I'm in the process of building a wolf-like humanoid player race. I really want to give it scent, low-light vision, a bite attack and a survival bonus, + Con, + Wis, - Int. I'm just not sure how balanced that would be compared to the core races. I don't have my copy of the ARG playtest handy, but I don't remember scent being on the list of options.
Does it look alright to you?
Care to clarify where it's too strong? I figured it was, but would like help in where and how to tone it down.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Scent is currently a feat-equivalent outside of the ARG (Keen Scent, APG). That's the only issue I have there.
Currently, this can almost completely be covered by Half-Orcs, save for the fact that Scent is a feat.
I'm no expert, so take what I say with a grain of salt.
I think the main problem is that race abilities tend to be defensive or very mildly offensive in nature. A halflings size for instance gives ita slightly better AC. A humans extra feat helps flesh out a starting character.
You wolf-like humanoid is very close to balanced, but I think scent combined with the bite attack throw it ever so slightly over. Something as simple as disallowing this character to pick 2 traits, and allowing the other characters to get the standard 2 traits seems like it would balance this ok.
I'm basing it on the wolf in the Bestiary, which gets a bite, low-light and scent.
The biggest deal for me is giving them scent. I sort of need it to explain how they navigate their impossible maze of a forest. Everything else is pretty mutable.
The reason for +Wis was that Paizo standard seems to be +Physical, +Mental, -Either. Wisdom seems to include being cunning, perceptive and in tune with nature. +Wis is common for "wild" creatures and animals, of which these are both. The penalty to Intelligence was to show a lack of classical schooling and a foreign pattern of thinking. -Int hurts available skill points and bonus languages, as well as being a wizard or witch (considered very powerful classes usually), so I figured it was a relatively hefty penalty. A bonus or penalty to Charisma didn't make sense to me, as I want them to be internally social creatures and capable of intimidation, but not great at deception, diplomacy and to be a little standoffish with outsiders.
My biggest worry was having both a bite attack and scent, but both seemed too wolf-like to pick one over the other. Having neither makes them pretty bland as well.
However, since a half-orc can get Bite with a trait or alternate racial ability, but needs to spend a feat for scent, it seems that the books consider scent the stronger ability. So would keeping scent, and dropping the bite, make it more balanced? Or does that just make it too weak?
|
Scent is most definitely the stronger ability. Scent allows a character to know something is in the scent range. It also allows you to pinpoint the square that an invisible creature is in, so that part of the guessing game is out.
Scent also gives like a +10 or something to Perception when sleeping. Sleeping usually gives 0 to your Perception check, but with scent it's +10 (IIRC you do not get your normal Perception check bonuses because you are asleep).
For my games that would be balanced as it is.
half-orcs gets a bit with a trait: if you allow that you may well allow this race.