Creating Races: Any Advice?

[LoneWolf23]

Hi. I'm working on a campaign world for an RPG campaign, but I need a lot of new races. Mostly Anthropomorphic Animal Races: Catgirls, Wolfmen, Bearmen, that sort of thing.

I do have the DM's guide, but I'm still unsure about how to do this... Do I just put Ability Mods and special abilities together at random, or is there some special method to this? And at what point do I risk making the Character greater then a level one PC class?

 

[BigFreekinGoblinoid]

First thing I do for each new race is think about their defining features ( or history ) and go from there.

Lets look at "Catgirls". Logic would suggest they have better than average dexterity. So lets start with +4 to Dex. Now we have to balance this with some less than average abilities, subtracting from lets say... Wisdom and Constitution ( -2 each ) .

Lets say that you REALLY did not want to have a penalty for CON.
You could get away with this depending on severely limiting other racial benefits ( less feats/skills for example ) OR you could consider adding to the Creature Level ...

 

[Reynard]

In your particular case, I would look through the animals in the MM and use them as a starting place. Catgirls, for example, might resemble a leopard: Modearte str and con, high dex, and a little wis boost. Bonuses to balance, climb, hide, and ms. Special abilites=pounce. So, you might end up with:

Catgirls:

Attributes: +2 Str, +2 Con, +4 Dex
Skill Bonuses: +2 racial bonus to balance, climb, jump, hide, and move silently.
Other bonuses: Max jump limit is doubled.
ECL: +1

Obviously, that is off the cuff. you could low the stat bonuses and probably do okay without an ECL, but you get the idea.

 

[alsih2o]

b-a-l-a-n-c-e BALANCE

 

[The_Dood]

Sorry to reply off topic but commendations on the obscure highlander quote, alsih2o.

 

[alsih2o]

sean connery rocked that role!

 

[Happiest_Sadist]

Always hand out abilities in increments of 2, so they always have an effect.

Generally physical abilities are better than mental ones. So in general balance bonuses with the same group St, Dx, Con /Int, Wis, Cha.

Also, bonuses are exponentially better as they get larger. +4 is more than twice as good as +2. Look at the point buy tables in the DMG to see this. Consider the point cost of abilities and see how much less it costs to make their best class than human.

Also comsider modifying existing races. Replace the bonuses that don't work with new ones about as powerful.
Ex. Catgirl. Similar to elves. The +2 Dex, -2 Con is good.
Low light vision is good for cats
+2 bonus on Listen & Spot checks is good for cats.

So we then have the following that don't fit.
Weapon proficiencies
Immunity to sleep
Secret door finding

Lets try replacing them with
Claws: Catpeople have 2 claw attacks which do 1d3 +strength bonus damage.
Catfall: Catpeople treat each fall as if it was 10 feet shorter (always land on their feet)
Quick reactions: Catpeople get a +2 on all initiative checks.

That sohould yield a reasonably balanced race by shifting abilities from a base race.

These races might work
Bearmen: Orcs
Ratmen/Weaselmen: Kobolds
Pigmen: Dwarves
Mousemen: Halflings or Gnomes