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NerdHut
2018-05-10, 03:17 AM
I love the concept of the of the Stonechild (Races of Stone, pg 92-94). I don't love how costly it is to play. If you're going mostly fighter as a class it's not terrible, but still pretty steep.

My idea is to create a Lesser variant of the Stonechild, in a similar vein to the Lesser Planetouched from Forgotten Realms. I want to keep the general feel of the race, but turn it into a no-RHD, LA +1 or +2 race, so it's more playable. I don't necessarily expect to use this as a player, but would make it available in games I run, and might use it for an NPC or two.

Here's my starting point:

LESSER STONECHILD RACIAL TRAITS

+4 Strength, +4 Constitution, +2 Intelligence, -2 Charisma
Size: Medium
Monstrous Humanoid: As monstrous humanoids, lesser stonechildren are proficient with all simple weapons, but they have no proficiency with any armor or shield.
Base Land Speed: 30 ft
Darkvision: 60 ft
Natural Armor: +2 natural armor bonus
Special Qualities: Acid resistance 5
+2 racial bonus to saving throws against poison
Automatic Languages: Common and Terran. Bonus Languages: Celestial, Dwarven, Ignan.
Favored Class: Fighter (I don't use favored class mechanics in my games, but if it's approved as homebrew for someone else's game, it might come up)
Level adjustment +2 (maybe +1, but it seems a bit strong for that to me)


How should this be altered, if at all?

rferries
2018-05-11, 01:46 AM
I love the concept of the of the Stonechild (Races of Stone, pg 92-94). I don't love how costly it is to play. If you're going mostly fighter as a class it's not terrible, but still pretty steep.

My idea is to create a Lesser variant of the Stonechild, in a similar vein to the Lesser Planetouched from Forgotten Realms. I want to keep the general feel of the race, but turn it into a no-RHD, LA +1 or +2 race, so it's more playable. I don't necessarily expect to use this as a player, but would make it available in games I run, and might use it for an NPC or two.

Here's my starting point:

LESSER STONECHILD RACIAL TRAITS

+4 Strength, +4 Constitution, +2 Intelligence, -2 Charisma
Size: Medium
Monstrous Humanoid: As monstrous humanoids, lesser stonechildren are proficient with all simple weapons, but they have no proficiency with any armor or shield.
Base Land Speed: 30 ft
Darkvision: 60 ft
Natural Armor: +2 natural armor bonus
Special Qualities: Acid resistance 5
+2 racial bonus to saving throws against poison
Automatic Languages: Common and Terran. Bonus Languages: Celestial, Dwarven, Ignan.
Favored Class: Fighter (I don't use favored class mechanics in my games, but if it's approved as homebrew for someone else's game, it might come up)
Level adjustment +2 (maybe +1, but it seems a bit strong for that to me)


How should this be altered, if at all?

I like it, and would peg it as LA+1. Maybe brew some racial feats too, or add Earth Mastery (as an earth elemental) or somesuch?

NerdHut
2018-05-11, 06:36 AM
I like it, and would peg it as LA+1. Maybe brew some racial feats too, or add Earth Mastery (as an earth elemental) or somesuch?

I assume you mean feats they could take as they level up? I wouldn't want to make it's starting power any higher than this at LA +1. If that's what you mean, I can definitely get behind that thought. A couple years back I played a reworked Stonechild in a high-powered campaign where I had powers like Earth-Glide. I wouldn't want to grant that through a feat, but being able to add elemental themed powers made for a great character.

At the moment, though, I'm most concerned with whether it's too weak as LA +2 or too strong as LA +1. It's hard to pinpoint with how wonky WotC was with their own level adjustments.

rferries
2018-05-11, 01:33 PM
I assume you mean feats they could take as they level up? I wouldn't want to make it's starting power any higher than this at LA +1. If that's what you mean, I can definitely get behind that thought. A couple years back I played a reworked Stonechild in a high-powered campaign where I had powers like Earth-Glide. I wouldn't want to grant that through a feat, but being able to add elemental themed powers made for a great character.

At the moment, though, I'm most concerned with whether it's too weak as LA +2 or too strong as LA +1. It's hard to pinpoint with how wonky WotC was with their own level adjustments.

Yep, I meant feats exclusive to this race. Earth-Glide could be a feat for characters of ~13th level or higher (when casters gain the ability to use ethereal jaunt etc).

I'd say it's a strong LA+1. WOTC often went overboard with assigning LA; actual character levels are almost always more useful.

NerdHut
2018-05-11, 02:25 PM
Earth-Glide could be a feat for characters of ~13th level or higher

If I add those things in, I'd definitely put it around that level or higher. In that old campaign, things went out of control pretty quickly. I had 2 outsider levels, LA +2, and four levels of Warrior (Generic UA version, not NPC), and solo'd an encounter that should have been appropriate for a party of 4-5 Level 10-11 characters because of the extra powers I had. The other players had similarly buffed characters, and it felt like a badly written superman fanfic. At level 8.


I'd say it's a strong LA+1. WOTC often went overboard with assigning LA; actual character levels are almost always more useful.

That's fair. I've used a few different guides now for determining LA, and they've all put it around that Strong +1/Weak +2 area. And since it'll boost mundanes a reasonable amount and just turn casters into "not as squishy" Strong +1 seems the way to go.

nonsi
2018-05-12, 03:44 AM
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Why would the Stonechild race have +2 Int adjustment?
AFAIK, there's nothing about stone affinity that translates to superior intelligence.

PersonMan
2018-05-12, 04:20 AM
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Why would the Stonechild race have +2 Int adjustment?
AFAIK, there's nothing about stone affinity that translates to superior intelligence.

The original has +2 Intelligence as well, I imagine it just wasn't changed.

NerdHut
2018-05-12, 03:51 PM
The original has +2 Intelligence as well, I imagine it just wasn't changed.

That's exactly why. I also kept the -2 Charisma, because I felt they balanced each other a little and lent some storytelling flavor.