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Message: <blockquote data-quote="der_kluge" data-source="post: 1814910" data-attributes="member: 945">So, some of you might recall my recent thread asking about a "buy the numbers" system for races.  This is, in essence, an attempt to take the abilities of each of the races and boil them down to point values, with the idea that you could "custom build" a race how you wanted to, not how the PHB wanted you to.So, I figured it would be easy enough, I could do it.I built a spreadsheet, and listed all the abilities, and then based on how weak or powerful the ability was, I simply assigned a number to it.  All races have a few things in common - size, speed, their vision, and whether they have any ability modifiers, or any disadvantages.  I figured being medium-sized and having a speed of 30 was the default, so I didn't apply points to that, I just applied bonus points for those races that didn't have those.  Being small has advantages, but the disadvantages offset them (high encumbrance requirements, reduced movement), so I didn't assign any points for size one way or the other.I assigned 40 points for a +2 to an ability score, and a -40 for a -2 to an ability score.  So for all the races, except half-orc, these cancel each other.  I gave 20 points for low-light vision, and 40 points for darkvision.  I assigned a cost of 10 points per +2 to a skill.  I assigned 10 points per +2 to a save if the save was some sort of subset of a save, like saves vs. fear or poison.  If a race had a cross-class penalty, they got 10 bonus points.  Otherwise, it was 0.  Other abilities I assigned as I felt was justified.So, here is what I came up with.humanspeed 30=0size medium=0vision normal=0ability mods,none=0any bonus language=5bonus feat=50extra skills (4 at first, 1 every level thereafter)=20no xp penalty=0total = 75elfspeed 30=0size medium=0vision low-light=20+2 dex=40immune to sleep magic=10extra weapon proficiencies=10+2 listen, spot, search=30require less sleep=5+2 saves vs. ench=10xp penalty=-10-2 con=-40total = 75gnomespeed 20=-20size small=0low-light=20+2 con=40+2 listen=101 exotic weapon=5+2 saves to illusion=10+1 DC to illusions=10+4 AC to giants=10+2 craft(alchemy)=10+1 BAB vs. goblins=10bonus spells=20xp penalty=-10-2 str=-40total = 75halflingspeed 20=-20size small=0vision normal=0+2 dex=40+2 climb, jump, move silently=30+1 to all saves=40+2 saves vs. fear=10+1 BAB to thrown weapons=15+2 listen=10xp penalty=-10-2 str=-40total = 75half-elves    speed 30=0size medium=0vision low-light=20ability mods none=0immune to sleep magic=10+2 saves vs. ench=10+1 listen, spot, search=15+2 gather info, diplomacy=20no xp penalty=0total = 75So... I go this far, and yea I tweaked a few numbers here and then, but imagine how happy I was to have them all come out the same.  "Cool", I said to myself, "this will work."  I was content to just stop there, and build a system around these figures.  I am not planning on having dwarves or half-orcs in my campaign, so I opted not to do them, but I decided, "oh, what the heck, they won't take that much time."half-orcspeed 30=0size medium=0vision darkvision=40+2 str=40xp penalty=-10-2 int=-40-2 chr=-40total=-10dwarfspeed 20, improved=-10medium=0darkvision=40+2 con=40stronecunning=15exotic weapons=5stable=10+2 saves vs. poison=10+2 saves vs. spells=20+4 AC to giants=10+1 BAB vs. goblins=10+2 appraise, craft (applies to stone items only)=15xp penalty=-10-2 chr=-40total=115WHAT THE HECK!?  Here my system, which admittedly is somewhat arbitrary (I welcome any feedback on my numbers, btw), but the half-orc and dwarf come in and total screw everything up.I mean, after listing out and looking at all the stuff that dwarves get, I can't imagine why everyone *wouldn't* want to play one.  They get tons of extra stuff.  At first I thought that gnomes got lots of abilities, and they do, but not as many as dwarves, and some of the dwarven ones are really potent.And poor half-orcs!  They get a -2 to an ability score in exchange for darkvision which essentially cancel each other out, but then they get the XP penalty, which puts them in the hole.  Top this off with the unquantifiable role-playing disadvantage of playing one, why on earth would anyone want to play a half-orc?</blockquote>

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