How breakable the races...

[Garthanos]

I dont quite use the races as they stand and allow people to visualise considerably different than the fluff....so "races" are "racial archetypes"
It occurred to me also that the racial encounter powers might be something swappable.

I might let my player swap a Warforged Resolve for other racial encounter powers...

Dragonborn Breath weapon
Deva's Memory of a thousand lifetimes
Halflings second chance
Eladrin Fey step
Elven Accuracy
Tiefling Infernal Wrath.
Kalashtar bastion of mental clarity.

subsequent racial feats pertaining to the power could be used across race.

What kind of balance issues do you foresee? is any one too good or is there a nasty combo in there?

 

[Baron Opal]

You know, I've been thinking about this as well. They are all encounter powers and they seem to have comparable utility. The one wrinkle that I can think of is that some powers are tied to a roll that is influence by a racial bonus (Dragonborn). As my campaign is tied to city-states, I have been giving some serious consideration to having races be humans from a given city-state and giving the players a choice of a couple of encounter powers.

So the Gavinlanders who are based off of rugged mountain people but have a strong name-based belief in reincarnation might have half-orc stats and the choice of the Deva or Kalashtar encounter powers.

 

[Garthanos]

Humans of my world tend to be either auld worlders or modern humans... however humans include tons of talent variations ... stereo types for auldworlders may be closer to eladrin in most ways (they are peoples who maintain old attitudes of acceptance about magic instead of modern prejudice / wisdom ) but that is a stereotype any given individual could be well like any race as far as mechanics are concerned... opening up the encounter power selection ... can let us design characters closer to their concept.

 

[JoeNotCharles]

There's a book called Hard Boiled Cultures that deals with this, I think - I haven't read it, but I read Hard Boiled Armies from the same publisher and it was pretty good. You might want to check it out.

 

[Garthanos]

Fred Hicks is quite an RPG designer and his stuff is usually very much... open possibilities.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

Well, racial feature powers are actually NOT balanced relative to each other. They tend to follow certain design principles and the variations are not generally huge, but they are certainly not all equal.

Elven Accuracy for instance is a VERY strong racial power that any savvy player would gladly take in exchange for the racial of most other races. Fey Step and Second Chance are likewise ones that are probably fairly OP when used in the context of certain other races. Overall though Elven Accuracy is the trouble spot, it really is the best racial power and it has excellent feat support as well, plus huge synergy with a number of class builds.

 

[Garthanos]

I was thinking I had heard praises to the potency of elven accuracy
Ahhhh...lots of feat support yes that could be significant...

although I think long tooth shifting rocks out of the box...

I like the idea of more pervasive reincarnation on my world so
one I was definitely considering being selectable in replacement
for your racial encounter power in was the devas
reincarnative memories

I find the Tiefling power ... perhaps the least appealing...

 

[Duelpersonality]

I read this and my first thought was to use the deva's power for warforged. Has nothing to do with powers or stats, just flavor, but the idea really intrigues me.

Imagine that warforged were the creation of an ancient society and the magical prowess of their arcanists cannot be duplicated. Enterprising mages have found a way to...recycle models that no longer function. The process causes some damage and the warforged in question is never quite the same, but given time they can make full recoveries. This has led to some side effects--warforged are more and more independent with each "generation."

Hrm...

 

[Garthanos]

I read this and my first thought was to use the deva's power for warforged. Has nothing to do with powers or stats, just flavor, but the idea really intrigues me.

Imagine that warforged were the creation of an ancient society and the magical prowess of their arcanists cannot be duplicated. Enterprising mages have found a way to...recycle models that no longer function. The process causes some damage and the warforged in question is never quite the same, but given time they can make full recoveries. This has led to some side effects--warforged are more and more independent with each "generation."

Hrm...

Great flavor... and the combo is certainly one that came to my mind too.(though mine were immortals of the gathering -- immortal keyword replacing that of warforged).

 

[Garthanos]

WOTC seems to charge a feat in situations like this... where a combo can and probably will occur... but doesnt always, then maybe give some minor peripheral enhancers so that even if you arent using it for that combo you can get some benefit.
The feat could be called Half Blooded