Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="Viktyr Gehrig" data-source="post: 1293258" data-attributes="member: 9249">In a game stuffed to the gills with dozens of different types of sentient, humanoid creatures, it's hard to keep them all straight and have a niche for each to occupy in your campaign.&nbsp;It's even harder when fairly normal types of creatures have four or five subraces, which you have to separate even further. They also tend to provide a lot of material for powergamers to abuse-- indeed, subraces seem to ignore the balance guidelines that normal races are built upon.&nbsp;My solution, so far, is to provide each race with a specific Favored Class the ability to choose from two different classes as Favored, with this decision determining their subtype. While this does still have &quot;subraces&quot;, there are far fewer of them, without too significantly hampering their choices.&nbsp;Elves could choose Wizard or Ranger, with those choosing Ranger being Wood Elves.&nbsp;Dwarves could choose Fighter or Barbarian, with those choosing Barbarian being Sundered Dwarves, or perhaps Battleragers (who could be part of existing Dwarven communities).&nbsp;Gnomes could choose Bard or Druid, with those choosing Druid being Forest Gnomes.&nbsp;Halflings could choose Rogue or... Ranger, perhaps? Ranger Halflings would be Wild Halflings. Or you could offer them Monk, for those Luiren Halflings from the Realms.&nbsp;If you need further variation for some reason (like Underdark races), there are various templates to help you. I reccomend Fantasy Flight Games' Galactic Races for Dragonstar, as it has a few terrain-based templates.&nbsp;Night-Adapted is perfect for Underdark races, trading Light-Blindness for Darkvision 60. If your base race already has Darkvision or Low-Light Vision, you could upgrade this to 120. (If Low-Light Vision, the Darkvision replaces it.)&nbsp;For those who really want to have Avariel, the Winged template from Savage Species is perfect.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Viktyr Gehrig, post: 1293258, member: 9249"] In a game stuffed to the gills with dozens of different types of sentient, humanoid creatures, it's hard to keep them all straight and have a niche for each to occupy in your campaign. It's even harder when fairly normal types of creatures have four or five subraces, which you have to separate even further. They also tend to provide a lot of material for powergamers to abuse-- indeed, subraces seem to ignore the balance guidelines that normal races are built upon. My solution, so far, is to provide each race with a specific Favored Class the ability to choose from two different classes as Favored, with this decision determining their subtype. While this does still have "subraces", there are far fewer of them, without too significantly hampering their choices. Elves could choose Wizard or Ranger, with those choosing Ranger being Wood Elves. Dwarves could choose Fighter or Barbarian, with those choosing Barbarian being Sundered Dwarves, or perhaps Battleragers (who could be part of existing Dwarven communities). Gnomes could choose Bard or Druid, with those choosing Druid being Forest Gnomes. Halflings could choose Rogue or... Ranger, perhaps? Ranger Halflings would be Wild Halflings. Or you could offer them Monk, for those Luiren Halflings from the Realms. If you need further variation for some reason (like Underdark races), there are various templates to help you. I reccomend Fantasy Flight Games' [i]Galactic Races[/i] for Dragonstar, as it has a few terrain-based templates. Night-Adapted is perfect for Underdark races, trading Light-Blindness for Darkvision 60. If your base race already has Darkvision or Low-Light Vision, you could upgrade this to 120. (If Low-Light Vision, the Darkvision replaces it.) For those who really want to have Avariel, the Winged template from Savage Species is perfect. [/QUOTE]

Verification