My Proposed Dark Sun House Rules

[Obryn]

So, after playing some Dark Sun 4e, I'm leaning towards some house rules to clear up what are, IMO, the biggest flavor issues with characters. Specifically, I'm targeting the reskinned PHB races. Do I need to do this? No, not even remotely. Do I think it's valuable to work towards the flavor of the 2e box set? Yes, at least a little bit. If you have no interest in either of these, this probably won't interest you at all. So... Here goes!

Note: In keeping with lots of other racial feats, I'm making these essentially equivalent to one and a half or two normal feats, with perhaps a minor flavor benefit added in.


ELF
Stat modifiers change to +2 Dex and +2 Con or Cha. Yes, even in 2e, they had a Constitution penalty. But I think it's more fitting than either Int or Wis, given the tradition of the Elf Run.

Feat: Elf Run
You gain a +3 Feat Bonus to Athletics and Endurance checks. In addition, when traveling only with other elves, your overland movement speed is equal to your Speed +2.

Dwarf
Stat modifiers work as-is, thought I'm perversely tempted to make Wisdom set in stone rather than Constitution.

Feat: Dwarven Focus
While in pursuit of your focus, you gain a +2 feat bonus to Will defense and a +2 bonus to saving throws. This bonus increases to +5 against effects with the Charm keyword. Special: This feat cannot be taken by Muls.

Halfling
Stat modifiers change to +2 Dex, and +2 to Wisdom or Constitution. Feral halflings aren't very charismatic, but they're perfect for Primal classes, which often use Wis and Con.

Feat: Forest Hunter
You gain a +1 feat bonus to weapon attacks with spears. (This increases to +2 at Paragon and +3 at Epic.) Additionally, all spears you wield have a Reach of 2 and you gain a +2 bonus to Stealth. I tried to make this in line with, but a slight bit better than, one of the new Expertise feats. Reach of 2 can represent darting in and out of combat, IMO.

Tiefling
Stat modifiers change to +2 Con, and +2 to Int or Dex. Their flavor text leads me to believe that physical stats are more important to the desert devils than the more mental ones.

Feat: Debt of Blood
You have a stronger connection to the Blood Debt than most Tieflings. After you reduce a non-minion enemy to 0 hit points for the first time in an encounter, you receive your Blood Hunt bonuses against all enemies for the remainder of combat and gain a +1 bonus to all damage rolls. (This increases to +2 at Paragon and +3 at Epic.)

Goliath
Honestly, I don't know. I am, however, leaning towards making them an independent race and splitting off Half-Giants as 12-foot-tall magical crossbreeds which can't be used as a PC race.

Eladrin
I'm not sure here... I love their flavor, but I think their feats and stats probably work fine as-is.

Human
Again, I don't think they need more help here...

So... Thoughts?

-O

 

[Wik]

I think these feats are actually pretty good as you've got them. No real mechanical complaints about what you've got, except for perhaps the halfling one (it seems a bit too powerful for me, though it's kind of funny that they specialize in spears, which are mostly two-handed weapons and thus unable to be used by halflings).

I like your idea of Goliaths being a seperate race than half-giants. It's a good compromise. In my upcoming DS campaign, I'll just have goliaths as half-giants, appearing as 8 foot tall giant people, and not the goliath appearance in 4e. Tieflings and Eladrin will both be out.

 

[wcpfish]

I think they all look good and I think its safe to give Halflings a bit of a power bump as they seem a bit under-powered to me as far as the standard races go.

William C. Pfaff
President of Escape Velocity Gaming

 

[Obryn]

I need to check this forum more

I think these feats are actually pretty good as you've got them. No real mechanical complaints about what you've got, except for perhaps the halfling one (it seems a bit too powerful for me, though it's kind of funny that they specialize in spears, which are mostly two-handed weapons and thus unable to be used by halflings).

Well, I tried to put it about on par with the HotFX Expertise feats, with a tiny added perk. I agree that giving them Reach is pretty cool, but it's on par with the Quarterstaff feat. At the same time I'm wondering how many classes would use this regularly. I think the new Sentinel Druids are about the only ones that I can think of offhand...

I like your idea of Goliaths being a seperate race than half-giants. It's a good compromise. In my upcoming DS campaign, I'll just have goliaths as half-giants, appearing as 8 foot tall giant people, and not the goliath appearance in 4e. Tieflings and Eladrin will both be out.

I kinda love the new Tieflings; somehow I ended up with two in my Dark Sun game - a Rogue (Thief) and a Wizard (Mage-Beguiler, part-time defiler). But, like I mentioned, I don't think their stat mods are a perfect fit for their Dark Sun background.

As for half-giants, I was re-reading Verdant Passage, and realized I kinda missed them as 12-foot-tall mountains of intimidating flesh.

-O