Balancing a variant Half-elf

[Lord Morte]

In the campaign world I'm working on, the half-elves have secured the role of master mages. Basically they are the heirs of the ancient traditions of the now-absent elvish archmagi and founded the College of Magic that nearly all wizards are graduates of. I've been struggling with how to best represent this and have decided to change their favoured class to wizard and give them a free Spell Focus feat at 1st level.

A fellow DM I discussed this with felt this was unbalanced and suggested eliminating the +2 skill bonuses to Diplomacy and Gather Information. I was wondering if anyone else had any thoughts/opinions/ideas of how can I can do this?

 

[Stormborn]

Free Spell Focus isn't going to do anything for a half-elven fighter, so if you take the bonuses away you are going to force people to play magic users if they want to be a half-elf. While some races certainly encourage certain class choices, by more than simple favored class, they shouldn't force it. Now if you want to represent them as the pinacle of arcane magic users remove the skill bonuses they already get and give them a +3 to Knowledge(arcane). This is at least a Skill that anyone can use, less benificial to the nonarcane classes, but still applicable.

Personally I think Half-elves are a little weak compared to other PHB races and so giving them some additional bonuses wouldn't be a horrible thing. A half elf with free Spell Focus isn't any more unbalanced than a Dwarf. I just don't think you should take something that any class woulf find useful and replace it with a feat that only some classes would benifit from.

 

[Quickleaf]

I don't think class abilities that relate directly to a certain class are a good idea.

To represent what you're looking for I would suggest the following:...On character creation, a half-elf chooses one of these abilities:
(1) (Any Spellcaster) Free Spell focus feat. I would decide on two or three schools appropriate to your campaign history the half-elf must select from.
(2) (Wizard) Spell Mastery feat. Again, restricted to spells from certain schools, or with a certain descriptor.
(3) (Sorcerer) Magic eyes. Gains +5 on all Spellcraft checks to identify spells/magic effects.
(4) (Non-spellcaster) Ability to cast any one 1st level spell 1/day as a caster of their character level. If half-elves in your campaign are descended from a certain magical tradition, you may want to create a spell list of 1st level spells they could choose from.

 

[RangerWickett]

I made it easy in my game. Half-Elves use human stats or Elf stats. Their choice. They can swap out the bonus feat to get a bonus to Dex if they use the human stats.

 

[Nifft]

IMC, Half-Elves also gain bonus skill points (just like Humans do). Thus, "Half-Elf" is effectively a 1st level Human feat.

I agree with others regarding the bonus Spell Focus. It's too... focused.

What you might want to do is grant a bonus Feat at 1st level, limited to a specific list: Spell Focus, Spell Mastery, (all the +2/+2 ones -- Alertness, Negotiator, Agile, etc.), Skill Focus, or Iron Will.

That's not quite as good as the bonus feat Humans get, but that's good, since all Humans get is their bonus feat and extra skill points.

-- N

 

[Lord Morte]

Thanks for your feedback. Some very interesting points and ideas. I do like the idea of selecting the bonus feat from a narrow list.

To represent what you're looking for I would suggest the following:...On character creation, a half-elf chooses one of these abilities:
(1) (Any Spellcaster) Free Spell focus feat. I would decide on two or three schools appropriate to your campaign history the half-elf must select from.

Heh Appropriate to the half-elves according to campaign history is the CONCEPT of schools. The high elves pretty much founded the core wizard class, with its inherent attachment to the schools of the magic in the specialist wizard, and the half-elves inherited it. Everyone else used to use other sorts of mages, a handy cheat allowing me to use any other variant spell-casters that may seem fun and interesting.

I agree with others regarding the bonus Spell Focus. It's too... focused.

Hmmm... Maybe. But that's also sort of the point. The half-elves are meant to be exceptional WIZARDS (aka mages using the schools of magic) and, in my mind at least, giving them Spell Focus does that best. It makes a 1st level half-elf wizard more powerful than a wizard of any other race bar human and emphasises the school aspect of the class. Other spellcasters certainly benefit, indeed the only core classes that don't are barbarian, fighter, monk and rogue. But the most direct benefit is to the wizard.

To be clear, would retaining the bonuses on Diplomacy and Gather Information AND giving the Spell Focus feat be acceptable (my original idea). It isn't as flexible as some of the suggestions you've provided but achieves what I'm going for better, IMHO.

(2) (Wizard) Spell Mastery feat. Again, restricted to spells from certain schools, or with a certain descriptor.
(3) (Sorcerer) Magic eyes. Gains +5 on all Spellcraft checks to identify spells/magic effects.
(4) (Non-spellcaster) Ability to cast any one 1st level spell 1/day as a caster of their character level. If half-elves in your campaign are descended from a certain magical tradition, you may want to create a spell list of 1st level spells they could choose from.

Such as the feats from the Complete Arcane that grant spell-like abilities? Could do.

 

[haiiro]

You could also go the racial levels route (from Unearthed Arcana) and have Spell Focus as a bonus feat at your second half-elf level, for example. That way non-spellcaster half-elves needn't waste their time with it, and you can do whatever you like with NPC half-elves.

 

[Knight-of-Roses]

Or give non-wizard half-elves something that allow them better defense against magic (from having grown up around it). Perhaps Iron Will or a similar feat?

 

[Terath Ninir]

Half-elves suck as-is. Spell Focus is kind of a gimpy feat, not up to the standards of the really good feats. Tacking it on to the half-elves would make them more powerful without hurting anything.

If they aren't a spellcaster, though, they're kinda weak. Hmm. Maybe give them the choice of getting the feat from Complete Arcane that gives a +3 save bonus against one school -- Arcane Defense, I think. That way, a half-elf fighter would still have a nifty ability, instead of a wasted one.