D&D 3.x For 3.5, which race needs tweaking.

Merlion · Feb 12, 2003

What would be your ideas for tweaks for the half-elf Apok?

Apok · Feb 12, 2003

Merlion said:
What would be your ideas for tweaks for the half-elf Apok?

Y'know, I had a really good idea once and I think I posted it somewhere on the House Rules Forum, but I have long since forgotten it and it's gone now. Pity.

I think it might have had something to do with giving them the choice between a bonus feat or extra skill points, but I honestly can't remember.

Apok · Feb 12, 2003

No, wait! I think I remember! IIRC, they were allowed to choose any three skills that were always considered class skills no matter what class they were in. That was it.

Chauzu · Feb 12, 2003

Gnomes: They need to make them littler!

Change their size to Tiny!

Noldor Elf · Feb 12, 2003

Dwarfs!!!!
They get good ability modifiers (+Con and -Cha, the usual dump stat), perhaps the best possible favored class (fighter) and lots of other abilities (dodge agaist giants, stonecunnig, save bonuses)

It's just TOO MUCH! The speed of 20 doesn't balance enough. Unfortunately the result fit's the idea of dwarves quite nicely so it's hard to modify them, perhaps move -2 from CHA to DEX.

Gez · Feb 12, 2003

Why should elves be immortals ?

They are long lived. So long lived that for a human, they seem immortals. In France we have a saying that goes:
"De mémoire de rose, on n'a jamais vu mourir de jardinier"
(In a rose's memory, gardeners have never died).

That's enough.

Besides, I'm not fond of "Tolkien's elves" in a D&D context, because "Tolkien's elves" always refer to "elven heroes like Feanor, Galadriel, or at least Legolas" rather than "base elves like those that get drunk in the Hobbit".

I've made this rant countless times on the Wizards board. All the überness of elves that people want to be enforced on all elves "because they're elves" in Tolkien, comes in fact from "because they have the seen-the-Light-of-Valinor template". A simple dog who had seen the Light had killed Sauron's werewolf captain. Yet noone whine that all dogs should be able to kill werewolves just because they're dogs and they do that in Tolkien's books.

Darklone · Feb 12, 2003

What I don't like about gnomes and dwarves: The racial fighting bonuses.

Missing consistency.

WTF: The ranger has only a damage bonus against Favored enemies... why do dwarves and gnomes get AC and to hit bonus against certain races?

Gez · Feb 12, 2003

Darklone said:
What I don't like about gnomes and dwarves: The racial fighting bonuses.

Missing consistency.

WTF: The ranger has only a damage bonus against Favored enemies... why do dwarves and gnomes get AC and to hit bonus against certain races?

So that it can stack.

Besides...

You don't need bonus damage on goblins, you just want to make sure you hit them and they fall...

You don't need bonus damage on giants, you just want to make sure they won't hit you while you run away with your 20-ft. speed to your burrow...

LuYangShih · Feb 12, 2003

Half-Orcs are worse off than even Half-Elves, IMO, because they have nothing to define them like the other races. The only thing they have is Orc Blood, which doesn't even come close to the other flavor bonuses the rest of the races possess.

Merlion · Feb 12, 2003

Gez said:
Why should elves be immortals ?

They are long lived. So long lived that for a human, they seem immortals. In France we have a saying that goes:
"De mémoire de rose, on n'a jamais vu mourir de jardinier"
(In a rose's memory, gardeners have never died).

That's enough.

Besides, I'm not fond of "Tolkien's elves" in a D&D context, because "Tolkien's elves" always refer to "elven heroes like Feanor, Galadriel, or at least Legolas" rather than "base elves like those that get drunk in the Hobbit".

I've made this rant countless times on the Wizards board. All the überness of elves that people want to be enforced on all elves "because they're elves" in Tolkien, comes in fact from "because they have the seen-the-Light-of-Valinor template". A simple dog who had seen the Light had killed Sauron's werewolf captain. Yet noone whine that all dogs should be able to kill werewolves just because they're dogs and they do that in Tolkien's books.

As I said elves are also immortal in all legends and myths that I know of, and most fantasy literature not just tolkien, and in nothing have I seen an elf with a lifespan under 1,000 years.
Yea of course tolkiens elves and mythic elves are way to powerful to be a PC race in any RPG. But the short thing and the 750 year lifespan(only slightly past the gnomes 500 max) just seems odd to me.