Help with my new Race Please

[Ishmayl]

Hullo folks,
Below is a race I'm working on for my homebrew. What I really want to know from some of you more expert-like dudes and dudetts is, is this an LA +0 race? If not, how can I fix it without dynamically changing the race? Also, I'm sorry it's not all that prettily-written, but I figure the content is the important part.
Cheers!

********************************************

Ayash

These tall, slender beings are the descendants of ancient mixings between humans and tree spirits. They have thick, bark-like skin, and think leafy (or mossy) hair. Their eyes are like walnuts. They live in woodland realms, most notably sub-tropical and tropical jungles, but also find homes in more temperate lands. They are known for being patient, kind, and good-natured, and have very few natural enemies. Their homes are in large, bowled-out tree stumps of ancient jungle queori trees (or redwoods and sequoias in more temperate areas).

Names: Ayash have extremely long names, usually unpronounceable by humans (though elves tend to pick up on them easily enough). Often, the ayash will shorten them to make it easier for others to pronounce. Ayash also make no distinction between male and female names.
Male and Female: Brakalvinish; Chalforthesh; Mordahlignlar; Traezorthal

Racial Abilities: Ayash have the following racial traits:

+4 Strength, -4 Dexterity. Ayash are very strong and resilient, but their large hands and feet make them clumsy.

Large. Ayash are large, and have all penalties and bonuses of being large (10 ft reach, -1 AC, etc.)

Low-light Vision. Ayash can see as well in low and dim light as most races can see in full sunlight.

Base Speed – 40 feet.

Automatic 4 ranks in knowledge (nature).

+2 racial bonus to fortitude saves.

+2 racial bonus to listen checks.

+2 bonus to hide and move silently checks while in forested areas.

Ayash are resistant to all charm and sleep spells.

No fire allowed. Ayash cannot learn any spells or abilities with the fire descriptor. Also, any damage taken by fire adds +2/dice

 

[Quickleaf]

Interesting concept. Do they talk slow like treebeard? I think that would be a really fun racial quirk to give them. Double casting times, maybe?

I'd change speed to 30, but up it to 40 in forest
Maybe give them +2 natural AC bonus
I'd lower Strength to +2, and add +2 Con (get rid of Fortitude bonus)
Also, I'd nix the Listen bonus

I think that would make it ECL 0

 

[Turanil]

Racial Abilities: Ayash have the following racial traits:

+4 Strength, -4 Dexterity. Ayash are very strong and resilient, but their large hands and feet make them clumsy. (looks fine to me)

Large. Ayash are large, and have all penalties and bonuses of being large (10 ft reach, -1 AC, etc.) (looks fine to me)

Low-light Vision. Ayash can see as well in low and dim light as most races can see in full sunlight. (looks fine to me)

Base Speed – 30 feet. (remember that they get -4 to Dex for being clumsy)

Automatic 4 ranks in knowledge (nature). (why not simply a racial +4 bonus to Knowledge nature?)

+2 racial bonus to fortitude saves. (looks fine to me)

+2 racial bonus to listen checks. (what's the rationale for that?)

+2 bonus to hide and move silently checks while in forested areas. (looks fine to me)

Ayash are resistant to all charm and sleep spells. (looks fine to me)

No fire allowed. Ayash cannot learn any spells or abilities with the fire descriptor. Also, any damage taken by fire adds +2/dice. (looks fine to me)

 

[Bront]

They're a little too strong for my tastes as a LA +0. Like some of what has been said here so far.

Stats: +2 Str, +2 Con, -4 Dex I think works better

Large: Fine, though you could also make them medium with the powerful build feature instead.

Low-Light: Fine, makes sense.

Move: I think 30 is a better move. Movement speed gives you some odd bonuses beyond just maneuvering speed. They shouldn't be faster than an ogre.

Knowledge, Nature - Make it a class skill and give them a +2 racial bonus, not 4 ranks.

Fortitude save - addressed with the Con bonus.

Listen - Why? Don't make much sense.

hide & move - I understand hide, but why move? Are they quieter in a forest for some reason?

Resistance to all sleep & cham spells - Not bad, but you could simply give them a +2 to resist them instead to tone it down

Natural AC: Why not? At least a +1, +2 might be fine. +3 is probably too much.

No Fire - Nice, I like the idea. Though it does weaken them even as druids .

Favored class: ??? Druid? Ranger? even if you don't use it, you should declare one.

I'm still not sure if that's an LA 0 creature, but it's close. Probably fine if you only have a Natural Armor bonus of +1.

 

[Ishmayl]

Thanks for the useful responses, guys. I've taken your advice into consideration and modified the race a little bit. Here are the modifications I've made based on this forum's and WotC's forum's advice:

**************************************
Racial Abilities: Ayash have the following racial traits:

+2 Strength, +2 Constitution, -4 Dexterity. Ayash are very strong and resilient, but their large hands and feet make them clumsy.

+2 Natural Armor. Becaues of their thick, bark-like skin, the ayash receive a natural armor class bonus of +2.

Large. Ayash are large, and have all penalties and bonuses of being large (10 ft reach, -1 AC, etc.)
I actually want to leave the 10 ft reach in here. I've talked to people on other forums (and Arae'Kol Da'Ato said it here, the 10 ft reach only sometimes makes LA +1

Low-light Vision. Ayash can see as well in low and dim light as most races can see in full sunlight.

Base Speed – 30 feet.

+2 racial bonus to Knowledge (Nature).

+2 racial bonus to Listen, Hide, and Move Silently checks while in forested areas. Ayash are so attuned to the movements, sounds, and visages of the forest that they can hear minute noises that others cannot, and can better conceal themselves..

Immunity to sleep spells. Ayash do not sleep, therefore cannot be put to sleep by magic.

Fire Vulnerability. Ayash are especially vulnerable to fire. They take an additional 50% damage to any fire damage they receive. They prefer not to use fire-based spells, in fear of being hurt by their own magic, but ayash are not disallowed their use.

Armor Restrictions. Ayash cannot wear armor of any kind, due to their need of sunlight to remain healthy. Typically, an ayash will simply wear light cloth and/or leaf tunics and leg coverings.

Favored Class: Druid.

*****************************************

As you can see, I did not address the issue of damage reduction or age brackets. My thoughts are to have an improving damage reduction as the ayash ages, such as 5/- levels 1-7; 10/- levels 8-14; 15/- levels 15-20. Would that work, or be too powerful, or not be powerful enough? Thanks for all the help guys.

-Ish

 

[DreamChaser]

As you can see, I did not address the issue of damage reduction or age brackets. My thoughts are to have an improving damage reduction as the ayash ages, such as 5/- levels 1-7; 10/- levels 8-14; 15/- levels 15-20. Would that work, or be too powerful, or not be powerful enough? Thanks for all the help guys.

-Ish

I'd go with racial levels. This would allow them to work to improve their resilience and would also give you the opportunity to impose added tree related benefits and restrictions. Perhaps as their DR increased (along with their Natural Armor) their land speed would reduce. Perhaps They would gain an increased ability to heal from wounds (+1 or 2 per day perhaps) but totally restrict them from fire spells.

Just my thoughts.

DC

 

[Thraka]

They do gain a lot of strong racial traits, but with the reduction of their movement speed to 30 ft (from 40 ft), the inability to wear armor, and the increased damage from fire, I think it all balances out. It makes the natural AC bonus a necessity, in fact...

Like Dreamchaser said, you'll probably want to allow them racial levels that'll increase that AC and give them DR (among other things).

Looks good!

 

[Ferret]

I tihnk a paragon Prclass would be the best way to work in the other stuff. I definately like the race, it all seems to balance out too. Are they La +1 or +0?

 

[Ishmayl]

I tihnk a paragon Prclass would be the best way to work in the other stuff. I definately like the race, it all seems to balance out too. Are they La +1 or +0?

At the moment, I'm hoping to make ayash LA +0.

For all you guys that keep mentioning racial levels, how exactly do I incorporate that into their description?

 

[Nyaricus]

For all you guys that keep mentioning racial levels, how exactly do I incorporate that into their description?

hello, here is your help for all of this racial level stuff!

basically, before you can begin to take levels in any class, you must let your character develop their specific racial abilities first.

now, i completely agreed with you in your idea that your tree-people/ayash shouldnt wear armour, but you already have a penatly to dex, so racial levels should fill this gap of lack of AC. you mention having their favoured class as druid, but they are a plant/humanoid, and the idea of having them shift into animals doesnt sould like it fits the bill for them. personally, i would go for cleric, and let their turn/rebuke undead work on animals instead, (maybe magical beasts at a stiff penalty) and use the druid spell list instead of the clerics, and keep domain access. that way, your favoured class is no more powerful than any other one, its just the natural path of life for your tree-people.

okay, as for attributes, i went straight to my MM, and went to the glossary, and was dismayed at the fact that plants are insane! they have immunity to all mind-affecting effects (charms, conpulsions, phantasms, patterns, and morale effects) immunity to poison, sleep effects, paralysis, polymorph (another reason why the druid class isnt a good idea) and stunning. also, they are immune to critical hits.

this race is only half plant though, so we can easily justify getting rid of some of the abilities. these are plants that can move around, are kinda humanish, and have a "true" mind. but the plant parts of him would changes certain aspects too. i say drop any immunities of the mind-affecting list, the polymorph bit (its just not very relevant) and the critical hits. as for paralysis and poison give them a +2 to resist effects of them, and keep them immune to sleep effects ( cause they dont sleep, durr)

also, keep low-light vision, and the no-armour bit.

as for your skill bonuses, they are well meaning, but a bonus to move silently? they are a people of the forest, yes, but they are clumsy. period. and listen just doesnt make sense. as for your hide bonus, i say jack it up! give em a +6 in forested areas, i mean, they run around either naked or in leaf-clothes, adn they would preumably have bark-like skin, green, long, bushy hair, etc. perfect camouflage. also, i say - givve them a slam attack. they are obviously sturdy, so play on it. One last thing, with the racial levels, i would say start him off at medium size, and partway in racial levels, boost him to large, but more will be explained in a second.






Tree People Racial Traits:

+2 Con, -2 Dex

medium size

low-light vision

+2 racial bonus versus poison and paralysis

immunity to sleep effects

+6 racial bonus to Hide in forested areas only

+2 Natural Armour bonus

Damage Reduction 1/fire: Ayash have a protective layer of bark that effectively absorbs some damage from blows that may fell a "weakling" human, although fire damage efect them as normally

Fire Vulnerability. Ayash are especially vulnerable to fire. They take an additional 50% damage to any fire damage they receive. They prefer not to use fire-based spells, in fear of being hurt by their own magic, but ayash are not disallowed their use.

Slam: Ayash have very sturdy bodies, and thus a punch from them feel more like a blow from a sledgehammer (1d6 damage, 1d8 when Large size)

Armor Restrictions. Ayash cannot wear armor of any kind, due to their need of sunlight to remain healthy. Typically, an ayash will simply wear light cloth and/or leaf tunics and leg coverings.


HD = d8
BAB = 3/4 HD (as a clerics)
Good Fort adn Will Saves (good will because plants are naturally immune to many different mind-effects - so a good will compensates, and it also plays on your idea of divine-spellcasteres), bad Ref Saves
Class Skills are Climb, Craft, Hide, Knowledge (nature), Knowledge (geography), Spot and Survival
Skill Points at 1st level = (2+Int mod)x4, adn 2+Int mod after that

Proficient with all simple weapons, except all crossbows, punching daggers, spiked gaunlets and gaunlets. Also proficient with Saps, Greatclubs and all Bows.

1 +1 Natural Armour Bonus, Damage Reduction 2/fire
2 +1 Natural Armour Bonus
3 +1 Natural Armour Bonus, Large Size (amoung other things - 10 foot reach, +2 Str, -2 Dex, no change in speed), Damage Reduction 3/fire
4 +1 Natural Armour Bonus
5 +1 Natural Armour Bonus, Damage Reduction 4/fire

so, what do you all think? is this balanced enough? its mostly defensive abilities, and even with a greatclub, damage wont really be all that great (haha, lame joke . . .) anyways, feedback time!!!!