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There are only 7 weaknesses in the Race Building guide (well, 8 if you count slow). 4 of those are about light and/or sunlight. And the other 3 are of rather limited use as well. That is hardly a useful variety.
As such I made up some more weaknesses to use. Feel free to add your own or comment on the ones posted so far.
Voracious (–1 RP):
Prerequisite: Race must have a con modifier of at least +2.
Weakness: Members of this race must consume 3 times as much food than is normal for their size. Treat starvation with the same time limits as thirst (1 day instead of 3). Wearing a Ring of Sustenance merely reduces the food consumption to normal levels.
Races with this weakness prefer to eat fresh food and care little for 'fake' nourishment created by spells.
Fast Metabolism (–2 RP):
Prerequisite: Regeneration or Fast Healing
Weakness: Once members of this race have healed an amount of hit points equal to their total amount of hit points they begin to starve immediately. Each time they heal 50% of their total hit points while starving counts as 1 day of starvation. Remember that non-lethal and lethal damage from starvation can't be regenerated unless food is consumed. Their body effectively digests itself to repair its wounds.
Heavy Breather (–1 RP):
Prerequisite: Creature must need to breathe.
Weakness: This race's body burns through energy fast. They suffocate twice as fast compared to other races. This means they can only hold their breath for 1 round per point of Constitution and lose 2 rounds for each full-round action.
Magic Magnet (–2 RP):
Prerequisite: No spell resistance.
Weakness: Members of this race are very susceptible to the forces of magic. They suffer a -2 penalty to saves against spells and spell-like effects. This race also can't benefit from spells or effects that grant spell resistance.
Magic Magnet, Greater (–4 RP):
Prerequisite: Magic Magnet
Weakness: When a spell is targeting a creature within 30 ft of this race and misses, it automatically targets this race instead. Also the AC against spells and spell-like effects is reduced by 2.
Short winded (–1 RP):
Prerequisite: Must have Con score. Endurance feat has no effect.
Weakness: This race runs out of breath quickly. They have a -4 penalty to all stamina based fortitude saves (such as forced marching, starvation, thirst, saves against fatigue and exhaustion etc.)
Bleeder (–4 RP):
Prerequisite: Must be living creature. No regeneration or fast healing.
Weakness: When taking lethal damage members of this race begin to bleed and take 1 point of bleed damage each round until healed or treated with the heal skill (DC 15). Heal is always a class skill for members of this race and they get a +2 bonus to treat their own wounds.
Cursed Wounds (–4 RP):
Prerequisite: None.
Weakness: This race carries a terrible curse which prevents healing magic from working properly. Members of this race have SR of 6 + character level against all healing spells. Unlike normal SR, this SR can't be voluntarily lowered and is active even when unconscious. In addition all heal checks to aid members of this race (treat wounds, longtime care, cure diseases, etc...) have their DC increased by 5.
Heal is always a class skill for members of this race and they get a +2 bonus to treat their own wounds.
Creatures that are healed by negative energy gain SR against negative energy instead. For undead the RP gain is reduced to -2.
Rotting (–2 RP):
Prerequisite: Creature type undead.
Weakness: The bodies of this undead race are permanently rotting away. Each day they lose 1/4th of their current hit points (minimum 2). To survive this race must consume the flesh of the living or the essence of other undead. Magic can be used to reverse the rotting as well.
Bothersome Wings (–1 RP):
Prerequisite: Must have wings.
Weakness: Your wings are so large an unwieldy that you count as one size smaller than you actually are for wind effects (such as Gust of Wind or stormy weather in general).
Also you take a -2 penalty to Escape Artist when squeezing through tight spaces.
Bad at Skill (–1 RP):
Prerequisite: None.
Weakness: Chose a skill. You have a -2 racial penalty to this skill. Can be taken up to three times for different skills. The chosen skills should have some connection to each other and are subject to GM approval. Only skills that can be used untrained can be selected, unless the race has some other feature that would make such a skill very attractive (For example: Spellcraft & Knowledge Arcana for a race that has high Charisma and/or Intelligence and a bonus to the DC of certain spells).
Anxiety (–2 RP):
Prerequisite: None.
Weakness: This race feels very uneasy in certain situations. Chose one of the following situations: tight spaces, wide open areas, great heights, underground, open fire, large bodies of water, areas with many people, area's devoid or life.
Members of this race are always shaken when in an area they feel anxious about (no save). Immunities to fear do not work on this effect, however bonuses against fear help against the saves of the more severe conditions.
The GM can ask for a Will save to increase the shaken condition to frightened or even panicked in extreme situations.
Examples for normal and extreme situations:
Entering a small house > Locked in a prison cell > Squeezed into a coffin
Entering a large hall in a castle > wandering over a slightly hilly area with trees and buildings blocking view in the distance > wandering over a completely open area with nothing to obstruct view to the horizon
Standing on the roof of a small house > Looking out the large window of a castle's tower > Standing at the cliff of a steep mountain
A camp fire > a bonfire > a forest fire
A river > a lake > the ocean
A crowded store > a gathering of the whole town for the king's announcement > a big tournament in a large arena where people are stepping on each others toes to get a glance at the action
A town at night or a very hot day when everyone is inside > Traveling alone over a rarely traveled route > A ghost town or standing in the middle of the desert with nothing as far as you can see.
Great ideas, filling a needed spot, though some are more likely personal shortcomings.
Yes there is some overlap. But in the end it depends how you describe it. Here are just mechanics ;3
Even though the mechanics are different, thematically I don't think there's much difference between Fast Metabolism and Voracious. I don't think they should be separate traits, and I don't think that the line about them not liking magical food is needed; if you're making your player waste a spell conjuring himself/herself food or spending oodles of gold on a wand / scroll to do that, then it means that you are willingly taking a hit to the number of resources you have at your disposal (remember that create food is not a cantrip).
Heavy Breather's name is pretty meh, and even then it sounds more like a drawback from Ultimate Campaign.
I like the idea behind Greater Magical Magnet, but the wording is off. Try this:
Magical Magnet, Greater (Su): Spells are inexplicably drawn to you. Whenever a spell fails to affect its target, it automatically redirects to you as if it were augmented by the Bouncing Spell feat (see Chapter 3 of Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Advanced Player's Guide). If the spell is already a bouncing spell, its caster chooses where it redirects to next, and if the bouncing spell fails to affect its target, then it may bounce to you if you are still within its range.
Here's an ideas I have:
Awkward build: requires NA +1, monstrous humanoid or similarly odd body shape.
Your body is covered with bumps,hard scales, etc. Armor must be specially fitted for your body making all cost of armor doubles(this includes special material cost). (-1 Rp)
It does bother me that Dhampirs don't seem to be bothered by fire any more than regular races.
Also, you should make a version of rotting that doesn't involve consuming flesh of the living. Otherwise, that Undead PC is going to be a pain to adventure with.
As to greater magic magnet I'm not even sure that's a penalty
actually if the spell already missed your teammates its not doing much protection, heck if its an aoe they might get targeted twice, based on their distance from said race.
Heavy Breather (–1 RP):
This one is too environment-dependent, IMO.
It's either catastrophic (if you need to hold your breath) or completely harmless.
Magic Magnet (–2 RP):
This is a pretty devastating penalty. The vast majority of spells allow for spell resistance. Most alarmingly, the cure, restoration, and raise dead spell lines all allow for spell resistance. In effect, this creature cannot be magically healed, restored, or revived. Quite frankly, this should not be an option for a PC-compatible race.
Bad at Skill (–1 RP):
Should be avoided; it's too easy to work around a few bad skills.
I'm reworking a race I've created that are crystalline rock-like people with the half-construct type. Even though they half-constructs don't eat they have organic internal organs and must consume precious metals, stones, or jewels; just like a humanoid would with regular food. My question is, what would the cost (or what ever) be for the flaw? You could also use it for any other race you want to create, I guess.
Bleeder (–4 RP):
Prerequisite: Must be living creature. No regeneration or fast healing.
Weakness: When taking lethal damage members of this race begin to bleed and take 1 point of bleed damage each round until healed or treated with the heal skill (DC 15). Heal is always a class skill for members of this race and they get a +2 bonus to treat their own wounds.
I would only value this at a -1, at -4 it just screams TAKE ME!! TAKE ME!!
I would only value this at a -1, at -4 it just screams TAKE ME!! TAKE ME!!Bleeder (–4 RP):
Prerequisite: Must be living creature. No regeneration or fast healing.
Weakness: When taking lethal damage members of this race begin to bleed and take 1 point of bleed damage each round until healed or treated with the heal skill (DC 15). Heal is always a class skill for members of this race and they get a +2 bonus to treat their own wounds.
isnt it a standard action to perform heal? That seems like a pretty serious limitation.
Well why not make Bleeder -2 or -3 then?
Thanks for the input. I'll try to reply to everyone. Please excute in case I miss someone.
@ShadowcatX
As all homebrew it would be subject to GM decision anyway ^^
And many drawbacks can be negated. Just think of slow (land speed) on a creature that can fly.
The Greater Magic Magnet ability would only apply to ranged touch attacks and only when the attack would have missed. And you can of course have good saves to eat the bad ones. But you are still 2 behind a normal character built like that and that's the drawback.
Bleeder is a rather extreme ability I admit, but could be used for an interesting race.
I imagined it could be used for some very delicate races. Like if you need a race for a different planet with low gravity, that act purely mentally. Their bodies would have deteriorated and are easy to wound.
Or you can interpret it as curse put on the race by some god or demon to punish them.
@Alexander
The line about magical food is flavor. Technically unncessary yes, but I like flavor ;)
And I think there is a difference there. I would give these two to any Trollish creature of course (the big appetite is described in their fluff text), but both can be taken seperately. You could make an everhungry dwarf-race too (which would get their calories from beer of course).
I was not aware of Ultimate Campaign. Is that from Paizo too?
The idea to describe Magic Magnet as bouncing spell is very good.
Teiidae
I am not sure an increased cost in Armor would be such a large weakness to be worth -1 RP. Only heavy armor wearing classes would really be affected and at higher levels the magic enchantment costs are the main cost factor.
However you could add that due to the awkwardness of the bodyshape the Armor Check Penalty is always 1 higher. That would definitely be worth 1 RP (maybe cut the cost increase to 50% extra)
@Vamptastic
I wrote in my post that there are 2 more options. Essence of undead (e.g. you eat undead) or magic (e.g. negative energy healing).
@+5 Toaster
I didn't intend them to be hit twice. The penalty to saves will make it harder to evade the area spell anyway.
@Dasrak
Usually the GM has to take care that drawbacks come into play. Spells that create poisonous clouds or inhaled poison are two situations that can happen easily.
You misread. You simply cannot benefit from a spell that grants spell resistance. Such as the spell "Spell Resistance".
And that is why particuarly mentioned that this weakness needs GM approval. It can be easily ignored if the skills are not commonly used. Perception and Acrobatics are good examples that you always need.
@Spyder
Depends how rare the materials are. On the plane of earth it would be less of a weakness than on the material plane.
Easiest would be to tie it to a cost factor. Like, must consume 100 gp worth of precious metal/gems/jewels per week. That is a hefty price and would be a very good reason why this race adventures... it has hardly any chance to gather food otherwise. Depending how much the material costs it would be -1 to -4 RP or something. And the ring of sustenance could not work on this race (or everyone would buy one. It pays off after a few weeks)
@ski
Really? Only one? You begin to bleed at the slightest of injury. Do you know how quickly that cumulates over an adventure day? Slipped off a ladder and take falling damage, step on caultrop, run in a trap, get scratched by a cat. Of course you can use first aid (which is a standard action as +5 Toaster has said) or a magical heal but it is a strain on your resources. I might consider dropping it to -3, but anything less seems a bit expensive.
I always wondered why there was no undersized weapon weakness for tauric races like centaurs.
I always wondered why there was no undersized weapon weakness for tauric races like centaurs.
its part of the quadruped trait.