New Race: Likho (PEACH)

[Steel Mirror]

Likho are perversions created by the Far Realm to wander among the mortal races, recording our society through genetically inherited racial memories which will be collected some day in the service of the coming of the Elder Gods. This is a race I created where a lot of influences came together under a single concept, the core of which was inspired just by the cool picture that I found. The name comes from slavic mythology, and the basic concept was to make something that thinks and acts in alien ways, looks alien, and yet is just relatably human enough to give it that odd uncanny valley sort of feeling. Kind of like a lot of the weirder depictions of fey in fantasy literature.

There are shades of the Asari from Mass Effect, Deva from 4E, cyclops, the aboleth (which I always thought was a cool monster, and there might be a link between these guys and that slimy race of masterminds), and I'm sure others as well. I always love to hear from people who are awesome enough to give my stuff a look, and especially so if you see anything that you think doesn't work, could work better, is overpowered, etc.

I also finally got my hands on a Volo's guide, so I'll be posting some more of my homebrew monster races now that I have more points of reference for balance. Thanks for reading!

Likho


https://s27.postimg.org/6r3kyzqmr/a_little_cyclops_by_hasabattle_d3c4h8w600.jpg
Artist Credit: hasabattle (http://hasabattle.deviantart.com/) on deviantart http://hasabattle.deviantart.com/art/A-little-Cyclops-201762896

The barmaid screamed and fell to the ground in the darkened alley, splashing in the muck and hitting the cobbles hard. The trio of men standing around her chuckled, giving off the foul stench of boozy breath as they exhaled.

“Aint never had me a sharp ears afore,” the dwarf among their number said, leering. He reached down to grab her dress as the pair behind him struck up a couple of cigarettes.

“Hi gentlemen! Lady ma’am!” chirped a cheerful voice which didn’t belong to any of the four. The men jumped in surprised, and the woman looked up in sudden hope. “Scuse me but, lady ma’am, are you with these men of your own free and consenting will?”

The three men parted, revealing a short, pale figure standing at the entrance of the alley. Strikingly, it had only one large eye in the center of its brow, and was wearing a close-fitting tunic which showed off slender legs and a long, graceful neck. The men stared dumbly at the figure. It smiled back with oblivious cheerfulness.

“A-a-a-a-are you serious?” the woman finally asked, disbelievingly.

“Well, I’ve learned not to make assumptions based on first impressions. Sometimes, there is a perfectly good explanation that you never thought of, so it’s best to look before you leap,” the figure said, striding further into the alley.

The men seemed momentarily nonplussed. The woman’s eyes darted back and forth between them, then she finally sputtered out, “No! I am not here because I want to be! These men attacked me!”

“Ah,” the cycloptic figure said gravely. “That means they are Evil.”

The tallest of the men finally moved. “Hey, you aint so bad looking yourself missy, if you ignore the screwed up eye thing. Howz about you’s-” he placed his hand on the newcomers shoulder, and it whirled aside with sudden speed, yanking his hand to throw him off balance and then kicking him brutally in the chin. Broken teeth flew and he collapsed, unconscious.

His buddy shouted and moved in to attack, and the newcomer let him stumble by to collide with the alley wall. A dagger appeared in its hand, and it slammed the weapon towards the clumsy drunkard’s outstretched fist with enough force to pierce the hand completely and sink four inches into the wooden wall beyond. When it stepped back, the drunk was pinned there by his hand, whimpering in agony as he tried to keep his arm absolutely still to prevent further pain.

“Why you damn-” cursed the dwarf, hefting a bottle to swing it with murderous intent. The figure turned and looked straight at him with its one blue eye, unblinking and intense. The dwarf fumbled the bottle out of his fingers and screamed, running gibbering deeper into the alley with urine dribbling down one leg of his trousers.

The one-eyed figure wiped its hands and returned to the mouth of the alley as suddenly as it had come, to where a dapper firbolg man was waiting uncertainly. It called back to the barmaid as it went. “Send the city guard to collect these thugs! And stick to the major roads past midnight from now on, yes?” Then it took the waiting firbolg by the arm and spoke to him in excited tones as they both walked away into the city. “Now as I was telling you, this restaurant makes the most hideously disgusting dishes, and they are so awful that I find something uniquely revolting every time I go. Isn’t it great! I just know you’ll find it fascinating, too…”



Likho are maddening and probably mad, at least by the standards of most races. One-eyed and unhealthily pale in appearance, they also have no nose or nostrils and an androgynously graceful appearance. They are constant outsiders in society, yet have no real culture or community of their own. Scholars who specialize in such things theorize that likho were created due to the influence of an utterly alien place known as the Far Realm, though whether it was for a specific purpose or a result of the plane’s malignant chaos is perhaps unknowable.


An Alien Mindscape
A likho’s otherworldliness goes beyond the fact that it’s single-eyed stare and smooth, pale face can be seriously off-putting. Their entire thought process and motivations are difficult for members of other races to grasp.

For one, they seem to experience pleasure and pain quite differently from most races. Pain is unpleasant to a likho, but new sources of pain are a novelty and so might be greeted with more fascination than anguish. A likho who has never had a compound fracture, for example, might keep up a lively and excited commentary on the many new shades of agony it is experiencing even as it passes out from blood loss. Conversely, a likho who has been bludgeoned in many battles might be more upset at the boredom of experiencing it again rather than the damage being done when an enemy thumps it with a warhammer.

Things get even weirder when it comes to matters of morality. Likho find other races’ insistence on the existence of moral right and wrong to be fascinating but mystifying. Most likho have at least an academic understanding of morals, but this is pieced together from the memorization of various ethical codes and dim recollections of previous ancestors’ experiences, and likho have no intrinsic conscience. In many ways they resemble highly functioning amoral sociopaths, although they also have strong instincts to fit into society and so try to act according to local customs and morals (whenever it isn’t too inconvenient or they misinterpret such customs), even if they don’t feel their importance.

Though they are biologically intersex, some likho, especially those raised by a parent of another race, adopt a gender identity out of convenience or even sincere personal identification. Other likho may insist on non-gendered pronouns of various flavors, or consider such things trivial and leave it to others to use whatever pronouns they see fit. Still others will move back and forth between presenting themselves as male, female, or other based on their mood or whatever is advantageous at the moment.

Likho begin life as voracious seekers of new experiences. As they mature, however, they achieve a more nuanced understanding of the world, and their impulse to mimic behavior like altruism, love, hatred, or vengeance may develop into the actual things. Some likho never truly outgrow their madness, and simply displace their earlier ignorance with a maniacal fixation on the extremes of the morality spectrum. Such a likho might become a truly evil monster driven by the darkest of emotions, or a paragon of virtue so dedicated and pure that nobody could possibly live up to their strict definition of goodness.



The Long Memory
If those who claim that the likho are the result of Far Realm contamination are correct, then their bizarre reproductive biology is one consequence of such alien origins. Likho do not have sexes. Instead, each is capable of of reproduction with males or females of almost any intelligent humanoid race, and will either impregnate its partner (if the partner is sexually female) or carry the resulting child to term itself (if the partner is male).

The result of such a union, whether birthed by the likho or the other partner, is always a true-breeding likho rather than any sort of hybrid. This likho child inherits the experiences of both parents in the form of an ancestral memory which the newborn likho can dimly recall in times of need. In this way, a likho will pass not only its own memories on to its child, but also the memories of every individual in its direct ancestry. Thus every likho begins life with a long chain of racial memories from both likho and ancestors of many other races.

Likho are strongly compelled to be attracted to members of other races, especially those with unique skills, experiences, and accomplishments. Likho are not especially good parents, however, and often abandon the child either to the other parent or to the tender mercies of the world at large after only a year or so (at which point the child is about as developed as an 8 year old human). Even though a likho has only imperfect and intermittent access to its ancestral memory, this ability helps in making them self-sufficient extremely rapidly, and even likho raised by a caring parent will soon leave to wander the world, add to its experiences, and eventually sire more children itself.

A likho with one likho parent and one parent from another race is known as an ‘outbreed’. Very occasionally, however, two likho will have a child together. The resulting ‘back-breeds’ are considered disgusting by the rest of their kind, but display heightened mental powers.


Likho Names
Likho quite often choose eccentric names for themselves, especially those who are abandoned as children (and unfortunately, either or both parents often do abandon young likho). Likho who are raised by a parent of a different race might inherit a name typical to that race, though even these tend to get bored and choose a new one once they leave their home.
Chosen Names: Aine, Cril, Duryss, Ell, Emolument, Flicker, Gayne, Indra, Jay, Kay, Lyze, Munra, Ness, Offen, Plink, Rags, Tapper
Likho Traits
Likho are simultaneously emotive and difficult to read, thanks to their alien motivations and mercurial moods. They find other races’ behavior just as mystifying, though, and are on a constant quest to understand and explore.


Age. Likho mature quickly and live brief but eventful lives. They are mature at 6 and usually die before 30, though old age doesn’t actually become a health problem until 50 or 60 years of age.
Alignment. Likho often have difficulty understanding the concept of morality, though individuals may expend much energy attempting to emulate it. As such they tend to be neutral rather than good or evil, though almost all are chaotic.
Size. Likho are usually a little taller than 5 feet. Your size is medium.
Speed. Your walking speed is 30 feet.
Psychic Resistance. You have resistance to psychic damage.
Ancestral Memory. When you make an attack roll or ability check with a weapon, tool, or skill with which you are not proficient, you may choose to add your proficiency bonus to the result. You can use this trait before or after you roll, but before you learn the result. You can use this trait a number of times equal to your Intelligence modifier (a minimum of once). You regain expended uses when you finish a long rest.
At your DM’s prerogative, you may also use this ability to recall facts of a past ancestor’s life which may prove relevant to situations you encounter during the game.
Otherworldly Eye. As a bonus action, choose one creature within 10 feet which can see you. It must make a Wisdom saving throw (DC 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Intelligence modifier) or become either frightened of or charmed by you (you choose the effect when you use the ability). At the end of each of its turns, it rolls again to remove this condition. Once the creature succeeds on a save, it knows that it was affected by your Otherworldly Eye.
The creature makes its save against the charm effect with advantage if you or your allies are fighting it. Once you use this trait, you can’t use it again until you finish a short or long rest.
Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common and Deep Speech.
Subrace. Likho born of one likho parent and one other parent are known as ‘outbreeds’. ‘Back-breeds’ are very rare and are born only when two likho have a child together for some reason.


OutbreedsOutbreeds may display a few subtle traces of their non-likho parentage, like tapered ears inherited from an elf or large lower canines from an orc, but these are small and overwhelmed by their likho inheritance, and will be lost within the next generation.

Ability Score Increase. You can choose to increase one ability score of your choice by 2, or two ability scores of your choice by 1.
Diverse Parentage. You gain proficiency in one skill, one simple or martial weapon, one tool, and the ability to speak one additional language.
Hybrid Vigour. When you suffer from exhaustion, you treat your exhaustion level as 1 lower for the purposes of determining its effects on you (as spelled out in Appendix A of the PHB). You also gain advantage on Constitution saves against magic.


Back-breedsLikho are naturally pale, but back-breeds are almost cadaverously pallid, with nearly translucent skin and a cloudy film over their eye as though they have a cataract (though their vision functions normally).

Ability Score Increase. Choose from among your Wisdom, Intelligence, and Charisma scores. One increases by 2, and another increases by 1.
Psychic Feedback. When you succeed on an Intelligence or Wisdom saving throw against magic, the caster of the spell or effect suffers an amount of psychic damage equal to half your level.
Whispers from Beyond. You know the message cantrip. When you reach 3rd level you may cast dissonant whispers once per day. When you reach 5th level you can also cast detect thoughts once per day. Intelligence is your spellcasting ability for these spells.
Sunlight Sensitivity. You have disadvantage on attack rolls and on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on sight when you, the target of your attack, or whatever you are trying to perceive is in direct sunlight.

[Ziegander]

Absolutely love the fluff, the concept, and the overall biology and all of that. This is an awesome race and a WAY better interpretation of uncanny valley, aberration-human PC race than 3e's Elan. The mechanics are where I suppose it falls short for me. The traits offer little to no "exciting" features. Everything is very fitting and flavorful, but they don't really come together to make a very compelling alternative to existing races.

Let's compare the Likho against Gnomes, Half-Elves, and Tieflings.

The Likho


Ability Score Increase. Your Intelligence score increases by 2.
Age. Likho mature quickly and live brief but eventful lives. They are mature at 6 and usually die before 30, though old age doesn’t actually become a health problem until 50 or 60 years of age.
Alignment. Likho often have difficulty understanding the concept of morality, though individuals may expend much energy attempting to emulate it. As such they tend to be neutral rather than good or evil, though almost all are chaotic.
Size. Likho are usually a little taller than 5 feet. Your size is medium.
Speed. Your walking speed is 30 feet.
Psychic Resistance. You have resistance to psychic damage.
Ancestral Memory. When you make an attack roll or ability check with a weapon, tool, or skill with which you are not proficient, you may choose to add your proficiency bonus to the result. You can use this trait before or after you roll, but before you learn the result. You can use this trait a number of times equal to your Intelligence modifier (a minimum of once). You regain expended uses when you finish a long rest.
At your DM’s prerogative, you may also use this ability to recall facts of a past ancestor’s life which may prove relevant to situations you encounter during the game.
Otherworldly Eye. As a minor action, choose one creature within 10 feet which can see you. It must make a Wisdom saving throw (DC 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Intelligence modifier) or become either frightened of or charmed by you (you choose the effect when you use the ability). At the end of each of its turns, it rolls again to remove this condition. Once the creature succeeds on a save, it knows that it was affected by your Otherworldly Eye.
The creature makes its save against the charm effect with advantage if you or your allies are fighting it. Once you use this trait, you can’t use it again until you finish a short or long rest.
Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common and Deep Speech.


Like the Likho, Gnomes also gain a base +2 to their Intelligence score, but where the Gnome would gain Darkvision, useful in at least 50% of typical adventure situations, the Likho gets resistance to Psychic damage, while flavorful, it's really only going to be useful in maybe 5% of typical adventuring situations? Gnome Cunning offers a huge defensive benefit that's always active even if it only comes up sometimes, while the Likho gets to add proficiency to a few new things a day (interesting) and a decent offense/negotiation tool that recharges on a short rest. Overall, I give about a 15% advantage to the Gnome, give or take maybe 5%, even comparing its two features to the Likho's three.

As far as subraces, the Outbreed compares favorably with the Forest and Rock Gnomes, but the Back-Breed's Sunlight Sensitivity really holds it back. As the base Likho feels underwhelming to me, I think you could lose the disadvantage and even give them expanded racial spellcasting through Whispers from Beyond. Likewise, even though Outbreed balances out against Gnome subraces in a vacuum with the base Gnome simply feeling more useful overall, you could probably add one more interesting thing to that subrace as well. Or maybe, like the drow, keep the Sunlight Sensitivity, but work in racial spellcasting, and then buff Hybrid Vigor some. Exhaustion just rarely ever comes into play.

Half-Elves and Tieflings are basically race+subrace rolled into one, so we'll compare the full Likho against each of them in turn.

Half-Elves gain +2 to their Charisma score and +1 to two other ability scores of their choice. Compared to essentially every other race the Half-Elf wins here and the Likho is no exception. Again, Half-Elves gain Darkvision, always a useful trait, and from there they have Fey Ancestry and Skill Versatility. Skill Versatility is probably better overall than Ancestral Memory, but that's hard to call and I'd say Fey Ancestry balances out against Otherworldly Eye, so then Half-Elves just have Darkvision to compare with the Likho's subraces. As both the Likho subraces are rather lackluster and Darkvision is a solid ability, with the Half-Elf's superior inherent ability score adjustments, interestingly, Half-Elves and Likho shake out just about evenly. The difference is in the excitement factor. Getting +1 to any two ability scores is great, as is an extra two skills. Half-Elves can round out a lot of builds. Likhos on the other hand feel forced into being Wizards or Arcane Tricksters. :-/

Tieflings' ability score bonuses compare more closely to the Likho's, one +2 and one +1. Likho wins out slightly with the choice between two different +1s. Again we have Darkvision. Hellish Resilience patently outclasses Psychic Resistance. And then Tieflings have only racial spellcasting going for them, though Hellish Rebuke and Darkness are both very useful spells. In terms of defensive traits, I would put Hellish Resilience on rough parity with Gnome Cunning, slightly less impressive, but often less situational. Ignoring racial spellcasting, then, I'd say this puts the Tiefling in about the same standing as Gnome compared against the base Likho. Comparing Tiefling's racial spellcasting, then, to the Likho's subraces, I would argue the Tiefling wins out again, if only because racial spellcasting is far more exciting an ability than anything the subraces get.

Overall suggestions: Bump the ability score adjustments of each subrace up by one. Either give Outbreed +2 to Constitution or +1 to Con and +1 to Charisma, and give Backbreed either +2 to Wisdom or +1 to Wis and +1 to Dex (I would argue for +2 Constitution for the Outbreed and +2 Wisdom for the Backbreed). This serves dual-purpose; one is an obvious slight increase in power, but the other is an increase in perceived versatility. Whichever you choose, now the Likho feels less locked in as a Wizard. Upgrade Diverse Parentage to "you gain proficiency in one skill, one weapon, and one tool of your choice, and you speak one additional language." Keep Sunlight Sensitivity, but give the Backbreed racial spellcasting for Dissonant Whispers at 3rd level, and Detect Thoughts at 5th level.

[Steel Mirror]

Absolutely love the fluff, the concept, and the overall biology and all of that. This is an awesome race and a WAY better interpretation of uncanny valley, aberration-human PC race than 3e's Elan. The mechanics are where I suppose it falls short for me. The traits offer little to no "exciting" features. Everything is very fitting and flavorful, but they don't really come together to make a very compelling alternative to existing races.Wow, thank you for the in-depth comment and I'm glad you like the concept. I'm actually in agreement that it isn't a very powerful race, but I was worried that I was being too attached to my own race and giving it too much power in previous iterations, and some of my players convinced me to tone the race down.


As far as subraces, the Outbreed compares favorably with the Forest and Rock Gnomes, but the Back-Breed's Sunlight Sensitivity really holds it back. As the base Likho feels underwhelming to me, I think you could lose the disadvantage and even give them expanded racial spellcasting through Whispers from Beyond. Likewise, even though Outbreed balances out against Gnome subraces in a vacuum with the base Gnome simply feeling more useful overall, you could probably add one more interesting thing to that subrace as well. Or maybe, like the drow, keep the Sunlight Sensitivity, but work in racial spellcasting, and then buff Hybrid Vigor some. Exhaustion just rarely ever comes into play.I will note that Hybrid Vigour pairs well with the barbarian's frenzy, basically letting you use it for free once per day. But I'll try to think of a way to buff it for everyone else.

Originally the Outbreeds did have a bigger casting trait, letting them drop a ray of exhaustion at 3 and tasha's hideous laughter at 5. That was patterned basically after the drow (as you mention later on), and it was also the main thing my beta testers thought was OP when combined with 2 other rechargeable racials. But


Half-Elves gain +2 to their Charisma score and +1 to two other ability scores of their choice. Compared to essentially every other race the Half-Elf wins here and the Likho is no exception. Again, Half-Elves gain Darkvision, always a useful trait, and from there they have Fey Ancestry and Skill Versatility. Skill Versatility is probably better overall than Ancestral Memory, but that's hard to call and I'd say Fey Ancestry balances out against Otherworldly Eye, so then Half-Elves just have Darkvision to compare with the Likho's subraces. As both the Likho subraces are rather lackluster and Darkvision is a solid ability, with the Half-Elf's superior inherent ability score adjustments, interestingly, Half-Elves and Likho shake out just about evenly. The difference is in the excitement factor. Getting +1 to any two ability scores is great, as is an extra two skills. Half-Elves can round out a lot of builds. Likhos on the other hand feel forced into being Wizards or Arcane Tricksters. :-/I'm particularly sensitive to the idea that likho are basically slotted into wizard or arcane trickster. You're right, and I don't want that to be the case. What if outbreeds got to decide where their +1 went?

One thing working to make them so narrowly useful for builds is how little use Intelligence is beyond those classes which use it as a primary. Originally these guys got Charisma, but I realized that psions are going to be using Int when they eventually get released, and I wanted to set these guys up for psychic shenanigans if and when that happens. But if it ends up being too restrictive on the race, I might go back and switch that, or do the fix you suggest below with the +2 subraces.


Overall suggestions: Bump the ability score adjustments of each subrace up by one. Either give Outbreed +2 to Constitution or +1 to Con and +1 to Charisma, and give Backbreed either +2 to Wisdom or +1 to Wis and +1 to Dex (I would argue for +2 Constitution for the Outbreed and +2 Wisdom for the Backbreed). This serves dual-purpose; one is an obvious slight increase in power, but the other is an increase in perceived versatility. Whichever you choose, now the Likho feels less locked in as a Wizard. Upgrade Diverse Parentage to "you gain proficiency in one skill, one weapon, and one tool of your choice, and you speak one additional language." Keep Sunlight Sensitivity, but give the Backbreed racial spellcasting for Dissonant Whispers at 3rd level, and Detect Thoughts at 5th level.Huh, those ideas for racial casting sound better than what I had in mind. I'll probably use those. I also like the upgrade for Diverse Parentage, so I'll use that too, thanks!

As to the +2's replacing the +1's, I'd like to keep the +1's if possible and use the extra design space to add an ability that makes the likho more generally powerful and useful, rather than give them more stats. I'll keep the possibility in the back pocket, but I'll try to make them work without it first.

What if I did the following:

Upgraded the Diverse Parentage trait along the lines you suggested.
Gave the spell abilities of the back-breed an upgrade to a daily spell at 3rd and 5th level.
Let outbreeds choose where their +1 goes.
Buff Hybrid Vigour in some small way, maybe giving them immunity to a condition or bonuses to death saves or something.
Psychic Resistance I could take or leave, I might drop it if I think of something else to give the base race which makes them more broadly appealing for different builds.
I'll try to think of one more fairly simple but generally useful thing to give the base race to up their power a tad. No great ideas at the moment, but something that makes them good as fighty types would be nice.
I'll think hard about switching these guys to getting +2 Charisma, the outbreeds getting +1 to any score, and the back-breeds getting +1 Int. That would keep the back-breeds as possible psions, but possibly make the race more broadly appealing since Cha is a more generally useful stat than Int. Thoughts?


Thanks for your great comments again.

[Ziegander]

You're welcome! :smallamused:

I thought +2 Con for Outbreed was cool because then maybe you would see more physical classes look at the race and +2 Wis was nice for the Backbreed because then you might see Clerics, Druids, and even Rangers take a look.

Another thing I thought of was perhaps you go a route similar to the Triton and give the base Likho +1 to Int, Wis, and Cha and then give the Outbreed a +1 bonus to its choice of Str, Dex, or Con and the Backbreed a further +1 to its choice of Int, Wis, or Cha. Then you can allow Backbreed's feedback to apply to Cha saves as well as Int/Wis and maybe to buff Hybrid Vigor you can let the Outbreed gain advantage to one Str, Dex, or Con check or saving throw per long rest (hell, could maybe even include Str/Dex based attack rolls to make it just that little bit more attractive to the physical classes)?

[JNAProductions]

Minor actions are a 4E thing. Do you mean bonus action? And this is OP. At-will Frightening is VERY POWERFUL. I'd either make it X/Rest, or make it so you can only affect a creature once every 24 hours.

Back-Breeds are probably too weak. They have some nice abilities, but Sunlight Sensitivity is killer in some campaigns. I'd either add a little more or get rid of the Sensitivity.

[Ziegander]

Minor actions are a 4E thing. Do you mean bonus action? And this is OP. At-will Frightening is VERY POWERFUL. I'd either make it X/Rest, or make it so you can only affect a creature once every 24 hours.

It is once per short rest, my man.

[Steel Mirror]

Minor actions are a 4E thing. Do you mean bonus action? And this is OP. At-will Frightening is VERY POWERFUL. I'd either make it X/Rest, or make it so you can only affect a creature once every 24 hours.

Back-Breeds are probably too weak. They have some nice abilities, but Sunlight Sensitivity is killer in some campaigns. I'd either add a little more or get rid of the Sensitivity.
Good catch, I totally mixed that up. I meant bonus action indeed, and changed it accordingly. It is once per short rest though, so not as powerful as all that. :smallbiggrin:

I am working on buffing back-breeds, and the race in general. I'll get the modifications up soonest.

[JNAProductions]

Good catch, I totally mixed that up. I meant bonus action indeed, and changed it accordingly. It is once per short rest though, so not as powerful as all that. :smallbiggrin:

I am working on buffing back-breeds, and the race in general. I'll get the modifications up soonest.

Derp. I completely missed that line. :P

I like the work here!

[Steel Mirror]

Okay, thank you guys again for the advice and opinions. I've included a lot of it into an updated version for the race, and now I'm curious if anyone thinks I've gone too far the other direction and made these guys too powerful.

I upgraded outbreeds by improving their Diverse Parentage. I also buffed Hybrid Vigour by giving it a small version of the gnome's Gnome Cunning, or the more general Magic Resistance trait, except that it only works on Constitution saves. That's still pretty powerful as it's one of the big 3, and the one most associated with save-or-die type stuff, so I am worried that it might be too good. But hey, thought I'd try it out and see if anyone has thoughts.

I improved the back-breeds substantially. They now have a casting trait that upgrades at 3 and 5 with some very nice racial spells, in addition to what I did with racial ASI's. (thanks to Ziegander)

Which brings me to the ability scores. Being a likho now gives you +1 Int instead of the old +2. Being an outbreed allows you to increase an ability score of your choice by 2 or two ability scores by 1 each, and you can use that second option to give them +2 Int and +1 anything else. Back-breeds just flat-out increase all their mental scores by +1 on top of the base race, netting them +2 Int and +1 Wis and Cha.

This should make back-breeds attractive to a lot of possible builds (casters mostly), though they remain largely appealing to Int classes. I think that's okayish for the subrace, because back-breeds are supposed to be kind of rare and focused on their mental development (i.e. wizards, psions, and related builds), but I'm considering letting them decide to base their spell DCs and eye attack DC on any mental score they want, which might help open them up slightly to being Wis and Cha casters.

Outbreeds, on the other hand, can excel at all sorts of stuff, so I hope they are now more widely appealing.

Feel free to tell me I've gone mad with power on this one. :smallbiggrin:

[JBPuffin]

This is cool beans. I don't think it's terribly unbalanced mechanically, unless it's too flexible with outbreed, but it's so weird I can't help but give it the benefit of the doubt. My characters would love these guys...
See, I have two - one an Arctic Druid, another a Light Cleric - who are both rather eccentric. The druid has a moral compass that doesn't really exist anymore, and he has a tendency to go about things in ways others won't entirely process (kidnapping the child-king mid-demon-fight to protect him, turning into an octopus to swim alongside the perfectly-functionable raft, et cetera). The OTHER character is gender-ambiguous (a hilarious accident of roleplay there...), childishly naive, but always trying to do the right thing. Heck, he/she might BE one of these. That'd be cool.

[Ziegander]

This is GREAT now, I love what you chose to do in the end with the base and the two subraces. I would love to play or DM this. Make sure you do another pass for typos, I noticed one or two, but I can't remember what they were now.

[Steel Mirror]

See, I have two - one an Arctic Druid, another a Light Cleric - who are both rather eccentric. The druid has a moral compass that doesn't really exist anymore, and he has a tendency to go about things in ways others won't entirely process (kidnapping the child-king mid-demon-fight to protect him, turning into an octopus to swim alongside the perfectly-functionable raft, et cetera). The OTHER character is gender-ambiguous (a hilarious accident of roleplay there...), childishly naive, but always trying to do the right thing. Heck, he/she might BE one of these. That'd be cool.
That's cool! Those two both sound like they are the sort of character I was angling to promote when I was coming up with these folks, the weird and just off but seldom malicious sociopath with childlike innocence and an odd affinity for tentacles. I mean, what?

I'm glad you like them!


This is GREAT now, I love what you chose to do in the end with the base and the two subraces. I would love to play or DM this. Make sure you do another pass for typos, I noticed one or two, but I can't remember what they were now.
I noticed one typo, but I'm sure there are others. I'll give it another pass later when my eyes are fresh, and eventually I'd like to make a pdf to compile a bunch of my monster races for people to download. Thanks for looking, and for helping me massage these guys into a more complete shape!

[Ziegander]

I have one worry now: that the Outbreed is potentially slightly too attractive as a player race. It would be the ONLY race with a floating +2 bonus to put into any score you want, making it often even more key to build versatility than the Half-Elf. Combined with Ancestral Memory, I think it steps too far onto the Half-Elves toes as to make them potentially obsolete (and we don't want that, because this is the first edition to make Half-Elves awesome).

Unfortunately... I have no quick and easy remedy for this, as giving them just one floating +1 feels totally lame.

It would be a unique, and slightly inelegant mechanic, but what if Outbreeds got a free +1 to any ability score and could trade in their base +1 to intelligence for yet another +1 to any other score that could be added to their normal Outbreed +1 for a total of +2 to any one ability score?

[Steel Mirror]

I could accomplish that by getting rid of any ability score increase from the base race, then giving the oubreeds:

Ability Score Increase. One ability score of your choice increases by 2.

and then giving the back-breeds:

Ability Score Increase. Choose from among your Wisdom, Intelligence, and Charisma scores. One increases by 2, and another increases by 1.

I was sort of feeling that these guys were too strong, anyway. :smallredface: With those changes, do they still seem to make sense and seem adaptable and fun?

[Ziegander]

If you did that, then I would recommend amending Ancestral Memory and Otherworldly Eye to key off of Constitution since almost everyone will eventually try for at least a +1 bonus from that score.

[Steel Mirror]

If you did that, then I would recommend amending Ancestral Memory and Otherworldly Eye to key off of Constitution since almost everyone will eventually try for at least a +1 bonus from that score.
Ack, good point. For fluff reasons that's not ideal, but I'd rather the race be actually fun to play than obsess about getting all the fluff lined up just so.

Still, I'll give it some thought.

[Sariel Vailo]

This will be fun.

[Llama513]

I love the idea behind this race, it gives rise to really fun characters, and allows you to play as character's that might normally be looked at as evil, but for the character you are delving into a path of experiences that you find brings the most elation

[Steel Mirror]

This will be fun.

I love the idea behind this race, it gives rise to really fun characters, and allows you to play as character's that might normally be looked at as evil, but for the character you are delving into a path of experiences that you find brings the most elation
Thanks! I really like the fluff on this one too, I spent a lot of time juggling different mechanics to try to get it to come through in game terms, as well. As I said I'm happy with it, though the more I go over my race stuff the more I'm worried that I'm power creeping myself every time I make a new one. The forum has been hugely helpful in working through this stuff though, so I'm feeling tentatively happy with where Likho are at right now.

EDIT: Though I still haven't made up my mind on the racial DCs yet....