Would This Aquatic Race Be Balanced?

[Kaodi]

Would these statistics be balanced, weak or strong for a LA +0 aquatic race?

Medium Humanoid (Aquatic): -2 Dex, +2 Con; Spd 20 ft., Swim 30 ft.; +1 Natural Armour; +8 Racial Bonus to Swim Checks; Amphibious; +4 Racial Bonus vs. Poison; 1d3 Bite Attack; Favoured Class: Sorcerer; Does not double armour check penalty to swim checks; No spell failure chance for casting while wearing light armour.

I am looking at creating a new aquatic race for Eberron, with the hawkbill and dragon turtles serving as inspiration for its abilities and appearance.

 

[GlassJaw]

Absolutely not, especially with the removal of armor check penalty while swimming and no spell failure chance in light armor. Those are very powerful abilities.

Drop both of those and then add some kind of "out of water" penalty and you're in the +0 EL ballpark.

 

[Arkhandus]

It's kind of close to LA +0, but using the core races as-written, it's too much. Remove the last two traits and the natural armor bonus, then it'll be fine at LA +0. Maybe give them a free copy of the Toughness feat instead of the natural armor, to maintain the 'really resilient' aspect.

If you're adamant on keeping the natural armor, I'd suggest removing the bite attack and the save bonus versus poison.

I don't think they need any out-of-water drawbacks. At most, maybe they need to drink twice as much water as a human does, when not in aquatic environments.

 

[Kaodi]

Perhaps I worded that a little poorly. I did not mean to say that you completely eliminate the armour check penalty for swim, I meant that the penalty would not be doubled. So, for instance, chainmail would remain a -5 penalty, instead of a -10 penalty. I see this ability as basically being the equivalent of the dwarves ability to keep moving their speed in heavy armour and with heavy loads.

The spell-failure thing could go, I guess, though I think I would consider making it racial feat, or line of feats.

As for an out of water penalty, perhaps I could restrict them to hustle, being unable to run properly.

 

[Arkhandus]

They wouldn't wear chainmail underwater, though, anyway. It'd rust over and be bothersome after that. Their environment will already be putting them mostly in Leather, Padded, Hide, and other such materials for armor (like Shell, Bone, and Coral armor, as presented in the Arms & Equipment Guide). Which will usually have lower armor check penalties. And their +8 racial bonus is already a sufficient benefit for any tricky swimming (they won't need Swim checks anyway except for tricky stuff, because of their racial swim speed).

And anyway, the ability just doesn't make much sense. Unless the armor itself is somewhat bouyant (like Wooden armor in the A&EG), it should have the normal impact on swimming ability.

The 20 ft. base speed is sufficient mobility reduction on land.

 

[Kaodi]

The chainmail was probably a bad example, but leather, studded leather, hide and maybe scale.

The idea was that since they were based loosley on turtles (but without actual shells), that they would have something of an affinity for moving about in armour, which is like a substitute for a natural armour they no longer have. Shelled aquatic creatures with high natural armour bonuses take get the +8 bonus and take no penalty whatsoever for their " armour " , so I was thinking that this race would take only half the usual penalty because of their adeptness. In absolute terms, it may seem that the +8 bonus is plenty to offset the penalty, and compared to the swimming ability of creatures without the +8 bonus it is, but I see the issue as swim checks relative to other aquatic creatures, who all have the +8 bonus.

I can tone down the bite and poison resistance as well. They are meant to be more flavourful, because snappers are known for their wicked bite, and I was reading that hawkbills eat stuff that is extremely toxic for everything else.

So, so far, maybe this.

Medium Humanoid (Aquatic): -2 Dex, +2 Con; Spd 20 ft., Swim 30 ft.; +1 Natural Armour; +8 Racial Bonus to Swim Checks; Amphibious; +2 Racial Bonus vs. Poison; 1d2 +1/2 Str Bite Attack; Favoured Class: Sorcerer; Armour check penalty for swimming is the normal value, not doubled.