[3.5, PEACH] Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles

[Rapidghoul]

So I've been designing a campaign placed in the world of Crystal Chronicles. I've done a lot of tweak designing to change things in 3.5 to fit the world, and I've shown what I'm doing to a few more experienced friends, but I'd love some more input (too strong, too weak, too boring).

For now, the most important thing for me is to get the four races finished up (without level adjustments). They are Clavat, Lilty, Selkie, and Yuke. I'm going for races that fill all the basic roles while maintaining the flavor from the games.

I'll start with Clavat, since it's the one I have open at the moment. They're the most defensive of the four races, and in the gamecube game they get the best armor and shield in the game. Other than that, they don't have too much going for them. They don't suck at anything, but they're not the best at anything but defense. Here's what I have so far.

Clavat

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Size: Medium.
Base land speed is 30 feet.
Armor and Shield Proficiency: Clavats receive the Light Armor Proficiency and Shield Proficiency feats as bonus feats.
Shields wielded by Clavats grant an extra +1 to AC.
Clavats suffer a total 5% less Arcane Spell Failure Chance and 1 less Armor Check Penalty for armor and shields they use, and their maximum dexterity bonus is 1 higher.
+2 racial bonus on Diplomacy and Gather Information checks.
+1 racial bonus on all saving throws.
+2 racial bonus on saving throws against fear.
Favored Class: Any.

[Rapidghoul]

No feedback yet, but I have another one of the races.
Lilties are kind of like the dwarves of the world. They're short (usually) and mine the mountains. They are by far the strongest physically and by far the weakest magically.

Lilty

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+2 Strength, -2 Wisdom, -2 Charisma.
Size: Medium.
Base land speed is 20 feet even when carrying a medium or heavy load.
Darkvision 60ft.
+2 bonus to Listen checks.
+1 racial bonus on saving throws against spells or spell-like abilities.
Treats the Double-Lance as a martial weapon.
Favored Class: Fighter.


About one in two hundred Lilties towers over the rest of their race. Such creatures are much stronger than normal Lilties, but not as mentally gifted. They have the following race abilities.
Hulking Lilty
+4 Str, +4 Con, -2 Int, -2 Wis, -2 Cha.
Size: Medium
Base land speed is 30 feet even when carrying a medium or heavy load.
Darkvision 60ft.
Powerful Build: The physical stature of a Hulking Lilty lets them function in many ways as if they were one size category larger. Whenever a Hulking Lilty is subject to a size modifier or special size modifier for an opposed check, they are treated as one size larger if doing so is advantageous to them. A Hulking Lilty is also considered to be one size larger when determining whether a creature's special attacks based on size can affect them. A Hulking Lilty can use weapons designed for a creature one size larger without penalty. However, their space and reach remain those of a creature of his actual size. The benefits of this racial trait stack with the effects of powers, abilities, and spells that change the subject's size category.
+2 bonus to Listen checks.
+1 racial bonus on saving throws against spells or spell-like abilities.
Treats the Double-Lance as a martial weapon.
Favored Class: Barbarian
Level Adjustment: +1

It's a bit simpler, but they get a STR bonus. I'm messing around with giving them racial weaponry like a dwarf gets too, but that's nothing big. Any thoughts on either race thus far?

[Rapidghoul]

Race #3

Selkies are the sneaky-bastard race. They're faster and more agile than anyone else, and they even have a number of thief NPC's in the games.

Selkie

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+2 Dex, -2 Con.
Size: Medium.
Base land speed is 40 feet.
Lowlight vision.
+2 racial bonus to Initiative rolls.
+2 racial bonus to Bluff and Gather Information checks.
+2 racial bonus on Balance and Tumble checks.
Projectile weapon attacks made by Selkies have their range increments increased by 10 feet. Thrown weapon attacks made by Selkies have their range increments increased by 5 feet.
Free Feat - Skill Focus.
Favored Class: Rogue.

[Rapidghoul]

Last race.

Yukes are the mage race of the world. They don't actually have physical forms, just special bodies of armor their souls inhabit. They cast faster than others in the game, but have the absolute worst physical stats.

Yuke

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+2 Int, +2 Cha, -2 Str, -2 Con.
Size: Medium.
Base land speed is 30 feet.
Trances for four hours a day instead of sleeping.
Immunity to Sleep effects.
+2 racial bonus on saves against Disease, Exhaustion, Fatigue, Paralysis, Poison, and Disease.
+1 Natural AC.
Spell-Like Abilities: 1/day - Detect Magic, Detect Secret Doors, and Read Magic.
+2 racial bonus to Spellcraft checks.
Favored Class: Wizard or Sorcerer.


Possible other version:
+2 Int, +2 Cha, -2 Str, -2 Con
Size: Medium
Base land speed is 30 feet.
Living Construct traits (Immune to poison, sleep, paralysis, disease, nausea, fatigue, exhaustion, and energy drain).
Meditates for 4 hours instead of sleeping.
Do not eat, sleep, or breath, but can still benefit from the effects of consumable spells and magic items.
Scintillating Armor: The body of a Yuke is made of a special extraplanar metal used to anchor their soul in the material plane. This plating grants the Yuke a +1 natural armor bonus to AC. Due to the soulbinding nature of the armor, a Yuke applies any natural armor as a deflection bonus, applying to touch attacks and incorporeal attacks.
Favored Class: Wizard or Sorcerer.

[Debihuman]

Your races are too powerful for LA +0.

Debby

[ScionoftheVoid]

Your races are too powerful for LA +0.

Debby

Compared to the PHB races, which will presumably not exist. I don't think that's really a problem. I'd say these four are reasonably accurate representations and with a quick glance over each I'd say they're balanced with one another. Good work!

[Rapidghoul]

Your races are too powerful for LA +0.

Debby

Okay, could you give some pointers or examples of what you'd change? I don't have much to go off of with "too powerful."

Compared to the PHB races, which will presumably not exist. I don't think that's really a problem. I'd say these four are reasonably accurate representations and with a quick glance over each I'd say they're balanced with one another. Good work!

Thanks :) That's what I'm really going for. The campaign won't have any other races to choose from due to the setting, so the biggest thing is to make sure they're equal to each other. I'd hate to have one race obscenely powerful compared to the rest and have to give it a level adjustment.

EDIT: Also, I'm working on tweaking a few base classes and building some prestiges to be Final Fantasy themed. Any overall pointers before I get too far?

[Deepbluediver]

First, I've never played a FF game, so take from my reply what you will, if anything.

I'll keep in mind that you haven't said anything about classes yet, but the first thing that strikes me is that with the races set up the way they are, is there any reason to NOT play the class that fits your race best?
In the D&D core, most of the classes could fit any race decently, even if some racial stats gave a bump here or there, but with the way you've got things going I kind of see each race aligning itself just 1 or 2 classes.
Maybe thats what you are striving for, I'm not sure.

In standard D&D you can have elf-warriors and dwarven magic-users, but with the limits and descriptions your included, it seems like you may as well make race and class one and the same.
Please, don't take that as a bad thing; I've seen a few non-D&D systems that work very well that way, and it can certainly simplify things for new players (or people who don't want to bother learning optimization all over again). Its just been weighted so that I feel like this is the way its gonna play out.

[Rapidghoul]

I understand what you mean, and I agree it's unfortunate.

The game the races are based on actually doesn't have a divided class system, so the races are built in such a way that each race falls into a core role. So to accurately reflect this, the races sort of fell into the same categories of melee based, stealth / ranged based, caster based, and well-rounded.

That said, it's worked in the campaign thus far. I've built several NPCs that don't match their favored classes or outright defy them. The Yuke Swashbuckler and Lilty Dread Necromancer have been two of the most memorable characters. It's like Half-Orc or Halfling; looking at them, they have clear best-options, but the odd Half-Orc Druid or Halfling Fighter shows up to great effect.

EDIT: I've updated the classes to show the latest version of them, not that they are any less compartmentalized. As the campaign progresses, I tweak the races here and there to keep them balanced to one another. I plan to do heavy revision on the races before using them for a new campaign.