My Rebalanced Core Races [v1.1]

[Nellisir]

I'm stealing pieces of this.

 

[Cheiromancer]

I've become quite taken with giving elves a penalty to Wisdom instead of Constitution: it's appropriate, I think, to spontaneous, artistic fey creatures who roam through the trees, and makes martial elves a lot more viable.

I dunno. What about elvish clerics and druids? Or are they de-emphasized in your campaign?

I can see martial elves making choices that compensate for not having a lot of hit points- high AC, or ranged attack specialists. But I don't see how divine spellcasters can compensate for having a low Wisdom.

 

[Taraxia]

I do the same thing with dwarves, too (I posted that a while back, actually). I've become quite taken with giving elves a penalty to Wisdom instead of Constitution: it's appropriate, I think, to spontaneous, artistic fey creatures who roam through the trees, and makes martial elves a lot more viable.

Then again, the Tolkien elf, with its great wisdom and insight, is also a big part of the sourcing for D&D elves. Discouraging elves from becoming clerics is dead-opposed to much of the elven flavor, especially the Aerenal elves in Eberron.

What makes the most sense to me is -Str +Dex, although I'm not sure if that's balanced.

 

[Arkhandus]

Strength and Dexterity balance out pretty well, yeah. Str modifies melee attack, Dex mods ranged attack; Str mods most damage, Dex mods AC but with some limitations; Str mods a few skills, grapples, bull rushes, and trips, Dex mods Reflex saves and more skills; Str mods carrying capacity, Dex mods Initiative. Overall it's fairly balanced, with only a tiny bit of extra value one way or the other depending on character archetype.

I too agree that -Wis is a poor choice for standard high-fantasy elves.

Elves in my Aurelia setting are -2 Str, +2 Dex, -2 Con, +2 Cha, with sorcerer as their favored class; half-elves are -2 Str, +2 Dex, with the same favored class flexibility as humans.

 

[Cartigan Mrryl]

I dunno. What about elvish clerics and druids? Or are they de-emphasized in your campaign?

I can see martial elves making choices that compensate for not having a lot of hit points- high AC, or ranged attack specialists. But I don't see how divine spellcasters can compensate for having a low Wisdom.

Well, it literally says (In Races of the Wild) that Elves prefer combat from Range, anyways. They don't like taking a chance at losing life, since it's not very common amongst them.

Buut yeah, i like nearly all of these edits. I'd edit them to make them more of my own campaign's flavor, but that'd be expected either way.... right? And maybe, give the Half-elf (and Half-Orc) My personal favor: +2 skill points/lvl, to reflect the human blood's quick-learning capability.

Just a thought.

 

[Captain NeMo]

Of course. Feel free to edit them however you want - while my friend and I were discussing these changes we took a lot of ideas from other people. Share and share alike, as it were.

 

[Captain NeMo]

Bump!

 

[DreamChaser]

I do the same thing with dwarves, too (I posted that a while back, actually). I've become quite taken with giving elves a penalty to Wisdom instead of Constitution: it's appropriate, I think, to spontaneous, artistic fey creatures who roam through the trees, and makes martial elves a lot more viable.

Not to mention this would mess up the vaunted elvish Listen and Spot bonuses. Elves are supposed to have great senses, which Wisdom controls.

DC

 

[RangerWickett]

Erratum: You mention removing the half-orc Charisma penalty, but it's still listed.

 

[Nellisir]

Not to mention this would mess up the vaunted elvish Listen and Spot bonuses. Elves are supposed to have great senses, which Wisdom controls.

A -2 penalty to Wisdom is perfectly balanced by a +1 modifier to Spot and Listen. Just increase their current bonuses by 1.