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Help with a feline player race
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<blockquote data-quote="Felon" data-source="post: 2073417" data-attributes="member: 8158"><p>There's definitely solid reasoning behind this "rule"...</p><p> </p><p></p><p></p><p>...but this one's a bit contrived, or at least a significant misinterpretation of what's laid out in the DMG's section on designing races. Tripling the half-orc's Int and Cha penalties would not justify tripling the Strength bonus, even-steven. A half-orc's +2 strength bonus is not balanced simply because it has twice as many penalties to mental abilities. It's also weighed against the fact that it has almost no other features. </p><p></p><p>To say that the designers' rationale is that physical ability scores come into play more often statistically than mental ability scores is somewhat fallacious. They do not apply such a broad generalization to all characters, with good reason. For some classes, one or two ability scores are paramount, and they are not necessarily segregated by whether or not they are physical or mental. Obviously, a wizard's Intelligence comes into play more often than Strength or Charisma. It is extremely unlikely we're going to see any official +0 LA races with +4 Int, -2 Str, unless the race has some other major "unwizardly" limitation outside of ability score bonuses. The same would go for a +2 Int, -2 Cha race.</p><p></p><p>Indeed, you may have noticed new races that have few if any ability score modfications, like the raptorians and illumians in <em>Races of the Wild</em> and <em>Races of Destiny</em>, or the neraph from <em>Planar Handbook</em>, respectively. Ability score bonuses are way too big a focal point for most folks who design homebrew races. For exactly that reason, <em>Dragon</em> magazine's submission guidelines actually instruct writers to <strong>not</strong> submit a new race with any ability score modifications included in the write-up, but rather to leave that to the editing staff to decide.</p><p></p><p>To keep the LA to 0, it might be best to consider if this feline race really needs a flat Str bonus? What does strength provide that could be focused on instead? How about a bonus to Climb and Jump checks? Perhaps a bonus to grapple checks, or a bonus to attack or damage with a specific attack or under some specific condition? Perhaps a temporary bonus akin to barbarian rage?</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Felon, post: 2073417, member: 8158"] There's definitely solid reasoning behind this "rule"... ...but this one's a bit contrived, or at least a significant misinterpretation of what's laid out in the DMG's section on designing races. Tripling the half-orc's Int and Cha penalties would not justify tripling the Strength bonus, even-steven. A half-orc's +2 strength bonus is not balanced simply because it has twice as many penalties to mental abilities. It's also weighed against the fact that it has almost no other features. To say that the designers' rationale is that physical ability scores come into play more often statistically than mental ability scores is somewhat fallacious. They do not apply such a broad generalization to all characters, with good reason. For some classes, one or two ability scores are paramount, and they are not necessarily segregated by whether or not they are physical or mental. Obviously, a wizard's Intelligence comes into play more often than Strength or Charisma. It is extremely unlikely we're going to see any official +0 LA races with +4 Int, -2 Str, unless the race has some other major "unwizardly" limitation outside of ability score bonuses. The same would go for a +2 Int, -2 Cha race. Indeed, you may have noticed new races that have few if any ability score modfications, like the raptorians and illumians in [I]Races of the Wild[/I] and [I]Races of Destiny[/I], or the neraph from [I]Planar Handbook[/I], respectively. Ability score bonuses are way too big a focal point for most folks who design homebrew races. For exactly that reason, [I]Dragon[/I] magazine's submission guidelines actually instruct writers to [B]not[/B] submit a new race with any ability score modifications included in the write-up, but rather to leave that to the editing staff to decide. To keep the LA to 0, it might be best to consider if this feline race really needs a flat Str bonus? What does strength provide that could be focused on instead? How about a bonus to Climb and Jump checks? Perhaps a bonus to grapple checks, or a bonus to attack or damage with a specific attack or under some specific condition? Perhaps a temporary bonus akin to barbarian rage? [/QUOTE]
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