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Off the top of my head: NO MORE SCALING HP! At level 1 or level 20, you should have the same basic amount of HP, though certain things should be able to modify it. You can add stamina, DR, and whatever else you want, but keep health consistent. Support for cool variants like words of power from day 1. Theres lots of interesting things which have come and gone, it would be nice if some of the better ones were built in and supported next time around.
I think it would be cool if you could merge it into different parts of your body and gain benefits from it based on where they go. Maybe using the power of the gem reveals it, giving you a trade off if you don't want people trying to remove it one way or another. Also, unless the creature is pure evil (like demons and devils evil) I have trouble seeing how trapping souls isn't evil.
Would it really be so bad if they got their own subtype. They kind of already do since there are no incorporeal humanoids. Just call them semicorporeal and explain what it means. No more confusion. Also, what's the race point breakdown? How did you get 12 as your total? Nitpicking aside, I like the flavor. It's well thought out and unlike any other race I've seen. Very original, very cool.
I would definitely give them some skill or magic traits. They have enough physical stuff, flesh them out with some mental stuff.
I feel like being 9 levels ahead of where you are supposed to be would be boring, even if you were just playing it for the story and a speed run. I could see playing as high power races with strange abilities. You'd still have to try, but it would be a bit like playing with weird unbalanced mods rather than on god mode.
Don't even need to look at monster advancement, the race builder automatically grants -2 str +2 dex when making a tiny race. You can make penalties on top of that as part if the race's ability scores.
Not familiar with the source material, so forgive me if I'm missing something. Shouldn't they have a -2 str and a +2 dex for being tiny? And even then, that seems a bit much strength given their size. They are on par with halflings and gnomes despite being 1/3 the size. Also, normal speed seems fast for anything that size. Otherwise tiny humans with excellent senses. Seems ok.
I agree with all of the above. Swap out darkvisions for low light, change alertness to keen senses, and rewrite bond to the land. Also, I feel like they should have at least one non-mountain themed trait. A weapon proficiency, a skill bonus, a magic trait, anything, as long as it fleshes them out and gives them a little more diversity in their flavor.
So, I was bored and decided to give the flavor text a closer examination. I really liked their origins. The idea of them existing in this other realm carved out by the primal force of their creation, that they are the incarnations of some eternal force which has ripped the fabric of reality is really cool. The singularity at the heart of the civilization was especially interesting. That said, it really bugs me that I can't picture how it can have eight temples around it connected by twelve rings without the whole thing being horribly asymmetrical. I also like the diversity of the race. There's four elements, plus highborn and lowborn, plus aristocrats, expatriates and nearly any walk of life you can think of. That's a lot of possible combinations, and all of it feels very well fleshed out. The bit about families didn't interest me as much. It's no bad, but it was just not great. I especially didn't care for the life story concept, and even true names in general. I think that covers just about everything worth mentioning.
Since they have vestigial wings, I would give them a gliding wings feat rather than a full flight feat, with a fly speed maybe being allowed by a subsequent feat. But yeah, I like this design.
Charm monster at will seems exceptionally powerful. I think it would be better to make a 1/day thing. You could then add some more stuff, like skill bonuses. A diplomacy bonus seems obvious. Maybe a bonus to the DCs of enchantment spells. Really anything to flesh them out a bit. What's the logic behind sonic and acid vulnerability? How do you feel about a race feat that turns the vestigial wings into gliding wings or a fly speed?
OK, I skimmed the flavor text and read through the actual mechanics The flavor text was interesting enough. I especially like the lowborn. The -4 to str really hurts, but I guess that makes sense for a tiny race. The "child of" traits are cool, and definitely give each type a nice flavor. However, I have trouble seeing anyone taking the water one outside of a very water heavy campaign. Even then, the levitating kind still works better if you don't have to go underwater. I'm not sure whether an at will teleport is ever balanced, even with the restrictions. It doesn't seem horrible, but it just seems like there could be abuses I'm not thinking of. Giving them reach weapons automatically should make them slightly more viable for melee, but only slightly. Vulnerability hurts. A lot. It makes playing a melee character even harder, but I'd say it hurts wizards and sorcerers even more. I suppose toughness and your favored class bonus could overcome it, but still. The litrugies. I had to look up most of them to understand. Most of them seem OK. The "exuviation" one is really cool and flavorful, if only ok mechanically. Evisceration would be overpowered, but these are a tiny race that is going to have trouble with melee, so I'll give it a pass. And having looked up micturition in the dictionary, it is now my favorite thing ever. Overall, there's a ton of stuff here, so I don't know if I'm confident in saying that it is all balanced, but the base race and the alternate race traits seem reasonable, and they could be a lot of fun. About as balanced as a tiny race that can teleport could ever be.
I could see this as a magus archetype. Trade some arcana/arcance pool and spell recall for cleric spells, spontaneous cure/inflict spells, maybe even a domain. I'd still also want to see a theurge full-caster base class. I'm sure it's been done before.
Everything looks good to me. You have a good variety, it's not overpowered, and it makes a decent enough variation on the skinwalker. One oversight: As aberrations, they should be getting darkvision..The only other thing missing is flavor text.
What are their ability score modifiers?
Alright, I finally read through the whole thing. First off, I know 1 or 2 people who would be pissed about a non-evil race being enemies with the elves. So that part gets my enthusiastic support. Elves are dicks. Next up, I like the construct theme. I'm not sure how well balanced the construct feats are (not saying they arent, just dont know), but the idea of a city filled with constructs is cool. I also like that you made the rural areas different from the cities. I do also like making it possible for non spellcasters to get craft construct. I like that they get their own underdark equivalent, and that it is part of the same race instead of an overpowered counterpart like some of the others. Finally, I really, really like the ban saren. I think they are almost too good for a race like this. Not to say these are bad, but I feel like its weird for a race of giants with -4 cha to have a faction based largely on stealth and subterfuge. But regardless, they are my favorite part. I like that you even added a trait for people who tried and presumably failed to get in, am I right about that? Now for the downsides -4 to anything is harsh. I can understand it as a balancing decision, but it is a turn off. I don't get why you gave them "firbohlg endurance" instead of just giving them the feat. I'm trying to figure out their personalities. They are simple people with wisdom but no charisma who like things that are slow... so treebeard? Did you really need to plug your other races?
I think there's a pretty good consensus here. Lose the fast healing, maybe lower the natural armor and get rid of the saporlings. If you must have fast healing, make it a racial feat, and make it fast healing 1 whenever they are below 1 hp. They get to be the flavor of unkillability, but still need to worry about healing. And if they are weak to something, make that cancel the fast healing for a round ala regeneration. If there is no weakness, limit it to HD + constitution score, or make the prerequisites pretty harsh. If you need to have summoning and cant settle for a raciao archetype, give tyem a +1 caster level bonus to summoning spells, and maybe feats to unlock SLAs.
I like it. It has an interesting flavor, and the ability to target people through stolen objects just sounds fun. If you are worried about a lack of variety, you cojld always make some of yhe abilities optional hexes rather than mandatory ones. That would also free you up to make more abilities.
I recommend giving each god domain over several different themes. Try to avoid the obvious pairings, because the less obvious ones are more interesting. For example a god of chaos and creation opposed by a god of law and destruction. A god of altruism and trickery could be opposed by a god of ambition and honor. You can see how these blend together to make a wholly different, more nuanced character.
Don't forget this bit of text as well.
It is recommended that for every 3 levels gained by the group, the monster character should gain an extra level, received halfway between the 2nd and 3rd levels. Repeat this process a number of times equal to half the monster's CR, rounded down. Using the minotaur example, when the group is at a point between 6th and 7th level, the minotaur gains a level, and then again at 7th, making him a minotaur barbarian 4. This process repeats at 10th level, making him a minotaur barbarian 8 when the group reaches 10th level. From that point onward, he gains levels normally. This is why a lower power race with race feats is a good substitute. You can gradually go up in power and have your "awesome race" scale with level, so you don't hog the spotlight at level 1, but don't feel less interesting and powerful at level 10.
The only rule of thumb I've ever heard when dealing with feats is that traits should be half a feat, so logically the reverse can also be a decent measure if there is any similarity. My advice would be to look at similar feats and see how much they give and for what requirements. For example, I know a guy who has made several races that improve their spell like abilities with feats, and he always looks at the drow nobility feats as a guide. For the breath weapon, I think it might be best to just let it scale with HD, and then make it once a day by default. Then let feats add uses per day and maybe status effects. With enough feats, it could even become unlimited uses per day, but with a recharge time. You could also make spell like abilities accessible through feats. I think that makes more sense than totally nerfing the breath weapon for balance, or making them alternate race traits and making people choose one or the other. You could give each color a bonus to spellcasting, increasing DCs or caster levels for certain schools or spells with certain descriptors. That wouldn't be overpowered but would give them something magical and flavorful by default.
Ha. And a fort save against nausea.
Awesome. I look forward to seeing it.
You have just given me inspiration for a new monster. It'll be a distant relative of the owlbear which is half bear, half donkey. I call it the "Bearass." "The monk steps foreward and strikes the bearass with his palm. The bearass shakes violently and opens it's great maw to release a thunderous roar." Back on topic, I notice you mentioned gods and a faction of necromancers. Are you planning to expand on those at some point? I find the anti-undead necromancers to be an interesting concept.
I too would drop the wisdom penalty, though I honestly don't know what should take its place. Then again, I'm also a bit hesitant whenever a race gets a strength bonus. If you want flavor over balance, I'd give them str and cha. For balance over flavor, give them con and cha. I would suggest giving them a well balanced base form, and then let them unlock dragon stuff with feats. So wings, natural attacks, breath weapon etc. could all be unlocked by race feats. They could also have some magical qualities. Overall, it's a good start.
Humans: "Just what we need, more competition. They're setting up shop in every town from here to the frozen wastes, and driving human traders out of business. Sure, we've hired some of them as mercenaries, but there are so many of them, the flooded the market and now everyone has some. They may not have attacked us, but it does feel like we're getting invaded sometimes. Plus none of their women will give me the time of day." Gotta admit, that made me laugh. Humans just can't keep it in their pants can they?
I like this idea. I think a lot of the little details of travel and camp get overlooked all too often. That being said, I also think this needs to take things like equipment and spells into account. If I have winter gear or hanging tents, and want to use a wall of stone spell to secure my camp, that should change things. That could be done by the dm, but I think it would be cool if that stuff were a part of this. Obviously that expands the scope of the project a bit.
I still prefer the idea of all gargoyles having a bonus to intimidation. I would have just dropped the. Climb bonus to +2 and given them +2 intimidation. But I can see where you are coming from.
I wouldn't want it to be available at level 1, but I could see it being a reasonable ability a few levels in. Honestly, has anyone had druidic and the rules surrounding it actually come up in a game? This would at least come up from time to time.
I like the fluff. Very flavorful. I can see a lot of possibilities for players and DMs. Retaking and/or rebuilding your homeland would make a great campaign. One question: it says that gargoyles can move their eyes while in statue form. Is that visible or hidden by the glamour? Also, it seems like they should have a bonus to intimidation. Especially since they have a -2 to charisma. Gargoyles are supposed to be scary. Other than that, I like what I see. I might just see if I can talk my DM into letting me roll up a gargoyle shaman of the stone spirit.
One way is to use props. A few images that can be rearranged can represent something you are interacting with. If the dm has a effect planned for moving each image, he can know exactly how to describe a response. That way, the players can have lots of feedback and figure out what they are supposed to do through both reasoning and trial and error. I once played through a maze which warped space. There was a logical pattern to it, so we were able to figure it out, but until we did it was both frustrating and engaging.
Good point about the darkvision. I once played in a party where everyone had darkvision and the dm didn't realize it but we did. We fought the first boss in a cave, and immediately put out the lights. The look on the dm's face was priceless.
I get where you are coming from with the movement types being different, and therefore not a problem. But I still think you might be underestimating the power of amphibious. Amphibious characters can disappear under the water where many threats can't follow. And they can grab a non-amphibious character and drag them down to die. That's hardly something that can be brushed aside. Still, I like what I'm seeing here. Tons of flavor, loads of options. Overall, I approve.
Once played in a group with a paladin following a dragon god who applied the draconic template to his mount. It was quite awesome. For something more reasonable, I guess the question is really "what are you looking for?" Give us something to work with. A roc? A bear? A giant chameleon? (I've seen a chameleon mount in action, it was hilarious).
This makes a lot of sense to me. I wouldn't take anything away from caster with low scores, just give a small bonus to those with high scores.
I like it a lot. I can certainly see a lot of possibilities for PCs and NPCs. I would certainly be interested in playing a party trying to make their way out of a finfolk city. Or perhaps playing a finfolk on the run, disguised as a human. 10/10 would play. It was a blast. It was set in a heavily modified and pathfinderized version of Skies of Arcadia. I will have to grab my old notes and relevant homebrew at some point and post the whole setting. Sounds cool. I'd certainly be interested.
When rolling hit dice, players are allowed a single free reroll if they roll below average, and an additional reroll if they roll a one. Each reroll lowers he maximum result by one however. So if roll a d8 and get a 3, you can roll a d7, and if you get a 1 you can roll a d6, and you take the highest result. Also, every character gets a free skill point for a profession skill at level 1. Fighters and paladins get 4 + INT skill points. Two weapon fighting automatically upgrades to improved and greater when the BAB reaches the necessary level. |
