The problem with Races.....

[Hackenslash]

Hello all,

Can anyone suggest any variations on the standard races that they have used as House rules in their campaigns and how it's effected the campaign balance and status quo. I am starting a new campaign soon and would like some help creating more defined and unique standard races, for example I am unhappy with the Elf in the 3.0 Edition and was considering increasing its mid age life span to say 500 years as opposed to the current age bracket listings in the PH, which I feel are very restricted considering the life span of an elf. Also, I would like to reflect their extremely keen vision and hearing, so I would like to increase their spot and listen bonuses to +10 each and also double or even triple the distance they can see clearly (eg. Legolas in Lord of the Rings). Also I would like to give them back Dark Vision as I feel they have lost this from 2nd edition. These are just examples I am playing with, I would welcome any suggestions and would like to hear of any House rules for the other standard Races such as Dwarves, Halflings, Gnomes, Half Elves and Half Orcs. Thanks in advance for any advice or suggestions...Cheers All

 

[MarauderX]

Yeah, humans are usually the way the players go just because of the extra feat and such, so I like to modify the other races to make them more 'attractive' for the players to take.

Dwarf: Automatic skills of metalsmith, stone carving, engineering, and tactics +2, twice the tremorsense, +10 spot and listen when underground, less penalties if blinded. The biggest is not subtracting the charisma, as height is already enough of a penalty as it is. My take on it is that charisma is based on personality and relative to dealing with people, and take race right out of it. Beautiful does not mean charismatic IMO.

 

[Centaur]

For the most part, I think there isn't enough of an incentive to play the other races. I also always end up making Human PCs as the extra feat and Skill point are just too important to me. This is also refelcted in my making of NPCs for my campaign as well. There are other races in the world, but you'd never know it if you leafed through my NPC folder.

Some sort of better vision for elves would be a good start, but then, I think that has been one of the failing from early on. An elf or anyone with low light vision can see twice as far as a human in low light conditions. So how far can a human see.

If you first come up with some sort of basic vision rating to list things by, then you should be able to add more flavour based on that. Maybe elves have natural 20/10 or 20/5 vision. This sould allow them to see great distances as if they were human useing a spyglass or something.

Maybe an elves improved sight could add an arbitrary bonus to ranged combat over long distances. Maybe the first 5 range increments with a bow are -1 for the elf instead of -2.

 

[Steverooo]

Elven Vision

"'Riders!' cried Aragorn, springing to his feet. 'Many riders on swift steeds are coming towards us!'
'Yes,' said Legolas, 'there are one hundred and five. Yellow is their hair, and bright are their spears. Their leader is very tall.'
Aragorn smiled. 'Keen are the eyes of the Elves.' he said.
'Nay! The riders are little more than five leagues distant,' said Legolas." TT:31.

Fifteen miles, at 5,280'/miles, and taking into account 3e's -1/10' rule... Legolas has a Spot skill minimum of +7,920, ASSUMING the Spot DC was originally 0, to start!

Actually, Aragorn had a higher Spot skill than Legolas, IMHO. There is only one case where Legolas saw what Aragorn didn't see first, and that was camouflage/magic (Gandalf the White at the foot of Fangorn's steps). In 3e terms, basically Elves should have the -1/10' reduced to -1/mile, or something... That would make them more perceptive at great distances, but not close up.

Also, check out the "Background Skills" thread on this page...

 

[Gez]

Mechanically, I havn't tweaked core races. I have sometimes changed background elements (even heavily changed it), but have kept the mechanics the same. Have I started the campaign 2-3 months later, having more books, better assimilated the rules and forged my opinion of some things, I would have changed mechanics too.

 

[Hackenslash]

Races in General....!!!

What concerns me the most is that I might add abilities or skils to a race and then have it backfire as it proves to be too restricting or maybe even unbalance the campaign. Has anyone made any big changes to the core races ? and if so Has it effected their campaigns for the better or for the worse ? I would really like to hear any comments or suggestions as I do have some ideas for Elves and Dwarves but not sure if they would work with the current game mechanics. Thanks in advance....Cheers All