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Morrus on... Races
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<blockquote data-quote="keterys" data-source="post: 5824936" data-attributes="member: 43019"><p>As long as hitting is a big deal, and your ability score somehow interacts with your chance to hit... a preponderance of D&D players will pick a race that matches their class's ability scores (or at least, doesn't anti-match).</p><p></p><p>So, I'm opposed to huge ability score swings unless hitting is taken off of ability scores. Which is something I'm totally fine with. That is to say, if a halfling gets -4 str and a goliath gets +4 str (8 Str difference), then a halfling who is -4 damage compared to the goliath is a big deal (though exasperated a bit because he probably also does less damage from his weapon), but a surmountable one, but one who is _also_ -4 hit compared to the goliath is too big a swing in effectiveness. </p><p></p><p>Let's consider in a 3e sense for a moment. Let's say the halfling has a 4 higher Dex and Cha than the Goliath who has an 8 higher Str. So the halfling has the same AC (cause Dex doesn't add to AC past a certain point), doesn't move any faster, does have +2 Ref & Init, and to a few skills... and the goliath does, say (halfling 1d6+2 vs goliath 1d10+10, and 4 higher to hit so let's say the halfling has a 70% chance to hit and the goliath has a 90% chance to hit), so the goliath is almost 4x as effective as the halfling. That's not flavorful racial difference. That's "race is an easy way to screw up your character" and "most fighters will be one of these couple races and almost never these". Meh.</p><p></p><p>Now, toss in some real differences so that the halfling fighter is as effective, with a different style? Sure. They did learn a bunch of options from Bo9S and 4E on ways to do that, so hopefully they'll carry those lessons along with them.</p><p></p><p>...</p><p></p><p>Anyhow, my personal preference for D&D races is to finally acknowledge that species have variance within a campaign world, nevermind between many campaign worlds, and give you more freedom. Not all dwarves need a minor bonus with axes or the ability to drink alcohol better. Or at least, if they do, humans should be able to choose those same bonuses if they grew up with dwarves.</p><p></p><p>Pick some appropriate bonuses of varying types. Put them in character choice buckets. Pre-pick some races as examples to show people, noting you can fiddle things around. Let DMs pick things for the races on their worlds or work with their players to do the right thing.</p><p></p><p>For example (using a mix of 3e and 4e terms):</p><p>Bucket A:</p><p>Swift: +10 ft speed</p><p>Sturdy: Save against forced movement and being knocked prone</p><p>Lucky: +1 to saves</p><p></p><p>Bucket B:</p><p>Forestwalk: Ignore difficult terrain caused by wilderness growth and gain a bonus to Nature.</p><p>Steady: Ignore any speed penalties due to armor or encumbrance and gain a bonus to Endurance.</p><p>Versatile: Gain a bonus feat.</p><p></p><p>Bucket C:</p><p>Observant: You gain a bonus to Perception and roll twice to detect surprise or search for anything hidden.</p><p>Hardy: You gain resist 5 poison and a bonus to saves against poison.</p><p>Skillful: Gain an extra class skill and skill training.</p><p></p><p>Automatic:</p><p>Choose two appropriate languages.</p><p></p><p>So maybe your default wild elf is a swift and observant forestwalker while a dwarf is sturdy, steady, and hardy and a human is lucky, versatile, and skillful, but the more civilized green elves are swift, observant, and versatile, and the barbarian human tribes of Landar are swift, forestwalking, and hardy.</p><p></p><p>I'd like more choices like that, and more choices like the Halfling Second Chance, Human Heroic Effort, Dwarven Resilience, etc. I'd even go so far as to throw </p><p>+2 to a stat, -2 to a stat (they can be the same stat, cancelling out) on automatic</p><p></p><p>I'd be happy to kick to the curb having a dozen or more piddly bonuses to a race (like dwarf or elf, never human) for "better with axes, and against goblins, and when drinking in the full moon next to a carven wall, oh and to appraise metal stuff especially if your mother made it, whether or not she had a beard" <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite2" alt=";)" title="Wink ;)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=";)" /></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="keterys, post: 5824936, member: 43019"] As long as hitting is a big deal, and your ability score somehow interacts with your chance to hit... a preponderance of D&D players will pick a race that matches their class's ability scores (or at least, doesn't anti-match). So, I'm opposed to huge ability score swings unless hitting is taken off of ability scores. Which is something I'm totally fine with. That is to say, if a halfling gets -4 str and a goliath gets +4 str (8 Str difference), then a halfling who is -4 damage compared to the goliath is a big deal (though exasperated a bit because he probably also does less damage from his weapon), but a surmountable one, but one who is _also_ -4 hit compared to the goliath is too big a swing in effectiveness. Let's consider in a 3e sense for a moment. Let's say the halfling has a 4 higher Dex and Cha than the Goliath who has an 8 higher Str. So the halfling has the same AC (cause Dex doesn't add to AC past a certain point), doesn't move any faster, does have +2 Ref & Init, and to a few skills... and the goliath does, say (halfling 1d6+2 vs goliath 1d10+10, and 4 higher to hit so let's say the halfling has a 70% chance to hit and the goliath has a 90% chance to hit), so the goliath is almost 4x as effective as the halfling. That's not flavorful racial difference. That's "race is an easy way to screw up your character" and "most fighters will be one of these couple races and almost never these". Meh. Now, toss in some real differences so that the halfling fighter is as effective, with a different style? Sure. They did learn a bunch of options from Bo9S and 4E on ways to do that, so hopefully they'll carry those lessons along with them. ... Anyhow, my personal preference for D&D races is to finally acknowledge that species have variance within a campaign world, nevermind between many campaign worlds, and give you more freedom. Not all dwarves need a minor bonus with axes or the ability to drink alcohol better. Or at least, if they do, humans should be able to choose those same bonuses if they grew up with dwarves. Pick some appropriate bonuses of varying types. Put them in character choice buckets. Pre-pick some races as examples to show people, noting you can fiddle things around. Let DMs pick things for the races on their worlds or work with their players to do the right thing. For example (using a mix of 3e and 4e terms): Bucket A: Swift: +10 ft speed Sturdy: Save against forced movement and being knocked prone Lucky: +1 to saves Bucket B: Forestwalk: Ignore difficult terrain caused by wilderness growth and gain a bonus to Nature. Steady: Ignore any speed penalties due to armor or encumbrance and gain a bonus to Endurance. Versatile: Gain a bonus feat. Bucket C: Observant: You gain a bonus to Perception and roll twice to detect surprise or search for anything hidden. Hardy: You gain resist 5 poison and a bonus to saves against poison. Skillful: Gain an extra class skill and skill training. Automatic: Choose two appropriate languages. So maybe your default wild elf is a swift and observant forestwalker while a dwarf is sturdy, steady, and hardy and a human is lucky, versatile, and skillful, but the more civilized green elves are swift, observant, and versatile, and the barbarian human tribes of Landar are swift, forestwalking, and hardy. I'd like more choices like that, and more choices like the Halfling Second Chance, Human Heroic Effort, Dwarven Resilience, etc. I'd even go so far as to throw +2 to a stat, -2 to a stat (they can be the same stat, cancelling out) on automatic I'd be happy to kick to the curb having a dozen or more piddly bonuses to a race (like dwarf or elf, never human) for "better with axes, and against goblins, and when drinking in the full moon next to a carven wall, oh and to appraise metal stuff especially if your mother made it, whether or not she had a beard" ;) [/QUOTE]
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