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Understanding Race Design and Balance…
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<blockquote data-quote="Keenath" data-source="post: 4253740" data-attributes="member: 59792"><p>Yes, and both are FAR more powerful than they used to be. In 3.x they handed out LLV like it was candy. Now only very few creatures have LLV, and Darkvision is nearly unknown except in the most extreme cases. In your race comparison you didn't highlight that, but Drow have the very rare Darkvision ability.</p><p></p><p></p><p>It depends on what those powers DO.</p><p></p><p>The number of Special Abilities isn't relevant unless you weight them properly, taking into account questions like "How often does this power come up?", "How powerful is the power when I <em>can</em> use it?", and "What am I giving up, action-wise, in exchange for this power?"</p><p></p><p>For example, the elf's ability to get a free-action attack roll reroll is very powerful -- a low roll will come up in virtually every combat, it's a decently powerful ability, and it's a free action so there's no downside to using it.</p><p>Compare that to a power that lets you levitate as a standard action -- the levitate power is much less valuable, because it isn't often useful and requires you to give up your attack to do it.</p><p></p><p>Just saying "He gets five and I get two!" doesn't tell you anything; if you have two awesome powers while he gets one good power and four lame* ones, that's not necessarily unbalanced.</p><p></p><p>* By "lame" I don't mean "worthless" -- but they might be something that's extremely situational, like a 3.x elf's secret doors power; something that's not particularly strong when you do get to use it, like a +2 to a skill check; or something that has a high opportunity cost. (That is to say, anything that costs a standard or full action is going to be very costly in the action economy, because you're giving up the chance to make an attack, move, or whatever else.)</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Keenath, post: 4253740, member: 59792"] Yes, and both are FAR more powerful than they used to be. In 3.x they handed out LLV like it was candy. Now only very few creatures have LLV, and Darkvision is nearly unknown except in the most extreme cases. In your race comparison you didn't highlight that, but Drow have the very rare Darkvision ability. It depends on what those powers DO. The number of Special Abilities isn't relevant unless you weight them properly, taking into account questions like "How often does this power come up?", "How powerful is the power when I [I]can[/I] use it?", and "What am I giving up, action-wise, in exchange for this power?" For example, the elf's ability to get a free-action attack roll reroll is very powerful -- a low roll will come up in virtually every combat, it's a decently powerful ability, and it's a free action so there's no downside to using it. Compare that to a power that lets you levitate as a standard action -- the levitate power is much less valuable, because it isn't often useful and requires you to give up your attack to do it. Just saying "He gets five and I get two!" doesn't tell you anything; if you have two awesome powers while he gets one good power and four lame* ones, that's not necessarily unbalanced. * By "lame" I don't mean "worthless" -- but they might be something that's extremely situational, like a 3.x elf's secret doors power; something that's not particularly strong when you do get to use it, like a +2 to a skill check; or something that has a high opportunity cost. (That is to say, anything that costs a standard or full action is going to be very costly in the action economy, because you're giving up the chance to make an attack, move, or whatever else.) [/QUOTE]
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