Critique of a New PC Race

[WombleHunter]

Dendrayil: A race of Feline Humanoids.

Modifiers: +2 Dexterity, +1 to Intelligence and Wisdom. Dendrayil are graceful, intelligent, and wise in the manners of the world. However, they are not as strong as humans, nor as tough, and suffer -2 penalties to Strength and Constitution.

As mentioned before, never give a race a +1. It is always +2, as D&D stats are entirely based on this two-point increase. In older versions of D&D a +1 would have been fine as the scale reflected that. In other words, in 2e Dex 16 was significantly better than Dex 15; in 3e, this is not so. For balance and fairness (as well as the status quo) always use +2.

Size: Medium

Speed: 30 ft

Vision: Lowlight Vision

This is all fine.

Racial Attack Bonuses: +2 vs. Divine Magic. Because of their fur, they recieve a +1 fortitude save vs. Fire, and a -1 fortitude save vs. Cold.

As mentioned above, this needs to be clearer. I presume you mean they get +2 to saves vs. divine magic. However, I totally disagree with the save modifiers from the fur. Look in the MM. There are bloody loads of creatures with fur, and not one of them has saves modified because of it. In a PC race I think this is totally unnecessary.

Skill Bonuses: Dendrayel recieve +2 to the following attributes:
Listen (They have sharp cat ears)
Balance, Jump, Move Silently (The grace of a cat)
Climb (Their claws assist them in this)
However, they cannot take Ride or Swim as class skill, no matter what class they are. Cats despise water, and what beast would want a giant cat riding on them?

Some of this is ok, the Listen and Climb bonuses particularly. However, I must question their being unable to take Ride and Swim. Although they dislike it, I thought that cats could actually swim well (although I might be wrong). More than that however is the restriction on Ride. There are hundreds of creatures less savoury than a 'giant cat', and none of them are unable to take Ride as a skill. This seems especially weak.

Favored Class: Warrior. No Dendrayel can take any of the "Holy" classes (Cleric, Priest, Paladin or Druid). They do not claim any god as their Patron Deity, nor do any of the Gods claim sovereignty over them.

Yup, choose either No favoured class, Any favoured class, or a specific PC class. NPC classes are inappropriate favoured classes for a PC race, unsurprisingly. [Edit: I see it was a typo for Fighter. That's cool. However, this favoured class does not gel well with their stats, nor with their description.] Their restriction from "Holy" classes needs more work, as pointed out; also, you might want to think about removing it, given that individuals might choose to follow a god or religion, but note that such classes do not have any church or place within their society. I would allow Druids, at least as these are independent of specific gods. This depends on your campaign world though.

As far as being balanced goes, they seem ok. With a bit more work they will be useful for people who want cat races in their games.

 

[Paul_Klein]

I would personally add some sort of "Safe Fall" ability, where they can treat a fall as if it were shorter than it actually is (the numbers, I would leave up to you however).

 

[Tonguez]

Re: Re: Critique of a New PC Race

Racial Saving Throws: +2 vs. Divine Magic. Because of their fur, they recieve a +1 Fortitude save bonus to cold-based effects, and a -1 penalty to fire-based effects.

Cats (as in the house cat variety) were oiriginally desert creatures and cats absolutely thrive inj hot places (ever notice how they spend all their time either sunbathing or curled up by the fire) so in fact a +1 to 'heat/fire' makes more sense than a +1 to cold (the fur actually isn't their to keep them warm (thats a sideeffect)- its designed to keep them cool!)

However fur does smolder so this might cancel out the fire bonus to +0 ergo Save -1 Cold effects +0 Fire effects +2 Divine Magic

Also cats are quite good swimmers when and if they get into the water.

The horse thing I can live with but I'd give them a Spd 40 to compensate.

and yeah I too am not too keen on the no Divine casters ruling (perhaps no Clerics - but I'd encourage them to have Druids (Shaman who revere the Great Cats) and Rangers)

 

[Zappo]

Re: Re: Critique of a New PC Race

In older versions of D&D a +1 would have been fine as the scale reflected that. In other words, in 2e Dex 16 was significantly better than Dex 15; in 3e, this is not so.

Actually, 16 is significantly better than 15 in 3rd edition too, being a +3 modifier versus a +2.

*runs*

 

[Zappo]

More seriously, I would just drop this +1/-1/whatever versus cold or fire. The kind of cold or heat that actually deals damage and forces saving throws is not the kind of cold or heat from which a fur can protect you. And in any case, there are a bazillion creatures in D&D that have fur, and not one of them has save modifiers because of this (save maybe a few that I'm sure have much furrier fur than these felines).

 

[Salad Shooter]

I am forever enlightened by those with higher post counts than me Not that thats saying much. I knew there was a reason to post my little creations here. I'll definately change the fur thing...you all have flooded me with undeniable reasons. It was sort of silly, anyway. Came about after a several hour long session working on various bits of my world. Gotta love the throws of creation.

 

[David Argall]

+1/-1 fine

"+1 Stat bonuses are bad. They're very useful to characters with a lot of odd scores, much less so to someone with even scores, and encourage min-maxing, especially if you use point-buy."

This myth is quite common, obviously from the number of times it is repeated here. But it is a myth. +1/-1 is almost entirely useless in a point buy system, clearly far less useful than +2/-2, and does not confur any advantage in a roll system.

In the point buy systems, the player can easily negate the routine benefits and costs of stat bonuses. I want 2 stats to be 12 & 12 and there is a +1 or 2 on one and a -1 or 2 on the other. No problem, I start with 11 & 13 or 10 & 14.
Thus the only benefit comes with the extreme stats. I want something beyond the 18 the standard allows, so I take a race with a bonus there. But a +1 only gives me bragging rights until I get to 4th level. And I am now -1 in another stat, which means I am -1in net bonuses [unless the total buy is an odd number, in which case I manage to break even. But the standards suggested in DMG are 15, 22, 28, & 32, and I doubt many have games based on 15.] By contrast, if we use a +2, we not only get an immediate 20, but I get a +1 from my favored stat. I also get a -1 from another stat, but I at least break even and have reason to think I am ahead.

Now when we roll the stats, we can expect to get 2-4 odd numbers, and it would seem we can use the +1 to gain on one while the -1 can be placed where it will not hurt. This is true enough as far as it goes, but what it does is lower a handicap, not give the player an advantage. Thus we can change 2 15s into 14 & 16, changing +4 into plus 5. But any 2 even numbers totalling 30 is also +5. Our number cruncher is not any better off than a player who just rolled even numbers all the time. We have here another reason [of which there are many] why you should not roll stats instead of buy them, but we do not have a reason why giving a bonus of +1 is any unfair advantage to the player.

 

[Larry Fitz]

May I direct your attention to the Shallorian race in Twin Crowns? Shallorians are Feline Humanoids, though more akin to the big cats than house cats. They have claws that are usable as weapons, they get bonuses in 'feline appropriate' skills, and find certain dexterity based skills difficult due to their claws getting in the way.

In general I don't like races who are somehow at a religious disadvantage. Because that doesn't just mean that they are less strong in their faith, it also means that no Gods support them, and giving them a Wisdom bonus is kind of like saying it is wiser to not follow the gods.... it's also like giving a race a Charisma bonus, but having them all be hermits, it makes no sense.