I don't think there's any reason I would play any other race. Hat's off to you!
(Sadly that means it's a little too good)
Yes but I think that is the problem with not having a penalty system for building powerful characters. The Sidhe _should_ be more powerful than every other _base_ race. They're magical creatures.
If power was the only measure and you could be a magical immortal creature without any downside, who wouldn't want to be Sidhe.
The alternative would be to take elves and give them a paragon class for Sidhe. I don't know what that would really accomplish, you'd still end up refusing the paragon class to players.
I think these are actually really modest sidhe.
Depending on your background material Sidhe have some major, if not immediately apparent, drawbacks. Chiefly, they are not free to go adventuring. They have duties to the fey courts, the season, and all sorts of obligations.
For one interesting take on the Fae check out dicefreaks
http://dicefreaks.forumz.cc/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=889
Sigurd
I'd have to agree that they are bit overpowered as well. The humanoid spell immunities are a bit much. I also didn't see what they are classified as if not humanoids. The -2 wisdom is not enough of a negative to balance out the cha and dex bonus as well.
While I don't advocate 4th edition D&D I would say take a look at the Eladrin, which are loosely based off the fey royalty such as Sidhe. Or simply alter a high elf race description as a template to fit your idea of the sidhe. The Forgotten Realms has some very diverse elves. Also Roleplaying the "alien" qualities of the race can work wonders. While I understand the want to create a personal race template, the story behind them and the differences between them and regular elves are mostly cosmetic and can be inferred through DM'ing.
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Weapon Familiarity: Sidhe are proficient with scimitars and shortbows (including composite shortbows), and treat any weapon with the word “sidhe” in its name as a martial weapon. Additionally, they can treat scimitars as light weapons for the purpose of weapon finesse and two weapon fighting.
Say hello to surface-Drizzt!
The -2 wisdom is not enough of a negative to balance out the cha and dex bonus as well.
While I agree that they're probably too powerful, this made me scratch my head in confusion. -2 Wis is a much worse penalty than -2 Str, which is what Halflings get for the same bonus stats, and people say that Halflings are the weakest core race.
The -2 wisdom is not enough of a negative to balance out the cha and dex bonus as well.While I agree that they're probably too powerful, this made me scratch my head in confusion. -2 Wis is a much worse penalty than -2 Str, which is what Halflings get for the same bonus stats, and people say that Halflings are the weakest core race.
Opinions might differ, but I see a stat that affects damage, to hit bonus, and carrying capacity as more of a penalty than will save or clerical casting ability. I just see more players letting Wisdom fall by the wayside statistically than Strength. Typically the only classes that will focus on it are divine casters. Things might be different at your table. This is a game issue and no 2 games are totally alike.
In the case of this race however, the negative translates into a non-issue. Considering the perks of the race presented, -2 Wis is just not much of a penalty. The penalty is off-set or in some cases completely obsolete considering the Spell-like abilities and Spell Immunities. Then add the bonus charisma regarding Sorceror or Bard spells and the almost guaranteed +1 to AC it just doesn't seem that there is any penalty for playing one at all.
Wisdom affects will saves and the most important skills in the game (Perception for combat campaigns and Sense Motive for talky ones). Strength only matters if you're engaging in melee combat and is irrelevant to ranged or magical combat (carrying capacity is a joke with the price of heward's handy haversacks and bags of holding, not to mention a simple mule to carry your camping gear). Since the Sidhe are obviously oriented towards ranged and magical combat, a Strength penalty would be a total joke.
'Course, I'm of the opinion that no PC should ever be able to play a Sidhe. They're too alien, they're immortal, they're way stronger than a human, they were worshipped as deities at one point, and so on. Boiling them down to a PC race just makes them way too weak and generic.
That is true. I didn't think of the skill penalty. All in all I can't see that being much of a speed bump. A negative to either str or wis wouldn't be much of a problem for this template in any scenario. I think we both agree that the race would be overpowered in any case.
The biggest reasons this race wouldn't fly as a PC race:
1) Fighter - Dual weilding scimitars = free feat. There's very few better options than scimitars if you get Oversized Two Weapon Fighting for free! -2 Wis means almost nothing (most fighters don't mind losing 1 will and 1 perception since their will saves are shoddy at best and they rely on other classes for perception most of the time).
2) Sorceror/Bard - +2 Cha is a no-brainer. +2 Dex = +1 to hit on touch atttacks and ranged weapon attacks, as well as +1 AC most of the time. The reason I love to play Halflings (especially for casters) is the +1 to hit and AC from size combined with +2 dex (basically the same thing, only it stacks). This race + permanent reduce person = super halfing.
3) Ranger - See Fighter. Spending a couple build points on Wis makes up for the only bad part for this class.
4) Cleric/Druid - Thanks to the new item stat enhancement rules, you won't be hurt that much by the -2 Wis if you just buy +2 or better wis enhancement. The +Cha and Dex make you formidible, and since you're Medium sized you're actually better off in combat than a Halfling for melee/ranged dmg.
5) Rogue - See Fighter. Just get +perception enhancing gear for those pesky traps.
6) Wizard - See Sorceror/Bard, only the +Cha is just a nice feature
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Then add in the fact that you're considered Fey, so you're immune to the lower level Hold/Charm/etc Person spells. That means that until much later in the game you are effectively immune to most crowd control spells (until the X Monster spells appear on BBEGs).
I'm just saying that adding in the line that it might be open to PCs is the same thing to some people as "Go ahead and take this". As written, it's not a PC race without adding in racial hit dice based on some CR (I'm not the one to ask for an appropriate one, but maybe look at the Drow in the Bestiary for a guideline?) that's appropriate.
Basically any class other than Barbarian benefits greatly from this race and is barely inconvenienced. And even Barbarian is fine, it just doesn't help as much. In fact, it could be interesting to see a Barbarian with 11+ charisma using the SLAs to great effect.
However, taken into account your inputs and reconsidering my own approach I will go for a non-PC race for the Sidhe, which is a bit more magical........
Now you're cookin'....
Sigurd
Are you using the Sidhe from the Dresden Files?
If you are, both Winter and Summer Courts had beautiful Sidhe... so I'm not sure if it would be appropriate to have the Winter Court not have access to the "Fey Beauty" ability.
I myself am attempting to run a campaign with elements from the Dresden Files.
I'm curious if you'll be using the Summer and Winter Knights? I'm still deciding how I'm going to implement the Fey Courts.
How about adding this to the Pathfinder Database?