jmucchiello
Hero
When you say "a feat" do you mean "A specific for that race feat?" "A feat to choose from among N feats appropriate to the race?" or "A feat from any source?"
Sight unseen, this is probably how I would make use of this material in my games to modify the +2/+1 racial ASIs, assuming compatible race/heritage and background:
- Heritage has a feat instead of ASI
- Culture contains the non 'biological' aspects of what was once 'race'
- Background has two +1 ASIs, one set, one floating
Oh, I'm not arguing it should be in background, either. I think your point is exactly right: no matter where you put them it biases choices, and I don't think that contributes anything to the game. Maybe background would be slightly less bad because background isn't as impactful of a choice as race, but it's still totally unnecessary.
The one exception might be to just put the ASIs in the class. But I'd rather just get rid of any ASIs that are tied to character choices and just put it all into the ability score generation system. Either after-the-fact (i.e. floating ASIs) or a score generation system that produces slightly higher stats overall.
Does that mean you're replacing one of the existing ASI's with a feat in heritage, or is it going somewhere else?So here's what our first playtest packet might look like (we've started work on it).
NOTE -- playtest packet means we're looking for the good and the bad. If it doesn't work for you, that's data. If it does, that's also data. Above all, we want data.
So...
The model looks like this:
- Heritage has a feat instead of ASI
- Culture contains the non 'biological' aspects of what was once 'race'
- Background has two +1 ASIs, one set, one floating
Heritage -- Elf - bio stuff, feat
...Culture -- wood elf
...Culture -- high elf
...Culture -- dark elf
...Culture -- (new elf)
Background - (inc ASIs)
+ some 'general' Cultures (like Cosmopolitan, Lone Wanderer, Nomad)
Any Heritage can take any Culture and any Background (if the [GM*] agrees).
We refer to these three building blocks as your 'Origin'. As in, everything before your first class level.
*Working on our term for that.
Never mind. Saw it.Does that mean you're replacing one of the existing ASI's with a feat in heritage, or is it going somewhere else?
That sounds dope AF, yo!So here's what our first playtest packet might look like (we've started work on it).
NOTE -- playtest packet means we're looking for the good and the bad. If it doesn't work for you, that's data. If it does, that's also data. Above all, we want data.
So...
The model looks like this:
- Heritage has a feat instead of ASI
- Culture contains the non 'biological' aspects of what was once 'race'
- Background has two +1 ASIs, one set, one floating
Heritage -- Elf - bio stuff, feat
...Culture -- wood elf
...Culture -- high elf
...Culture -- dark elf
...Culture -- (new elf)
Background - (inc ASIs)
+ some 'general' Cultures (like Cosmopolitan, Lone Wanderer, Nomad)
Any Heritage can take any Culture and any Background (if the [GM*] agrees).
We refer to these three building blocks as your 'Origin'. As in, everything before your first class level.
*Working on our term for that.
[GM*]
*Working on our term for that.
I have to say that as compromise suggestions go, this is a really good one. It allows a lot of a lot of flexibility but still offers a modicum of niche protection. To many people the niche of the species matters and is a part of the fantasy and appeal of the species. This way if you chose the 'strong species' you can make your character to be the strongest person in the party, if you choose the 'agile species' you can make them to be the most dexterous and so forth. But others can still get something of similar value without being able to exactly match the niche in the same way.Another thread mentioned doing away with the +2 racial and giving everyone a feat at 1st level. One of the feats could be the +2 Dex for elves or +2 Con for dwarves. This could be a decent compromise. I do not think I would be for a general +2 to anything and should keep the theme for each race.