Race with Split Strength?

[monkius]

I am working on translating a wemic-like race (lion-based centaur) that I have used before in GURPS. One key feature they had was a split strength. There torso was not as strong as their lion body. The reasoning was that while their lower part of their body with four legs was strong, their torso was nowhere near as strong.

For this race I was thinking of doing STR -2/+4.
- There torso would be -2 STR when wielding weapons.
- There lower body would be +4 STR in terms of carrying capacity, jumping, and maybe weapons that you can charge with when charging.

How does that sound? I am thinking of calling that a balanced trade in terms of attributes.

 

[hong]

Split strength is already sort of built into the D&D rules. Four-legged creatures get a boost in how much they can carry, compared to normal bipedal characters. See the PHB chapter on Adventuring.

 

[Azlan]

For this race I was thinking of doing STR -2/+4.
- There torso would be -2 STR when wielding weapons.
- There lower body would be +4 STR in terms of carrying capacity, jumping, and maybe weapons that you can charge with when charging.

So, if a character is listed as having a STR 16, then his Strength is 14 when wielding melee weapons, and 20 in terms of jumping and carrying capacity?

Sounds like an excellent idea to me.

Another way to do it is give the race free feats that improve their jumping and carrying capacity. But I think your way is a simpler, more elegant solution.

 

[Azlan]

Split strength is already sort of built into the D&D rules. Four-legged creatures get a boost in how much they can carry, compared to normal bipedal characters. See the PHB chapter on Adventuring.

Right. But I think he wants to go beyond that, here.

 

[monkius]

So, if a character is listed as having a STR 16, then his Strength is 14 when wielding melee weapons, and 20 in terms of jumping and carrying capacity?

Exactly.

Sounds like an excellent idea to me.

Another way to do it is give the race free feats that improve their jumping and carrying capacity. But I think your way is a simpler, more elegant solution.

I looked at that, but I am trying to create a race that can be played at first level. If I give them all sorts of feats instead of this split strength, it is much harder to give them some other abilities and stay balanced with the other races.

It also greatly encourages the character to have a spear / lance so that when they can charge, they can take advantage of their lower-bodies strength. It will happen enough to be cool in combat, but not too often that the penalty isn't felt.

 

[Scion]

What happens when you take your first level as monk? do you then get to use your much higher strength for your unarmed attacks? Since your claws or paws or whatever should be able to be used as weapons in this instance.

I am pretty sure I know where you are going with this, and I like it but you may want to just give them racial bonuses to various skills and an extra 50% carrying capacity or something.

On another note, if you are a psion (str) then which stat would you use?

Maybe just call it:
race: -2 str
For purposes of skills and carrying capacity that mainly uses your lower body treat your strength as being 8 points higher than it actually is.

 

[Velmont]

For carrying capacity, as hong told, I think horse can carry more than they should with their strength, and I think it is because they are on four legs, so you could give the same bonus.

For jumping, I suggest to give them a racial bonus (maybe +4 to +8 to jump), to represent that fact.

For charging, I don't think you should give any bonus if they are moving at the same speed than humans. If they are moving faster (say, 40ft), than you could give the same bonus than a mounted warrior.

 

[monkius]

For charging, I don't think you should give any bonus if they are moving at the same speed than humans. If they are moving faster (say, 40ft), than you could give the same bonus than a mounted warrior.

It is more of a weight issue. When you charge you get all of your mass behind you, which is better represented by your lower strength.

 

[monkius]

What happens when you take your first level as monk? do you then get to use your much higher strength for your unarmed attacks? Since your claws or paws or whatever should be able to be used as weapons in this instance.

I am pretty sure I know where you are going with this, and I like it but you may want to just give them racial bonuses to various skills and an extra 50% carrying capacity or something.

On another note, if you are a psion (str) then which stat would you use?

Maybe just call it:
race: -2 str
For purposes of skills and carrying capacity that mainly uses your lower body treat your strength as being 8 points higher than it actually is.

My campaign world doesn't have monks or psions, so the issue hadn't come up. For monks you could say the lower body isn't as flexible / the attacks are awkward. For psions, I would say you use your torso's lower strength since that is where your head is connected to Neither of these are super great explanations, but you could also use DM fiat. I am shooting for this ability to be balanced in that its pros / cons balance out. If someone tries to shrink the cons side of things, I would tend to just saying no

 

[Tonguez]

Exactly.
I looked at that, but I am trying to create a race that can be played at first level. If I give them all sorts of feats instead of this split strength, it is much harder to give them some other abilities and stay balanced with the other races.

I figure that ALL PC races get two feats on creation. Non-Humanoids use one feat for their 'Racial abilities' humans keep it as a bonus feat

Ergo with your race you could use both of these 'creation' Feats - one for Increase Carrying capacity and another for Pounce and say it gets no bonus feat at 1st level...