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So i noticed that the area in which Kingmaker takes place is pretty far north. I decided that my campaign could use a viking-type race. I've kind of modeled it off the half-giant and Goliath races from the 3.5 splat-books, but hopefully toned it down a bit. Lemme know what yall think:
Valkyr
M Humanoid
+2 STR, +2 CON, -2 Dex
Large Stature: Although medium creatures, the typical male Valkyr rises to an imposing height of 7 - 8 feet with females roughly the same size. This allows Valkyr to wield large weapons with no additional penalty. Valkyr do not have reach, only occupy one square, and have no bonuses or penalties for their size.
Arctic Endurance: Hailing from the harsh lands of the North, Valkyr have grown accustomed to cold weather and have energy resistance 10: cold.
Heat susceptibility: Valkyr have a hard time adapting to heat; they take an additional d6 damage from fire based spells and attacks.
Weapon Proficiencies: All Valkyr are proficient with spears, greatsword, longsword, and shields (except tower shields). This reflects the warrior lifestyle that all Valkyr are raised into.
Low light vision 120ft: Due to the periods of constant dusk that the far north incurs, Valkyr have adapted to functioning with very little light.
Give me your thoughts, lemme know if anything looks too OP.
looks good to me, i was always a fan of powerful build so i like what you gave them.
Seems like a ton of these homebrew races like to ignore the race guidelines for PF which are one of the following:
- +2 to one stat of player's choice
- +2 to one physical stat, +2 to one mental stat, -2 to a stat that isn't one of those two stats.
Maybe change the stat adjustments to +2 STR, +2 WIS, -2 INT and say that Valkyr are strong and strong willed, but are people of action and have little time or inclination for intellectual pursuits.
Also, I don't think its a good idea to have racial armor/shield proficiencies.
I don't understand why you need a 'viking race', the Ulfen people are analogous to the norse, why not play a 7 ft norseman?
EDIT: The elemental resistance/susceptibility is a bit wonky, and you can get you profiencies with any warrior class to represent your warrior background.
So two feats, say Monkey grip to use bigger weapons and maybe some feat that requires alertness that grants low-light vision? Or play and ulfen half elf, and take monkey grip and +2 str and favored class barbarian and fighter at first level. Bingo, norse flavouring and mighty physical prowess without adding a whole new race to the world.
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I don't understand why you need a 'viking race', the Ulfen people are analogous to the norse, why not play a 7 ft norseman?
EDIT: The elemental resistance/susceptibility is a bit wonky, and you can get you profiencies with any warrior class to represent your warrior background.
So two feats, say Monkey grip to use bigger weapons and maybe some feat that requires alertness that grants low-light vision? Or play and ulfen half elf, and take monkey grip and +2 str and favored class barbarian and fighter at first level. Bingo, norse flavouring and mighty physical prowess without adding a whole new race to the world.
I thought about monkeygrip, but i figured if i was using a 3.5 feat, I might as well just slightly modify a 3.5 playable race (half-giant).
As to the saves, what would be an acceptable negative to saves vs. fire/heat effects? -2, -3? I might just remove it...it was only to balance against the cold resist, but it might not need to be there.
As to the physical stats...there are 3 races (elf, gnome, halfling) that have two stats that are suited to spellcasting. Being able to place one stat where you want is nice for non-casters, but melee classes are severely lacking a "best" class. These stats also fit the flavor I was going for with this race.
As to the name, I wasn't aware of the conotations behind Valkyr, so if it isn't appropriate, i'll find somethin else...Norsca doesn't sound too bad i guess.
As to the name, I wasn't aware of the conotations behind Valkyr, so if it isn't appropriate, i'll find somethin else...Norsca doesn't sound too bad i guess.
You could call them the Vanir, which in Norse mythology contained both males and females heroes/gods.
As to the weapon proficiancies, I would include something about axes...
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As to the name, I wasn't aware of the conotations behind Valkyr, so if it isn't appropriate, i'll find somethin else...Norsca doesn't sound too bad i guess.
You could call them the Vanir, which in Norse mythology contained both males and females heroes/gods.
As to the weapon proficiancies, I would include something about axes...
Yeah, I think I'll drop greatsword and longsword and replace it with greataxe and battle axe
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RPG Superstar 2015 Top 16, RPG Superstar 2013 Top 16
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1. What VoodooMike said about the stat bonuses: 1 physical, 1 mental, and 1 penalty. The STR and CON bonuses put together looked kind of too good to me, but I couldn't put my finger on why.
2. Cold resistance 5 is usually enough to negate any effects of cold weather, unless it's supernaturally cold. If you did cold resistance 5, I could see omitting the heat susceptibility entirely. 10 is probably a bit high, even if you balance it with heat susceptibility. Another way to slice it would be to give them the cold subtype (immune to cold, 50% extra damage from fire), but usually you don't see subtypes that powerful on playable races.
3. The powerful build-like ability is "what it says on the tin." Some folks think it's too powerful, I think it's OK. If you wanted to tone it down a bit, let your Viking race use the Large size modifiers on CMB/CMD, or just give them a flat racial CMB/CMD bonus, so it would still work if one got enlarged. If you leave it the same, I like that you specified it doesn't grant reach, but you might want to clarify that using Large reach weapons doesn't grant you any extra reach, either.
4. Low-light vision doesn't have range.
5. I like the name; go with whatever sounds flavorful to you.
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1. What VoodooMike said about the stat bonuses: 1 physical, 1 mental, and 1 penalty. The STR and CON bonuses put together looked kind of too good to me, but I couldn't put my finger on why.
I somewhat understand the reasoning behind the one phys, i mental, but here is my reasoning (i think i posted this upstream also): spellcasters have 3 races available to them that grant bonuses to their most favorable stats (elves, gnomes, halflings) and the negatives have little to no impact on a caster. I figured, by give two physical bonuses and one physical negative it would not only place emphasis on the nature of race, but the physical penalty would offset the "extra" physical bonus some. This also gives melee PCs more options besides human, half elf, and half orc.
2. Cold resistance 5 is usually enough to negate any effects of cold weather, unless it's supernaturally cold. If you did cold resistance 5, I could see omitting the heat susceptibility entirely. 10 is probably a bit high, even if you balance it with heat susceptibility. Another way to slice it would be to give them the cold subtype (immune to cold, 50% extra damage from fire), but usually you don't see subtypes that powerful on playable races.
good idea, i think i'll go with cold res 5 and drop heat susceptibility.
3. The powerful build-like ability is "what it says on the tin." Some folks think it's too powerful, I think it's OK. If you wanted to tone it down a bit, let your Viking race use the Large size modifiers on CMB/CMD, or just give them a flat racial CMB/CMD bonus, so it would still work if one got enlarged. If you leave it the same, I like that you specified it doesn't grant reach, but you might want to clarify that using Large reach weapons doesn't grant you any extra reach, either.
I like it the way it is 2bh. The ONLY benefit that'll be granted from this racial is the ability for their weapons to go up a die size. I might consider giving the ability to have a grapple bonus against medium & smaller critters, but i think that might take it too far.
4. Low-light vision doesn't have range.
oops
5. I like the name; go with whatever sounds flavorful to you.
thanks :D
Sounds like you're getting to the right power level for most of their abilities, but I'm with those voting to spread out the stat bonuses. Between the useful weapon proficiencies, large build and the bonuses to CMB/CMD you're talking about, these guys are already the best brute melee race available. Throwing both str and con bonuses on top of that edges into wish-fulfillment munchkinry.
Tank classes already neglect dexterity a lot of the time, so while you're spicing things up for some builds, you're just handing things to others on a platter. I understand your point about casters having especially well-fit races, but you're building this race a bit too close to optimum for melee. Orcs are presently the best option for chopping people up, and they net a *penalty* to ability scores.
VoodooMike's suggestion seems solid: +2 str, +2 wis, and -2 int is a perfectly acceptable, powerful representation of the race, while not pushing them too far into the realm of optimization.
I somewhat understand the reasoning behind the one phys, i mental, but here is my reasoning (i think i posted this upstream also): spellcasters have 3 races available to them that grant bonuses to their most favorable stats (elves, gnomes, halflings) and the negatives have little to no impact on a caster. I figured, by give two physical bonuses and one physical negative it would not only place emphasis on the nature of race, but the physical penalty would offset the "extra" physical bonus some. This also gives melee PCs more options besides human, half elf, and half orc.
Elves, gnomes, and halflings obey the PF guidelines for races. Dexterity and Constitution are not spellcasting stats, they're just survivability stats... but they're physical stats nonetheless. NOBODY gets +Strength currently, and it was considered "too good" a stat for simple bonuses in 3.0 and 3.5, hence the Half-Orc's double penalty in exchange for it.
To do a comparable thing with a spellcasting race you'd dump +4 into their casting stat, and -2 into something they don't care about. That's the real equivalent to doing two +2s to role-specific stats, and STR and CON are both warrior-specific stats.
3. The powerful build-like ability is "what it says on the tin." Some folks think it's too powerful, I think it's OK. If you wanted to tone it down a bit, let your Viking race use the Large size modifiers on CMB/CMD, or just give them a flat racial CMB/CMD bonus, so it would still work if one got enlarged. If you leave it the same, I like that you specified it doesn't grant reach, but you might want to clarify that using Large reach weapons doesn't grant you any extra reach, either.
I think the original definition of reach weapon was that it doubled your reach, not that it added a specific additional range to the reach... thus, a medium creature using a reach weapon will always have a reach of 10' regardless of the weapon's size. Not sure I see the logic in that (tiny reach weapons?) but thats how it was written.
Having Norwigen ancestory I love anything norse related but rebuilding human seems like pushing it. If you want a viking take your +2 into Str or Con thats why Paizo implemented this feature for humans in my opinion. If you start changing things around then your not really a human... If you want to make them unique, just give them a skill bonus in profession sailing.
From the looks of what you have written down you have a mix of oldschool half-orc mixed with the new rules adding cold resist 10.
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Thanks for the input guys, but I think I am going to leave the stats as-is for now and see how it plays out in my game. I will be sure to give yall an update as to whether or not this ends up being too OP.
I do appreciate the help on balancing out the rest of the stats and racial abilities and modifiers.