I've been working on a homebrew race for a campaign, the central idea of which is that they are permanently blind. I'm aiming for balance with the core races, using the Advanced Race Guide race builder as a rule of thumb. A couple of things I'm looking to acheive, such the permanent blindness, aren't included as options so I'd love to hear your thoughts as to the balance.
Fluff:
Hadalkin
The true origin of the mysterious race known as the Hadalkin is the subject of scholarly debate and hushed whispers between adventurers: perhaps cursed by the gods, the unholy fusion of man and beast in an arcane ritual gone wrong or something altogether more sinister. Though oft-feared by adventuring parties for their favoured hunting technique of dropping onto unsuspecting prey from a cavern ceiling, when outsiders manage to break through this stigma they discover a loyal and insightful companion unparalleled in their ability to safely navigate deadly cave networks and dungeons in the pitch dark.
Physical Description: Standing at an average of 6ft tall, from the neck down a Hadalkin could almost be mistaken for human. If their unusually lithe athletic frame or pallid grey complexion weren’t enough to arouse suspicion then their monstrous visage puts to bed any comparison. For instead of a face, long writhing tentacles sprout from the front of their heads. The primary purpose of these are as antennae, for by sensing minute vibrations in the air they can construct a crude image of their surroundings, but they are also often utilised to grab prey whilst hunting.
Society: The Hadalkin communicate in a complex tactile language of movement and touch which also serves to reinforce the social bonds of their tight-knit tribes, most often nomadic groups of a few dozen individuals roaming and scavenging to survive in the darkness. Those Hadalkin who decide to strike out alone, perhaps as a means to escape their meagre lifestyle, seek and receive the blessing of their cohort in a sacred ritual of silent dance-like motion passed down through the generations.
Relations: The natural habitat of the Hadalkin ensures that only those races that also spend their lives deep underground will ever interact with them. Of these, the Dwarves are the closest to what could called be called an ally, as they admire their traditionalism and respect for family. Occasionally Hadalkin can be valued scouts and guards of underground mining systems. A word-of-mouth chain of exaggerated stories has led most above ground races to fear and distrust them, but this initial view can often be overcome.
Standard Racial Traits:
Type: Aberration (1 RP)
Ability Score Modifiers: Hadalkin characters are athletic and insightful, they gain +2 Strength, +2 Dexterity and +2 Wisdom. (6 RP)
Size: Hadalkin are Medium creatures and thus receive no bonuses or penalties due to their size. (0 RP)
Base Speed: Hadalkin have a base speed of 30 feet. (0 RP)
Climb: Hadalkin have a climb speed of 20 feet and gain the +8 racial bonus on Climb checks that a climb speed normally grants. (2 RP)
Languages: Hadalkin begin play speaking Hadalkin only. (-1 RP)
Born to Darkness: Hadalkin are permanently blinded but have blindsense to a range of 30ft. They receive Blind Fight and Blinded Blade Style as bonus feats at first level, and for the purposes of feat prerequisites are treated as though they had the Blinded Competence Feat. (-12 RP)
Cavern Born: Hadalkin have a +1 bonus on Knowledge(Dungeoneering) and Survival checks whilst underground. (1 RP)
Grabbing Tentacles: Hadalkin are skilled at grabbing prey with their tentacles. They gain Improved Grapple as a bonus feat and can maintain a grapple and still make attacks with both of their hands. However they lose the benefits of the Born to Darkness trait, as well as any other feats or abilities that relies in that trait as a prerequisite, for the duration of this grapple. (5 RP)
Prehensile Tentacle: Hadalkin have practiced using their tentacles to carry objects. They cannot wield weapons with them, but they can retrieve small, stowed objects carried on their persons as a swift action. (2 RP)
Nimble Faller: Members of this race land on their feet even when they take lethal damage from a fall. Furthermore, they gain a +1 bonus to their CMD against trip attempts. (2 RP)
Underground Stalker: Hadalkin can move unhindered through difficult terrain while underground. In addition, Hadalkin with a Dexterity score of 13 or higher gain Nimble Moves as a bonus feat. (4 RP)
Blackout: Once per day, a Hadalkin can vomit forth a cloud of inky darkness. This spell-like ability functions as Deeper Darkness, with a caster level equal to the user’s character level. (3 RP)
Alternate Racial Traits:
Adhesive: The tentacles of some Hadalkin are unusually sticky. Whilst the viscous slime would ruin anything they tried to pick up with it, they can instead can make melee attacks with their tentacles. This is a secondary attack. A creature hit by this attack cannot move more than 10 feet away from the attacker and takes a –2 penalty to AC as long as the tentacle is attached (this penalty does not stack if multiple tentacles are attached). The tentacle can be removed by the target or an adjacent ally by making an opposed Strength check against the attacking creature as a standard action or by dealing 2 points of damage to the tentacle (AC 11, damage does not affect the Hadalkin’s hit points). You cannot move more than 10 feet away from a creature stuck to its tentacle but can release its tentacle from the target as a free action. Only one creature can be attached as such at any one time. This replaces the Prehensile Tentacle trait.
Mesmerising Lights: Instead of pursuing their prey, some Hadalkin have developed bioluminescence as a hunting strategy. Like a moth to a flame, all manner of lost creatures are drawn to their doom. You can cast Light at will and once per day you can cast hypnotism; both are supernatural abilities with a caster level equal to your character level. This effect lasts only one round. Furthermore, you add +1 to the DC for all saving throws against spells or effects they cast that inflict the fascinated condition. Once per day, when a creature rolls a saving throw against such an effect, you can force that creature to reroll the saving throw and use the second result, even if it is worse. This replaces Underground Stalker and Blackout.
Terrifying Visage: The stunted, twisted tentacles of some Hadalkin are deformed beyond function. Heralded as inheritors of divine favour amongst their own kind, these characters gain the following supernatural ability: Creatures within 30 that meet its gaze must succeed at a Will saving throw (DC 10 + the 1/2 user’s character level + the user’s Charisma modifier) or stand paralyzed in fear for 1 round. This is a mind-affecting fear effect. A target that successfully saves cannot be affected by the user’s frightful gaze for 24 hours. Additionally they receive a +2 bonus on Intimidate checks and a -4 penalty to Diplomacy checks with non-Hadalkin. These benefits and penalties are temporarily lost if the character’s face is obscured or disguised, whether by magical or mundane means. This replaces the Grabbing Tentacles and Prehensile Tentacle trait.
Translucent: A minority of Hadalkin have almost entirely transparent skin, allowing them to blend into their environment. Such characters gain a +4 bonus to stealth checks and have concealment against any foe more than 5ft away. This replaces the Grabbing Tentacles trait.
Waterborn: Some Hadalkin tribes have lived for centuries along underground waterways and have slowly adapted to suit these environments. They gain a swim speed of 30 feet and gain the +8 racial bonus on Swim checks that a swim speed normally grants. Additionally, they can breathe water as well as air. This replaces the Climb and Nimble Faller traits.
Here and there I've tweaked the numbers from the race builder, for example Abberation should cost 3 RP but 2 of those are darkvison 60ft which is unusable giving a 1 point remainder. Ultimately I'm not too bothered by the exact point buy, I'm just looking to not make them unplayably over- or under-powered.
I'm hoping that the character would start at level 1 at a playable power level such that the blindness isn't completely game-ruining, and then they can choose to either progress up the blind fight and blinded blade style feat trees or not depending on preference. The limit of 30ft range to either blindsense or blindsight that they could acheive almost certainly rules out a ranged build (maybe not for thrown weapons?), but hopefully I haven't shoehorned them into one role other than that. With the alternative traits you could certainly make a good monk, fighter, rogue, cleric or inquisitor and even wizard or sorceror are still viable.
I'd be very grateful for any thoughts or suggestions
Wow, this is such an over powered race I can't even begin to comment.
Blind, but you've effectively negated all the negatives of that, darkness doesn't bother them, With blind sense and blind fighting they are ok as a ranged character. immune to anything that affects sight, gain a bonus in darkness. All that plus they have in effect extra hands, not to mention +6 bonus to stats. This is sooo much better than any of the standard races..
If you wanted them to be playable at first level, you more than succeeded.
It definitely has some very powerful abilities, I was worried about that. But I'm trying to balance that against your vision being limited to 30ft all the way up to level 20 and all the penalties to visual perception that that brings, and being flatfooted against a lot of attacks as a result.
I may well be misunderstanding the blindsense rules, but I'm anticipating that a character would be flatfooted against all ranged attacks all the time which seems to me to be quite brutal
It definitely has some very powerful abilities, I was worried about that. But I'm trying to balance that against your vision being limited to 30ft all the way up to level 20 and all the penalties to visual perception that that brings, and being flatfooted against a lot of attacks as a result.
I may well be misunderstanding the blindsense rules, but I'm anticipating that a character would be flatfooted against all ranged attacks all the time which seems to me to be quite brutal
Most encounters are in spaces smaller than 30', so Blind sense would kick in, the bonus to perception and blind fighting would also counter most penalties to ranged attacks (i.e. I hear the bow being loaded, so I know to dodge). Not to mention being able to cast darkness. If you play Adventure Paths, most of the bad guys do not use ranged attacks, so that's not much of an issue. Since your "Born to Blindness" grants 3 it should not be -12AP, I would think more likely -6
Being able to Grapple and still use 2 hands is huge.
Even you have things priced right, it's 12AP compared to a standard elf at 10 AP and this is FAR better than any elf. If this was available as a normal race in my campaign, I would always take it.
So, plugging these items into herolab (the ones that are available or once close to them) comes up with 34AP, but that's before we include the addition of Blinded Blade Style and Blinded Competence Feat, and the subtraction of being Blind.
So being blind would need to be worth at least -24 AP to make this on par with an Elf, and I'm pretty sure it's not.
Including four bonus feats, and increases to three stats, an SLA, prehensile tentacles, and several skill bonuses without so much as a single drawback of any sort MIGHT be a bit much... ans this coming from someone who loves high caliber high fantasy characters.
Blind-Fight can be had with a Religion Trait (Vildeis)... so that's not too big of a deal. But an entire Style chain for free, from the start, is ridiculous. Maybe give them the Blinded Oracle Curse or something...?
A blind race is cool, and should definitely be explored/fleshed out. But at least try make it actually playable next to literally every other race. As it is right now, it makes Noble Drow look like Kobolds.
I think you erred in trying to adjust the existing AP bonus for normal items. Leave them as is, and then give a -AP for being blind. I'm thinking -4 to -6 for being blind. If you do this, I think it will give you a better metric for how many AP you are actually using.
Wait. If these creatures are blind, then that would mean they couldn't use spell books? Wizards would need some adjustments or otherwise they wouldn't be able to prepare spells. Well, I suppose you could pick up the feat "Spell Mastery", but I don't recommend going that route.
If you MUST be a class that uses such stupid things, then this race isn't for you. Move on.
No fault of the race that some classes can't use their precious books. And no need to adjust the race specifically for such classes.
Finally, screw Wizards. My new favorite race...
Edit: A lot of venom came out with that... let me assure you, it's directed at stupid God-Wizards... not anyone specific in this discussion or elsewhere.
Wait. If these creatures are blind, then that would mean they couldn't use spell books? Wizards would need some adjustments or otherwise they wouldn't be able to prepare spells. Well, I suppose you could pick up the feat "Spell Mastery", but I don't recommend going that route.
nothing says that spellbooks can't be in braille.....
