Variant Races - Like UA, but not

[Nonlethal Force]

Okay, assuming that the DMG chart on p. 173 regarding what counts as a reasonable ability penalty to offset a reasonable ability boost is balanced ...

[And please assume it is balanced for the purposes of this thread]

I have two seperate questions:

1. Is it balanced to offer a +2 INT and +2 CHA for a -2 DEX? [Or switch DEX for STR and switch INT, WIS, CHA around as desired. For the sake of this question, I'd prefer to keep CON out of this one.]

Unrelated question:

2. I like what UA does with its various desert races, water races, and then even elemental races. But would it make sense to say that rather than changing the various racial ability modifiers for each race that there could be a standard template? For example, all desert races get a +2 CON, -2 STR. [Or something like that] That way, as new races come into play one could merely apply this kind of subracr as a +0 Template that gives no other benefits?

Example: Say a new Template called Mountain Race was created giving any race a +2 STR for a -2 DEX. A player wants to create a mountain elf. PHB elf is +2 DEX, -2 CON. So they could make a mountain elf for a net +2 STR, -2 CON.

Is that balanced? The only other thing I would be worried about is abuse of stacking benefits, but the rule of stacking penalties should also help balance that ... or does it? Using my mountain template above, would a mountain half-orc be balanced at having a +4 STR, -2 DEX, -2 INT, -2 CHA?

Thanks. I appreciate any input. I don't think this is a radical change, but a variant like this could really immediately add a serious layer of depth to a homebrew races without adding much work at all for the DM.

Thanks again!

 

[Nifft]

IMHO a +2 to a mental stat is never balanced at LA +0.
That race immediately becomes a significantly better spellcaster. Better than any other race.

Regarding +Str / -Dex, I'd say it's balanced. Dex is very useful (not just for AC).

Cheers, -- N

 

[Nyeshet]

Racial ability score modification is something of a tricky issue. Due to how d20 is set up all WotC books and even many third party works all insist that a +2 to a mental score is unbalanced without LA due to its empowerment upon spellcasters. It affects spells save DCs, bonus spells, and more besides.

So while most will play with the physical ability scores in a +2/-2 fashion, mental scores are rarely touched without notable penalties - and sometimes even then they require LA. Also, using a Half-Orc as an example is not necessarily workable as they are arguably weak already. A Halfling, with Str -2, Dex +2, would change to Str +0, Dex +0 as a Mountainous variant. With all the rest they have, are they balanced at first level? Probably.