[Arcana Unearthed] Racial "Classes"

[Justin D. Jacobson]

I liked the idea so much, I stole it for Dawning Star. (BTW, Thanks for taking the time to review it, Crothian.) Since Dawning Star is built on d20 Modern, this had some interesting side effects that I'm rather pleased with. First, we didn't have to worry about caster level issues, which is the one bugaboo that continually gets raised with racial classes. Second, it allowed us to emphasize one of the themes of the setting, which is the human will to survive and adapt.

 

[WayneLigon]

The Litorian in my AU campaign wound up taking all three Lotorian racial levels and he was a powerhouse; they were far from 'wasted' since they gave him stat adds, movement, and the claw/bite attacks.

The Verrik took one racial level; the ability to close off their senses saved them a few times. Harpies could not mess with them, they were not affected by stench attacks, etc.

 

[Khorod]

Closing off senses is a base ability of the race, not from the levels.

 

[Angel Tarragon]

yep, Sensory Control is a racial trait.

 

[Turjan]

Akashics, champions, unfettered, warmains, and totem warriors give up fairly little by taking some racial levels.

Granted, racial levels in AU don't mesh well with classes that are predominantly magic-users (and it puts mage blades, runethanes, and witches even further behind in magical ability). But still usually good for characters that emphasize combat power, skills, or whatnot.

In case this has not stated clearly before, I like to add that racial classes try to address this problem somehow in AE, because some of them have the "+1 level of existing class" descriptor now, which affects not only caster level but really gives access to a new spell level. These changes are available for free on his support page with the download here .

 

[Khorod]

Its a bonus to spellcasting or combat rites... so non-spellcasters can get something too.

 

[Stalker0]

Most of the spellcasting classes give a +1 to caster level for every racial level...with +1 spells normally for 2 out of 3 of them.

So a verrik 3/magister 3 has spells prepared/spells per day as a 5th level magister, and a caster level of 6.