KaeYoss said:
First, I grant all races weapon familiarity, not just dwarves (they really don't need more advantages to other races) and gnomes. Humans get one weapon of their choice.
Next, you're right: half-orcs are a really badly designed race, and the niche they claim for it (an easy race for those who don't want to bother too much with racial features) could be filled with humans quite easily. If I'd redisign them (in truth, I wouldn't really bother, unless I'd allow full-blooded orcs, too), I'd go the way of Midnight: give them differing stats depending on where they were raised. So as orc-raised, he'd get the wf double axe, maybe the proficiencies of your half-orcs. Human-raised ones would get free the any favoured class feature and the any weapon familiarity feature.
You'd have to add something extra like those proficiencies for the orc raised ones or else their abilities would be a subset of those raised by humans and that wouldn't be fair.
And as far as filling niches goes, a Dwarf will cover anything anything the human can't. Compare a Dwarf warrior type to a half-Orc: both have Darkvision, both move 20 ft in medium or heavy armor, +2 Con is almost as good as +2 Str and the Dwarf gets a ton of other goodies. We've actually made a tweak to tone down Dwarves a bit in our campaign.
We've modified the PHB weapons table a little, but the only new racial weapon we've added is a Gnome Battlepick thats a 1 handed EWP in the same manner as the Bastard Sword: Battlepick, gnome 30 gp 1d6 1d8 x4 8 lb. Piercing
So, we haven't had to add any familiarities to elves and have found humans to be good enough as is. Here's the houserule section we have for races:
bold text is new
italicized text is commentary on the change
DWARVES
- +2 Constitution, –2 Dexterity; Dwarves are stout and strong but tend to lack flexibility and grace. I have a harder time picturing a Dwarf as a cat burglar (scaling walls, tumbling, picking pockets) or swashbuckling fencer than I do as war chanting bard, sorcerer, paladin or diplomat. It also takes their combat ability down a needed peg.
- Weapon Familiarity: Dwarves may treat dwarven waraxes and dwarven urgroshes as martial weapons, rather than exotic weapons. A Strength score of 13+, as per the Exotic Weapon Proficiency feat, is required to wield a dwarven waraxe in one hand. You may not have to spend the feat, but wielding a waraxe one handed should remain the mark of a hero.
GNOMES
- Weapon Familiarity: Gnomes may treat gnome battlepicks and gnome hooked hammers as martial weapons rather than exotic weapons. A Strength score of 13+, as per the Exotic Weapon Proficiency feat, is required to wield a gnome battlepick in one hand. You may not have to spend the feat, but wielding a battlepick one handed should remain the mark of a hero.
HALF-ORCS
- +2 racial bonus on Intimidate and Sense Motive checks: Half-orcs are not readily accepted among any race; Half-orcs must quickly learn how to identify allies and discourage challengers in order to survive.
- Weapon Affinity: Combining the natural aggressiveness and combative nature of orcs with humankinds adaptability and quick learning has produced a race which takes to weapon play like no other. Half-orcs may choose one of the following:
- Simple: may consider themselves proficient with all simple weapons
- Martial: may treat any martial weapon as if it were a simple weapon
- Exotic: may treat one chosen exotic weapon as if it were a martial weapon
I think this new version takes care of any of the cultural issues and instead bases it on a fusion of racial characteristics. So the single class half-orc wizard would only be able to get benefit from taking the Weapon Affinity: Simple. As a wizard they've only had the most rudimentary combat training, yet they have no problems using such simple weapons as longspears and maces. A thuggish half-orc rogue forgets about trying to fence prettily and instead just bashes his opponent with a greataxe, taking advantage of his natural strength and his choice of Weapon Affinity: Martial. The half-orc ranger who is planning to go with the two weapon fighting track eagerly selects Weapon Affinity: orc double axe.
Players may choose any of the options, regardless of what their first class will be; it just might not be useable. For example, a player could select Weapon Affinity: spiked chain and then start as a thief. They would not be able to use the chain as a rogue, but if they later gained a level in a class which gave proficiency in all martial weapons then they would be able to.
Well besides being quite the thread-jack, what do y'all think?
