I remember a while back some talk on how debiltating it is to have a 20' base move.
Halflings, Dwarves, and Gnomes all have a 20' Base Move. Dwarves 'compensate' by never being slowed by armor or encumbrance. (How valuable this is can be debated but is not where I am going here ;) )
Goblins, Kobolds, Dark Creepers, Boggards and Mites are all Small Humanoids.
Goblins, Kobolds and Dark Creepers all have base move 30'
Boggards and Mites each have 20' base move, but also have alternate movement (Swim and Climb respectively).
How unbalancing would it be to allow Halflings, Gnomes and Dwarves a base move 30'?
Thanks all for the input :)
GNOME
Probably not very much. However giving dwarves 30 feet speed while retaining their slow & steady racial feature could be a bit too much with all those heavy armors.
in regards to Heavy Armor, who has access to heavy Armor (without spending afeat)? Fighters, Paladins and Cavaliers iirc. Cavaliers will most likely be mounted. Dwarves make mediocre Paladins and Fighters (by 7th level) all but have Slow and Steady. So, how unbalancing would it be in that context?
The reason I am asking is because we have a player that is infatuated with Halflings and it feels like we are penalizing her preference for no 'balance' or benefit... :( How much does it suck that she cannot outrun Goblins?
GNOME
Halflings are already kind of a weak race, so giving them +10 ft. movement should be fine methinks.
Dwarves and gnomes? I don't know. I don't think they need it. And yes, fighters doesn't need it after level 7, but it matters for medium armor classes too, like clerics and druids (which dwarves are good at regardless).
Also, remember multiclassing. I've seen more than a few characters that want to be warriorlike but not fighters that picks up a single level just for the proficiencies; giving them full speed as dwarves might be too good.
Since it's for halflings the player needs it, and they are the weakest of the slow classes, give it to the halflings.
People always seem to go straight to 20' move from 30'... Why not trial 25' base speed for smalls?
Why not allow a halfling to exchange favored class bonus for 1' move bonus, up to move 30'. It will end up costing her 10 hp (or sp)at lvl 10, but that can be remedied by taking the toughness feat.
How about giving halflings and gnomes x8 run speed (instead of x5)? Those short legs can really move if they need to outrun some goblins… or guards… or the paladin...
Following the race build guide, dwarves and gnomes are balanced with their reduced speed.
Halflings on the other hands are considered weaker and might benefit from the change. Though ihmo, it kinda screws over fluff.
Just posting to fix the above link (it's fixed in the quote now).
@Karel - you don't need to put quotes around the URL.