So as there are quite a few playable native outsider races I wanted to make a playable Fey race. Looking through the advanced race guide, in the race building portion made this seem quite possible. The thing is I do not want to just make a race that feels like any existing race and slap the Fey type on. I want the race to feel uniquely fey, different from the other races.
So here is what I have so far.
Naiad
Ability Score Racial Traits: +2 Dex, +2 Cha, -2 Str Naiads are lithe and entrancing but their willowy frames leave them rather feeble.
Type: Naiads are Fey with the water subtype.
Size: Naiads are Medium creatures and thus receive no bonuses or penalties due to their size.
Base Speed: Naiads have a base speed of 30 feet on land. They also have a swim speed of 30 feet, can move in water without making Swim checks, and always treat Swim as a class skill.
Languages: Naiads begin play speaking Common and Sylvan. Naiads with high Intelligence scores can choose from the following: Aquan, Dwarven, Elven, Gnome, Goblin, and Halfling.
Deceptively Resilient: Naiads otherworldly physiology gives them a +2 racial bonus to fortitude saves verses poison.
Perceptive: Naiads get a +2 racial bonus to Perception and Sense Motive.
The last ability is the one I am having the most trouble with. You see I saw the first level spell Nereid's Grace in the Advance Race Guide. It gives the caster a better version of the Nereid's Unearthly Grace.
School enchantment (charm) [mind-affecting]; Level druid 1, witch 1
Casting Time 1 standard action
Components V, S
Range touch
Target you
Duration 1 round/level
You radiate the unearthly grace of a nereid. If you are not wearing armor (or your armor is not visible, such as when using glamered armor), you gain a deflection bonus to your Armor Class and CMD equal to your Charisma bonus.
Anyways I was wondering if it would be broken to give a playable race the deflection bonus equal to their charisma modifier. With the stipulation that you cannot wear any armor in order to get this bonus. I was even thinking it could be worded
Unearthly Grace (Su) A naiad adds her Charisma bonus as a deflection bonus to her Armor Class and CMD so long as she received no armor bonus from any source.
this would make it so that while they can get a high deflection bonus first level, this ability would not stack with any spell or item that gives an armor bonus.
Either that or I can make it a dodge bonus instead of a deflection, since a dodge bonus is like a deflection bonus, but you lose it when you are flat-footed.
Anyways this is just an idea I had. Would love some suggestions and feedback.
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The last ability is the one I am having the most trouble with. You see I saw the first level spell Nereid's Grace in the Advance Race Guide. It gives the caster a better version of the Nereid's Unearthly Grace.
** spoiler omitted **
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I gave the "half-nymphs" in my campaign the very same trait (Unearthly Grace) and one of my players is currently playing one. Works perfectly fine and there is one thing you may have missed, as well: not only can they not wear armor, but deflection bonuses do not stack, so the player also cannot wear a ring of protection (if they want to make use of unearthly grace, that is)
Well Deflection bonuses don't stack in the rules, only race, circumstance, and dodge bonuses to. Hence why I thought that having an high deflection at first level if you don't wear armor was pretty balanced.
So an example would be if you have a 18 dex and an 18 cha, your AC without anything else would be 18. The thing is that if you do a sorceress and cast Mage Armor, that would be a make you at level 1 have a 22 AC, if you do an Oracle that has a mystery that grants a +4 ac bonus at first level, you would have a 22 AC. All be it, those are hour per level spells/abilities.
So at first level you would be outstripping every melee class out there.
The Dodge bonus runs into the same problem, plus you can get a ring of protection later on that would stack.
It's why I was thinking that it should read that they lose their deflection bonus if they gain an ac bonus of any kind. Then you would not have to worry about them having an ac that outclasses anyone else. Though there is not much I can do about monk, except give them a weakness that forces them to be non-lawful.
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Looks pretty balanced to me given that deflection bonuses don't stack and any armour bonus, not just physical armour, results in losing the cha bonus. You could also just make it an armour bonus, which would mean that while the Naiad could wear a ring of deflection, they wouldn't get Cha vs touch attacks (and still couldn't benefit from unearthly grace and armour at the same time).
Makes me want to make an unarmoured paladin.
It's why I was thinking that it should read that they lose their deflection bonus if they gain an ac bonus of any kind. Then you would not have to worry about them having an ac that outclasses anyone else. Though there is not much I can do about monk, except give them a weakness that forces them to be non-lawful.
Don't worry about monks. The class is MAD and can rarely achieve a high enough Cha for it to matter, even with the racial bonus. They'll prioritize the physical stats and Wis (which improves AC and Stunning Fist and ki).
The non-lawful restriction would also prevent the aforementioned Naiad paladin, which is a fun concept and not OP given that most paladins wear breastplate or full plate for a +6 to +8 armour bonus.
I dont know, do we really need less vulnerable sorcerers?
Unearthly Grace is crazy powerful for sorcerers. It would take 24 charisma for an armor wearing class to beat out a breastplate, and then you'd lose the bracer slot for enhancements to AC. Not sure how many deflection bonuses you'd see, I mostly see them for paladin and divine casters. Being able to get 20 AC from the start is pretty amazing for a caster, if you have mage armor or a revelation that mimics it.
I like the idea though.
It should technically work with bracers of armor, because it's not armor as of RAW. So you should still be able to get some armor benefits from that as well.
Making it an Armor bonus would work mechanically, though flavor-wise not that much. Of course that also means that they could get a ring of protection, to boost ac. Which is not that big of a deal since items that confers deflection bonuses cost twice as much as an item that confers an Armor bonus.
I wonder if there is any other changes I should make to this race though. I was trying to shoot for a race kind of like a Nereid. My only other worry is giving it the water subtype, which would mean that it would be able to breathe both air and water. Might be a little too much.
Oh forgot to add that they have low-light, for being a fey.
I was also thinking of adding that they are treated as both humanoid and fey to determine the effects of spells, SLAs and Supernatural abilities. Mainly so that they still are effected by hold/charm/dominate person.
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Yeah, making it an armour bonus would just simplify the language and make it clear that it doesn't stack with magical armour bonuses.
You could treat them as a humanoid and fey, but I don't think it would make a huge difference to the race's power since it's not all that common for PCs to be targeted by charm/dominate/hold person
Not counting the Naiad's Grace, you've got an 11 RP race (about standard power):
2 Fey (w/low-light vision and immunity to "X Person")
2 Swim Speed
2 Amphibious
1 Deceptively Resilient
4 Skills
Naiad's Grace in addition to all that does make it an unusually powerful race, especially with a racial Cha bonus. One other thing you could do to limit this ability would be to say you can add half your Cha bonus, or add your Cha bonus up to a limit of your level, which means that low-level characters wouldn't get a huge boost. The limit would become irrelevant somewhere between levels 5 and 10 when your level tends to outpaces your ability bonus, but at higher levels casters' AC tends to be poor anyway, so the Grace bonus will just promote them to a passable AC.
I see the most significant beneficiaries of the ability as Sorcerers, Summoners (Synthesist?), and Oracles with the Sidestep Secret (adds Cha to AC instead of Dex = twice Cha to AC). You might want to try building a member of each of these classes at a few different levels to see what the overall benefit would be and decide if it's balanced.
Being able to get 20 AC from the start is pretty amazing for a caster, if you have mage armor or a revelation that mimics it.
It should technically work with bracers of armor, because it's not armor as of RAW. So you should still be able to get some armor benefits from that as well.
The OP said that Naiad's Grace only works when not receiving an armour bonus of any kind, which prevents the use of Mage Armor or Bracers of Armor to gain armour bonuses while also benefiting from Cha to AC.
Hmm I see your point about too much. Why I was thinking lose the water subtype but leave the swim speed. Then lose skilled, or scale it back to just +2 to one skill.
The Unearthly Grace though as an armor bonus just does not fit. It is not mimicking armor, but just makes it so attacks naturally do not want to hit. Maybe just make it so that they use their charisma modifier in place of their dexterity for purposes of AC/CMD/and maybe Reflex?
Though I like your idea of just letting it scale up over time. Maybe make it so that you gain a deflection bonus of 1/2 your level up but can't exceed her charisma modifier.
Building a Sorceress, Bard, Summoner, and Oracle would be a good way to test this concept though.
Edit: Maybe remove Perceptive and change it to this
Beguiling: Naiads receive a +2 racial bonus on diplomacy checks against creatures that are sexually attracted to her.
That way it's a conditional bonus to one skill, though a cha based skill I know.
Another thought I had was go +2 Dex, +2 Wisdom, -2 Strength. That way I am not feeding Diplomacy and Unearthly grace.
A Lore Oracle with a AC revelation at level 20 would have a AC of 50. 10, + 12 cha in place of dex, + 12 cha deflection, +12 Armor bonus, + 5 Amulet of Natural Armor, +1 Dodge. If I make it no armor bonus, then that is only a 40.
A Fighter with +5 Mithral full plate, Dex of 24, Ring of Protection +5, Amulet of natural armor +5, and Dodge. Would have and AC of 42.
On the other hand a Monk without and AC would be a 48 without bracers of armor. So well that is pretty broken.
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Definitely keep the no armour bonus.
Changing the racial stat bonus to Wis should balance it out quite a bit, since Cha casters will be forced to choose between the Naiad's Grace and a race that boosts their main stat. Turns it from the best race for these characters to a good race for these characters.
I'd recommend the skill switch along with the stat switch, since it keeps the charming/beguiling aspect without encouraging too much min-maxing. I don't think you need to make the bonus conditional to maintain balance - losing the +2 Perception is already a big deal since that's a pretty important skill.
Yeah, that makes the most amount of sense. I did not know if making the beguiling not conditional would be too powerful. With allowing the Armor bonus, I realize how powerful that makes the character. At no point would a cha caster have less AC then a fighter, or even a Paladin. With not allowing an armor bonus of any kind, they are still a powerful race, with always maintaining a high touch AC. Yet with races like the tiefling and aasimar, I am not to worried.