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<blockquote data-quote="Samothdm" data-source="post: 1185677" data-attributes="member: 5473">I was looking through an old Dragon issue the other day (#306) and I noticed in the article on &quot;Racial Variants&quot; that only one of the variants had a +1 ECL (the &quot;deep&quot; variant).For those without the article - basically it gives ideas for altering the core races slightly to account for different climates or regions, such as desert, arctic, etc.&nbsp; In the set-up to the article it says that the races keep their original racial abilities (such as stonecutting for dwarves or low-light vision for elves) and then make the adjustments for their region as indicated in the article.&nbsp; Each &quot;template&quot; gives minor things like +2 to Wilderness Lore (this was pre-3.5) for the desert template and +1 to saves against fire but a -1 to saves against cold. I think it also did something like give a +2 CON and a -2 CHA.&nbsp; Anyway, the point is, it stacked all of these abilities on top of the normal racial abilities for any race, but didn't increase the ECL.So, my question is: how much can one &quot;add&quot; to a core race in a template like this before the ECL increases?&nbsp; It seems like handing out skill increases and ability bonuses should be worth something.&nbsp; Take a regular dwarf with a +2 CON and -2 CHA.&nbsp; He's already going to suck at Charisma-based skills.&nbsp; So, he takes the Desert Template, gains +1 to saves against fire and -1 to saves versus cold, +2 to Wilderness Lore, and now he has a +4 CON and a -4 CHA.&nbsp; So, he's not very sociable.&nbsp; But, he just gained an extra 2 HP per level and more than compensated for the -1 to saves versus cold.&nbsp; What does everyone think?</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Samothdm, post: 1185677, member: 5473"] I was looking through an old Dragon issue the other day (#306) and I noticed in the article on "Racial Variants" that only one of the variants had a +1 ECL (the "deep" variant). For those without the article - basically it gives ideas for altering the core races slightly to account for different climates or regions, such as desert, arctic, etc. In the set-up to the article it says that the races keep their original racial abilities (such as stonecutting for dwarves or low-light vision for elves) and then make the adjustments for their region as indicated in the article. Each "template" gives minor things like +2 to Wilderness Lore (this was pre-3.5) for the desert template and +1 to saves against fire but a -1 to saves against cold. I think it also did something like give a +2 CON and a -2 CHA. Anyway, the point is, it stacked all of these abilities on top of the normal racial abilities for any race, but didn't increase the ECL. So, my question is: how much can one "add" to a core race in a template like this before the ECL increases? It seems like handing out skill increases and ability bonuses should be worth something. Take a regular dwarf with a +2 CON and -2 CHA. He's already going to suck at Charisma-based skills. So, he takes the Desert Template, gains +1 to saves against fire and -1 to saves versus cold, +2 to Wilderness Lore, and now he has a +4 CON and a -4 CHA. So, he's not very sociable. But, he just gained an extra 2 HP per level and more than compensated for the -1 to saves versus cold. What does everyone think? [/QUOTE]

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