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Want to run another game in my Great Wood setting, inspired by Redwall. But I would like to keep it as rules-lite as possible, so I'm trying to pare down the races.
Below is a first draft. What would you do to balance them?
Mouse- small, spd 20, scent, +1 saves, bonus feat, +2 Acrobatics or Diplomacy or Sleight of Hand
Hare- medium, spd 40, scent, +2 Athletics, Acrobatics and Perception, spring-step (change direction on charge/run)
Squirrel- medium, spd 30, climb 30ft, scent, +2 Reflex, +2 Athletics and Acrobatics
Hedgehog- small, spd 20, scent, +2 natural armor, +2 Fort, spines (armor spikes)
Toad- medium, spd 20, +1 natural armor, +2 Fort, +2 Will, tongue (can pick up objects/perform maneuvers at 10)
Frog- medium, spd 30, swim 30, +2 Reflex, +2 Acrobatics, +4 Athletics, tongue (can pick up objects/perform maneuvers at 10)
Badger- medium, spd 30, scent, +1 natural armor, +2 Fort, +2 Will, ferocity, tunneler (may excavate earth without tools)
Sparrow- medium, spd 10, fly 50, +1 Reflex, +2 Acrobatics and Athletics
Finch- small, spd 10, fly 50, +2 Acrobatics, +2 Bluff or Diplomacy or Performance
Turtle- medium, 20, swim 20, +2 natural armor, shell (standard action to gain cover)
Thank you for the reply.
I borrow from the general theme and whimsical nature of Redwall with my setting, but that's about it. Alignment will be a non-issue.
I also won't be doing any racial ability score modifiers; just going to hand out more points to generate characters. It's what I've been doing for a long while, now. In my experience, players who pick X will tend to build stats that *feel* right, but won't be pigeonholed into X race + Y class because of bonuses.
And again, looking to be as rules-lite as possible. So instead of "+2 on saves versus Poison, Charms and Fear effects", I'll just go "+1 Fort, +1 Will", etc.
What I'm looking for most is feedback on the content I posted...
On the above; flight is really good, and with it making the small size penalty to land speed irrelevant I'd rate the finch about the best there (no, I've never agreed with the ARG race builder). It might want a small debuff - even if it's as little as dropping the fly speed to 40. OTOH the turtle needs a serious buff.
I'm pretty sure others have done anthro's before in homebrew if you want another take.
Sorry, some of these comments are a little hard to read.
Thanks for the racial point break down; I've never used the race builder and don't really like a lot of what it does, but it's a good place to start.
As far as the fly speed, this is something I've considered quite a bit. I was wondering if the presence of multiple flying options would sort of dilute the potency of the ability, or if the fact that 25-50% of the terrain will limit mobility for fliers would help keep it in check?
Some updates:
Mouse- is it really 17? The skill bonus is just supposed to be a Choose One type of deal.
Toad- ...add two +2 to skilld? Intimidate and Stealth, or maybe a list of them, or...?
Badger- 17 again? Maybe lower their save bonuses, or drop the Tunneler ability?
Sparrow- maybe just flight and a bonus to two skills?
Finch- flight and a bonus to one skill?
Turtle- I was thinking the Turtle gains Cover, not Partial Cover or Full Cover.
Also, we can add in Hold Breath (1min/Con) and...skill bonuses? A feat?
I wouldn't worry about balancing flight from a racial bonus, tbh. It only affects the first 1-4 levels anyway. Every character has access to flight starting at level 5, whether it be from class abilities/spells or items, so Flying is available throughout a massive portion of the game.
WBL for level 5 is 10,500gp
Brooms of Flying are 8,500gp
Flying Carpets are 10,000gp
Winged Boots are 8,000gp
Witches/Shaman have Flight Hex
Wizards have Fly
Tengu have Tengu Wings feat.
Sorcs and Arcs get Fly at lvl 6
Clerics/Oracles get Air Walk at lvl 7.
Etc.
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Turtle needs something solid like a bonus general feat (at least) to be at the same level as the others. Dunno if your players are old enough to remember Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, but if any are and they feel inspired it'd be a shame for turtles to be a trap option. Taking cover as a standard action is bad enough to be zero-rated for a PC, a bonus to holding breath is near-zero, and a few +2 skill bonuses aren't enough to make up the difference.
As far as being inspired by the TMNT...no. This is Redwall/Wind in the Willows/etc. They understand full well what they're getting into.
I was thinking the turtle could take cover and...move through enemy fire lines/dangerous areas, and has +2 AC and a swim speed...? Oh, and Slow and Steady, of course. So no encumbrance worries. So:
Turtle- medium, 20, swim 20, +2 natural armor, bonus feat, hold breath, shell, slow and steady
How's that?
A bonus feat and slow and steady makes them better for some builds (but certainly not all) than your mouse; so yeah, that works.
What about the mouse? Small, spd 20, scent, +1 saves, bonus feat, +2 to one skill
--what would you change to keep them in line with the others? Get rid of the feat or bonus to saves?
And the badger? medium, spd 30, scent, +1 natural armor, +2 Fort, +2 Will, ferocity, tunneler
--same thing. Reduce the saves to +1 each? Also, how good would it be to allow them to actually burrow, but at a semi-reasobable rate like 5ft/round?
Unlimited burrowing has potential problems for the GM ("It may take six times as long, but if we burrow there we can avoid any and all encounters along the way", and it's another means of bypassing many obstacles.) I'd find it annoying as a GM but YMMV.
I'd probably leave your badger as is and cut the mouse back to a reflex save bonus. If you were to give the badger burrow 5' then halving the saves seems fairish.
I'd probably just talk to any potential burrow-ers and use common sense. If it became a problem, I'd try to adjust encounters and put more pressure on them time-wise.
If I specify that it's soil, clay and loose earth only...that should help? And there's also the fact that lots of these animals live underground, so burrowing will be a good way to bumble into a rat nest or a weasel den or something. I suppose I'll use that if needed.
At any rate, is that 17pts assuming he's got a Burrow speed? So without it, he's around 12 or...?
And for the mouse:
small, spd 20, scent, +1 Ref, bonus feat, +2 Acrobatics or Diplomacy or Sleight of Hand --?
No idea on the RP costs, I'm the person who thought they were a terrible idea due to the thoroughly messed up values in that system and the lack of awareness of the concept of synergy. Ask Azothath for those.
The mouse looks good to me, and if you're comfortable with burrow 5 (ordinary soil only) you're done I think.
Awesome. Thank you all for your input.
Armor spikes are a sore spot. As far as I'm concerned, The quills always counter attack. It's their attack, not the one wearing them.
When startled, the quills flip out straight, so when aroused or charmed, they stay down, when near the one they are charmed by.
While humans are any alignment, they are also variety eaters, so you are justified in making carnivores tend to evil. A lot depends on how they are raised. If one of your players insist on playing a cat or fox, they had better have a darn good back story.
I'm not sure I understand. You're suggesting I change the quills special rule to only occur when they're aware and feel threatened? I mean, it's more scientifically accurate, sure. But I'm not too worried about that. Definitely going for the spirit of the animal versus the actual animal itself.
Foxe, cats and the like are more akin to dragons and other such monsters by comparison to the playable animals. The one cat I ran in my first game with this setting was Baal, who was sort of like a cross between the Cheshire Cat and Smaug.
They react instinctively, during the surprise round, regardless of whether they make any spot checks. Their quills have a sort of danger sense.
Turtles need Toughness as a bonus feat. And probably something similar to the thing Changelings can get that grants them an additional 5% miss chance any time they benefit from concealment. As well as something like the Halfling thing where they can use Stealth without a source of cover or concealment as long as they are behind someone one or more size catagories larger than themselves... but for the Turtle I would make it same size catagory or larger. I would have all aging effects affect them at half the normal rate, including magical aging effects (like Cherry Blossom Spell metamagics). But I would make them vulnerable to sonic damage, or spells that target objects like Disintegrate, or subject to the Sunder maneuver (remove their natural armor bonus when "broken")... something to really play up their shell.
Like a kappa without the water thing.