Balancing out Racial Abilities

[dave2008]

Personally, I think the races are too balanced. I would like to see clearer differences between the races that a thematic and not based on "balance." For instances I give dragonborn AC 14 (scalemail equivalent) + dex.

 

[WhosDaDungeonMaster]

Personally, I think the races are too balanced. I would like to see clearer differences between the races that a thematic and not based on "balance." For instances I give dragonborn AC 14 (scalemail equivalent) + dex.

I can understand wanting the racial abilities to represent greater differences, but I would still like to see better balance (from my point of view, at least...). I didn't go to that point of AC with Dragonborn, but close enough giving Dragonborn Darkvision and Thick Skin:

Thick Skin. Your natural Armor Class is 11, instead of 10. You have 1 point of Damage Reduction against non-magical bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage. This reduction cannot reduce damage from an attack to less than 1.

I've also moved Dragonborn's ability score increases to Wis +2, Str +1. It makes more sense to me for them to have Wisdom from their dragon heritage than Charisma. Of course, I have planed to change several other ability score increases for other races as well.

 

[dave2008]

If your interested, here is how I "balanced" the dragonborn for one of my players:

Dragonborn
Dragonborn Traits
Your Draconic heritage manifests in a variety of traits you share with other dragonborn.

Ability Score Increase: Your Strength score increases by 2, your Constitution score by 1, and your Charisma score increases by 1.

Age: Young dragonborn grow quickly. They walk hours after hatching, attain the size and development of a 10-year-old human child by the age of 3, and reach Adulthood by 15.

Alignment: Dragonborn tend to extremes, making a conscious choice for one side or the other in the cosmic war between good and evil. Most dragonborn are good, but those who side with evil can be terrible villains.

Size: Dragonborn are taller and heavier than humans, standing well over 6 feet tall and averaging more than 250 pounds. Your size is Medium.

Speed: Your base walking speed is 30 feet.

Bite: Your fanged maw is a natural weapon, which you can use to make unarmed strikes. If you hit with it, you deal piercing damage equal to 1d6 + your Strength modifier, instead of the bludgeoning damage normal for an unarmed strike. Additionally, your are proficient with bite attacks against incapacitated targets or targets that you are grappling.

Darkvision: Your draconic ancestry gives you superior vision in dark and dim Conditions. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in Darkness as if it were dim light. You can’t discern color in Darkness, only shades of gray.

Flight: You have a flying speed of 40 feet. If you are wearing medium armor reduce your flight speed by 10 feet, or 20 feet if you are wearing heavy armor.

Keen Senses: You have proficiency in the Perception skill.

Natural Armor: You have tough, scaly skin. When you aren't wearing armor, your AC is 14 + your Dexterity modifier. You can use your natural armor to determine your AC if the armor you wear would leave you with a lower AC. A shield's benefits apply as normal while you use your natural armor.

Powerful Build: You count as one size larger when determining your carrying capacity, when grappling a creature, and the weight you can push, drag, or lift.

Talons: You are proficient with your unarmed strikes, which deal 1d4 slashing damage + your strength modifier.

Draconic Ancestry: You have Draconic ancestry. Choose one type of dragon from the Draconic Ancestry table. Your breath weapon and damage Resistance are determined by the dragon type, as shown in the table.

Dragon Damage Type
Breath Weapon

Black	Acid	5 by 30 ft. line (Dex. save)
Blue	Lightning	5 by 30 ft. line (Dex. save)
Brass	Fire	5 by 30 ft. line (Dex. save)
Bronze	Lightning	5 by 30 ft. line (Dex. save)
Copper	Acid	5 by 30 ft. line (Dex. save)
Gold	Fire	15 ft. cone (Dex. save)
Green	Poison	15 ft. cone (Con. save)
Red	Fire	15 ft. cone (Dex. save)
Silver	Cold	15 ft. cone (Con. save)
White	Cold	15 ft. cone (Con. save)

Breath Weapon: You can use your action to exhale destructive energy. Your Draconic ancestry determines the size, shape, and damage type of the exhalation.

When you use your breath weapon, each creature in the area of the exhalation must make a saving throw, the type of which is determined by your Draconic ancestry. The DC for this saving throw equals 8 + your Constitution modifier + your proficiency bonus. A creature takes 2d6 damage on a failed save, and half as much damage on a successful one. The damage increases to 3d6 at 6th level, 4d6 at 11th level, 5d6 at 16th level, and 6d6 at 20th level.

After you use your breath weapon, you can’t use it again until you complete a short or Long Rest.

Damage Resistance: You have Resistance to the damage type associated with your Draconic ancestry.

Languages: You can speak, read, and write Common and Draconic. Draconic is thought to be one of the oldest Languages and is often used in the study of magic. The language sounds harsh to most other creatures and includes numerous hard consonants and sibilants.

 

[WhosDaDungeonMaster]

That is definitely more than what I was planning, but if it works for your game that is great. I seem to remember some of those changes as similar to racial feats?

 

[Quartz]

That's very good indeed for a race. +4 to stats, natural armour, flight, resistance to damage, breath weapon, and more. Wow. I think it would be balanced against humans if you eliminated the stat bumps.

 

[MechaPilot]

So, my question to you all is this: What to do about the balance of abilities for Dwarves, Elves, and Half-Elves compared to the other races? Should we remove some of those races abilities, or offer improvements/additions to the races that seem a bit weaker in abilities? For instance, I was thinking about granting Halflings Stealth as a racial skill to compliment their Naturally Stealthy abilitiy.

I am also considering removing subrace abilities entirely for PCs or combining them somehow into the main race.

I realize many of you won't agree with my take on this, and like I began with, it is subjective and my point of view. I do not want debates about which power is equal to what, etc., so please don't post along those lines. I am looking for ways to balance things out as I see it. If you feel everything is fine as is, I am happy for you.

I run a homebrew setting and many of the PHB races that I allow are modified in some way. If it helps, this is what I've done with humans in my setting.

 

[MechaPilot]

Personally, I think the races are too balanced. I would like to see clearer differences between the races that a thematic and not based on "balance." For instances I give dragonborn AC 14 (scalemail equivalent) + dex.

I understand the reasoning there, and I think it has a certain soundness to it to give a scaled race an AC equivalent to scale mail, but I wonder if it wouldn't be better to give them AC = 10 + Dex mod + Con or Str mod, with the Con or Str mod representing how tough the creature's scales are.

Given that (to the best of my understanding) the scales of scale mail are generally made from metal and the scales of most living creatures aren't as strong as metal, this makes some sense to me. You could even opt to create a racial feat for such creatures that hardens their scales, increasing their unarmored AC (and maybe granting a d8 of extra hit points or some other small benefit relating to toughness).

 

[WhosDaDungeonMaster]

I understand the reasoning there, and I think it has a certain soundness to it to give a scaled race an AC equivalent to scale mail, but I wonder if it wouldn't be better to give them AC = 10 + Dex mod + Con or Str mod, with the Con or Str mod representing how tough the creature's scales are.

I think a Con modifier (maybe min +1) added to AC would work best since Con represents more of your physical make-up. I might use that. Thanks!

 

[dave2008]

That's very good indeed for a race. +4 to stats, natural armour, flight, resistance to damage, breath weapon, and more. Wow. I think it would be balanced against humans if you eliminated the stat bumps.

Well we have all custom races, but like I said. I am not looking for balance.

 

[dave2008]

Given that (to the best of my understanding) the scales of scale mail are generally made from metal and the scales of most living creatures aren't as strong as metal, this makes some sense to me.

Well, a red dragon wyrmling is a medium scaled creature with an AC of 17 (natural armor), so it anything it might be a bit low as red dragon scales seem to be stronger than scale mail.