One of the players in my gaming group is working on a race that's supposed to be very good with heavy arms/armor but are weak to magic and can't cast it in any way (using magic items and supernatural abilities aside).
In order to emphasize this, he came up with two custom race features, but before I okay anything, I wanted to get some more opinions on this.
Armor Training: The Armor Check penalty for all armor is reduced by -3 and the armor counts as one category lighter for all purposes except proficiency. (6 RP)
Magic Vulnerability: Take a -2 penalty to all saves against spells, and another 50% damage from spells. (-6 RP)
First and foremost, I think 6 RP is a bit low for what basically amounts to getting half the benefits of Mithral without actually using Mithral, but I'm REALLY not sure how I feel about taking a -2 penalty to all saving throws against spells on top of suffering 50% more damage from spells, too.
???? Let them play it. You have a built in way to kill off the character if he gets out of hand.
Plus, the armor ability is not as good as the magic vulnerability is bad. This player is really hindering themselves. Seriously, how many encounters will just be against animals and fighters?
Woah. Taking extra 50% damage from spells is kinda... damaging.
I might revise that slightly.
*I'd also look at broadening the vulnerability to SLAs - perhaps -1 to saves against them?
*Maybe give them DR of some kind for the Armor Training as well. Though that gets more into becoming a (Su) abilty of it's own. Hmm. I do like the concepts and how the player is tying them together. Just seems a little blunt at the moment...