New Race - Thoughts on Balance

[Happy Funball]

I am trying to recreate the Vanarans from the Oriental Adventures supplement for my game. I am torn over whether this class is balanced. Three stats seems pretty big, but there is not much else to it. I guess the question is whether, if you wanted to play a Wizard, would you ever not want to play a Vanaran.

Ability Scores: +2 DEX, +2 INT, +2 WIS
Size: Medium
Speed: 6
Vision: normal
Natural Climbers: You gain a +4 racial bonus to Athletics when climbing. You do not provide Combat Advantage when climbing.
Prehensile Tail & Manipulative Feet: You may use your feet or tail as a hand but suffer a -2 penalty to actions taken.

 

[Terwox]

A minotaur race posted here yesterday had +2 STR, and +2 WIS or CHA. I would recommend that.

Perhaps allow prehensile tail and feet to have a -0 in its place. Could definitely lead to some cool stuff.

 

[generalhenry]

Sure we could break 4E design. But why would we really want too?

Dex, Int imo. Wis just doesn't strike me as essential.


Also it needs an encounter power.

 

[Nur-ab-sal]

It doesn't need one (dwarves) but it's harder to judge balance w/o.

 

[generalhenry]

It doesn't need one (dwarves)

second wind as a minor action.

 

[Happy Funball]

second wind as a minor action.

Humans also do not have a racial encounter ability and half-elves only kind of have one.

But +2 DEX and +2 WIS or INT does seem less prone to abuse. That seems weak to me, but I can work around that.

 

[generalhenry]

Humans also do not have a racial encounter ability and half-elves only kind of have one.

Humans have one better, an at will. and half elves get to pick out an encounter power.

I'm sure you can come up with something, it doesn't have to be much.

But +2 DEX and +2 WIS or INT does seem less prone to abuse.

That's problematic

+dex +wis > +dex +int due to defenses.

 

[ff6shadow]

I think its just a manner of sticking to the original a bit more.

Ability Scores: +2 INT, +2 WIS
Size: Medium
Speed: 6
Vision: Low light

SKill Bonus: +2 Acrobatics, +2 Athletics
Natural Climbers: You do not provide Combat Advantage when climbing. You gain a +2 bonus on Athletics checks made to climb.
Prehensile Tail & Manipulative Feet: You may use your feet or tail as a hand but cannot use them to make attacks or wield weapons and shields.



I couldn't think of an encounter power to go along with it, but it still needs something else added to it.

 

[zaxzilla]

In the anime version of the classic Indian saga Ramayana , Hannuman, the leader of the vanara could grow to giant size. Maybe an enlarge-ish power? Plus in the original saga there were monkey as well as bear vanara. Hannuman also had a huge brass mace, maybe a feat that does extra damage with maces?