"Racial Variant Feats" -- Tiefling Rogues and Dwarven Warlords

[comrade raoul]

The basic idea is that characters with certain races can spend a feat to substitute one ability (generally one they get a racial bonus to) for another one for purposes of a particular class.

Thus, the following are heroic-tier feats designed to either (a) enable race/class combinations that, while flavorful, weren't especially viable under the standard rules, or (b) make some class particularly distinctive of a particular race. So, for example, tieflings can take Tiefling Vagabond to become effective rogues, and eladrin can take Eladrin Bladesinger to trade endurance for a more skillful fighting style. (See the swordmage preview.) Thoughts?

Dragonborn Cursebringer [Racial Variant]
Prerequisite: Dragonborn, warlock
Benefit: You can substitute your Strength in place of your Constitution for warlock powers or class features, or powers or features from paragon paths or epic destinies that include the warlock class as a requirement. Like the great chromatic dragons you emulate, physical and magical violence come equally natural to you.

Dwarven Stalwart [Racial Variant]
Prerequisite: Dwarf, warlord
Benefit: You can substitute your Constitution in place of your Charisma for warlord powers or class features, or powers or features from paragon paths or epic destinies that include the warlord class as a requirement. Quiet and imposing as the mountains, you stand firm, inspiring your allies with your solidity and courage.

Eladrin Bladesinger [Racial Variant]
Prerequisite: Eladrin, swordmage
Benefit: You can substitute your Dexterity in place of your Constitution for swordmage powers or class features, or powers or features from paragon paths or epic destinies that include the swordmage class as a requirement. You set aside conventional, rough-and-tumble warfare to weave magic and swordplay into an elegant, lyrical whole.

Half-Elven Outlander [Racial Variant]
Prerequisite: Half-elf, ranger
Benefit: You can substitute your Charisma in place of your Wisdom for ranger powers or class features, or powers or features from paragon paths or epic destinies that include the ranger class as a requirement. Used to living on the edge, you’re tough and bold, relying on luck and confidence where others would be careful and cautious.

Halfling Bravo [Racial Variant]
Prerequisite: Halfling, fighter
Benefit: You can substitute your Charisma in place of your Strength for fighter powers or class features, or powers or features from paragon paths or epic destinies that include the fighter class as a requirement. For someone as mean as you, size doesn’t matter.

Tiefling Vagabond [Racial Variant]
Prerequisite: Tiefling, rogue
Benefit: You can substitute your Intelligence in place of your Dexterity for rogue powers or class features, or powers or features from paragon paths or epic destinies that include the rogue class as a requirement. You’ve learned that in a merciless world, your best weapon is your wits.

 

[Appleseeth]

These are awesome! You have brought shame upon me for not thinking of them first.
I play with a large group and it already feels like we have exhausted all the race/class possibilities already (one player keeps switching characters). This will definitely help liven things up. I'll be making some for my own homebrew races.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Whilst I'm not sure how balanced they are, they certainly seem right!

 

[Bold or Stupid]

I'm not sure that all of those make sense or if any of them are balanced. I think the basic idea is a good one, but the feats that alter the prime stat are over the top. The ones that alter the secondary stat are much better. For a start I'd alter the dwarf one to using wisdom instead of intelligence for warlord powers.

Mostly I like the basic idea your seem to be aiming for, but feel that your solution is too heavy handed IMO.

 

[comrade raoul]

Thanks for the feedback! I'm not sure how to assess balance for these feats either to be honest--but more feedback seems like a great place to start.

This will definitely help liven things up. I'll be making some for my own homebrew races.

I'd be delighted to see how your group finds the material, if they end up using it, and I'd be curious to see your versions for your homebrew races, too.

I think the basic idea is a good one, but the feats that alter the prime stat are over the top.

One thing to keep in mind with the prime stat feats is that they also have a hidden cost--a lot of the best and most appropriate feats for a given class require high scores in that class's prime stat. For example, Halfling Bravo lets halfling fighters take advantage of their racial Charisma and basically ignore their Strength, which is clearly nice--but doing so means that they lose access to a bunch of the nice higher-end weapon feats. (If they buy up their Strength to do it, they're investing in an otherwise unnecessary ability--and probably losing the efficiency the feat provided in the first place!)

This isn't a deal-breaker, probably--though I haven't experimented with builds or anything--but it means that characters with Racial Variant feats that switch prime stats will probably be heterodox members of their classes, and disproportionately likely to multiclass in something in order to take advantage of their more broadly useful prime score. Thus, a character with Halfling Bravo might swap in a few Charisma-based paladin powers, or one with Tiefling Vagabond might pick up a wizard spell or two. This strikes me as all to the good. (For one thing, it's an appealing result from a historical perspective--it suggests the demihuman multiclassing of AD&D, and the favored classes of 3e.)

On the other hand, note that a lot of the secondary ability feats were designed partly to provide synergies that otherwise weren't available. Thus, Eladrin Bladesinger lets eladrin swordmages get feats like Heavy Blade Opportunity much more easily than they could otherwise--it models eladrin swordmages as considerably more fragile, yet more technically skilled, than others of their ilk. Dwarven Stalwart makes dwarven warlords grim-and-gritty badasses who appropriately favor axes and hammers. (You wouldn't invite Sarge to dinner with your favorite aunt any time soon, but knowing he's there somehow keeps you going in a pinch.)

For a start I'd alter the dwarf one to using wisdom instead of intelligence for warlord powers.

Not that this is necessarily a bad idea, but why, do you think?

 

[Nivenus]

This is a great idea, as other have said! I'll see about working these into a playtest.

However, one stands out to me as obtuse. That's the Halfling Bravo. Somehow, I don't see Charisma replacing Strength as the basis for combat powers like Tide of Iron or Cleave. Perhaps Dexterity, but Charisma is a bit of a stretch for me.

Other than that they seem find to me, though the suggestion of replacing the Dwarf Stalwart's Cha->Con with an Int->Wis isn't a bad suggestion either.

 

[zaxzilla]

These have variable effectiveness depending on you derive your stats. I let my players have 84 points to distribute among all scores (average 14 per ability) so there not as important but cool.

As a racial bonus only grants in the end a +1 to hit and damage among all powers they may be balanced. I'm sure WOTC will come up with some feats along these line eventually.

There was that 3.5 Monk/Sorcerer feat that let you use your charisma for some monk abilities, and there was that Dragon magazine feat that let a monk use there Int for their Monk abilities. Granted these were not racially based but along the same vein and helped races with high Int or Cha.

 

[Nivenus]

The monk's a very different class, feel-wise, from a fighter though. Rather than drawing their energy from training (ala fighter) a monk draws it from their soul. This, to me, fits Charisma-based a lot better than fighter-based powers which are Strength-based (rather than Wisdom or Dexterity based as one would imagine a monk's powers are powered - though of course we really have no idea since the 4e variant isn't available yet).

 

[comrade raoul]

I missed a feat for elves. Here's one that might be even more controversial than the one for halflings, but I think captures a fairly compelling archetype: the swift, lightly-armored elven priest who's good with a bow:

Elven Mystic [Racial Variant]
Prerequisite: Elf, cleric
Benefit: You can substitute your Dexterity in place of your Strength for cleric powers or class features, or powers or features from paragon paths or epic destinies that include the cleric class as a requirement. You combine spiritual devotion with physical training to move like the wind, effortlessly bringing even heavy weapons to bear in the service of your faith.

 

[Nifft]

Some of these are fine, some are broken.

Dragonborn: Fine. Same defense, lose Surge synergy, it works.

Dwarf: ZOMG broken. Adding Con twice to many self-Healing powers at Paragon levels is just insane (and giving the effect of a Paragon feat at Heroic is similarly silly). I'd suggest instead allowing the PC to use Wis in place of Int.

Eladrin: Dunno about Swordmage yet.

Halfling: Bad. Halflings made good Fighters already, thanks to their racial Encounter power and other AC-improving benefits. But by letting them dump Strength, you're allowing a PC to not "do his job" -- his failure to hit on AoOs won't hurt him nearly as much as it will the rest of the party.

Half-Elf: Good.

Tiefling: The idea of replacing a primary attack stat is a bit disturbing, but in this case he's shafting his skill list and initiative, and that's a decent trade off, given how a Rogue seems to play.

Elf: ZOMG broken. Elves are already good enough at everything, thanks to their amazing racial Encounter power. Elf Clerics were already great -- lasers within 5 squares, bow from 6 to 40 squares. Now you're giving them the OTHER half of the Cleric cake.

I'd rather see Elf Rogue (replace Cha with Wis) or Elf Warlord (replace Int with Dex).

Cheers, -- N