Homebrew Can I get some feedback on a homebrew race?

[Richard Dill]

Hello! First time poster. I'm in the process of converting my homebrew campaign world from 5E to A5E and just recently converted a homebrew race to the new system. The setting itself is about a world where there is a Great cycle and the universe collapses in on itself every few hundred thousand years and is reborn with new gods, people, etc. Only this cycle something has gone wrong and there are things lingering left over from the previous cycle. The new gods draw on the metaphysical Dreaming or Dream world for the substance to shape the new world.

The homebrew race are the K'Tan, a race of intelligent cats which resemble house cats, but are creatures of the Dream World who occasionally pass over into the Waking world for what ever reasons they see fit at the time.

And yes, as cats they occasionally will make you hold the door for them as they go back and forth trying to decide.

 

[TheHand]

Welcome to the forums and to LevelUp!

I took a quick look at your K'Tan folk. Here's some observations:

I don't think we see a lot of Tiny Heritages! That instantly set them apart. The walk speed of 20 will probably cause them to lag behind their fellow PCs, but I suppose at Tiny size they could be carried.

So they definitely seem designed for skirmishers and Warlocks, and if that's the intent for your world then it looks good. For the base claws, you set the damage at '1', so I don't know if that ability will see a lot of use by itself (unless you up it to 1d3 or 1d4).

I note you restricted Armors, but can they still wield normal sized weapons as Tiny?

The Mystic abilities looked good. For the Exuberant Bounce, I might give it a static number (like '5') instead of 1d8, but that's more of a personal preference on my part as I'm not fond of random movement bonuses.

The "Hunter" category looks to get stronger gifts to me than Mystic. I might limit Unseen Hunter to being a daily ability or one they later as they level.

The Bond seems like a fun Paragon gift!

Have fun with your campaign!!

 

[Tonguez]

A fey cat race is pretty cool. Personally I’d add a Dash ability to account for them being relatively slow (the standard cat has Spd 40 and Climb 30)

I’d also generalise Bounce to all Ktan rather than just mystics and reduce it to 1d4 (1d8 is too random for my liking).

To compensate maybe give mystics something like an innate Detect Magic or a daily use of Guidance (Good luck) or Hex (Bad luck) or maybe Friendship or even Enthrall (Cheshire Cat).

I dont like Invisibility for the Unseen Hunter and suggest a camouflage ability instead (advantage on stealth checks even when hiding in plain sight)

I do like Paragon Bond creating a link with another person and sharing benefits of having the ktan around. I think that fits with my idea of giving them a daily use of ‘Luck’ (guidance/hex) - other people see them as being good companions to have around, loyal to those they choose to bond with even if they remain somewhat aloof and distant from others.

 

[Tessarael]

I have a system that I wrote up for 5E D&D for costing racial attributes. K'Tan come out pretty weak in my analysis. Here is my analysis:

Base traits (+0.60)
-0.25 Size Tiny: Unable to wield heavy weapons. Disadvantage with weapons that are not light. Cannot grapple size large or medium creatures. Halve carrying capacity.
-0.50 Speed 20'
+0.15 Darkvision 30'
+0.25 Climb speed 20' and natural climber
+0.10 Cat’s Grace: You can move through the space of any creature that is a size larger than you
+0.00 Claws do 1 slashing damage - unarmed attacks do 1 damage by default, so no significant benefit
-0.25 Armor Restriction: cannot wear medium/heavy armor or use tower shields
+1.00 Nimble Escape: You may use a bonus action to Hide or Disengage

Mystics (+0.85)
+0.80 Magical Inheritance: You know the Mage Hand cantrip. Silent Image at level 3+ and Blur at level 5+, both once per long rest.
+0.05 Exuberant Bounce: Add +d8 feet to your jump distance.

Hunters (+0.60)
+0.10 Hunter's Gift: Retractable claws do 1d6+Dexterity modifier, and you can use them as martial weapons and for two-weapon fighting bonus attack.
+0.50 Unseen Hunter: As a reaction after taking damage, or as a bonus action, you turn invisible until the end of your next turn, but it ends early if you attack, deal damage, cast a spell, or force a creature to make a saving throw. Regained after a short/long rest.

The base traits above are too low in value. They should come out to around +1.0. You could modify the K'Tan Heritage along these lines:

Base traits (+1.10)
-0.25 Size Tiny: Unable to wield heavy weapons. Disadvantage with weapons that are not light. Cannot grapple size large or medium creatures. Halve carrying capacity.
-0.25 Speed 25'
+0.25 Darkvision 60'
+0.25 Climb speed 20' and natural climber
+0.10 Cat’s Grace: You can move through the space of any creature that is a size larger than you
+1.00 Nimble escape: You may use a bonus action to Hide or Disengage

Mystics (+0.80)
+0.80 Magical Inheritance: You know the Mage Hand cantrip. Silent Image at level 3+ and Blur at level 5+, both once per long rest. These spells are added to your spell list and you can cast them with other spell slots. Your spellcasting ability for them is Charisma, Intelligence, or Wisdom, whichever is highest.

Hunters (+0.70)
+0.10 Hunter's Gift: Retractable claws do 1d6+Dexterity modifier, and you can use them as martial weapons and for two-weapon fighting bonus attack.
+0.50 Unseen Hunter: As a reaction after taking damage, or as a bonus action, you turn invisible until the end of your next turn, but it ends early if you attack, deal damage, cast a spell, or force a creature to make a saving throw. Regained after a short/long rest.
+0.10 Exuberant Bounce: Add +10' to your jump distance.

In particular: 1. I would drop the Armor Restriction - it's only pertinent for some character classes, and I don't see the need to penalize a K'Tan who wants to wear say a little suit of chainmail especially crafted to fit their size. 2. Increase the Darkvision to 60' to be more consistent with most other heritages that get darkvision. 3. Move the Exuberant Bounce to Hunters, which seems more appropriate and they need it more as they are a bit on the weaker side, and I'd increase it to a flat +10' to keep it simple.

 

[Tessarael]

Regarding the paragon ability, I'd make it add your proficiency bonus to their AC or saving throw vs. one attack. No need for it to be random. A flat value speeds up game play. I'd also be tempted to allow the K'Tan to also grant that bonus to themself - it's really nice, but they only have one reaction per round.

 

[Tonguez]

I have a system that I wrote up for 5E D&D for costing racial attributes. K'Tan come out pretty weak in my analysis. Here is my analysis:

Base traits (+0.60)
-0.25 Size Tiny: Unable to wield heavy weapons. Disadvantage with weapons that are not light. Cannot grapple size large or medium creatures. Halve carrying capacity.
-0.50 Speed 20'
+0.15 Darkvision 30'
+0.25 Climb speed 20' and natural climber
+0.10 Cat’s Grace: You can move through the space of any creature that is a size larger than you
+0.00 Claws do 1 slashing damage - unarmed attacks do 1 damage by default, so no significant benefit
-0.25 Armor Restriction: cannot wear medium/heavy armor or use tower shields
+1.00 Nimble Escape: You may use a bonus action to Hide or Disengage

Mystics (+0.85)
+0.80 Magical Inheritance: You know the Mage Hand cantrip. Silent Image at level 3+ and Blur at level 5+, both once per long rest.
+0.05 Exuberant Bounce: Add +d8 feet to your jump distance.

Hunters (+0.60)
+0.10 Hunter's Gift: Retractable claws do 1d6+Dexterity modifier, and you can use them as martial weapons and for two-weapon fighting bonus attack.
+0.50 Unseen Hunter: As a reaction after taking damage, or as a bonus action, you turn invisible until the end of your next turn, but it ends early if you attack, deal damage, cast a spell, or force a creature to make a saving throw. Regained after a short/long rest.

The base traits above are too low in value. They should come out to around +1.0. You could modify the K'Tan Heritage along these lines:

Base traits (+1.10)
-0.25 Size Tiny: Unable to wield heavy weapons. Disadvantage with weapons that are not light. Cannot grapple size large or medium creatures. Halve carrying capacity.
-0.25 Speed 25'
+0.25 Darkvision 60'
+0.25 Climb speed 20' and natural climber
+0.10 Cat’s Grace: You can move through the space of any creature that is a size larger than you
+1.00 Nimble escape: You may use a bonus action to Hide or Disengage

Mystics (+0.80)
+0.80 Magical Inheritance: You know the Mage Hand cantrip. Silent Image at level 3+ and Blur at level 5+, both once per long rest. These spells are added to your spell list and you can cast them with other spell slots. Your spellcasting ability for them is Charisma, Intelligence, or Wisdom, whichever is highest.

Hunters (+0.70)
+0.10 Hunter's Gift: Retractable claws do 1d6+Dexterity modifier, and you can use them as martial weapons and for two-weapon fighting bonus attack.
+0.50 Unseen Hunter: As a reaction after taking damage, or as a bonus action, you turn invisible until the end of your next turn, but it ends early if you attack, deal damage, cast a spell, or force a creature to make a saving throw. Regained after a short/long rest.
+0.10 Exuberant Bounce: Add +10' to your jump distance.

In particular: 1. I would drop the Armor Restriction - it's only pertinent for some character classes, and I don't see the need to penalize a K'Tan who wants to wear say a little suit of chainmail especially crafted to fit their size. 2. Increase the Darkvision to 60' to be more consistent with most other heritages that get darkvision. 3. Move the Exuberant Bounce to Hunters, which seems more appropriate and they need it more as they are a bit on the weaker side, and I'd increase it to a flat +10' to keep it simple.

Nice analysis and costing there, is your system available online or shareable at all?

 

[Tessarael]

That wiki that I setup has restricted access, but here is a cut-and-paste the basic pricing table:

Racial feature	Feat Cost	Comments
Ability +1	+0.50
Ability +2	+1.00
AC 13 + Dexterity	+0.50	All classes get access to at least light armor AC 12 equivalent.
AC 14 + Dexterity with Disadvantage on Stealth checks	+0.50
Armor proficiency, medium + light	+0.50	Compare to Moderately Armored feat.
Armor proficiency, heavy + medium + light	+1.00	Compare to Heavily Armored feat.
Breath Weapon	+1.00	The Dragonborn racial ability (5e PHB page 34).
Burrow, speed 5'	+0.25
Cannot use shields or weapons	-0.50	This penalty is mitigated by Monk and spellcasting classes.
Cantrip	+0.25	Compare to Magic Initiate feat.
Cantrip + 1st level spell at 3rd level + 2nd level spell at 5th level	+0.80	Compare to Magic Initiate feat.
Change shape ala Aranea, Hengeyokai	+1.00	Not sure on this pricing, offset by suspicious penalty and cold iron susceptibility
Climb speed and natural climber	+0.25
Darkvision, 30'	+0.20
Darkvision, 60'	+0.33	This is a very common racial ability. Poor humans.
Darkvision, 90'	+0.40	Sneaky Shadow Elves!
Darkvision, 120'	+0.45	Damn Dark Elves!
Darkvision, 120'	+0.50
Fey ancestry	+0.10	Advantage on save vs. charm; immunity to sleep magic
Flight with disadvantage on attacks	+0.50	e.g. Enduk, Pegataur
Flight	+1.50	e.g. Aarakocra
Flying dash bonus attack	+0.25	e.g. Enduk
Gills: can survive out of the water for 1 hour per point of Constitution (after that, refer to the suffocation rules).	-0.50	e.g. Aquatic Elf
Gnome cunning: advantage on CHA/INT/WIS saves vs. magic	+1.00
Heightened sense of smell: Advantage on Perception checks using smell, and on Wisdom (Survival) checks to track by scent. When tracking by smell, they may add their proficiency bonus to the survival roll.	+0.30	e.g. Lupin
Hit points +1/level	+0.50	Compare to the Tough feat.
Ignore difficult earth/stone terrain	+0.25	Earth Genasi ability.
Language proficiency	+0.10	Flavor with very minor benefit.
Lucky - reroll 1s	+0.50	If roll 1 on attack/ability check/save reroll and must use the new roll. Compare to the Lucky feat.
Mask of the wild, hide when you (small) only obscured by one size larger	+0.10	Hide when only lightly obscured by natural phenomena. Compare to Skulker.
Mountain born	+0.10	Acclimated to cold climates and high altitude, including elevations above 20,000 feet
Nimbleness - move through square of creature one size larger	+0.10
Pounce - if move at least 20' in a straight line towards target creature and hit it with a claw attack on the same turn, that target must succeed on a Strength save vs. DC 8 + proficiency + Strength bonus or be knocked prone. If the target is prone, can make one bite attack against it as a bonus action.	+0.50	Should this be treated as shove, so opposed strength athletics / dex acrobatics check, or strength saving throw?
Improved pounce, as pounce but get two bite attacks as a bonus action.	+0.30
Powerful build	+0.10	Rarely of significant benefit
Relentless Endurance - when reduced to 0HP, if not killed, it is 1HP	+0.50	Compare to +1 HP/level
Resist acid, disease immunity, breathe water	+0.10	Resistance to something uncommon
Resist fire, resist poison + advantage on poison saves, advantage vs. fear, etc.	+0.25	Resistance to something that occurs moderately often
Savage attacks - roll extra critical die	+0.25
Sense the unseen	+0.15	Know which square an invisible creature is in if it is within 5 feet, but still have disadvantage. Relevant thread: Scent vs Invisible creature.
Size small	-0.10	Disadvantage on attack with heavy weapon, cannot grapple size large creatures
Size tiny	-0.25	Unable to wield heavy weapons. Disadvantage with weapons that are not light. Cannot grapple size large or medium creatures. Halve carrying capacity.
Skill check advantage	+0.33	Average benefit of +3.325 on the skill roll. Similar benefit to a proficiency.
Skill check expertise	+0.25	+d4 to a skill roll
Skill proficiency	+0.33	Compare to the Skilled feat.
Skill specialty	+0.10	+d4 per skill specialty
Speed -10'	-0.50
Speed -5'	-0.25
Speed +10'	+0.50	Compare to the Mobile feat.
Speed + 20'	+1.00
Stonecunning, artificer's lore	+0.05	Double proficiency bonus on Intelligence (History) related to something, e.g. stonework, magic items, etc.
Stone's endurance	+0.25	Goliath ability to use reaction to roll d12+CON modifier to reduce damage. Compare to +1HP/level.
Sunlight sensitivity	-0.50
Swim speed and natural swimmer	+0.25
Tinker	+0.10	Rock Gnome racial ability (see 5e PHB page 37)
Tool check advantage	+0.10
Tool proficiency, artisan/gaming/musical	+0.10
Unarmed attack doing d3 damage or less, light and finesse	+0.00	Flavor with very minor benefit. All classes get access to simple weapons doing at least this much damage.
Unarmed attack doing d6 damage with light, or d4 damage with finesse/light	+0.05	Compare to the Weapon Master and Dual Wielder feats. At lower damage, the only significant benefits are always being armed and not needing to draw second weapon to make off-hand attack.
Unarmed attack doing d8 damage with finesse, or d8 damage with light, or d6 damage with finesse/light	+0.12
Unarmed two-handed attack doing d10 damage with heavy	+0.08
Unarmed two-handed attack doing d12 damage with heavy, or d10 damage with heavy/reach	+0.12	Compare to the Weapon Master feat.
Underwater vision, superior	+0.25	Can see in clear water with bright light to a distance of 120'. Can see in clear water with dim light to a distance of 60' as if it were bright light. Can see in murky water or darkness as if it were dim light to a range of 30'. Cannot discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.
Vulnerability, uncommon, e.g. cold Iron, wolf's bane	-0.25
Vulnerability, common, e.g. fire	-0.50
Weapon proficiency in up to four weapons	+0.50	Compare to the Weapon Master feat.

Note: I updated cost for Darkvision 60' from +0.25 to +0.33 and a few other minor corrections.

 

[Tessarael]

Basically, I price a feat as 1.0, and +1 to an ability is priced as 0.5. A 5E D&D Race should have about a total value of 3.0.

Excluding paragon abilities, an A5E Heritage should have a total roughly 1.6 to 1.8, based on my analysis of the heritages in the LUA5E Adventurer's Guide. However, Gnome (+1.33 to +1.48), Halfling (+1.20 to +1.35), and Orc (+1.13 to +1.28) come in on the low side vs. other Adventurer's Guide races. (Note: edited my numbers here as in particular I'd priced Darkvision too low - it should be
+0.33 rather than +0.25.)

And of course pricing is somewhat subjective and campaign dependent, in the context of how much utility you get out of say resist radiant vs. resist fire.

 

[MegaloRob]

Do a search on the Dreamland cat from Peterson games. Peterson does a lot of Cthulhu related stuff so this player option of being a cat makes you pretty much the cat from Coraline.

His Dreamland cat has several sub races describing different types of Dreamland cats. So easy conversion to A5e, the sub races work out like heritage gifts.

Then look at the cats racial feat options. Those work out great for paragon gifts.

Use this straight away or use it as inspiration in making a tiny cat heritage.