Balancing out Racial Abilities

[Jacob Lewis]

It is funny you brought this up as I was thinking of trying it. It was going to be something like this:

ASI +2
ASI +1, different ability
Pick three features from a minor list.
Pick two features from a moderate list.
Pick one feature from a prime list.

Taking all the options available from the books and putting them into one of the three lists, you could tailor make your race pretty much. But for a simple example:

ELF:
Dex +2, Chr +1
Three minor features: Fleet of Foot, Keen Senses, Trance
Two moderate: Darkvision, Fey Ancestry
Prime: Magical Bloodline

Of course, then the subjectiveness comes into which features would fall into which groups.

Hey, I think it's an option worth looking into! But feel free to explore ideas outside of what's only in the book. There are a lot of options and ideas from previous editions and other game systems. Borrow and steal where you can, innovate where you see any shortcomings.

And rather than tightly controlled lists specific for each race, leave them broad for the majority of characters regardless of any racial or cultural influence. But the prime list should include those powerful, race-exclusive traits that are commonly found regardless of upbringing, but not necessarily exhibited by every individual of that race encountered. Let the players exercise their subjectiveness for a change rather than leaving it to the whims of another author. Cheers!

 

[TaranTheWanderer]

Being that this is a "subjective" exercise with little or no room for discussion - just a series of "subjective" ideas being offered and rebuked? - I had a thought for anyone else reading this thread and looking for different ideas. No offense to anyone else who is showing a lot more work and effort on their part. Personally ("subjectively"?), I like to simplify when I can.

Instead of defining each race with a preset of abilities, quirks, etc., which summarily categorize and profile every single individual of a non-human culture (think about it, you know it's true!), let the players pick their features first and then just name their race. Do we really need to limit our options because of someone else's preconceived notions of how an entire race is portrayed? Or wait for someone to house rule and customize new options to fit an idea?

So, for example, you can rule that every character gains a +2 bonus to one ability score of their choice, and a +1 bonus to a different ability score of their choice. Everybody gets to choose, and they get the same as everyone else. And less stereotypes! Problem #1 solved.

Next, pick your three racial abilities. Someone should compile a short list of the most commonly seen abilities and traits shared between all races. For example, a generic trait might get your choice of a +2 for any two skills of your choice, or proficiency in any two set of tools, or one of each. This could reflect your specialized background or upbringing. You can be a typical dwarf with a skill bonus in Craft and proficiency in Blacksmith tools, or the odd the dwarf who was raised differently.

Other ideas: automatic proficiency in two weapons of your choice, pick two bonus languages, and gain a free feat. (Yup, take that exclusive free feat away from the Human Variant so we can stop calling them "Human Variant" and just play "Humans" again, but without losing the free feat!).

If you want to take it a step further, introduce special traits, like Darkvision, that only apply to certain races but only if you can do it without excluding anybody. That means if the Gnomes can get Fey Magic that no one else can get, Humans (and all the others) should be able to get something unique as well. This is still part of the three picks each character gets to make, but they can only get one of these.

To me, this is much simpler approach to fixing something that is just annoying me but don't know how to fix it without reintroducing the same problems in a new way, or overcomplicating things and creating new problems. And if someone complains that they're missing a particular benefit or power, or they have fewer, well the trade-off is you get to pick everything. And maybe that's what some people want. Of course, this is all very "subjective" and not likely to be appealing to anyone but the person who thought of it. Enjoy!

This is the kind of thing I was thinking would be neat to do. It's done in a lot of other games and would work well...as long as you have a way to justify why the human has darkvision or whatever. Or even do features by point-buy where lesser features cost less and greater ones cost more but that would be harder to balance, I think.

 

[5ekyu]

It is funny you brought this up as I was thinking of trying it. It was going to be something like this:

ASI +2
ASI +1, different ability
Pick three features from a minor list.
Pick two features from a moderate list.
Pick one feature from a prime list.

Taking all the options available from the books and putting them into one of the three lists, you could tailor make your race pretty much. But for a simple example:

ELF:
Dex +2, Chr +1
Three minor features: Fleet of Foot, Keen Senses, Trance
Two moderate: Darkvision, Fey Ancestry
Prime: Magical Bloodline

Of course, then the subjectiveness comes into which features would fall into which groups.

The razor of paper-balance has finished its job and we get to the myth of point buy and bland at last.

Since this started from a power on paper goal, how does this not wind up wit about 12 optimized race-class pairs and a pretty solid undefining of races other than as class-power add-ons?

Thats what you get when o,n-paper balance gets set so far above those concerns of setting.

Honestly, i think the pick list race build is likely going to **seem** to deliver the OP what *they* wants.

 

[Eltab]

Human Rogues cry when they have to sneak around in an unlit cave. Bards from any Darkvision race can do that assigned job better than they can. Even when the Bard did not train Stealth.

 

[WhosDaDungeonMaster]

The razor of paper-balance has finished its job and we get to the myth of point buy and bland at last.

Since this started from a power on paper goal, how does this not wind up wit about 12 optimized race-class pairs and a pretty solid undefining of races other than as class-power add-ons?

Thats what you get when o,n-paper balance gets set so far above those concerns of setting.

Honestly, i think the pick list race build is likely going to **seem** to deliver the OP what *they* wants.

As I wrote, I was thinking of something along these lines at one point but abandoned it a while ago. Players would tailor the races for optimized performance in class, but hey... isn't that what a lot of players ARE ALREADY doing!?

"Hmm.. my Tiefling gets a Chr +2, so he would make a good Warlock or Paladin build. Dwarves have a better Con, useful for Fighters and Clerics. Elves are "Dexy", great for finesse build-types and ranged attacks."

And so on, and so on.

Or, go the other way: "Hmm.. I want to play a Sorcerer, what races gets bonuses to Charisma? Half-Elves! Yeah, that would be a nice boost to my primary ability score! Cool!"

But, hey, that's the way the world works right? A person who is strong tends to like sports (no certainty, but happens often enough), a smart person enjoys learning more (why not? they are good at it), etc. D&D is the same way.

Personally, I would love to scrap racial modifiers and abilities altogether. If you want to be a certain race, build your character that way around it. Why do players need to get modifiers for races? If you want to play an Elf with a high Dex, put a good score there, tell everyone "Hey, I'm a Dexy Elf", and call it a day. It is like ice cream... once upon a time, Chocolate, Vanilla, and Strawberry were enough for just about everyone. Now, we have way more than 31 flavors and people can't decide what they want to try or have a "fav-flav" that they get almost all the time.

 

[Mistwell]

You're responding to me but you're not responding to what I actually posted. I posted nothing that said that darkvision was 0.5 points. That was a different poster.

You can fault his math but since you haven't actually done any analysis yourself I have zero reason to actually believe you. Take the PHB races, assume they all have the same "cost" and then show me what you thing WOTC values each ability at. Knock yourself out.

He's the only person I'm aware of who has actually attempted to figure out racial abilities might cost, assuming all races have an equal "cost". Even so, there are some areas where the precise cost is unknown.

For example, the gnomish magic resistance is valued at 4 for each of Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma saves. On the assumption that Wisdom saves are used more often you could value Wisdom at 8 and the others at 2. That works just like valuing them all at 4 does.

No I quoted it correctly, it's a link from a post you responded to earlier, here it is again, he does value it at .5, his analysis is more extensive than the analysis done in this thread, and he also grants it may be off. I think he set the points too low which doesn't allow for the kind of spread you'd need to differentiate between a cantrip and an additional language for example.

 

[WhosDaDungeonMaster]

...his analysis is more extensive than the analysis done in this thread, and he also grants it may be off. ...

Having read his analysis and done my own, I disagree with this! LOL

Anyway, he is right (in the article), that no matter how you do something of this nature, it is always subjective...

For instance, he values the Toughness ability at 1.5 points and gives no point value for Feats. I assigned Feats as 2 points because ASI (at 1 each) is equivalent to a Feat. Since Toughness grants the half the benefit of the Tough Feat, I gave it have the value. So, my analysis values the Toughness ability at 1 point.

I also give Languages a value of 0.25, not 0.

Darkvision (I am sure many might disagree, who knows?) I value very highly, at 2 points. My new "Shadowsight" is valued at 1 point.

He and I both understand so much of it depends on peoples' games and how they run them that would be impossible IMO to come up with a system that would be universally found balanced.

I'll leave the rest of such discussions to you. Enjoy!