The Mighty: Broken?

[nick_crenshaw]

+2 Strength, +2 Constitution, -2 Dexterity: The mighty are tough and strong, but not too nimble.
Medium: As Medium creatures, the mighty have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size.
The mighty base land speed is 30 feet.
Low-Light Vision: The mighty can see twice as far as a human in starlight, moonlight, torchlight, and similar conditions of poor illumination. He retains the ability to distinguish color and detail under these conditions.
Powerful Build: The physical stature of the mighty lets them function in many ways as if they were one size category larger.
Whenever the mighty are subject to a size modifier or special size modifier for an opposed check (such as during grapple checks, bull rush attempts, and trip attempts), the mighty is treated as one size larger if doing so is advantageous to him.
The mighty are also considered to be one size larger when determining whether a creature’s special attacks based on size (such as improved grab or swallow whole) can affect him. The mighty can use weapons designed for a creature one size larger without penalty. However, their space and reach remain those of a creature of their actual size. The benefits of this racial trait stack with the effects of powers, abilities, and spells that change the subject’s size category.
The mighty count Climb, Jump, and Swim as class skill for all classes.
The mighty are immune to fear (magical or otherwise).
Automatic Language: Common. Bonus Languages: Draconic, Giant, Gnoll, Ignan.
Favored Class: Barbarian.
Level Adjustment: +1


I need help converting the following into 3rd/3.5:
Superhuman Endurance: You can focus your will to occasionally shrug off injury. When you take damage, you can use your reaction to roll a d12. Add your Constitution modifier to the number rolled, and reduce the damage by that total. After you use this trait, you can’t use it again until you finish a short or long rest.

[Fizban]

The first part looks like pretty bog-standard Half-Giant- so whether or not it's worth LA depends on whether you use LA, or turn around and give it away for free or "buyoff" or whatever.

The second part- look's like 5e's Fighter. The short rest would either convert to per encounter or 1/hour, but being what is effectively a hit point reserve that changes things. Tome of Battle has hit point recovery on encounter basis, but it requires you to attack, while Hellbreaker is a PrC requiring 5th+ level and significant level investment. I would say this should be a 1/day ability. Yeah, that's not an every other fight ability, but 3.x is only supposed to average 4 fights per day, not 6-8 like in 5e.

Fluff-wise, suddenly being tough is temporary hit points. A reaction is an immediate action. Half-Ogres have a 1/day 1st level power (Stomp). LA +1 means that you're normally one HD behind, but this ability will cancel much of that out as long as you're aware of the attack- however, giving something like a flat +5 (as 1pp Vigor) will leave people annoyed with it at high levels. Unlike Half-Giants these lack the 2pp that unlock Psionic feats, and for a PsyWar, would actually be worth another 10hp. In the end, d12+con is probably fine.

So: 1/day, gain 1d12+Con temporary hit points as an immediate action.

[Saintheart]

If the word "damage" in that ability applies also to ability damage and not just hitpoint damage, I become a bit better at fighting stat-draining creatures like shadows. Ability damage dice rarely get above 1d4, if I have 18 CON, at least one touch of a shadow does nothing to me. Or I can now shrug off ability damage from a poison even if I fail my save. Indeed, if the secondary onset time of the poison is once per day or once per 8 hours or so, I need not ever worry about the poison ever again.

[nick_crenshaw]

The first part looks like pretty bog-standard Half-Giant- so whether or not it's worth LA depends on whether you use LA, or turn around and give it away for free or "buyoff" or whatever.
That because I used the half-time as the basis. As for the LA while I don't want to use it is part of the 3rd/3.5 rules if I ever publish this I will probably need to include it.

The second part- look's like 5e's Fighter. The short rest would either convert to per encounter or 1/hour, but being what is effectively a hit point reserve that changes things. Tome of Battle has hit point recovery on encounter basis, but it requires you to attack, while Hellbreaker is a PrC requiring 5th+ level and significant level investment. I would say this should be a 1/day ability. Yeah, that's not an every other fight ability, but 3.x is only supposed to average 4 fights per day, not 6-8 like in 5e.
That's because the fan created race it originally came from is a 5th Ed. race.

Fluff-wise, suddenly being tough is temporary hit points. A reaction is an immediate action. Half-Ogres have a 1/day 1st level power (Stomp). LA +1 means that you're normally one HD behind, but this ability will cancel much of that out as long as you're aware of the attack- however, giving something like a flat +5 (as 1pp Vigor) will leave people annoyed with it at high levels. Unlike Half-Giants these lack the 2pp that unlock Psionic feats, and for a PsyWar, would actually be worth another 10hp. In the end, d12+con is probably fine.

So: 1/day, gain 1d12+Con temporary hit points as an immediate action.
That actually sounds about right to me. Would a 1/day, one round long DR 5/- be too much? Or should I stick to the temp up?

[AvatarVecna]

That second ability you're wanting conversion is just a 5e goliath ability renamed. And honestly the whole thing just generally looks like a refluffed goliath. maybe use Goliath stats and make a racial feat for Stone's Superhuman Endurance?

[Fizban]

Would a 1/day, one round long DR 5/- be too much? Or should I stick to the temp up?
Hmm. Significantly less practical effect at lower levels, but potentially multiplying to much greater effect at higher levels. Biofeedback gives DR, 2/- at PsyWar 1, but for 1 min/level. Even at immediate the 1 round duration is probably worth an increase.

Yeah, 1/day immediate DR 5/- for one round would probably work great, and feel more unique (if not very 3.x) while feeling a lot less 5e. I would add clarifying language as to what 1 round means- normally durations effectively tick down at the start of your turn, so if you want it to last to the end of the turn or all the way through to the initiative count it was activated on, you'll need to specify.

[Fouredged Sword]

Honestly the damage reduction could just as easily be speced "When rolling initiative at the start of combat, also roll 1d12 and add your con modifier. Gain that amount in temp HP that last until the end of the battle."

It would be an interesting thing. You get a small pool of temp HP that lets you ignore a small amount of damage. It would be a bigger deal at low levels when even 5 temp HP is a big deal.

It would also be cool to have barbarian feats that pair with this class feature to trigger it again when rage is activated. Temp HP don't stack, but it would allow you to take a hit and then use rage to refresh your temp HP. Then perhaps follow up feats that turn it to 2d12.

[Darg]

I think converting the Superhuman Endurance ability into a racial version of the Crusader's Steely Resolve would work much better. Delay damage equal to 1/2 character level (min 1) * con modifier. The number of rounds you can delay the damage is equal to your con modifier.


Temp HP don't stack

From different sources they do unless it specifically says it doesn't stack. It's not a bonus, it's a separate health pool. So Aid, False life, and Vampiric Touch can stack to give a sizeable temp hp pool.

[Kitsuneymg]

Just as a point of comparison, the base Beeserking ability in that sphere for Spheres of Might grants 3+bab temp HP for 1 round as a free action (inflicts -2 ac) you can use once a round. And it’s nowhere near the top of my radar on things to worry about balance wise.

If anything, 1d12+con temp hp is underpowered at 1/day. It’s just false life, and I don’t hear anyone really singing that spell’s praises.

[Thurbane]

Don't the Elan have something similar, where they can burn power points to reduce damage?

Here's we go:


Resilience (Su): When an elan takes damage, she can spend power points to reduce its severity. As an immediate action, she can reduce the damage she is about to take by 2 hit points for every 1 power point she spends.

...not sure best way to integrate that for a non-psionic race, though.

[Rebel7284]

Damage reduction and temporary HP, while often doing the same thing, are not always the same. I think "as an immediate action, DR 1D12+con/- against ONE attack" works well enough. Make it stack with Barbarian DR for flavor.

[nick_crenshaw]

Damage reduction and temporary HP, while often doing the same thing, are not always the same. I think "as an immediate action, DR 1D12+con/- against ONE attack" works well enough. Make it stack with Barbarian DR for flavor.

So far I think this comes the closest to what I'm looking for, my only question is in 5e long are short rests and long rests?

[Rebel7284]

So far I think this comes the closest to what I'm looking for, my only question is in 5e long are short rests and long rests?

That sentence doesn't actually make sense, but I will talk about the topic in general!

3.5 has
- per-encounter abilities that roughly correspond to abilities that are usable per short rest
- per-day abilities that roughly correspond to abilities that are usable per long rest

In general, per-encounter abilities were underutilized in D&D3.5. Skill tricks, Factotum's inspiration pool, and some TOB mechanics are the only things off the top of my head that use per-encounter heavily. But the precedent is there and correlates quite nicely with short/long rests.

Whether this particular race should have the ability 1/day or 1/encounter is a judgement call. Considering how short D&D combat can be, especially and mid to high levels, 1/encounter is a notable power boost. Also, while per-encounter abilities do exist in the game, there aren't any playable races that I know of that get them. (queue some obscure Dragon Magazine race that proves the point by being an exception), while a ton of races get 1/day SLA or special ability such as.
Half Giant- 1/day Stomp
Aasimar- 1/day Daylight
Druegar- 1/day Enlarge Person or Expansion

Of course there are exceptions like:
Xephs - 3/day Burst

Edit:
Of course you can combine per day and per encounter limitations, but that adds complexity since the character needs to keep track of more things.

[Thurbane]

Damage reduction and temporary HP, while often doing the same thing, are not always the same. I think "as an immediate action, DR 1D12+con/- against ONE attack" works well enough. Make it stack with Barbarian DR for flavor.

That's a decent approximation in 3.5 terms, but feels a little OP compared to similar abilities (such as the aforementioned Elan Resilience, or the Spell Shield Sorcerer ACF).

It all depends on how you feel about LA: if you want to try and stick close to what WotC assigned, it may be a bit powerful for LA +1. If you look at what Playgrounders would feel is fair, they'd say the whole package is barely worth more than LA +0.

[Elves]

So far I think this comes the closest to what I'm looking for, my only question is in 5e long are short rests and long rests?
short rest/long rest are a less overtly mechanical way of saying per-encounter/per-day.

[noob]

short rest/long rest are a less overtly mechanical way of saying per-encounter/per-day.

I prefer per encounter/ per day design than per short rest/ long rest.
The per short rest thing is super annoying because it takes 1 hour to take a short rest which is so enormously astronomically super long that it will never happen without the situation being tailored to allow it.(you can not be stringent with the timer or else it is too short for people to take a short rest and you can not allow a too long timer(or allow yourself to not put a timer) or else they take long rests and you can not use resetting dungeons (a normally valid way to prevent long rest abuse) because you need to get far from the dungeon to take a short rest)
It also allows abuse such as having a warlock with an healing ability taking multiple short rests in a row to reheal the entire party and have its spells ready(ex: a champions and a warlock party can just do nearly everything by only ever using short rests).
Fundamentally short rest recovery design enforces the use of a timer and careful constant calculation on the time to put for the timer(if you put one hour too much then they might do a double short rest or something else broken like that and if you put 5 minutes too few they might run out of time too early).
I think an even better thing for easier adventure design than per encounter/per day would be something like per encounter/ per plot significant event(ex: the bbeg retreats or you find the dungeon you need to explore to get the spoon of destiny).

[Thurbane]

Weirdly, the short rest mechanic was one of the things I enjoyed most in my brief stint playing 5E.

It was designed to combat the 15-minute adventuring day, and I feel it did a decent job.

For sure it is adventure/location/DM dependent. You usually can't just sit twiddling your thumbs for 60 minutes in an unexplored dungeon - but while we were running through a pre-published 5E module, we found opportunities to leave the current locale, travel 10 minutes down the road or so, and do our short rests.

I mean, I guess we could have just used the same tactic do do full rests, but elements of the adventure were time sensitive, so we got a lot more adventuring done in shorter amount of in-game time.

[Elves]

The short rest/long rest mechanic is from 4e, it's technically what encounter and daily powers were but people didn't read the fluff and got mad.
Albeit the short rests were 5 minutes then which is better than an hour and speaks to noob's concern. 5e was a step backward there.

[Thurbane]

The short rest/long rest mechanic is from 4e, it's technically what encounter and daily powers were but people didn't read the fluff and got mad.
Albeit the short rests were 5 minutes then which is better than an hour and speaks to noob's concern. 5e was a step backward there.

Interesting. I basically skipped 4E altogether: I played one session at my FLGS on game Day, and both myself an one of my other group members who was there decided "Nope, not for us". :smalltongue: