Subraces

[alchemyprime]

Just wondering about environmental subraces.

What would you say is key among the environments for certain subraces? What are common themes among the following?

• Arctic
• Desert
• Swamp
• Jungle
• Aquatic
• Underdark
• Any others I forgot

Any thoughts? Honestly, I'm making new race writeups with the subraces built in, and so I was wondering what mechanically makes you think "Oh, the're from the desert" or "oh, this guy is underwater."

Thanks for your help, folks!

[Boci]

Is this the kind of things you're looking for?

[*]Desert

-2 strength, +2 dexterity/constitution. Hot weather means heavy armour is to be shunned, so dex mod to AC becomes more important, and con helps with the fortitude saves.

[*]Aquatic

-2 dex, +2 strength. Cannot really dodge or use fine manipulation and stealth under water, so brute strength is more valuable.

[alchemyprime]

Is this the kind of things you're looking for?



-2 strength, +2 dexterity/constitution. Hot weather means heavy armour is to be shunned, so dex mod to AC becomes more important, and con helps with the fortitude saves.



-2 dex, +2 strength. Cannot really dodge or use fine manipulation and stealth under water, so brute strength is more valuable.

Hm... not so much ability stats as common trends in mechanical benefits. So things like Gills for aquatics, Cold resist for arctic, etc.

Or things you think are cool, or should have a mechanical Benefit.

[Devils_Advocate]

Well, there are already the environmental and elemental racial variants from Unearthed Arcana. You should look at those if you haven't already.

[alchemyprime]

Well I looked at those quite a bit, and I did decide some of those points were worth keeping.

Well, now for my campaigns, I'm giving each race its own Background benefits (which will be a combination of subraces or training). So for example, a Warforged that is just a Warforged can choose Grunt (soldier background), Godforged (religious zealot warforged), Freeforged (Warforged made after the wars were all done), Awakened (philosophical Warforged) or Servant (background from serving nobility), or you can be a different model of Warforged, such as Snowforged, Seaforged, Sandforged, Darkforged, Psiforged, Scout or Bull.

And each has a mechanical benefit as well. For example, Grunts gain training in one extra Weapon Group (from UA!) of their choice, and gain a +1 racial bonus to attack rolls with said weapons. Meanwhile, a Freeforged gets one extra skill point per level, like a human does.

I'm trying to make subraces/backgrounds for every race as such, and there will be some fun ones in there.