like goliaths. Otherwise the trait remains as it is.
Languages. Change Giant with Dwarvish.

Edits: Added age adjustment to Mul variant. Changed Iron Will functionality a bit, more in line with Lucky, as with halflings. Powerful Build weapon wielding addition is for Goliath, only (not for Muls).

DracoKnight
2016-01-14, 04:54 PM
I made some adjustments* with the Goliath race presented in UA a while back, what do you think?

I like your changes, but the WotC Goliath wasn't UA. It was in a supplement published for Elemental Evil - the Goliath as WotC published it is an AL legal, official race :smallbiggrin:


Goliath traits
Goliaths share a number of traits in common with each other.
Ability Score Increase. Your Strength score increases by 2, and your Constitution score increases by 1.
Age. Goliaths have lifespans comparable to humans. They enter adulthood in their late teens and usually live less than a century.
Alignment. Goliath society, with its clear roles and tasks, has a strong lawful bent. The goliath sense of fairness, balanced with an emphasis on self-sufficiency and personal accountability, pushes them toward neutrality.
Size. Goliaths are between 7 and 8 feet tall and weigh between 280 and 340 pounds. Your size is Medium.
Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
Natural Athlete. You have proficiency in the Athletics skill.
Stone’s Endurance. You can focus yourself to occasionally shrug off injury. When you take damage, you can use your reaction to roll a d12. Add your Constitution modifier to the number rolled, and reduce the damage by that total. After you use this trait, you can’t use it again until you finish a short or long rest.
Powerful Build*. You count as one size larger when determining your carrying capacity and the weight you can push, drag, or lift. In addition, goliaths wielding versatile weapons in one hand deal damage with them as if wielding them in two hands.
Mountain Born. You’re acclimated to high altitude, including elevations above 20,000 feet. You’re also naturally adapted to cold climates, as described in chapter 5 of the Dungeon Master’s Guide.
Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common and Giant.

PS. With minor changes, I think a goliath would work well as a Mul (the half-dwarf of Athas, Dark Sun).

Size. Muls stand between 6 and 7 feet, but weigh as much as a goliath.
Iron Will. Replaces Natural Athlete. The dwarven stubborness and human unrelentless nature epitomizes in you. You have advantage on Wisdom saving throws.
Tireless. Replaces Mountain Born. You can function longer than others without sleep. You won't have to make a Constitution check to continue without sleep for one additional day.
Languages. Change Giant with Dwarvish.

This all seems to work, and I like your addition to powerful build. :smallsmile:

Arkhios
2016-01-14, 04:58 PM
I like your changes, but the WotC Goliath wasn't UA. It was in a supplement published for Elemental Evil - the Goliath as WotC published it is an AL legal, official race :smallbiggrin:



This all seems to work, and I like your addition to powerful build. :smallsmile:

Oops, I meant EEPC ._.

Glad to hear, I thought it wasn't all that big adjustment to make a 7 to 8 feet tall, yet still medium, character benefit even a little bit more from their size :)

DracoKnight
2016-01-14, 05:00 PM
Oops, I meant EEPC ._.

Glad to hear, I thought it wasn't all that big adjustment to make a 7 to 8 feet tall, yet still medium, character benefit even a little bit more from their size :)

We all make mistakes. :smallsmile:

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that this is balanced :smallbiggrin:
I mean, you added 1 foot to height, and 1 point of damage on average.

Arkhios
2016-01-14, 05:09 PM
We all make mistakes. :smallsmile:

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that this is balanced :smallbiggrin:
I mean, you added 1 foot to height, and 1 point of damage on average.

In fact I did this a long time ago, but only just now posted in here. I thought they had that 7 to 8 feet height already? But yeah, on average 1 more damage seemed fine. IIRC, initially I was going to let them wield two-handed weapons in one hand at no penalty, but it felt a little too cheesy.

However, I made up that Mul "subrace" when I posted this thread, and I think their racial traits might be more crucial to view through balance lenses :)
Edit: I might adjust the Mul age a little. May live slightly longer than humans, often around 120 years.

Arkhios
2016-01-15, 06:22 AM
Powerful Build*. You count as one size larger when determining your carrying capacity and the weight you can push, drag, or lift. In addition, goliaths can wield two-handed weapons in one hand as if they were versatile weapons with their damage die reduced by one step. (a 2d6 or 1d12 becomes 1d10, 1d10 becomes 1d8, 1d8 becomes 1d6, and so forth).

I made a slight change into the additive feature of Powerful Build. Instead of Goliaths being able to wield versatile weapons in one-hand and deal their versatile damage, they can now treat two-handed weapons as versatile with their weapon damage reduced by similarly one step. Being able to wield a versatile one-handed weapon in one hand to deal greater damage doesn't make much sense, but, being able to use a bigger, two-handed weapon in one hand makes the subtle difference. It's more imposing to see a goliath swing a greatsword in one hand rather than a longsword, and it makes more sense to why it deals more damage than a one-handed versatile, but less than a two-handed weapon held in two hands.

Please, tell me what you think.

Additionally, I was thinking that maybe I'd just call this a separate feature, called something like a Giant's Grip. And since Powerful Build is still fitting for a mul, a would be Giant's Grip wouldn't, from the lore perspective, and could be replaced with something else, like advantage against poisoned condition? (as Muls of old didn't have an ability to wield larger weapons, but they are descended from dwarves, who are resistant to poison).

M Placeholder
2016-01-15, 12:35 PM
The Goliath was already powerful enough as a playable race, though I do like the changes to the Powerful Build feature though. The mul though, doesn't really work, from a mechanical or a thematic viewpoint - muls in the Dark Sun setting are almost always born in slave pits and (literally in many cases) torn from their mothers to be raised as either gladiators or slaves undertaking manual labour. A mul would just know how to speak common (as few in Athasian society are literate) and maybe the language of the city state.

For the mechanical features, there should be Darkvision, Poison Resistance and something about magic resistance (a notable trait for dwarves on Athas as a result of the cleansing wars). Advantage to all Wisdom saving throws is really strong considering just how prevelent psionics are on Athas.

Here is the Mul I came up with, based on the lore from Dark Sun 3 (http://athas.org/products/ds3) and one that I created a while back for my Dark Sun conversion to 5th edition.

As a Mul, you have the following traits –

Ability Score Increase – You Strength Increases by 2 and your Constitution increases by 2.
Age – Muls reach adulthood at age 15 and can live to 80 years of age.
Size – Muls stand between 6 foot and 7 foot tall, and weigh in the region of 260 pounds. Your size is medium.
Speed – Your base speed is 30 feet.
Darkvision – You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You cannot discern colour in the darkness, just shades of grey.
Dwarven Resistance – You have advantage on saving throws against poison, and you have resistance against poison damage. You also have advantage on Constitution and Strength saving throws against magic.
Tireless – You can engage in up to 24 + your Constitution modifier hours of manual labour before needing to complete a long rest. You also have advantage on Constitution saves against exhaustion.
Arena Bred - You are proficient in Athletics.
Languages – You can speak Common.