How would you balance out these SRD player races? [3.5]

[Luccan]

I'm bouncing around ideas for a campaign where things have progressed past the usual DnD medieval fantasy world (slightly). There will be guns and more living conveniences, that sort of thing. But there's also going to be social changes.

With that in mind, this world is a century or two past slaughtering Goblinoids and Orcs because they live to close. Goblinoids have formed a major nation (and a few no one cares about) and are in every technological respect, equals to the other standard humanoids. Orcs, meanwhile, have formed a loose confederations of city-states (the "Clan of Tribes") still in the medieval period, but they're more tolerated in more advanced nations and their society isn't as terrible. I want to make Goblins and Orcs an option to players as a result, but they feel under powered compared to even the standard PHB races. How would you fix this? Or do you think they're equal in power? Also, any suggestions for Half-Elf or Half-Orc would be good too.

P.S. I realize unless a race gives you something you specifically need for a build it basically doesn't matter, but I feel at early levels it does matter at least a little and I'd like to know how I can give these two (or four) races a fair start.

TL;DR: How do I make Orcs and Goblins equals to Elves, Dwarves, Humans, or one of the other standard races. Also help with Half-Elves and Half-Orcs would be appreciated, but they aren't the focus.

[Inevitability]

Orcs are pretty decent for melee builds on their own, but I guess you could use the Water Orc variant (Unearthed Arcana) if you want a stronger orc.

Goblins are indeed only interesting for a handful of builds. Perhaps give them a +2 wisdom bonus? It'd make goblins interesting for wisdom caster-types who right now don't really have any +wis races all DMs allow.

[Kaje]

Make hobgoblins 0 LA.

Give orcs +2 con.

Give half orcs the human bonus feat. (And half elves the skill points.)

Goblins... I dunno, probably a bonus to a mental score. Maybe give them trapfinding or something?

[Inevitability]

Make hobgoblins 0 LA.

Give orcs +2 con.

Give half orcs the human bonus feat. (And half elves the skill points.)

Goblins... I dunno, probably a bonus to a mental score. Maybe give them trapfinding or something?

Hobgoblins, half-orcs and orcs I agree on, though I wonder if the skill points are enough to boost half-elf (maybe give them +2 charisma instead?).

I strongly suggest against giving goblins trapfinding, though. After all, that'd make non-roguish classes strictly better than roguish ones from a goblin viewpoint. At most, I'd let goblins have a few racial substitution levels that add Trapfinding to classes that naturally don't have it.

[Exocist]

If the Goblins are supposed to be technologically advanced, I would personally suggest switching their ability score increases to this:

+4 INT/WIS (Your choice on if the Goblins are more the "Plan" type or the "Tinkerer" type), -2 CHA (They find it hard to relate to not so advanced people), -2 STR (They rely on machinery more than their physical prowess.)

As others have suggested, there's no standard playable race than has WIS bonus, so giving them +4 WIS would make sense, but it seems to me that machinery focused individuals are more likely to be the Wizard-y type (Hence the INT bonus makes more in-character sense).

You could also make it +2 INT +2 WIS

[lylsyly]

Check out this guys Paragon Classes Redone. He has Goblins listed as well has Orcs and the Standard Races.
Maybe this will give you some inspiration.

http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=17630.msg315072#msg315072

Good Luck!

[DrMotives]

If your goblins are more technologically advanced, you might drop out the bonus to handle animal & ride checks with wolves with something like a disable device bonus, or to keep in line with Cityscape's view on goblins, a bonus to Gather Information. Makes them feel more like an urban race.

[Luccan]

I'd like to say I appreciate all the suggestions, especially pointing out the Water Orc, which in a lot of ways is already close to one solution I had thought of.


Make hobgoblins 0 LA.

I'm not sure I want to use Hobs for PCs, but I'd like to know where you're coming from on this? Are they that comparable to the regular PC races?

[Kaje]

If your baseline for comparison is half-elves and elves, then hobbies are quite powerful. I think they're on the level of humans, water orcs, Warforged, and strongheart halflings though.

[Luccan]

Ok, I can see that. Like humans, they have no actually written downsides (the human "downside" being a lack of unique special abilities and stat bonuses). Where Humans have a bonus feat and bonus skill points, Hobs get stat bonuses with no minuses and dark vision.