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Message: <blockquote data-quote="FreeTheSlaves" data-source="post: 2482960" data-attributes="member: 9952">You need to understand that any given bonus implicitly implies a certain class to be taken that is optimal: str for barbarian, cha for sorcerer, etc...Then you need to look at the corresponding penalty & how it applies to this class choice: "+2 str for a barbarian & has a -2 to cha, um well that is just my intimidate skill, I'll take this!" Clearly a single penalty to charisma is not a balance in itself to a bonus to str; adding a -2 penalty to int is balancing for the fighter (with their tiny 2 skill points per level) but leaves ranger & barbarian as reasonably good options, barbarian especially because as mentioned it almost has no use for charisma & has a decent # of skill points (4) anyway.Remember to always look at the 'optimal build', if you balance a race by a suboptimal build then you are setting up your game to be dominated by this race as everyone picks it: CR, player choice & thus balance all get put under pressure creating a compounding state of imbalances.A little secret courtesy of Andy Collins & SKR, the core races are supposed to be the first choice of players. Core in this respect implies that these races a good deal to pick over any non-core race. New +0ECL races like in Eberron are built favourably like this too, so as to make them 'core' within their logical setting. All core races other than human & half elf come hardwired with their favoured class in mind, they are supposed to make good versions of their favoured class (with the elf being getting hard done by admittedly). So then if we now consider the mental boost stat boost we can confidently state that this race will likely be a paladin, sorcerer, bard, wizard, monk or cleric. What then will balance this? As Scion alluded to, a penalty to dex is a perfect balance to almost any bonus but will likely make the race default to a (heavily armoured) cleric unless the bonus is intelligence.The point I am trying to make is that a +2 here does not automatically balance with a -2 there in theory & in practice; there are many subtleties that need to be put into context with what the race is supposed to be like. Yes there is a table in the dmg to balance racial bonuses but just like a certain magic item table, if followed slavishly, it will kill your campaign. Don't believe me? Well lurk in the "what's a dm to do?" WotC forums for a while.</blockquote>

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