I recently converted my Dark Woods setting* to 5e, but I'm still struggling on certain racial traits, particularly the sprite's invisibility, the automaton's skin of bronze and the girtablilu poison scaling.
any input would be greatly appreciated
Dark Woods player character races
* Dark Woods is a homebrew setting created by rolling 5 random races from that worldbuilding exercise thread that is still going since 2012! (I've got Aasimar, a make-your-own construct race, girtablilu, sprite and vegepygmy)
Well, I think the poison damage could be a bit excessive with how fast the poison damage increases (4d8 by 5th level). I also think the 2d8 poison damage at 1st level is a bit much (a scorpion's sting is 1d8). I don't think any other race has a scaling damage ability, so maybe drop the damage scaling on that?
Skin of Bronze gives the Barbarian's Unarmored Defense class ability, which is not exactly a good thing, as it is usually seen as bad form giving a race an ability from a class.
I don't have much in the way of comments about the other races.
Poison damage of the Girtablilu is based on the giant scorpion entry. scaling from 2d8 to 3d8 at 3rd level and 4d8 at 5th level was made to echo the Aasimar magic, but now that I think of it, I may dial it down to d6 and scale it to 5d6 following the Dragonborn's breath weapon trait...
As for Skin of Bronze, I basically want to give them a natural armor. There is the AC = 13 + DEX route, or giving them proficiency like dwarves, or a straight +1 to AC like the Warforged of the UA.
Maybe AC equal to their proficiency bonus?
Maybe AC equal to their proficiency bonus?
I thought of that, and that's probably what I'm gonna go for.
It would start at AC = 12 + DEX and wouldn't exceed AC = 14 + DEX (the equivalent of a 18 CON barbarian before) 13th level. So probably similar to a point-buy barbarian built. A barbarian with lucky stat rolls will probably exceed that progression. This would make a high AC rogue however, but not much more than a dwarf rogue in chainshirt.
It would reach the equivalent of a 22 CON barbarian at 17th level, but the barbarian's capstone ability is still better. At this point I'm not too worried about balance
I guess you could say that the automaton could dump CON and boost DEX for the best AC in the game. So its on the strong side, especially for a racial trait, unless you compare that to the sprite's flight or invisibility...
It would max out at AC 21, 23 with a shield, at level 17.
On another subject: the sprite's invisibility
Sprites of the Monster Manual have invisibility at will. I want to keep that racial ability somehow, but it doesn't have to be used as such.
I want to fluff their invisibility as an ability to fly fast and erratically which, combined with their small size, makes them really hard to catch. Reciprocally, they can use this ability to their own advantage (no pun intended).
The invisible condition fits the bill perfectly; disadvantage to attack them, they have advantage against their target. The condition drops if they cast a spell, make an attack or lose concentration. So far its all good. But how can I...
- word it in such a ways that the sprite remains visible (he's just hard to catch!) and therefore can be taken as a valid target by all.
- reduce its effectiveness outside combat so that stealth checks remain relevant.
- nerf it so that it doesn't get too strong of an ability.
So far I've reduced the duration to "until the end of your next round". It takes an action to activate.
Maybe have it activate as a bonus action and persist until the beginning of your next turn?
Or you can just change it from being invisible to something like extra blurry, that provides disadvantage on attack rolls against you and gives you advantage on attack rolls.