Would racial power lists work?

[Rechan]

Sounds like taking the Racial paragon paths a step further.

I honestly would offer the racial powers in addition to class powers.

Either:
1) Racial powers of level X, Y, and Z. At each level, your racial ability Upgrades.
2) You just get an additional racial power. This will make these PCs somewhat more powerful compared to Core, but I have no problem with that.
3) Sort of a middle ground between 1 and 2: that instead of Upgrading your racial power, you can swap it out for a different power that's themed for your race.

Additionally, I have considered making a suite of racial power options you could pick at level 1. For instance, if you want to be an Eladrin, but instead of Teleporting, you want something that feels more fey-like.

 

[Rechan]

Hey Morrus: Any thoughts about maybe not always doing racial powers, but adding aditional effects to the normal powers (almost like the fighter weapon stuff.)

Sounds like the gladiator feats to me.

 

[hafrogman]

I think it could be a very interesting idea. But a whole extra class-load of feats would be a lot to create and differentiate. At first I was going to suggest just one at every power level. Probably skipping level 1 at-wills. But I think the attack powers could be some of the most difficult to create and make work with a wide variety of classes.

But I still think they'd be a great fit with utility powers. They'd still give flavor and variety to the different races. And you're only trying to create a dozen or so powers for each race.

 

[Nellisir]

I think it's a good idea, and shouldn't really be all that hard. Given how much stuff was created for 3.5, I think it's pretty unlikely that 4e has hit the limits after less than a year.

 

[Beckett]

Hey Morrus: Any thoughts about maybe not always doing racial powers, but adding aditional effects to the normal powers (almost like the fighter weapon stuff.)

There are actually some powers in Martial Power that work this way; one off the top of my head lets the fighter give an ally a +4 AC bonus, or +5 if the fighter is a dragonborn (most of the feats are also race specific).

I do wish we got to see more racial stuff. Early previews seemed to indicate that race would play a much larger part in a character than it does.

Would it work to follow the multiclass rules on this? I'm thinking more of the spiked chain mastery line in the Shardar-Kai article- one feat to gain some bonuses, additional feats to swap out powers for spiked chain powers. I figure you'd want to watch and make sure a character can't cripple his role with too many racial powers.

 

[Morrus]

Here's a really rough start. It's just notes, really, which I hastily typed as I thought. Don't worry too much about the numbers - the Dragonspit, for example, needs to either be an Encounter power or the damage toned down; it's more just a concept piece. I'm quite enjoying the process so far, though, so I may keep going until I've done the Dragonborn at the very least.

 

[balard]

I like the idea. Power that get an boost for certain races, and even exclusive power for certain races(like dwarf fighter powers). I don't mind some power creep to make the races more relevant.

Another thing that could improve is some ways to recharge the racial power, in theme of the race. If the elf hit with a 16 or more, if the dwarf kills an orc, if the halfling pass through the space of a big creature, or the eladrin who lost his last encounter power.