[Race] Shifter Awakened beast

[Marcloure]

Hey folks.
I made a homebrew of my take on the shifter race. Most things are explained in the document itself, so I'll be brief here. There we go:

http://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/r1OSQBDEM

I would like to know its general power, how it competes with other races. I think it looks a bit strong, but I don't think it fits all niche to overthrow other races (it's like the aasimar in that regard). How do you feel about the race, what would change and what things are good as is?

Some of my personal takes. Beasthide and Natural Weapon are traits you can have by paying 25 gp. Wild Hunt is good, free advantage and that is it. The other two benefits are a bit harder to estimate. Immediate Regeneration is similar to Heavy Armor Master, but happens only once per round (it doesn't care about multiattack or number of foes) and scales with level. Shapeshift is cool and can be very strong, it gives you advantage on perception (sight, hear and smell), but you can't carry equipment while as a beast.

That is it. Thanks!

[Amnoriath]

Regeneration for player characters is an absolute no for 5e. The problem with immediate healing isn't that it isn't as much as a really good feat but is against more types of damage. The problem lies in the fact you don't need to use hit die. So that alone is way too powerful. Even if it were what I described before reducing 2 damage a round is like giving a 20th level character a +2 to constitution at least.

[Marcloure]

Regeneration for player characters is an absolute no for 5e. The problem with immediate healing isn't that it isn't as much as a really good feat but is against more types of damage. The problem lies in the fact you don't need to use hit die. So that alone is way too powerful. Even if it were what I described before reducing 2 damage a round is like giving a 20th level character a +2 to constitution at least.

Even though it has regeneration in its name, the trait is more like a damage reduction 1/round than any sort of passive healing. You could very well read it as "once per round, you can reduce a damage taken by 2. The number of damage reduced increases to 4, 6, 8, 10 at levels 5, 9, 13, 17".
At first, the trait scaled like the proficiency bonus (2, 3, 4, 5, 6), but then I thought it was just to weak at later levels. Now with you comparing it to gaining Constitution, a 5 at 13 level seems ok. You would need to take damage for three rounds to be similar to a +2 Con (that would give you 13 Hp), which seems fine I guess.

[nickl_2000]

Immediate Regeneration. If you take damage while you have at least 1 hit point, you regain 2 hit points at the start of your next turn. The hit points regained by this feature increases to 4 at 5th level, to 6 at 9th level, to 8 at 13th level and to 10 at 17th level.

There is potential for abuse here based on the phrasing. I could take a 10 strength commoner and pay them to punch me over and over again. Their attack does 1 damage (default unarmed strike 1+strength), then I regain 2 hit points. Overall I gain. The default way to resolve this would be to regenerate temporary hit points, or set a max gained back in a round to be equal to the amount of damage taken.

You may have to be careful with Shapeshift. There is some potential for abuse here, especially with the Deinonychus and the Ape. Either limiting multiattack or know that they could be very powerful at early levels. Also, does the to hit bonus change as you level? Because if you don't, this feature will become obsolete pretty quickly.

[Ogrillian]

I’m not sure what settings your using this in but you homebrewed a monk race that beats wood elves with a stick Daffy Duck style
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TJIlCSBfksM

[Marcloure]

There is potential for abuse here based on the phrasing. I could take a 10 strength commoner and pay them to punch me over and over again. Their attack does 1 damage (default unarmed strike 1+strength), then I regain 2 hit points. Overall I gain. The default way to resolve this would be to regenerate temporary hit points, or set a max gained back in a round to be equal to the amount of damage taken.

Yeah, I have not thought of that. These are the kinds of things that are exploitable even though I hope people would have the decency to don't. I'll fix that, probably limiting the regeneration to damage taken. Thanks.


You may have to be careful with Shapeshift. There is some potential for abuse here, especially with the Deinonychus and the Ape. Either limiting multiattack or know that they could be very powerful at early levels. Also, does the to hit bonus change as you level? Because if you don't, this feature will become obsolete pretty quickly.

The idea here is not to give the player the statistics of an animal, like druid's Wild Shape does. Shapeshift do not change any of the players statistics (hp, ac, ability scores, feats, so on) beyond of those listed (type, natural weapon damage, etc).

[Marcloure]

I’m not sure what settings your using this in but you homebrewed a monk race that beats wood elves with a stick Daffy Duck style
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TJIlCSBfksM


[[+2 Dex, +1 Wis] vs. [+1, +1]: wood elf wins here
[Perception prof.] vs. [Survival advantage]: seems fair
[Fey ancestry, Mask of the Wild, Trance, Fleet of Foot] vs. [Regeneration, Shapeshift]: The shifter wins here. They have less traits, but each are quite good (note: I have nerfed the regeneration a bit, and you can't just walk around as an animal, since you can't carry things in that form).
[weapon proficiency] vs. [natural weapon and armor]: I don't think any of these really weight too much. Classes like rogue or cleric can benefit from weapon proficiency, and a weapon and 12+dex armor can be obtained by anyone for 25 gp. I don't think losing equipment is that common to say that it is too strong.
[-] vs. [poisoned by silver]: it's more of a thematic disadvantage than a troubling problem, since enemies carrying silvered weapons are very uncommom (sure, the DM would put some of them if a PC is playing this race)


Overall, I think the shift is indeed a bit stronger, but it has a weakness, and the elf would probably do a better rogue. But thanks for the feedback, I think I might tone down the natural weapon damage in animal form to 1d6.