Reskinning the Races as each other?

Garthanos

Arcadian Knight
Attempting to conjure the exact races for my game world... it occurred to me that the skin of races includes enough... that they can often be re-cast as one another... for instance.

The Divine Reincarnates (Half Elven tweaked like Deva)
This race is not only beautiful but have an aura of peace about them that seems to infect the relationships of all who know them. They are the ultimate in openminded because they can remember past lives and being other people

Flashes from other lives.
they get flashes of ability from a class other than their current one
At 1st level, you choose an at-will power from a class different from yours. You can use that power as an encounter power... what power this is may be retrained as normal. The player may prefer the DM may make which power is remembered a random thing. (every once in a while I will substitute an actual encounter power from that other class)

Cross Racial Connections
They have insight into the heritages of all races and in particular may choose any two other races for which they now qualify as for purposes of choosing feats (if that feet does not have physical requirements - no breath weapon or wings)

Aura of Peace
You grant allies within 10 squares of you a +1 racial bonus to Diplomacy checks.
------ But humans arent bad as Eldar either.
The Eldar (Humans - reskinned like Elfkind.)
The Eldar
This extremely long lived race traditionally choose and devote themselves to a profession while still young (by their races standards) and are taught by multiple teachers within that field to expose them to the broadest of knowledge in their field and so learn even more of the specialty knowledge of their given profession than other races, they gain an extra at-will and trained skill based on their class. Because of this their Development also tends to be guided by their class rather than their race and so they may assign a +2 to any attribute of the players choice.

The Eldars nature and appearance are both influenced by the Feywild and so vary the most in size and shape of all the races, though pointed ears seem to be a key cosmetic feature, they may freely choose an extra feat to represent that each is fundamentally different than one another ... rather than being locked down by a single racial feature.

The Eldar are connected to magic at a very basic level and have a racial bonus to all defense totals that represents subconscious ability to manipulate the universe in their own defense +1 to Fortitude, Reflex, and Will defenses.
 
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I basically do this for all my races in my games, I just have never written up such pretty descriptions. ;) I usually go about it a little more free form. The player can decide the RP stuff to fit into the world any way that they like. Then they can decide on any "racial" game mechanics benefits package that they like. It is interesting to see a reskin that is set in stone for the campaign instead of a case by case basis. I like your races, particularly the Eldar. I have been contemplating a goblin/elf fusion race that is more folklorish than Tolkein's elves, and some of what you have is basically what I was thinking. Nice.
 

I did something similar for my half-elves, and are considering doing it for my half-orcs. (Half-races are not popular around here; we tend to go with Shadowrun's ideas of racial idea that they are magical archetypes).

Half-Orcs would become Hobgoblins, pure and simple. Hobgoblins have the potential to be a civilized, player-worthy race, and a bonus to Dex just doesn't sit well with me as an orcish trait.

The half-elf is a mirror-image of the shadar-kai, humans that got caught in the Feywild and adapted to it.


Half Elves are not strictly a crossbreed between human or elf, tough many of them carry a bit of elven blood. Instead, they are humans who have been infused with the essence of the Feywild. Sometimes called changelings or feytouched, they are not completely at home in either world.

Half elves are descended from humans who stumbled into or lived in close proximity the Feywild. Some have ancestors who moved to the feywild seeking new lands, others were abducted as slaves or victims of trickery. Some are human children raised by fey foster parents. Once in this strange new world their human sensibilities failed to help them, forcing them to develop a wider range of skills and a more fantastic mindset. Yet they keep their human ancestor's appreciation of and ability to exploit wonders. A half elf is rarely fazed by the amazing sights of the Feywild, but they are more impressed by them than most fey, who take such things for granted.

Half Elves have their own communities or live on the fringe of human or eladrin settlements. They are friendly to strangers and tend to adopt humans coming to them singly or in small groups, there is always a need of more reliable allies. Their settlements are usually outposts, safe havens in the wilderness, either hidden or in inaccessible places relying on their position for safety. Sometimes such settlements grow into towns or small cities, but they rarely develop the might of human castles or the grandeur of eladrin palaces. Half-elves often mind inns, trading outposts, ports of call, mountain cabins, lighthouses, and other wayfarer settlements. Many half-elves are merchants, being more practical than fey and less hidebound and parochial than humans.

In the mundane world, half-elves tend to live on the fringes of human society. Their wild fey blood calls out to them, making it hard to settle permanently in civilized areas. In the Feywild, Half Elves live like humans on the ultimate frontier; always exploring, always willing to adapt, but also keeping a lifeline back to civilization.
 

I basically do this for all my races in my games, I just have never written up such pretty descriptions. ;) I usually go about it a little more free form. The player can decide the RP stuff to fit into the world any way that they like. Then they can decide on any "racial" game mechanics benefits package that they like.

I like doing elaborate descriptions these are kind of on the fly.

I have in the past always sat down and talked over any race/character concept the player wanted and figured out how that fit in to my world either by using an existing race previously designed or by designing up one for the player.

It is interesting to see a reskin that is set in stone for the campaign instead of a case by case basis. I like your races, particularly the Eldar. I have been contemplating a goblin/elf fusion race that is more folklorish than Tolkein's elves, and some of what you have is basically what I was thinking. Nice.
I was thinking somewhat they could feel goblinish or elfish or trollish or whatever fey aspect fit... so yeah you got the connection ;-)
 

I'm using Shadar-Kai for Mystara's Shadow Elves, which barely takes any reskinning at all. Also Kobold makes a great Cayman (tiny lizard-creatures from the Savage Coast).
 

I played a lame (with a limp) human monk who weilded a 3 piece staff who was actually a dwarven warhammer weilding ranger. The reskin can be great fun.
 

I played a lame (with a limp) human monk who weilded a 3 piece staff who was actually a dwarven warhammer weilding ranger. The reskin can be great fun.

Heh and you could attribute his immovability (dwarven race feature?) as being the flowing river balanced battle stance that his mentor taught him.

When reskinning a single character (especially into something not quite defined in the game) backgrounds, racial and class features can all bleed in to one another... now with hybrids coming down the pipe.. my imagination is starting to swirl.
 

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