Introducing a new homebrew race for my campaign, the Shrike.
The purpose of the race is to introduce something fun to the game- a creature that an add a different dimension to things by flying but is suitable for a character- mostly in the sense that if you saw one in a tavern you wouldn't gather a mob to chase him out of town.
Shrikes appear superficially like harpies (except shrikes can also be male). Their skin is generally pale and they're a little shorter than humans. They have long wings like those of a bird but have no other avian features (besides their brittle bones). Their feathers generally range from black to gray, although other colors are not unheard of.
SHRIKE RACIAL TRAITS:
+2 Dexterity, +2 Charisma, -2 Constitution
(Shrikes are quick, exotic and beautiful to behold but rather frail).
Medium Size
Normal Speed
Flight: In addition to walking and running, shrikes have a modest fly speed of 30.
Spell Resistance: Shrikes have a spell resistance equal to 6 plus their total character level, just like the alternate dwarf feature in the APG.
Low Light Vision
Brittle Frame: Due to their lithe bodies and relatively light bones, Shrikes suffer a -1 penalty to AC versus blunt weapons.
Weapon Familiarity: All Shrikes are proficient with their people's traditional weapons, the starknife, shortbow and longbow.
Fight or Flight: If caught in a surprise round, shrikes gain a +2 dodge bonus to AC.
Any opinions?
I don't think natural flight is balanced for any character at level 1 or thereabouts. It's my opinion that there is no way to balance it for reasonable play.
Probably needs to be in there...
Otherwise, if flight is overpowered, maybe give it flight in 1 hour increments/day = to HD, if you could justify it? As in, a human sized creature takes a lot of energy to get airborne.
Being brittle would not make them easier to hit. It might make them take more damage from blunt weapons though. The fluff is not matching up with the mechanics.
Flight also needs to be removed.
Yeah, something like this might work:
At 1st level, a Shrike may fall as if under the effects of featherfall while conscious, using his or her wings to fall safely.
At 3rd level, a Shrike's wings have developed more fully and may fall as if under the effects of glide instead.
At 5th level, a Shrike gains a fly speed equal to his or her base speed for a number of minutes per day equal to his or her level. This is in addition to the glide ability gained at 3rd level.
I do not really see brittle frame as really needed they already get -2 con to represent that, if you want to use it extra damage from bludgeoning weapons would make more sense to me, +1 damage maybe, but it seems awkward and not really consequential after the first few levels.
fight or flight seems a bit awkward, with shrikes possibly ending up with a better AC when surprised, I think it should be avoided, I'd be more inclined to give them a +2 to initiative checks.
Flying is awkward at low levels, and balances out fairly at around level 6 to 8 when it becomes a realistic option for other characters in the party, at low level it might turn challenges in no challenge.
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Introducing a new homebrew race for my campaign, the Shrike.
The purpose of the race is to introduce something fun to the game- a creature that an add a different dimension to things by flying but is suitable for a character- mostly in the sense that if you saw one in a tavern you wouldn't gather a mob to chase him out of town.
Shrikes appear superficially like harpies (except shrikes can also be male). Their skin is generally pale and they're a little shorter than humans. They have long wings like those of a bird but have no other avian features (besides their brittle bones). Their feathers generally range from black to gray, although other colors are not unheard of.
SHRIKE RACIAL TRAITS:
+2 Dexterity, +2 Charisma, -2 Constitution
(Shrikes are quick, exotic and beautiful to behold but rather frail).Medium Size
Normal Speed
Flight: In addition to walking and running, shrikes have a modest fly speed of 30.
Spell Resistance: Shrikes have a spell resistance equal to 6 plus their total character level, just like the alternate dwarf feature in the APG.
Low Light Vision
Brittle Frame: Due to their lithe bodies and relatively light bones, Shrikes suffer a -1 penalty to AC versus blunt weapons.
Weapon Familiarity: All Shrikes are proficient with their people's traditional weapons, the starknife, shortbow and longbow.
Fight or Flight: If caught in a surprise round, shrikes gain a +2 dodge bonus to AC.
Any opinions?
Instead of flight, perhaps give them glide? If not limit flight considerably if wearing more then light armor and or encumbered by greater then a light load.
Might change the brittle feature to a penalty to armor class when confirming critical hits against them. like, -2 to -5. reduced or negated by a feat that can be taken at 5th level. That way you allow the strategic advantage of flight for the strategic disadvantage of flirting with death.
Anyone mentioned the Strix?
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/races/monsters-as-pcs#TOC-Strix
I'd start there for reference; flight is a pretty powerful ability, but I believe these were considered a character option for some in Council of Thieves, so those AP's might have references for balancing flight for player characters?
Applying the Race Building Guide:
SHRIKE RACIAL TRAITS:+2 Dexterity, +2 Charisma, -2 Constitution
(Shrikes are quick, exotic and beautiful to behold but rather frail).Medium Size
Normal Speed
Default case, no point change.
Flight: In addition to walking and running, shrikes have a modest fly speed of 30.
4 points: up to 30 foot fly, burrow, climb speed or up to 50' swim speed
Spell Resistance: Shrikes have a spell resistance equal to 6 plus their total character level, just like the alternate dwarf feature in the APG.
4 points: spell resistance of 6+class levels
Low Light Vision
1 point: Low-Light vision
Brittle Frame: Due to their lithe bodies and relatively light bones, Shrikes suffer a -1 penalty to AC versus blunt weapons.
-1 point (estimated): Very situational penalty (ie, merfolk not liking to be out of water for long)
Weapon Familiarity: All Shrikes are proficient with their people's traditional weapons, the starknife, shortbow and longbow.
1 point: Weapon familiarity (up to 4 martial weapons - if only exotics for the race, costs 0)
Fight or Flight: If caught in a surprise round, shrikes gain a +2 dodge bonus to AC.
1 point (estimated): This is definitely worth less than a +1 to AC (4 points), even though it's twice the bonus. It could possibly go for two points, but I'd give it one and lump it in with "+2 save vs one very specific thing" and "+4 dodge bonus vs. a specific creature type".
Total: 4 + 4 + 1 -1 +1 + 1 = 10 points. Seems reasonable to me mechanically. In terms of actual balance, it feels kindof strong. Fly speed is amazing at low levels, and good at almost any level, and the race really doesn't have much to counter it. I would probably alter the guide to say that a 15' fly speed is equal to a 30' burrow or climb speed, or a 50' swim speed, in which case this race would be too powerful.
Keep in mind that any penalty to being attacked by blunt weapons is going to usually not apply if they're flying out of reach (except vs thrown rocks). Likewise, the con penalty won't matter much if they don't get hit. At low levels, when you could play a Shrike sorcerer or archer (which you have the stat bonuses for) flying 60' above the party and raining spells or arrows down on your foes, you would be amazing. Later on, it'd balance out somewhat as more creatures get good ranged attacks to deal with flying spellcasters, but it'd still be strong.
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I'd say take a look at Raptorans from the 3rd edition Races of the Wild. They handle the progression from gliding to flight via HD pretty well. As for brittle frame, the only conceivable threat that isn't completely mitigated by 4th level is something that goes up with damage, like taking 1.5x damage from bludgeoning, but that seems a bit high. And I gotta agree with most people on the fight or flight, make it a bonus to initiative, or just up their reflex save.
Exploring the race design process was fun, but you guys have convinced me that flight is difficult to balance. I think I'll post something simpler soon and leave the flying race off for the future.
Also you might want to do less situational bonuses. Players forget and are trying to track various ACs and so on. They mess it up with races they've played for years they sure will with a new one.
I'll agree with some of the others here.
1. Unrestricted flight at first level is *very* powerful, especially since it's (Ex) and so can't just be dispelled. Let's get back to that in a minute.
2. Brittle - If you're brittle, you should take extra damage from Bludgeon attacks, not be easier to hit.
Now, I think giving them a *real* vulnerability to bludgeon attacks might pay for the flight -- people would learn to use maces and slings against them (and they'd fear the heck out of things with slam attacks).
However, I don't imagine you want to do that.
So, I think to keep the flavour of what you're doing, I would say that bludgeon attacks do one extra point per die of damage -- which matches the intent, is still a useful limitation, and self-scales as a penalty (because +1 point makes little sense if there's no difference between being hit by a Gnome with a Quarterstaff or an Ogre with a Greatclub).
Now, with brittle doing its job, we get back to flight.
First up, I think you need to make Fly a class skill for all of them as a bonus.
Second, I think you need to restrict their flight ability to not be unbalancing. Some people are suggesting scaling up - which makes sense from a balance perspective but no sense from a *world* perspective. ("Run! Those ones are flying at us, they must be level 4 or better!")
So, let's look at what restrictions to a flight ability could look like, that still make sense in-world.
1. Make them clumsy fliers. This is a big help, because it means that they'll need to pump levels into Fly to actually be good at it.
2. Restrict their weight carried in flight. It's up to you how severe this is. You could, for instance, be nice(ish) and say flying in medium or less. You could be a little meaner and say, flying in no or light, gliding in Medium. Or, you could be really mean and say flying in light or no only.
3. Because much of their musculature is in their wings (and their bodies built for that) you could reduce their carrying capacity (which makes sense from the fragile frame as well) -- for instance, toss in a "Carrying capacity is determined as if they were small creatures. However, as medium sized creatures, they still require full-sized equipment".
4. Duration of flight. Here, we can take away a lot of the sting. Again, minutes per day are balanced, but make no sense unless magic's involved. Instead, we can make flight draining. "Flying is a strenuous activity for a shrike. As such, a shrike can never fly while fatigues or exhausted, and can only remain in flight for a number of rounds equal to 3 + their constitution modifier. A shrike can attempt to remain airborne longer, but must make a Fortitude Save of DC 10 + 1 per additional round. A shrike that has flown is fatigued for 1d4 rounds, with an additional 1d4 rounds if they failed their Fortitude save."
Now, I'm not saying you need to do all 4 of these things, but they would mix together well to balance out the flight power quite nicely (and there are other ways to do this, too, to be fair) -- just need to find where you think the right balance point is.
(For instance, it may be balanced to let them fly for 3 + con mod minutes at a time, if they can only fly in light or less (include light load) and glide in medium, and have the carrying capacity of a small creature ...)
Here's an idea that would probably make full flight fairly safe to grant at 1st level:
They do not have separate arms. Their hands are on their wings. Because of this, they cannot hold objects or cast spells with somatic components while flying.
Here's an idea that would probably make full flight fairly safe to grant at 1st level:
They do not have separate arms. Their hands are on their wings. Because of this, they cannot hold objects or cast spells with somatic components while flying.
I recall the 3.5 Raptorans learning how to shoot bows with their feat.
Kinda humorous.