Powerful half-elves

[DreamChaser]

What other reports do you have from Tolkien's play-testing group?

Thanks, -- N

Not what I was talking about. In the books, elves were immortal, resistant to disease, scarring, etc. This is not indicative of a Con penalty.

Of course they were thinner than dwarves or men and everyone knows that thin = unhealthy and frail so maybe the Con penalty makes sense

DC

 

[Arkhandus]

As I recall, Tolkien's elves had more stamina and health than humans, and could survive (or at least mentally ignore) greater wounds than humans could. They were supernaturally healthy and fit, even if they were thin. I could be misremembering, but this is what I seem to recall from reading the Silmarillion.

So yeah, remove the Constitution penalty. Maybe reduce the Spell Resistance to 8 + character level, too, but I dunno if that's necessary. 'Course, I'm more objective about stuff like this; a fragile race with Spell Resistance isn't necessarily uber-tough just because they have a decent chance of resisting spells. One thrown club from an ogre (or frost giant, titan, or balor, whatever beefy brute they may face at their level) may yet do them in. Especially at the lower levels, where the SR is more significant (you can get decent SR at upper levels from spells, items, or class features, like the Monk's Diamond Soul, or a Mantle of Spell Resistance, or the SR spell itself).

 

[jasin]

I heard that the four guys playing the hobbits kept complaining because all the other pregen characters had cool backstories and l33t powers, and the hobbits were kinda sucky. Apparently, Aragorn was the worst offender, with the whole king thing, and a cool magic sword to reforge like Siegfried, and a forbidden love, and basically just overshadowed the rest of the Fellowship most of the time. They told me he was played by Tolkien's girlfriend. The only one who was worse was the DMPC, Gandalf. He was just too good at everything--even though he was a Wizard, he still had a cool magic sword, and a better horse, and magic, and demigod powers, etc. And the GM totally pulled a Deus ex Machina when the DMPC died to bring him back--he just wouldn't go away!

http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?cat=14