Balanced Pixie Race

[drsparnum]

My kids have been bugging me to play D&D for several years and I just started running Skulls and Shackles for 6 PCs:
my wife
my friend
my 5th grade boy
my 3rd grade girl
my friend's 6th grade girl
my friend's 3rd grade girl.

My 3rd grade daughter wanted to make a pixie (of course) and I'm trying to make a fair one. I want most to hang onto flight, as it is not much of a pixie without flight.

Fey
Small size
+4 DEX, +2 CHA, -2 STR
Slow speed
Fly 40' (poor manuverability)
SR 5 + character level
SLA at will: Dancing Lights, Shield
Languages: Common and Sylvan.

What do others think? It still looks a bit too good to my eye but I want other's thoughts. I made the flight a bit worse and did not want to go any worse. Shield at will and a +4 DEX looks a bit too good after the flight is in there.

[Themetricsystem]

At Will "Shield" is too powerful for ANY starting PC, flat-out.

I agree with your assessment completely. I'd change it as follows:

Fey
Small size
+2 DEX, +2 CHA, -2 STR
Speed 20' ; Fly 40' (poor manuverability)
SR 5 + character level
1/day: Dancing Lights, Shield
Languages: Common and Sylvan.

Amend the +4 to +2 DEX (They already have a +hit advantage and AC bonus from their size), and make the spells 1/day and you are good to go. I noted you didn't put a land speed in so I added 20 because they have shorter legs than even the smallest of gnomes.

[FamiliarMask]

drsparnum wrote:

My kids have been bugging me to play D&D for several years and I just started running Skulls and Shackles for 6 PCs:

my wife
my friend
my 5th grade boy
my 3rd grade girl
my friend's 6th grade girl
my friend's 3rd grade girl.

My 3rd grade daughter wanted to make a pixie (of course) and I'm trying to make a fair one. I want most to hang onto flight, as it is not much of a pixie without flight.

Fey
Small size
+4 DEX, +2 CHA, -2 STR
Slow speed
Fly 40' (poor manuverability)
SR 5 + character level
SLA at will: Dancing Lights, Shield
Languages: Common and Sylvan.

What do others think? It still looks a bit too good to my eye but I want other's thoughts. I made the flight a bit worse and did not want to go any worse. Shield at will and a +4 DEX looks a bit too good after the flight is in there.

Have you considered using the Gathlain? Seems similar to what you're going for, being a small flying fey, and it's already a playable race. You could always just call it a pixie if the name is important...

[Meirril]

So this is a +3 level adjustment, right? As in the base race is as good as a 3rd level character.

If you want this to be on par with Drow Noble (as in massively overpowered, but still sort of acceptable without adjusting levels)

Race: Lets call it Half-Pixie. The other half is Gnome or Halfling. Or human. Doesn't really matter. More of a blessed event kind of thing.

Stat bonuses are way too good. -2 str is fine, +2 to 1 stat. Don't give a second bonus because you have to pay for flight and the SLA somewhere.

Slow Speed? You mean ground speed 20? Sure. That is standard for a small race. As in that isn't a disadvantage.

Flight: 20', increases by 10' every 5 character levels. Max 40' at level 10. Bump it back up to Good Manuverability. And +4 racial bonus to Fly skill. Slower initial flight still makes this way too good till the character reaches 5th level. Even then, constant flight is really strong and it doesn't really become something other characters can do until much higher levels.

SR: No. Just no. Too good.

SLA: Dancing Lights (1/day), Shield (1/day). CL = character level, can spend a feat to bump either SLA to 3+cha mod/day.

Seriously, 1/day is standard for most racial SLA. I have no idea why you think at will is acceptable.

Even with all the nerfs I piled on, this is really really good compared to core races. Do not underestimate flight!

[Isaac Zephyr]

Yeah, the suggestion of Gathlain really I think would be better. Replace the Natural Armor with their Bower Born Alternative racial trait and call it a pixie, boom. Everything is there.

[Dasrak]

I'd agree with FamiliarMask that the Gathlain is a good standard to balance against.

I do think you'll need to drop the spell resistance. Even if you lower the dex bonus to +2 and replace the spell-like ability with something less overpowered, having both flight and spell resistance is overkill.