My friend made a new race for his home-made campaign and I was hoping I could have some one better versed in the rules to help me evaluate it.
The big important question is: Is this race balanced when compared to the core races? If not, should it be nerfed or improved? Any advice welcome.
Also, we're not really powergamers, so if the difference is a small one or hard to exploit (eg. coming up only in very specific situations), then it's probably not relevant.
We're creating characters with point buy 20, while trying to avoid extremes (so few/no dump stats 8 or lower, probably no starting 20s)
Here are the important numbers:
Race:Greyman
Size: Medium
Speed:30 feet
Ability scores: +2 constitution, +2 wisdom, -2 dexterity
Misc. bonuses: Dark vision, +2 perception, +1 HP regained when resting, natural armor bonus equal to half of the constition modifier rounded down, +1 save vs spells and effects that rely on physical/sexual attraction (they have no reproductive organs), -1 on reflex saves, -1 Touch AC, -2 on swim checks
I've left out the flavor text on purpose. If, for some reason, you deem it important, I guess I'll post what I've been provided. Thanks in advance.
Is the -1 to reflex on top of the -2 Dex? Or a factor of.
A hell of a melee character.
The natural armor bonus seems funny on 2 accounts. First off it scales with level, which is almost unheard of as a racial bonus. Secondly their primary drawback is a lack of dexterity , which is problematic for armor class.. which they make up for with interest as they level. Its like taking a superhero with the flaw "only works at temperatures above 100 degrees" when he has the power to create flames: a drawback that isn't really a drawback isn't a drawback.
It's on top of.
I agree the natural armor bonus is too strong. I think anything over +1 natural armor is not balanced against the core races. The rest seems like it wouldn’t be a problem, but… there is maybe too much doubling down on things. For example:
-2 dex, -1 on reflex saves, and -1 Touch AC
+2 wisdom, +2 perception, and +1 save vs spells and effects that rely on physical/sexual attraction (aka will saves)
+2 con and +1 HP regained when resting
Now, I don’t think it makes the race broken or anything - though the +2 wisdom/+2 perception and -2 dex/-1 reflex combos are borderline – but it does strike me as a bit min/maxy for a race. Synergy and strong themes are good, but as a GM I’d like to see a more well-rounded race.
He has changed the following:
Natural armor bonus: A solid +2 that does not scale with level. -1 Touch AC removed.
HP regained when resting: Con modifier instead of 1 (because 1 was kind of irrelevant).
Save vs sexy spells and effects: Increased from 1 to 4 (because 1 didn't really make much of a difference, and because it's so situational and specific in nature).
While they're probably still better than the core races (on account of the nice natural armor), they ought to be less broken now, as it no longer scales with level. What are your thoughts?
I'm playing a Full Plated Greyman fighter with a greatsword and a lvl 2 AC of 24/22/12, by the way.
He has changed the following:
[bold]Natural armor bonus:[/bold] A solid +2 that does not scale with level. -1 Touch AC removed.
[bold]HP regained when resting[/bold]: Con modifier instead of 1 (because 1 was kind of irrelevant).
[bold]Save vs sexy spells and effects[/bold]: Increased from 1 to 4 (because 1 didn't really make much of a difference, and because it's so situational and specific in nature).While they're probably still better than the core races (on account of the nice natural armor), they ought to be less broken now, as it no longer scales with level. What are your thoughts?
I'm playing a Full Plated Greyman fighter with a greatsword and a lvl 2 AC of 24/22/12, by the way.
+2 nat armor ist still too strong. Its worth two full Feats.
Most races with overwhelming bonuses to a particular class include some sort of balancing negative to that same class. Every single Elven ability and bonus makes them more powerful wizards, so their big minus (-2 Con) effects the one thing wizards lack the most: HP. Half-Orks are great fighters, but their biggest bonuses (starting weapons, 1 round of action when at - hp) get swallowed up by most fighters anyway if they take diehard and don't choose a weapon-less archetype. They ironically make better wizards, or other classes where a slight fighter racial-flavoring is more beneficial. Dwarves make awesome fighters, Clerics and Paladins, so they gave them a - to Charisma (the other paladin/cleric stat) and lots of very situation-specific benefits (bonuses to looking at stonework, bonuses against trip attacks, bonus to appraise) and a - to movement, which is a big deal for everyone.
I think your friend needs to focus more on what this class is supposed to do well, and figure out how to make it more universal/nerf it's favored class. Yes some Monster races are overbearingly overpowered in one direction (like the Ork to fighter/Barbarian or Aasimir to Paladin/Cleric) but generally speaking they need a break from their favored build so there's a reason to still choose other races for that class.
So far you've got a melee fighter/Ranger/cleric/paladin with bad dodges to touch and area attacks. I'd suggest taking natural armor down to +1, take the bonus vs sexy back to +1 and the HP while resting back to just +1. then you can get rid of the - to touch ac, - to reflex and - to swim and it will still be balanced. As of right now it's not that your race isn't balanced, it's that it feels min-maxed: There's one think they do well, one thing they do bad, and that's about it. If you knock their bonuses down, you could even give them some more, unrelated bonuses to round them out, like a +2 to linguistics vs spoken words or something fun like that.
That's of course my opinion. If you want to keep the higher natural armor, spell save and HP while sleeping that's fine, but you've got to include a - that more directly effects melee tanks. Like get rid of the - to touch ac and reflex and just make it a total -4 to dex and something else. But of course then what's the benefit of having natural armor, so I'd really go with the suggestion above.
Ok, so the net bonus on this class is:
+1 HP/level
+1 Fort Save
+1 Will save, +5 vs a small subset of charm
-2 Ref Save
+1 AC (+2 nat, -1 dex)
Bonus healing while resting (very campaign situational. I can count the number of times this gets used per campaign I am in on 1 hand)
- 2 to swim (pretty irrelevant)
+3 Perception
other random stat adjustments to skills
Personally, I think this is more ballanced than a dwarf. A dex penalty is a much bigger problem than a Cha penalty, and the only real advantage is the nat armor, in exchange for some of the Dwarve's really good abilities.
I might give them a situational penalty to diplomacy when dealing with other humanoids for not understanding how gendered culture behaves.
I will say, though, that it's odd to see a race with so many negatives. Most races only lose stats, not get so many minuses to skills and situations. Not that that's bad, just irregular. I think that might be part of the reason why it feels off to some of us.