Are Racial Classes a bad idea?

[Chacal]

I've played with the (overpowered) idea of giving "racial templates" to simulate the flavor part of the prefered class game mechanism.
basically, it would have been something like a bunch of abilities at some levels, for free (I told you it was overpowered)
For instance, to simulate the magic nature of elves, the would have, regardless of their class, access to some cantrips (like gnomes) at 5th level, then some 1st lvl spells at 10th lvl and so on.
I would have used subsets of the "racial spelllists" that were posted on these boards some times ago.

For dwarves, I would have given endurance at 5th level, a DR 1/lethal (is there a way to write a DR that only work against fatigue/subdual damage ? ), a free fighter feat working only with one dwarven weapon.

I would have enhanced some of the racial skill bonus over time. (more hide for halflings, some kno(arcana) for elves, dwarven crafts for dwarves ...)

Humans already have a racial bonus that grows with levels (the +1 skill point), I would give them access to a chosen non-exclusive cross class skill as a class skill at some level.

There might be a way to balance this if there is a downside associated with each power, acording to the racial stereotypes.

I like the template way better than a class because it doesn't detract from the classes that the PCs want, just add some flavor associated with the race without having to take levels in the preferred class or the racial class.

Just some random thoughts ...


Chacal

 

[blackshirt5]

the elves and dwarves have more prcs than the rest already try something for orcs, gnomes or even for creation's sake halflings

Oh believe me there'll be one for the orcs. If the players think that dwarves are bruisers, wait until they run into an orc who's advanced in his racial class.

Gnomes I'm gonna work on, but I don't have too many ideas yet.

Halflings, don't really exist IMC. They've been combined with the Gnomes for my game.

 

[Chacal]

Any update ? Would you share some of your notes blackshirt5 ?



Chacal

 

[Angcuru]

I talked to blackshirt about it the other day, and the idea of a racial CLASS is not a class at all, but an increase of/addition of ECL for the character. In my eyes this poses a problem since instead of increasing your class levels, you increase your ELC, so you lose out on Feats and Skills, and it takes you MUCH longer to get to the high levels than anyone else. The 'classes' would have to be quite powerful to make up for this.

 

[comrade raoul]

Halfling would be great. For starters they should get more speed. And massive escape artist bonuses. And evasion and slippery mind... paragon halfling....

Sounds like a high-level rogue with some monk levels.

 

[Kevin O'Reilly]

The idea of a character gaining racial traits and abilities is one that really intrigues me. I liken it to racail secrets that are shared with the character as they advance in power.

However, rather than racial classes, how about racial feat chains. A player can select a racial feat any time that they get a bonus character feat.

Ideas for this would include spellcasting ability for elves; magic resistance or extra strength for dwarves; ability to be completely unseen for halflings; rage for orcs and half-orcs...

Any good?

 

[Chacal]

I like the abilities you suggested, and I prefer giving racial traits without raising ECL.
The problem with using feats is that there are already too many good feats to choose from, so there is less chance that a PC would take "racial feats" than they pick their prefered class.
If the initial intent is having more racial related abilities upon levelling, this would not be an efficient approach.
If it was gaining access to secrets, there are already some racial PrCs and Feats that fit this concept.

If we can find small benefits for each race, that could be balanced (between PCs).
We can see the current racial abilities as "front-loaded". Putting more abilities will raise the ECL if we keep them front-loaded, but if we tie some abilities to the character level (like some templates do), we might add some flavorful racial stereotypes while not unbalancing too much.
I think templates (without ECL) could be the way to go.
Did anyone tried to describe races as templates (I think they were some for making half-races some times ago) ?


Chacal

 

[The Proconsul]

Well, you COULD give them racial feats for free (i. e., one at 5th ,10th, 15th, 20th each), and increase the strength of the opposition accordingly ( or just give them additional feats, too).