Looking for feedback on a Homebrew race I've been working on: The Alma


Homebrew and House Rules


So I'm building a campaign setting, and as part of it I was going to introduce a new playable race. I was hoping I could get some feedback of any kind (balance, suggestions, questions, whatever) on how to finalize my idea. This is my first time putting together a homebrew race, so it is liable to be extremely rough.

The Alma

Liberty's Edge

I need permission to look at the alma =p


Snorb wrote:
I need permission to look at the alma =p

Woops, my bad. I replaced the link with the sharing one. Should work now, hopefully.


are these in any way a referance to the tailed people from Ys the ark of napishtim?


Gramlag wrote:
are these in any way a referance to the tailed people from Ys the ark of napishtim?

I haven't played that game. Are they very similar?

Lantern Lodge

Kind of an interesting name... Alma means "soul", which most people (not all, especially if you know a religious figure named "Alma") would associate with one's spirit. I was picturing more of a ghost O.o

However, may I suggest perhaps a different weapon than the trident? I know you were going for pitchfork, but maybe a pick, or one of the eastern weapons (alot of them are farm tools) might be a better choice for flavor O.o


I don't get the color coding in your document, first i thought the colored text was the optional traits, but some optional traits are black and some default traits are colored.

I think you should structure it a little more so that it is clear which is the list of default racial traits and which are the optionals. It's very hard to tell right now what is and isn't part of the race at the same time.

Then I think +2 Natural armor is a lot. I would say it could be okay if i had a better overview of how much other things the race gets.

And a correction: Low-Light Vision doesn't work with a fixed range, it is simply to see twice as far as normal in dim light.

FrodoOf9Fingers wrote:
Kind of an interesting name... Alma means "soul", which most people (not all, especially if you know a religious figure named "Alma") would associate with one's spirit. I was picturing more of a ghost O.o

Or it means "apple" if you're Hungarian.


1. Too powerful. Way to many stuff all over. These guys aren't drow noble ridiculous but at least kasatha levels, which means they are to be almost exclusively a monster race. Remove the non essential, keep a core of some good things, don't give them a +2 to natural armor if you want them to be a PC race.

2. Sycle and Scythe proficiency is useless, those are simple weapons.

3. There is a huge flavor miss in there. Undeath of any kind is represented through higher Charisma and lower Constitution. If you want them to be repulsive, you can bake in a -4 penalty to Charisma skills to show they are repulsive, but otherwise giving them +CON ruins the flavor.

4. I'd go with something less Latino Hispanics in the name and try to find some good aboriginal word in incan or Maya


Oh yes: Charisma is not physical appearance. If they are ugly, give them a charisma and charisma based skill check penalty with humanoid races.


Thanks for all the feedback guys, this really helps. I realize it has a lot of scattered options right now, but I hope to narrow them down to more reasonable ones. The idea was to put up a lot of options, and see what people thought was fair and get rid of the OP ones.

To address more specific concerns:

Someone said wrote:

I don't get the color coding in your document, first i thought the colored text was the optional traits, but some optional traits are black and some default traits are colored.

I think you should structure it a little more so that it is clear which is the list of default racial traits and which are the optionals. It's very hard to tell right now what is and isn't part of the race at the same time.

As far as the strange color coding, it's because I've been messing with newer racial possibilities, and I left them in a different color for my personal sake to identify them more quickly. I've recolored the document to make more sense: Alternate traits will be in dark orange, and traits people have spotted as bad will be in red.

Secret Wizard wrote:
don't give them a +2 to natural armor if you want them to be a PC race.

So Natural Armor is a big no. Noted and marked. However, is there anything that I could give them for a similar end effect? Or should I avoid the concept altogether?

FrodoOf9Fingers wrote:
However, may I suggest perhaps a different weapon than the trident?
Secret Wizard wrote:
2. Sycle and Scythe proficiency is useless, those are simple weapons.

Marked on the document. Will look for suitable weapons within the same theme of basic tools. Any suggestions?

Threeshades wrote:
Oh yes: Charisma is not physical appearance.
Secret Wizard wrote:
There is a huge flavor miss in there. Undeath of any kind is represented through higher Charisma and lower Constitution. If you want them to be repulsive, you can bake in a -4 penalty to Charisma skills to show they are repulsive, but otherwise giving them +CON ruins the flavor.

I had kinda foreseen this issue getting brought up because it's unusual. I tried to better represent their repulsiveness with the Undesirable trait near the bottom, but that was offhand. However, for reference, Dwarves do take a Cha penalty on the basis that they're gruff and uninviting to other people. But the reason I gave them +Con even despite being undead was because they were supposed to be a fairly hearty race. Giving them Cha makes sense for Undead typically, but unless I had them run hitpoints off Cha, it kinda clashes with the racial concept. Is that doable? Or would that be too good/bad?

As far as the name, I'll look around for a better one. Does anybody know where I might be able to find a way to translate into an older language?

Finally, I've added some magic-related options based on the advice of someone else I had look at the outline. Much like the rest of the race, this was done based off of my limited knowledge of balancing. I do want the race to have a decent set of options, as flavor-wise, they are spread out and fairly varied, but I definitely want to focus in on what those options are. Thanks for all the feedback, this is just what I wanted to know!

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