[Points of Light Clone] Tweaking the Races

[C4]

Hi all! As you may know, I'm tweaking 4e. When it comes to races...

Which are your favorites? (Conceptually or mechanics-wise.)
Which could use a tweak? (Something just doesn't make much sense, something is over- or under-powered, etc.)
Do any of them lack a strong or distinctive identity? (Gosh, how many angry brute races does 4e have?)

The only two changes I've already decided to make are:

1. Dwarves need an actual racial power, because Second Wind is now a minor action for everyone! Could use some ideas here...

2. The eladrin's power always felt off to me. "Eladrin are native to the magical Land of Light, and their racial ability is...teleportation?" Seems to me they could use a more thematic power. Ideas are welcome.

 

[Ferghis]

I don't think these are particularly good ideas, but they should get the ball rolling.

Dwarves could get tremorsense for one round as a daily power.

Eladrin could add the radiant keyword to one encounter or daily attack power per encounter. Or perhaps radiant to the damage type.

I think you've already taken care of this, but if not, I would make the racial bonuses floatable to any two ability scores. As in, characters gain +2 to two abilities of their choice, and race doesn't factor into the decision.

 

[C4]

I like the idea of a one-with-the-earth kind of power, but I think tremorsense alone is too circumstantial for a racial power. Maybe tack on a defense bonus for a round?

At face value, the radiant keyword seems to fit the whole Land of Light theme, but I'm not sure it makes total sense. Maybe it's because I think of radiant damage more as holy damage, and the feywild doesn't have any particular claim to holiness. I suppose the Shadowfell is sometimes associated with necrotic damage, which is the mirror of radiant just as the Feywild is the mirror of the Shadowfell...but then, I'm not sure why necrotic should be associated with the Shadowfell. It's all about shadows and darkness and gloom, but it's not an inherently unholy place. And in fact with the Raven Queen calling the plane kip...is anyone else not seeing it?

PS: Yeah, I've taken care of racial bonuses. In C4, they all float; in PoL I decided to just remove them totally. Choose your array or buy your stats, and that's that!

 

[DonAdam]

To answer your questions:

I think they hit the flavor with elves pretty dead on. In general I like humans as well though the draw of a double-18 led to a lot of Mos Eisley Cantina parties.

The halfling racial power always felt flat. Maybe make the attacker take the lower of two rolls?

1. A few options that might work for Dwarves:
-Headbutt 1/enc as a minor action
-Second wind an extra time per combat
-Temporary hp or a save when they use their second wind

2. Eladrin:
-Add elemental damage to an attack 1/enc
-I like the 5e thing where they get a free wizard cantrip known
-Or it could be an at-will arcane power usable 1/round, as in the wizard multiclass feat

None of those are terribly creative of course.

 

[Tequila Sunrise]

Do any of them lack a strong or distinctive identity? (Gosh, how many angry brute races does 4e have?)

With all those brute races, and despite the goblin being a PC race, the hobgoblin remains 'monstrous.' What gives?

How many genasi subraces are there? Do we really need that many?

Oh, and changelings are totally overpowered...in social situations. 'Look like anyone at a moment's notice' is just incredible unless you're running a total dungeon crawl.

I like the idea of a one-with-the-earth kind of power, but I think tremorsense alone is too circumstantial for a racial power. Maybe tack on a defense bonus for a round?

Maybe something like the goliath's power? +2 defenses for a round, or temp hp, plus tremorsense?

At face value, the radiant keyword seems to fit the whole Land of Light theme, but I'm not sure it makes total sense. Maybe it's because I think of radiant damage more as holy damage, and the feywild doesn't have any particular claim to holiness. I suppose the Shadowfell is sometimes associated with necrotic damage, which is the mirror of radiant just as the Feywild is the mirror of the Shadowfell...but then, I'm not sure why necrotic should be associated with the Shadowfell. It's all about shadows and darkness and gloom, but it's not an inherently unholy place. And in fact with the Raven Queen calling the plane kip...is anyone else not seeing it?

Yeah, I don't dig the fey=radiant/teleport thing either. Maybe for the occasional monster, but not for the primary shtick of the race's representative race. I think some kind of blinding-light attack would be cool for the eladrin.

 

[Ferghis]

I like the idea of a one-with-the-earth kind of power, but I think tremorsense alone is too circumstantial for a racial power. Maybe tack on a defense bonus for a round?

Quite a few races have defensive powers or trigger temp hp. I know what you mean, though: I'm not in love with the idea myself.

What if the tremorsense were a consequence of closing their eyes? At-will free action, effect: tremorsense one and blinded. End this effect as a free action.

At face value, the radiant keyword seems to fit the whole Land of Light theme, but I'm not sure it makes total sense. Maybe it's because I think of radiant damage more as holy damage, and the feywild doesn't have any particular claim to holiness. I suppose the Shadowfell is sometimes associated with necrotic damage, which is the mirror of radiant just as the Feywild is the mirror of the Shadowfell...but then, I'm not sure why necrotic should be associated with the Shadowfell. It's all about shadows and darkness and gloom, but it's not an inherently unholy place.

I think the shadowfell is heavy with necrotic (shadar kai are from there and resist necrotic), but I agree that it doesn't quite fit. How about giving eladrin the ability to poach an arcane utility from any class? It wouldn't kick in until second level, but as the character levelled up they could retrain it to any utility of up to their half level. This would reflect the versatility of their studies and remove the awkwardness of picking an attack power that fit the stats.

Which are your favorites? (Conceptually or mechanics-wise.)

I think most races will have a fan somewhere. My favorites are dwarves, half-orcs, humans, half-elves, elves (the woodsy kind), deva and warforged, all for flavor-reasons.

Which could use a tweak? (Something just doesn't make much sense, something is over- or under-powered, etc.)

The powergamer in me is too gleeful about the "never fail a death save" trait of the warforged. And the rules-as-game-designer in me wonders about the vampire class' "death by sunlight" trait (when would this come into play, and if it did, would anyone play the class?). I don't think either of these really need fixing, they're just interesting to me.

Oh, and changelings are totally overpowered...in social situations. 'Look like anyone at a moment's notice' is just incredible unless you're running a total dungeon crawl.

I agree: but I don't know how to change that short of turning it into a mini skill challenge. I also think them underpowered in combat. Maybe give them reach 2 for an attack (literally overreaching), or slide an enemy one square by tricking them with their changelingness? Not sure about that second idea...

 

[Ferghis]

Actually, my dwarf at-will is abusable. It would have to end at the beginning of the character's next turn to work.

 

[Ferghis]

I almost forgot. Warforged components could use clarification on one crucial point: under the rules, removing something is a minor action and takes 5 minutes. This makes no sense to me. Make it one or the other.

 

[Nikosandros]

One thing that has always bugged me, is that tieflings don't have optimal stat adjustments for being infernal warlocks. What with their entire background being based on an infernal pact, it just doesn't make sense to me.

 

[Camelot]

I love the genasi, but I wish there was a more setting un-specific name for them. I don't want to call them elementals, cause those are something entirely different!

The githzerai have always seemed to me like they don't fit. They're just monk people without anything really distinctive that cements them in the setting.

The eladrin teleportation makes a lot of sense to me, because they're supposed to be more familiar with the Feywild than the elves, so they can briefly step inside the Feywild and back to essentially teleport. But if you want to emphasize their role as High Elves, you can switch that out for a charm ability that makes it harder for monsters to attack them because of their splendor.