Exotic Races Builds

[Domigorgon]

This is a brainstorming thing. Which races other than the core ones would you consider well-suited to the core classes? With, say, up to +4 level adjustment, monsters and outsiders included.

You may also recommend some other combinations with exotic classes; i.e. I find the githzerai well-suited for ninjas, with their Dex and Wis bonuses and appropriate backstory.

I'm sort of bored by humans, dwarves, elves, etc.

[Sstoopidtallkid]

Kobolds do it better. Also, almost all of the Eberron races are awesome, though the Kalashtar require Psionics.

[ColdSepp]

Goliaths are a favorite of mine. Races of Stone.

[deuxhero]

I heard steel dragons make a decent gish.

[Gnaeus]

Pixies make good rogues and sorcerers.
Marrulurk (Sandstorm) make awesome rogues/assassins/roguelike classes
Ghosts can be good in some caster builds, because they are so hard to kill (ecl +5 tho).
It isn't exactly optimized, but I played a half dragon, half ogre chain tripper that was a blast to play. Half ogre is ok in a lot of trip builds. (Races of Destiny)
Necropolitans are a good choice for wizards and sorcs, especially in point buy games where you can tank your Con. (Libris Mortis)
In those rare games where armor class rules, lizardmen can be fun when combined with any class that gets good hp and wears heavy armor.
Gravetouched Ghoul is also good with many builds. It gets huge stat bonuses and good special abilities for 2 ecl. I had a Sorcerer Monk GTG with Ascetic Mage who walked around with a 40 touch AC. (Libris Mortis)

[Stormlock]

Air mephlings get a Fly (10', perfect) speed and only +1 LA, which is pretty damned nice. 10 isn't exactly going to get you anywhere in a hurry (unless maybe you're a monk) but simply having the option to fly 10 feet straight up and hover there raining death is a pretty damned nice option for almost any class. Especially if your DM remembers that you can't hover with average maneuverability granted by overland flight or half dragon/fiend wings

[BenTheJester]

Thri-Kreen Warblade/Disciple of Dispater wielding 3 kukris and the Tiger Fang Weapon of Legacy.

That's like 10 crits every round. and infinite jump.

[Signmaker]

I like Thri-Keens item pitchers. Particularly bards. Dragonfire is a beautiful thing.

Ghostwalk Ghosts make amusing Spring Attackers, Sorcerers, Monks, etc. They have an annoying set of rules to compensate for their LA0 template though.

Kobolds are kobolds. You don't diss them, for they will kill you.

[woodenbandman]

Buomman Bard.

Beat that.

[Signmaker]

Buomman Bard.

Beat that.

Buomman Truenamer. *inspects cuticles*

[The Witch-King]

This is a brainstorming thing. Which races other than the core ones would you consider well-suited to the core classes? With, say, up to +4 level adjustment, monsters and outsiders included.

You may also recommend some other combinations with exotic classes; i.e. I find the githzerai well-suited for ninjas, with their Dex and Wis bonuses and appropriate backstory.

I'm sort of bored by humans, dwarves, elves, etc.

Okay--I'm bored with humans, dwarves, elves, etc. too. So I suppose my first thought is: why not be open-minded? Why are you excluding monsters and outsiders? If you're excluding creatures that don't have arms and hands and opposable thumbs--then I'm on the same page with you. I'm not if we're talking about monstrous humanoids. And outsiders? If they aren't too powerful, why not include them too? Unless of course you're concerned about players literally getting banished from the game. Cause, you know--I get that.

My second thought--and I'm not trying to subvert your intent here--is: what races WOULDN'T go well with the core races? I'm asking that as a legitimate question because my first answer to your question was less "what do I think would complement the other races" and much more "hey--what weird races do I like that I haven't seen as PCs before." I guess I'm wondering what the criteria are here--if there was something that excluded a race from being a good race to pair up with other PC races, it might help define what attributes a new PC race should possess.

My third thought is--if you REALLY want to shake things up--turn the elves, dwarves, gnomes and halflings into monsters. Make the elves aloof forest-dwelling xenophobes who don't tolerate trespassing into their woods. Make the dwarves greedy gold-miners who love powerful magic items and lust for tall women. Turn the gnomes into resentful warlocks who've turned to evil magics because they're afraid of physical confrontations with creatures two and three times their size. And just pitch the halflings into a black hole--cause I can't do anything with that. I mean, you could make them vicious pygmies but that always just struck me as silly. Well, okay--you could turn their tropes on their head--replace them with a race of seven or eight foot tall guys with the same culture. A bunch of heavily muscled eight foot tall humanoids (who aren't too bright) who love nothing more than drinking and dancing and having a good time--and people are forever bothering them to become bodyguards and mercenaries just because they're huge. And if you wind up on the outs with the rest of the community and have to leave the village and take one of those bodyguard/mercenary jobs--it may be against your peaceful nature--but an eight full tall cyclops still has to eat, right?

[HCL]

I would definitely consider the Raptoran (Races of the Wild) to be a tier 1 race. Flight is good for EVERYONE. Melee characters can enjoy making double damage on flying charges with a piercing weapon (*cough* spiked chain *cough*). Arcane casters can skip those fly spells and spend their spell slots and actions summoning air elementals and pwning people with Thunderclap at +1 caster level. Divine casters (consider the divine bard variant) can go into Skypledged and get (limited) spontaneous access to all of the druid and cleric. Definitely my new favorite race.

[Wings of Peace]

Kenku especially mixed with Binder or Totemist for natural attacking insanity would be fun and cheap at +0 LA

[Domigorgon]

@Witchking: I did say INCLUDE outsiders and monsters, not EXCLUDE. You misread.

Also, I am not the Dungeon Master here to change the races, I just want to try out legitimate new combinations with existing possibilities.

You also seem to have a typo there, "what races WOULDN'T go well with the core races", you must mean CLASSES. And, well, isn't it obvious? A race with a penalty on Charisma wouldn't do much good as a bard, now would it.

[kamikasei]

Elans and Changelings all the way.

[Cieyrin]

A race with a penalty on Charisma wouldn't do much good as a bard, now would it.

I don't know, I find Minotaur Bards amusing, personally.

For my choices of races, I like Orogs for gish builds or just kicking ass, Shadar-kai are fun for a dash of stealth in whatever and I <3 Thri-Kreen. Red Caps have interesting advancement rules to exploit, if you can get over advancing as a fey to smash things up something fierce (gotta love a small race with Powerful Build ) and the Urdunir are the one race no one will ever let me play.

[Sstoopidtallkid]

I have often tossed around the idea of a Bard with 3 Cha, focusing on the songs rather than casting. Could work well, but no sane group would allow it.

[Domigorgon]

Well, naturally, if it were a Discworld campaign, I might be tempted to play a 120-year-old human barbarian with a STR 6 and no teeth.

But I'm not. And I like my characters to be believable.

[Cieyrin]

Well, naturally, if it were a Discworld campaign, I might be tempted to play a 120-year-old human barbarian with a STR 6 and no teeth.

But I'm not. And I like my characters to be believable.

I've clearly read little, if any at all, Discworld, but what is your barbarian doing trying to bite people? You grab the biggest weapon you can find and introduce people to the sharp end. Simple.

Sure, he rages to get his strength to get positive bonuses (I hope he's high enough level by that age to get at least Greater Rage, otherwise he would probably be better off retiring and beating on the other retired characters in the retirement community) and if he's got Mighty Rage, he can actually use Power Attack that he used in his more spry days.

[Domigorgon]

It was a reference to an actual character, Cohen the Barbarian. :)

[Irreverent Fool]

It was a reference to an actual character, Cohen the Barbarian. :)

6 STR? Are you suggesting that his din-chewers gave an enhancement bonus to strength?

obnoxious
sig

[Thajocoth]

Xvart. They're small and blue. They're from Dragon 339... The place I originally found them listed them as -2 LA, but looking up the actual Dragon mag to write this post, they're 0 LA...

[Errant_Polearm]

Elans and Changelings all the way.

Yes. Especially if you can get the Phrenic template (though it takes a little rule-bending with Elans, since they're already psionic). I'm not sure it could be called strong, but it can be effective and it's a whole lotta fun.

[kamikasei]

Yes. Especially if you can get the Phrenic template (though it takes a little rule-bending with Elans, since they're already psionic). I'm not sure it could be called strong, but it can be effective and it's a whole lotta fun.

Never mind strength, though neither are weak. They're just cool. (Though any player at my table trying to take phrenic with their class levels counting as hit die for the template's purposes would be angling for an XPH upside the head. And since I use the SRD for my psionics, in practice that means I bean them with my laptop. Not pretty.)

[wadledo]

Never mind strength, though neither are weak. They're just cool. (Though any player at my table trying to take phrenic with their class levels counting as hit die for the template's purposes would be angling for an XPH upside the head. And since I use the SRD for my psionics, in practice that means I bean them with my laptop. Not pretty.)

I can only assume your referring to the PR and Psi-like abilities?
Because class levels are HD when referring to template abilities like that.
Because otherwise it isn't worth it for +2 LA.

[kamikasei]

I'm referring to the template as a whole. I would only apply it to racial hit die. Given the comment in the entry, that seems a reasonable interpretation of its intent.

It's not that I think it's too grossly overpowered - it's just pretty clearly supposed to be for monsters, not characters advancing by class.

[wadledo]

.....So half-Fiends and half-celestials don't get their spell-like abilities?

[Kroy]

Goliathe, Raptorans, Kobolds, and PlaneTouched (Aasmir Gensai and Tieflings)

[kamikasei]

Since my objection to the use of Phrenic for an otherwise normal character is that it's specifically supposed to be for monsters rather than for characters who progress by character class, and since Half-Fiend and so on do not have that problem, I do in fact let them use their class levels for their HD calculations. Again, it's not a matter simply of power or of strict RAW, but of what I see as the fairly clear intent of the template. No one should be a Phrenic <Class>, they should be a <Class>/Psion.

[wadledo]

So it's a fluff thing.