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View Full Version : D&D 5e/Next Custom Bugbear PC Race- The Ruthless Ruffian



hellgrammite
2016-09-25, 08:54 PM
Starting a new D&D campaign, and a player wanted to play a Bugbear. Created this race for him by basically starting with a half-orc, and manipulating a few things inspired from the monster manual.

Bugbear

Ability Score Increase: Your Strength score increases by
2, and your Dexterity score increases by 1.
Age: Bugbears mature a little faster than humans,
reaching adulthood around age 14. They age
noticeably faster and rarely live longer than 70 years.
Alignment: Bugbears have a tendency toward chaos
and are not strongly inclined toward good.
Bugbears raised in rural clans tend towards evil.
Size: Bugbears are very large goblinoids, standing at least
6 feet tall and weighing well over 250 pounds. Your size is medium.
Speed: Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
Darkvision: Thanks to your goblinoid blood, you have
superior vision in dark and dim conditions. 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 can't
discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.
Ruthless Ruffian: You gain proficiency with
Clubs, Morningstars, and Maces. You may treat these
weapons as finesse weapons.
Stalker: You gain proficency in Stealth.
Surprising Brute: If the bugbear hits a surprised creature
with a melee weapon attack, the weapon deals an extra
die of its damage. At 8th level instead roll two extra
die, and at 16th three extra die instead. You may use this
ability only once a turn.
Languages: You can speak, read and write Common and Goblin.

A few notes on the bugbear abilities:

Ruthless Ruffian gives the flavorful proficiencies a bugbear would have, while also allowing these weapons to work with more dexterous builds. This is more of a flavorful ability, since those weapons are not better then the Rapier.

Stalker is an appropriate ability since Bugbears are known to be big silent tree trunks.

Surprising Brute is the ability that at first appearance seems very powerful. Extra weapon die on surprised creatures, and it has some increases as you reach higher levels. Sweet! But its an ability you really will only get to use once a combat, and only works for melee attacks. I feel this ability captures the ferocious and sudden hits a bugbear can deliver, while not making it an overpower or abusable racial ability. Surprise and using melee attacks are not uncommon, but def. require a build around to be effective.

Thoughts? I don't anticipate anything overpower here, but also not a weak class. I think it adds some flavor that can enhance a bugbear rogue or fighter build.

PotatoGolem
2016-09-26, 08:46 AM
The extra dice seem like they'd be overly strong on an assassin and somewhat useless for most other characters

hellgrammite
2016-09-26, 09:50 AM
Thanks for the feedback.

Your right I could see the Assassin really getting benefits from Surprising Brute. But it encourages melee combat, which is not always the preferred method of attack for most Assassins (running up to a ogre and losing hiding and concealment to deal an extra die of damage carries the risk of the assassin getting golf clubbed by the ogre next turn no?!) That seems like a possible balancing point to me from the Assassin standpoint.

You note Surprising Brute is useless for other characters. But wouldn't a Barbarian, fighter, other rogues or Rangers built to be somewhat stealthy get regular use out of it as well?