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MotM: thoughts on races in Monsters of the Multiverse
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<blockquote data-quote="Kobold Stew" data-source="post: 8516247" data-attributes="member: 23484"><p><strong>6 Fliers and Swimmers and under the earth (Aaracokra, Fairy, Triton [Sea Elf, Water Genasi], Deep Gnomes, Duregar).</strong></p><p><strong></strong></p><p><strong>Aarakocra</strong>. Flight has been slowed, but is tied to walking speed. This incentivizes Monk and (paradoxically?) Barbarian builds, since they give an increase to movement, and is supported by taking the Mobile feat. Monk is reinforced by the Talons, which will give extra damage at levels 1-4, and the option of a different damage type. (All the natural weapons [a term no longer used] do identical damage, regardless of whether the creature is S or M], and the wording “can be used for unarmed strikes” is written that way to allow its use with monks. As a bonus action, you can cast Gust of Wind once/long rest.</p><p></p><p>It is now possible to have innate walking, flying, swimming, and climbing speeds by level 6, for a Ranger using the Deft Explorer option in TCOE – I think this is a new possibility. A 2-level dip in Rogue also gives cunning action, which allows a bonus action to Dash or Disengage while using your flight movement.</p><p></p><p><strong>Fairy</strong>. As with the Aarakocra, the linking of flight speed to walking speed encourages a monk build and getting the Mobile feat. Wizard, Sorcerer, and Warlock builds all offer ranged magical attacks that are not limited by its small size. (See previous paragraph for a possible Rogue and Ranger options).</p><p></p><p>Fairy Magic finally lets you have a tiny PC, for 1 minute (or less if concentration is broken) per long rest. It’s hilarious how hard the game works to prevent tiny PCs – a bigger threat to the integrity of the game than flight. Sevberal of these races give spells at 1/3/5. It is not a fixed pattern. For the Fairy, level 1 gives an ineffectual but fun cantrip, druidcraft; level 3 faerie fire, which is always good vs. invisible opponents; level 5 enlarge/reduce. (Enlarge makes you M, and so you can sit on chairs, but it's not the interesting way to use the spell; compare Duergar below.)</p><p></p><p><strong>Triton</strong>. The Triton has a great collection of abilities for a nautical adventure. Being amphibious and having a swim speed means that water hazards can be overcome trivially. In addition darkvision and resistance to cold are thematically appropriate and useful. In addition, the Triton has the ability to talk to beasts, elementals and monstrosities with a swimming speed.</p><p></p><p>Finally, tritons get spells: fog cloud (1), gust of wind (3), and water walk (5). As with the Water Genasi, the inclusion of water walk is a bit odd, but it's nice to have for when it is needed by a party.</p><p></p><p>There's a wierd inconsistency in the presentation of Tritons and Sea Elves, where they have overlapping abilities, but through differently-named abilities: "Child of the Sea" gives being amphibious and cold resistance; for the Triton, the same abilities are presented under "Amphibious" and "Guardian of the Depths".</p><p></p><p>[ooc]<strong>Comparing swimmers</strong>.</p><p>Three races grant a swimming speed, which is always equal to your walking speed, meaning it gets better if you are a monk, a barbarian, or have the Mobile feat.</p><p></p><p>All of these have a swim speed, are amphibious, and have darkvision.</p><p></p><p><strong>Triton</strong>: Cold resistance. Spells (1/3/5): fog cloud/gust of wind/water walk. Talk to Beasts, Elementals, and Monstrosities with a swim speed.</p><p><strong>Sea Elf</strong>. Cold Resistance. No spells. Talk to Beasts with a swim speed.</p><p><strong>Water Genasi</strong>: Acid Resistance. Spells (1/3/5): acid splash/create or destroy water/water walk. Can be S or M in size.</p><p></p><p>On these measures alone, Triton is by far the most effective swimmer race, unless you want to be small sized or particularly need an attack cantrip (which can key off of any casting stat). However, Sea Elves additonally have the generic Elven benefits:</p><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">proficiency in Perception</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">advantage vs charm</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">the 4 hour long rest and the two free proficiencies in weapons or tools.</li> </ul><p>These then get measured against Triton spellcasting and the ability to speak to Elementals and Monstrosities. This gives the edge to the Sea Elf, unless you are going to use gust of wind to fill the sails of your ship.[/ooc]</p><p></p><p><strong>Deep Gnome</strong>. The presentation of the Deep Gnome points the way to the future for subraces. Even the Genasi were groped together (4 races on two pages), but each was presented separately. Here too the Deep Gnome has all the generic Gnome features (small size, darkvision, advantage on save vs. spells) as well as some specific subclass features. This includes camouflage (advantage on stealth checks), which can be leveraged well by a Rogue. You also get a single use of disguise self (at 3) or nondetection (5) without needing material components (and so saving 25gp/casting). My sense is a single casting of disguise self does not have the same versatility that a warlock's at-will casting or a Changeling's shapechange ability. At 5th level, being non-detectable for eight hours for free might be valuable for a handful of 8-hour periods in your adventuring career, but it is not something to build around.</p><p></p><p><strong>Duergar</strong>. The other underdark race (deep dwarves) are M with darkvision. Dwarven resistance gives advantage to saves vs poison and poison resistance (like the Yuan-ti and other dwarves). They get advantage on charm saves (like Fey), but also to being stunned. This sounds cool, but resistance to Stun will be relevant rarely (monks have stunning strike; Power Word Stun is an 8th level spell; apart from some demons, the Myconids and Otyugh have a stun effect -- but I don' tremember seeing it come up in play). Finally, you get a single casting of enlarge/reduce (at 3) or invisibility (5). Unlike the Deep Gnome spells, you will be using these every adventuring day. There are lots of ways to get invisibility, but a casting of Enlarge would bump you to L size.</p><p></p><p>If you were Large already (like a Rune knight using Giant's Might) you'd be Huge (3x3 squares if you're playing on a battlemat). You only need 3 levels of fighter to get this (the 4th would give you a feat or ASI, fifth an extra attack, sixth another ASI... this is a hard train to walk off of. But it's the only way I'd want to play a Rune Knight, since it doubles down on the Rune Knight schtick. But it would also work with a multiclass Barbarian (for Hulk fans) and increast the range of a Paladin aura (normally 10' radius gives a 5x5 square area, and so 24 squares for your allies; if you are huge it expands to 7x7, and so 40 squares for your allies to be in ).</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Kobold Stew, post: 8516247, member: 23484"] [B]6 Fliers and Swimmers and under the earth (Aaracokra, Fairy, Triton [Sea Elf, Water Genasi], Deep Gnomes, Duregar). Aarakocra[/B]. Flight has been slowed, but is tied to walking speed. This incentivizes Monk and (paradoxically?) Barbarian builds, since they give an increase to movement, and is supported by taking the Mobile feat. Monk is reinforced by the Talons, which will give extra damage at levels 1-4, and the option of a different damage type. (All the natural weapons [a term no longer used] do identical damage, regardless of whether the creature is S or M], and the wording “can be used for unarmed strikes” is written that way to allow its use with monks. As a bonus action, you can cast Gust of Wind once/long rest. It is now possible to have innate walking, flying, swimming, and climbing speeds by level 6, for a Ranger using the Deft Explorer option in TCOE – I think this is a new possibility. A 2-level dip in Rogue also gives cunning action, which allows a bonus action to Dash or Disengage while using your flight movement. [B]Fairy[/B]. As with the Aarakocra, the linking of flight speed to walking speed encourages a monk build and getting the Mobile feat. Wizard, Sorcerer, and Warlock builds all offer ranged magical attacks that are not limited by its small size. (See previous paragraph for a possible Rogue and Ranger options). Fairy Magic finally lets you have a tiny PC, for 1 minute (or less if concentration is broken) per long rest. It’s hilarious how hard the game works to prevent tiny PCs – a bigger threat to the integrity of the game than flight. Sevberal of these races give spells at 1/3/5. It is not a fixed pattern. For the Fairy, level 1 gives an ineffectual but fun cantrip, druidcraft; level 3 faerie fire, which is always good vs. invisible opponents; level 5 enlarge/reduce. (Enlarge makes you M, and so you can sit on chairs, but it's not the interesting way to use the spell; compare Duergar below.) [B]Triton[/B]. The Triton has a great collection of abilities for a nautical adventure. Being amphibious and having a swim speed means that water hazards can be overcome trivially. In addition darkvision and resistance to cold are thematically appropriate and useful. In addition, the Triton has the ability to talk to beasts, elementals and monstrosities with a swimming speed. Finally, tritons get spells: fog cloud (1), gust of wind (3), and water walk (5). As with the Water Genasi, the inclusion of water walk is a bit odd, but it's nice to have for when it is needed by a party. There's a wierd inconsistency in the presentation of Tritons and Sea Elves, where they have overlapping abilities, but through differently-named abilities: "Child of the Sea" gives being amphibious and cold resistance; for the Triton, the same abilities are presented under "Amphibious" and "Guardian of the Depths". [ooc][B]Comparing swimmers[/B]. Three races grant a swimming speed, which is always equal to your walking speed, meaning it gets better if you are a monk, a barbarian, or have the Mobile feat. All of these have a swim speed, are amphibious, and have darkvision. [B]Triton[/B]: Cold resistance. Spells (1/3/5): fog cloud/gust of wind/water walk. Talk to Beasts, Elementals, and Monstrosities with a swim speed. [B]Sea Elf[/B]. Cold Resistance. No spells. Talk to Beasts with a swim speed. [B]Water Genasi[/B]: Acid Resistance. Spells (1/3/5): acid splash/create or destroy water/water walk. Can be S or M in size. On these measures alone, Triton is by far the most effective swimmer race, unless you want to be small sized or particularly need an attack cantrip (which can key off of any casting stat). However, Sea Elves additonally have the generic Elven benefits: [LIST] [*]proficiency in Perception [*]advantage vs charm [*]the 4 hour long rest and the two free proficiencies in weapons or tools. [/LIST] These then get measured against Triton spellcasting and the ability to speak to Elementals and Monstrosities. This gives the edge to the Sea Elf, unless you are going to use gust of wind to fill the sails of your ship.[/ooc] [B]Deep Gnome[/B]. The presentation of the Deep Gnome points the way to the future for subraces. Even the Genasi were groped together (4 races on two pages), but each was presented separately. Here too the Deep Gnome has all the generic Gnome features (small size, darkvision, advantage on save vs. spells) as well as some specific subclass features. This includes camouflage (advantage on stealth checks), which can be leveraged well by a Rogue. You also get a single use of disguise self (at 3) or nondetection (5) without needing material components (and so saving 25gp/casting). My sense is a single casting of disguise self does not have the same versatility that a warlock's at-will casting or a Changeling's shapechange ability. At 5th level, being non-detectable for eight hours for free might be valuable for a handful of 8-hour periods in your adventuring career, but it is not something to build around. [B]Duergar[/B]. The other underdark race (deep dwarves) are M with darkvision. Dwarven resistance gives advantage to saves vs poison and poison resistance (like the Yuan-ti and other dwarves). They get advantage on charm saves (like Fey), but also to being stunned. This sounds cool, but resistance to Stun will be relevant rarely (monks have stunning strike; Power Word Stun is an 8th level spell; apart from some demons, the Myconids and Otyugh have a stun effect -- but I don' tremember seeing it come up in play). Finally, you get a single casting of enlarge/reduce (at 3) or invisibility (5). Unlike the Deep Gnome spells, you will be using these every adventuring day. There are lots of ways to get invisibility, but a casting of Enlarge would bump you to L size. If you were Large already (like a Rune knight using Giant's Might) you'd be Huge (3x3 squares if you're playing on a battlemat). You only need 3 levels of fighter to get this (the 4th would give you a feat or ASI, fifth an extra attack, sixth another ASI... this is a hard train to walk off of. But it's the only way I'd want to play a Rune Knight, since it doubles down on the Rune Knight schtick. But it would also work with a multiclass Barbarian (for Hulk fans) and increast the range of a Paladin aura (normally 10' radius gives a 5x5 square area, and so 24 squares for your allies; if you are huge it expands to 7x7, and so 40 squares for your allies to be in ). [/QUOTE]
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