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<blockquote data-quote="Set" data-source="post: 5092563" data-attributes="member: 41584"><p>Hell yes. I'd like to see not just some *new* races, but guidelines for how to play a mechanically 'weak' race like kobold or goblin, alongside mechanically 'neutral' races like human or dwarf, alongside mechanically 'strong' races like some sort of PC undead or dark elf or serpentfolk.</p><p> </p><p>And I'd prefer for it to be done without racial levels or LA, perhaps in a manner similar to how the Raptoran starts out with wings that just allow them to survive a fall, and doesn't gain the ability to significantly fly until 5 HD, when a Wizard would be gaining the <em>fly</em> spell anyway.</p><p> </p><p>IMO, off-setting certain abilities until certain HD thresholds are met, and introducing some as 'racial feats' that allow a PC to simply not develop certain racial characteristics if they don't want to, work better than level adjustment or racial levels that put the character mechanically behind other party members (which, in the case of say, the hobgoblin, can be painful, being a full level behind everyone else because you started with a +2 to Dex *and a +2 to Con, you horrible munchkin, you!).</p><p> </p><p>Using racial feats, or option developments at certain HD thresholds (Alternate Race Features? The new way to make an Aquatic Elf or a Wild Elf?), a serpentfolk sorcerer who never wants to bite anyone, can choose to never develop his poisonous bite, forever having weaker venom than the 'generic' serpentman. One who very much wants to develop his venom can go a step further and have stronger-than-average venom. Each race becomes a toolkit, with different options, just as a Warforged can have a body of mithral, adamantine, darkwood or silver, or a Shifter could be a beasthide or a swiftclaw or whatever. More options = good, and helps to make races more accessible to a greater variety of options, instead of having a particular race pigeonholed into a very limited set of class choices, based on their racial abilities, which are inflexible and carved in stone.</p><p> </p><p>Alternate Race Features. Gosh, I'd love to see that. Every race becomes just a touch more variable, without having to stat up High Elves, Wood Elves, Wild Elves, Grugach, Aquatic Elves and Dark Elves as different 'sub-species.' Instead, some elves swap out sword and bow training for spear and bow training (wood elves) or spear and net training (aquatic elves).</p><p> </p><p>Duergar and Svirfneblin and whatnot just become alternate-capable tweaks on Dwarves and Gnomes, with some guidelines for how to tweak your own, if you want ice-castle-dwelling dwarves living on the Crown of the World, whose communities ride glaciers down the mountains or mysterious jungle-dwelling gnomes who wear bright feathers and use poisoned missiles from high in the treetops to discourage predators from climbing up to their suspended villages, where they sleep hanging in pods attached to vines, so that nothing that can't fly can get to them.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Set, post: 5092563, member: 41584"] Hell yes. I'd like to see not just some *new* races, but guidelines for how to play a mechanically 'weak' race like kobold or goblin, alongside mechanically 'neutral' races like human or dwarf, alongside mechanically 'strong' races like some sort of PC undead or dark elf or serpentfolk. And I'd prefer for it to be done without racial levels or LA, perhaps in a manner similar to how the Raptoran starts out with wings that just allow them to survive a fall, and doesn't gain the ability to significantly fly until 5 HD, when a Wizard would be gaining the [i]fly[/i] spell anyway. IMO, off-setting certain abilities until certain HD thresholds are met, and introducing some as 'racial feats' that allow a PC to simply not develop certain racial characteristics if they don't want to, work better than level adjustment or racial levels that put the character mechanically behind other party members (which, in the case of say, the hobgoblin, can be painful, being a full level behind everyone else because you started with a +2 to Dex *and a +2 to Con, you horrible munchkin, you!). Using racial feats, or option developments at certain HD thresholds (Alternate Race Features? The new way to make an Aquatic Elf or a Wild Elf?), a serpentfolk sorcerer who never wants to bite anyone, can choose to never develop his poisonous bite, forever having weaker venom than the 'generic' serpentman. One who very much wants to develop his venom can go a step further and have stronger-than-average venom. Each race becomes a toolkit, with different options, just as a Warforged can have a body of mithral, adamantine, darkwood or silver, or a Shifter could be a beasthide or a swiftclaw or whatever. More options = good, and helps to make races more accessible to a greater variety of options, instead of having a particular race pigeonholed into a very limited set of class choices, based on their racial abilities, which are inflexible and carved in stone. Alternate Race Features. Gosh, I'd love to see that. Every race becomes just a touch more variable, without having to stat up High Elves, Wood Elves, Wild Elves, Grugach, Aquatic Elves and Dark Elves as different 'sub-species.' Instead, some elves swap out sword and bow training for spear and bow training (wood elves) or spear and net training (aquatic elves). Duergar and Svirfneblin and whatnot just become alternate-capable tweaks on Dwarves and Gnomes, with some guidelines for how to tweak your own, if you want ice-castle-dwelling dwarves living on the Crown of the World, whose communities ride glaciers down the mountains or mysterious jungle-dwelling gnomes who wear bright feathers and use poisoned missiles from high in the treetops to discourage predators from climbing up to their suspended villages, where they sleep hanging in pods attached to vines, so that nothing that can't fly can get to them. [/QUOTE]
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