Balance of +0 LA races with bonuses to spellcasting stats.

[Wish]

In my experience, such races don't seem to unbalance things. Gray elves make great wizards, but so do humans, halflings, gnomes and dwarves. (Half-orcs suck as wizards, and half-elves get the worst of both halves and shouldn't be used for any class.) The +2 int is nice, but humans get an extra feat (and even a straight class wizard never has enough feats), while halflings get AC, attack roll bonuses (nice for rays) and +1 to all saves. Gnomes and dwarves get con bonus (nice with a d4 hp). When I sit down to build a wizard, there's no one race that insists that I play it. (I won't use gnome for a PC I'm designing, because I don't enjoy playing gnomes, but I'll use any of them for NPCs.)

 

[Viktyr Gehrig]

I'm perfectly fine with it. As a matter of fact, I've houseruled the majority of core races to have a mental bonus and penalty along with their physical adjustments. My one caveat is that I never give a race a bonus to the spellcasting stat of their Favored Class. (In my Dragonstar campaign, I broke this rule, giving Gnomes an INT bonus while their Favored Gestalt is Mechanist/Wizard. I felt M/W is such a sorry combination that it merits that little boost.)

I have yet to see a Dwarf Cleric, Elf Sorceror, or Gnome Wizard because of it.

 

[Thanee]

I'm concerned that if these are allowed then the only sensible spellcaster build is to take a race which gives you a bonus to your mental statistics, so your spells get more bang.

Thoughts?

Human is almost always at least an equally good choice.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Thanee]

It's like if you play in the forgotten realms, there are loads of sun elf wizards, because sun elves give +2 Int. If they didn't have -2 Con (a bane of wizards) they be the only race; as it is, humans with their free feat are still in there, but not as common.

I have so far only seen a single sun elf wizard in our Forgotten Realms games.
We've had human, lightfoot halfling and shield dwarf wizards, too.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Darkness]

I have so far only seen a single sun elf wizard in our Forgotten Realms games.
We've had human, lightfoot halfling and shield dwarf wizards, too.

Agreed, same here (human, gnome and moon elf wizards).

Although I think gray elf (+Dex, +Int, -Con, -Str) might be a more attractive wizard than sun elf (+Int, -Con).

 

[sullivan]

I actually feel that Con 20 is more beneficial to a spell caster than Int/Cha/Wis 20, up front that is. So I'd take a Con 20 Int 18 (Gnome, although they have size issues) before Con 16 Int 20 (given the -2 Con penalty you have to deal with), for a starting character. In the first few levels those extra HP and +2 on Concentration checks mean a lot for survival.

P.S. I agree with the take on a Gray Elf over Sun Elf for a pure Wizard. He just has to make sure he holds his nose and stays friends with that hulking Str 20 mostrosity of a tank he travels with so they can haul all the Wizard's heavy equipment. (EDIT: Such as the Elf's Manicure/Pedicure Kit)