Advanced Race - Race Creation - Need help with a rules ajudication

[HaeshkaManju]

Hey there folks,

So, I am looking into running a "create your own race and run it" campaign.

Essentially, each player represents two leaders of their race (a PC and a Cohort), and they each get 7 RP with which to make a race - that can be improved-upon later.

Okay, enough prologue.

Before we even got started - one problem arose for which I could not account in my early musings: Multi-form races.

What I mean by this is races such as Bees, Ants, and other "Caste" races.

The concept being presented is a Queen/Drone, Warrior, Soldier, and something else.

How would *YOU* handle this? Obviously there are any traits for this already.

Now, I am not concerned about creating hive-mind abilities or anything else like that, I have already custom-created those as a result of this conversation.

Would you:

A) Disallow it altogether?
B) Treat them as separate races?
C) Create a trait advantage that allowed this "singular" race to be created.
D) Something else?

[Mojorat]

I dont see the issue. the seperate 'castes' have a different race value and mechanically are built as different races. It is no different than having drow and 'noble drow'

So i guess my answer is B :)

[HaeshkaManju]

I believe I should provide a little more "prologue."

The Game is Competitive. Each Player is creating a Race, and will be playing an Empire-Building Game AND running adventures.

Each was supposed to develop a "single" race - however; defining single was not in my purview when I started the idea.

(I am writing this extra post after realizing that A and B are essentially the same thing.)

[gatherer818]

A lot of the differences between the castes might be resolvable using open-ended traits, like the Human +2 to any ability score. Maybe encourage the player to choose traits with flexibility, then the castes could be common racial archetypes like Worker: Choose +2 Con, Endurance as extra feat. Soldier: Choose +2 Str, Weapon Focus or Power Attack as extra feat. Queen gets +2 Cha and is allowed to spend their extra feat on Leadership, having it activate as soon as they meet the requirements. That's the only stretch I'm seeing - otherwise they could be built with just variations on humans.

Barring that (in case it doesn't give enough wiggle room for the player, if they want things that are drastically different between the castes), you might consider allowing the players to developer alternate racial traits like the core races all have. A dhampir with fangs plays a bit different from the base dhampir, and a Half-Elf with Ancestral Weapon can completely change the game from a Half-Elf with Skill Focus. Maybe even racial feats to allow them to start the same and evolve differently as they gain levels - Soldiers pick up Hivemind Defense (Teamwork, Combat, Racial; +1 to AC and CMD for each ally with Hivemind Defense within 10 feet) earlier than Workers, who get Hivemind Toil (Racial; add a bonus to Craft and Profession checks equal to the number of districts in the nearest settlement, if that settlement is primarily composed of [race] and contains at least one [race] Queen) at first level normally.

Outside of your rather specific circumstances, though, I would normally treat them as different races.

[HaeshkaManju]

gatherer818,

I appreciate the comparison in paragraph two - and the positive idea. That's not bad actually. It just doesn't quite cut the mustard for the campaign concept; but, it has given me some thoughts. Much obliged.