Cambion racial stat modifiers - WTF?

[Jefe Bergenstein]

Because, IMO, there should be a motive to play the human.

There is. Extra feat, extra skill points, favored class any. No LA, no racial HD, etc. Why not strive to make them equal, rather than flat out inferior? An ogre fighter will hit harder, but less accurately, and have fewer feats than a human fighter.

In a good system there would be a slight default bias to favor core races and that would be clearly pointed out. From there any DM can knock 1 level (or whatever) off the monsters if they want to ignore that.

So a good system is one that is intentionally poorly designed, with the idea that the DM fixes it? Sorry, too much like 1st edition for my tastes. If you're going to write rules, do them properly.

Why should humans be the most common PC? Or even common? Thats a campaign decision. Keep that stuff in the world books, not in the core rules.

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

They are not less common as PC selections, which is what Doug was talking about. Rather, War/Com are intended to be less common PC choices... and so they should be weaker than Ftr/Wiz... and indeed they are.

Its still bad design any way you slice it. Heres a book to make monster PC's. For the love of god, DONT use it!

Next up, a book on spells you cant cast.

 

[Shemeska]

Maybe it is just me and my old skool gamer knowledge, but wasn't a Cambion simply a half-fiend back in 1E? Is a Cambion now going to be a completely seperate type of demon?

Cambions were specifically male half-tanar'ri born to mortal women, with the particular type of tanar'ri father (lesser, greater, true) determining what type of cambion it was (major, baron/marquis).

 

[Cam Banks]

Cambions were specifically male half-tanar'ri born to mortal women, with the particular type of tanar'ri father (lesser, greater, true) determining what type of cambion it was (major, baron/marquis).

That sounds like further development circa 2e, of course. No stinking tanar'ri in 1e!

Cheers,
Cam

 

[Celebrim]

Cambions were ridiculously (sp?) powerful compared to...

Almost everything in the 1st ed. Monster Manual?

 

[Shroomy]

If you go by the stat-block, you get the following modifiers:

Normal Cambion
Str +8, Dex +6, Con +6, Int +2, Wis -4, Cha -6

Baron/Marquis Cambion
Str +10, Dex +8, Con +8, Int +6, Wis +6, Cha +4

The stat adjustments under the "Cambion as Characters" seems to have the problems. Me thinks that the stat block was corrected (excepted for the Favored Class thing, though the sidebar on "More Powerful Cambions" seems to indicate the rogue is its favored class, which is probably correct), but the "Cambion as Characters" was not since it also ommits all of the Cambions resistances, SR, immunities, spell-like abilities, and special racial/supernatural abilities. I don't think a +4 LA is too much for all that.

 

[JoeGKushner]

So a good system is one that is intentionally poorly designed, with the idea that the DM fixes it? Sorry, too much like 1st edition for my tastes. If you're going to write rules, do them properly.

Why should humans be the most common PC? Or even common? Thats a campaign decision. Keep that stuff in the world books, not in the core rules.

Sorry. You're barking up the wrong tree. The d20 3.5 system is much more coherent than previous editions but still has a long way to be 'fixed'. In a point based system, all of your abilities are usually spelled out regardless of what race you are. Heck, race is just a descriptor with an associated set of abilities as opposed. The whole thing revolves around the very broken CR vs ECL vs LA.

 

[Ripzerai]

I like how it's favored class is a prestige class...something that NEVER gives an XP penalty.

Well, if the author is Wolfgang Baur, he wrote The Assassin's Handbook for Green Ronin, which presented the assassin as a base class. That might have colored his judgment.

But yes, it should have been rogue in a WotC product.

 

[CaptainChaos]

Nothing to see here.

 

[CaptainChaos]

Well, if the author is Wolfgang Baur, he wrote The Assassin's Handbook for Green Ronin, which presented the assassin as a base class. That might have colored his judgment.

Could be, but what of WotC's vaunted development staff? Surely they should know the rules to their own game, yes? I thought it was their job to catch stuff like this. Do we know who developed this book?