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View Full Version : D&D 5e/Next Rockfell [Race]



Yunru
2019-04-10, 02:35 PM
So here's one I grabbed off of an old campaign I used to run. Probably not terribly balanced, one of my players wanted to play something like a Galeb Duhr, so we spent like five minutes coming up with this:

The Rockfell are boulder-like creatures with stumpy appendages that act as arms and legs.

Ability Score Increase: Your Constitution score increases by 2 and your Strength score increases by 1, or your Strength score increases by 2 and your Constitution score increases by 1.

Age: Rockfell don’t age or require sustenance, making excellent sentinels.

Alignment: Most Rockfell are chaotic, favouring their freedom and living in small communities. They tend towards good as well, believing that supporting one another allows the whole to succeed.

Size: Rockfell stand between 4 and 5 feet tall and average about 150 pounds. Your size is Medium.

Speed: Your base walking speed is 15 feet. While rolling your base walking speed is 30 feet, or 60ft if rolling downhill.

Darkvision: Accustomed to life underground, you have superior vision in dark and dim conditions. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were brightly lit, and in darkness as if it were dimly lit. You can’t discern colour in darkness, only shades of grey.

Poison Immune: You’re immune to poison damage and the Poisoned condition.

Rocky Appearance: You have advantage on checks to pretend to be a boulder as long as you don’t move.

Rolling Charge: While rolling, as long as you move at least 20 feet towards a target, melee attacks against that target this turn deal an extra 2d6 damage. Additionally, the target must succeed on a Strength saving throw against a DC of 8 + your proficiency + your Strength modifier or fall prone.

Languages: You can speak, read and write Common.

Cynthaer
2019-04-10, 04:20 PM
Seems alright overall. Some thoughts:

Just make it +1 Str/+2 Con. Giving two meaningless options is unnecessary.

The rolling thing is cute. Can they roll uphill? I'd suggest forcing them to walk up inclines; that'll make some interesting tactical choices about how to approach enemies.

I don't really like damage immunities on player races, but I think it's unavoidable here.

Rocky Appearance is fine. How about stealing the Stonecunning template from dwarves? "Whenever you make a Dexterity (Stealth) check related to disguising yourself as a boulder, you are considered proficient in the Stealth skill and add double your proficiency bonus to the check, instead of your normal proficiency bonus."

The Charge template you cribbed from the Monster Manual is really built for NPCs, and gets way overpowered once you start thinking about classes that can make 3-4 attacks in a turn. Consider that you've basically given the character (A) an extra greatsword worth of damage and (B) the Trip Attack battlemaster maneuver, for free, on every attack.

So let's try to rein this in a little. Using the Charger feat and the Ravnica minotaur race as examples, how about something like this:


Rolling Charge. Immediately after you use the Dash action on your turn and move at least 20 feet, you can make one melee attack as a bonus action. If this attack hits, you gain a +5 bonus to the damage roll, and if it is an unarmed strike, you can attempt to knock the target to the ground.

The creature must be no more than one size larger than you and within 5 feet of you. It must make a Strength saving throw against a DC equal to 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Strength modifier. If it fails, it is knocked prone.
You'll notice that this is still quite powerful, and makes for a great opening move. I left the option to make a standard melee attack if you want, but the real use case is an unarmed strike with a big damage bonus that also knocks someone down.

Forcing the player to use a Dash and their bonus action to do this keeps it in the realm of "a tactical option you can use", rather than "the single best thing you could do every turn no matter what".

Yunru
2019-04-10, 04:37 PM
Consider that you've basically given the character (A) an extra greatsword worth of damage and (B) the Trip Attack battlemaster maneuver, for free, on every attack.

Quibble: 2/3 of attacks, on average, unless the player has increased speed, since there's no way to repeatedly move 20 feet away and towards a creature each turn.

Also Charger is garbage, and should only be used as a basis for what not to do.
But yeah, it could probably use some scaling back.

Cynthaer
2019-04-10, 07:30 PM
Quibble: 2/3 of attacks, on average, unless the player has increased speed, since there's no way to repeatedly move 20 feet away and towards a creature each turn.

Also Charger is garbage, and should only be used as a basis for what not to do.
But yeah, it could probably use some scaling back.
Monks and barbarians get increased movement speed, and anyone can take the Mobile feet, which would let you duck out and back in again. Even without that, though, you could still pinball around from one enemy to the next and get the full advantage every turn.

As for Charger, I agree that it's a really weak feat, but (A) that doesn't mean its templating isn't useful, and (B) we're dealing with a race ability, not a feat, so the power level is irrelevant. As it happens, I made the ability much stronger than Charger anyway.

Crisis21
2019-04-10, 10:51 PM
https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/zelda/images/2/2a/Goron_Artwork_%28Ocarina_of_Time%29.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/700?cb=20110427012430