Homebrew race, feats, PP, ED: P.E.A.C.H.

[Yumeii]

This actually started out somewhere in the middle. I began with the Paragon Path and then the Epic Destiny before jumping backwards to the base Race and then the Feats. I've been hoping to get as much feedback as possible to make it balanced (so if it looks familiar from another homebrew forum, that's because it probably is).

Anyhow, it's a Half Deep Dragon race. I wish I could have come up with a better name but alas and alack, it was not to be. If you have a name suggestion, please toss it out here for consideration! As flight tends to be a highly debatable ability, I decided to do away with that and try something else instead (usage of a tail)... except the new thing I tried might end up being even more controversial than flight.

I attached it here as a pdf. Please evaluate and critique honestly. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to discuss it and I'll do my best to answer or make changes accordingly. But most importantly, please have fun and enjoy reading over it!

Edit: new version. View attachment Half Deep Dragon.pdf

 

[Ferghis]

Interesting. I can'r really judge it due to the lack of fluff: I don't understand the concept.

Your racial power is strange: the daze effect is very brief (it only lasts until the end of the turn in which the enemy was afflicted with it). In other words, the power is only good to be able to do something that would otherwise draw OAs or immediate actions, or to get out of a grab. This seems of limited utility, since many ranged builds now have ways to not draw OAs when they use their ranged attacks.

The level 20 stance is pretty strong. Perhaps too strong.

 

[Yumeii]

Yeah... I haven't gotten around to fluff yet. But if you have access to the draconomicon (chromatics), you can look up info on deep dragons starting on page 175 (they're called purple dragons in 4e).

Basically, they're manipulative dragons. They love to control other creatures and their specialization is, of course, the mind. They are subterranean creatures and are actually harmed by direct sunlight (but 4E doesn't do racial penalties). They dislike other creatures who also seek control (mind flayers, aboleths). A lot of their stuff works off of dazing or stunning or dominating but obviously the latter 2 are too powerful for a racial.

In fact, dazing itself seems rather powerful for a racial so I had to limit it. By making it end on your current turn, it allows you to make use of the less considered aspects of daze (no OAs, no IAs). And then a somewhat weaker extended version of it for party utility. I was also considering keeping the daze but changing the -2 penalty to OAs and IAs into a granting CA until end of your next turn so that it becomes more useful.

Originally, the racial power was going to be what eventually became a paragon tier feat: the ability to make the target unable to use encounter, rechargeable, daily powers until the end of your next turn. It fit more in line with the original Maddening Presence that deep/purples could have. Unfortunately, it was determined through other feedback that a power such as that swung widely back and forth between "extremely useful" and "completely useless" depending on the enemies you were fighting. It was concluded that the base racial power should be more generally useful.

As for the level 20 daily, I'm completely open to suggestions. I was thinking, perhaps, to make something with a (save ends) condition... to make use of the 11th paragon feat and, eventually, the 24th epic feat. But I really wanted to stick Phasing Strike in there somewhere. Maybe make it into an encounter, swap it around with Mind Hammer (11th encounter) and boost the power of Mind Hammer to be a suitable level 20 daily?

Thoughts? Feel free to argue against any ideas presented or to suggest your own ideas, that's the whole point of getting feedback, after all.

 

[Ferghis]

In fact, dazing itself seems rather powerful for a racial so I had to limit it. By making it end on your current turn, it allows you to make use of the less considered aspects of daze (no OAs, no IAs). And then a somewhat weaker extended version of it for party utility. I was also considering keeping the daze but changing the -2 penalty to OAs and IAs into a granting CA until end of your next turn so that it becomes more useful.

Originally, the racial power was going to be what eventually became a paragon tier feat: the ability to make the target unable to use encounter, rechargeable, daily powers until the end of your next turn. It fit more in line with the original Maddening Presence that deep/purples could have. Unfortunately, it was determined through other feedback that a power such as that swung widely back and forth between "extremely useful" and "completely useless" depending on the enemies you were fighting. It was concluded that the base racial power should be more generally useful.

I can't say that it looks generally useful to me. How often do you wish an enemy had trouble with OAs and Immediate Actions? Classes that need to weave between enemies (monk, avenger, ranger, rogue) already have powers that let them do that.

I hate being critical without offering up some ideas to work with, so maybe consider just making the minor action give the target a penalty on saves until the end of its next round.

 

[Yumeii]

Hmm, that is a very good point you bring up. I hadn't really thought about that. And I kinda like that penalty to saves thing... but would it be too powerful for a racial? Time to run it through some other forums, see what they think as well.

You know, it suddenly hit me to check and (after checking) I just realized how useless Psychosis (epic tier feat) is. There's like maybe all of 10 monsters total that even have psychic resistance to begin with and practically none, if any, that had immunities as far as I could find.

 

[Ferghis]

You know, it suddenly hit me to check and (after checking) I just realized how useless Psychosis (epic tier feat) is. There's like maybe all of 10 monsters total that even have psychic resistance to begin with and practically none, if any, that had immunities as far as I could find.

This is exactly the kind of thing I wish designers would consider more often. If it doesn't come up most encounters, the thing is kinda useless to me, as a player, because I probably won't remember it the time it might be useful. Not to mention that the opportunity cost incurred by missing out on better feats/powers/features is too high.

 

[Yumeii]

Pdf has been updated with lots of new feats, reworks of some abilities, fluff text, just stuff in general.

This is still a work in progress.

 

[Mattachine]

The racial power could simply be, "cannot make opportunity attacks until the end of your next turn." Not every power has to create a defined condition. Plenty of existing powers give an oddball penalty (like a penalty to attack or defense or damage).

For instance, in my custom Alchemist, Psywarrior, and Skirmisher classes, there are effects like, "cannot shift and grants combat advantage", "can only take one action on its next turn", "cannot gain combat advantage", and "can only use basic attacks."

Don't limit yourself to daze, stun, weaken, etc.

 

[Yumeii]

Well, like I mentioned originally, "can only use basic attacks" was initially the effect for the Maddening Presence choice but it had issues with ranging from completely useless to extremely useful depending on the enemy. Personally, I had no problem with that (as it forced you to decide WHO was a good target to use it on instead of blindly using it on just any monster) but due to lots of feedback from various other sources, it was determined to be better suited as an option through a feat.

As for the daze effect, it seemed much more... efficient... to simply put "daze" rather than saying "grants combat advantage, cannot use immediate actions, cannot use opportunity actions, etc." I mean, I'm basically defining daze here. Thematically, it makes a whole lot of sense too because purple dragons operate primarily with dazing, stunning, dominating... and stun/dominate is clearly way too powerful for a racial. So keeping in line with the creature it's based off of, daze seemed the best choice.

Plus, the oddball effects I had in mind were too powerful for the racial and ended up becoming feat upgrades (see "insanity" line of feats for Maddening Presence).

But yeah, hey, thanks for the feedback, I appreciate it!