+2 Constitution, -2 Dexterity: Dwarves are strong and sturdy, but not as quick or agile as other races.Medium: As Medium-size creatures, dwarves have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size. Dwarven base speed is 20 feet. However, dwarves can move at this speed even when wearing medium or heavy armor or when carrying a medium or heavy load (unlike other creatures, whose speed is reduced in such situations). Darkvision: Dwarves can see in the dark up to 60 feet. Darkvision is black and white only, but it is otherwise like normal sight, and dwarves can function just fine with no light at all.+2 racial bonus on saving throws against poisons, spells, and spell-like effects.Stability: A dwarf gains a +4 bonus on ability checks made to resist being bull rushed or tripped when standing on the ground (but not when climbing, flying, riding, or otherwise not standing firmly on the ground).+1 morale bonus on all checks directly related to their focus. This includes a skill bonus, an attack bonus, a damage bonus, a saving throw bonus, and even a bonus to manifestation or spell save DCs.Weapon Familiarity: To dwarves, the waraxe is treated as a martial rather than exotic weapon. The waraxe is more common among dwarves than among other races.Automatic Languages: Common and Dwarven. Bonus Languages: Elven, Giant, Gith, Pterran, Tarek, Thri-kreen.Favored Class: Fighter.+2 Dexterity, -2 Constitution: Elves are extraordinarily agile, but less muscular or healthy than humans.Medium-size. Like other medium-sized creatures, elves have neither benefits nor penalties due to size.Elven base speed is 40 feet.Low-light vision: Elves can see twice as far as a human in starlight, moonlight, torchlight, and similar conditions of poor illumination. They retain the ability to distinguish color and detail under these conditions.Weapon Proficiency: Elves receive the Martial Weapon Proficiency feats for longsword, rapier, longbow (including composite longbow), and shortbow (including composite shortbow) as bonus feats. Elves steem the arts of swordplay and archery; so all elves are familiar with these weapons.Elves gain a +2 racial bonus to Listen, Search and Spot checks.Elves have a natural resistance to extreme temperatures and aren't adversely affected by the heat of the day or the chill of the night. Elves are unbothered by very hot or cold conditions, and treat extreme heat or cold as if it were only very hot or cold. They suffer from abysmal heat normally. (See DMG page 86 for rules on temperature affects.) However, this resistance doesn't extend to magical or supernatural heat and cold. After only a minute of warm-up and a Fortitude save (DC 10), an elf can induce "the elven run". The elven run allows elves hustle for long distances as easily as a human can move normally, and can run for long distances as easily as a human can hustle. Each day an elf continues the elven run, he must make an additional Fortitude save with a +1 DC for each day beyond the first, to maintain "the elven run" state. Once the elf fails a Fortitude save, he loses elven run benefits and suffers the same penalties for extended hustling and running as described in the Player's Handbook. After a full day's rest, assuming that all temporary damage is healed, the elf may attempt again to induce an elf run state. Elves in a group of two or more add their leader's charisma bonus to their Fortitude saves related to movement.Automatic Languages: Common and Elven. Bonus Languages: Dwarven, Gith, Jozhal, Pterran, Scrab, Slig, Tari and Thri-kreen. Elves commonly know the language of their enemies and of their trading partners.Favored class: Rogue.+2 Dexterity, -2 Charisma: Half-elves are limber like their elven parents, but their upbringing leaves then with a poor sense of self, and affects their relations with others.Medium-size. Like other medium-sized creatures, half-elves have neither benefits nor penalties due to size.Half-elven base speed is 30 feet.Half-elves have low light vision as described in the Player's Handbook.Animal Companion: Half-elves may begin play with an animal companion selected from the druid’s list. This functions like the druid's animal companion ability, however the animal’s power does not increase as a half-elf advances in level. If a half-elf gains animal companion as a class feature, the creature gains abilities as if the half-elf’s were 1 druid level (or 2 ranger levels) higher than he actually is.Half-elves gain a +1 racial bonus to Listen, Search and Spot checks.+2 racial bonus on Handle Animal and Survival checks.Elven Blood: For all special abilities and effects, a half-elf is considered an elf. Half-elves, for example, can use elven weapons and magic items with racially specific elven powers as if they were elves.Automatic Languages: Common and Elven. Bonus Languages: Any. Half-evles are well traveled, and have the potential to know any number of unusual tongues.Favored Class: Any.+10 Strength, -2 Dexterity, +4 Constitution, -4 Intelligence, -4 Wisdom, -4 Charisma: Half-giants are renowned for their great strength and dull wits.Type: Giant. A half-giant character begins play with Hit Dice 4d8, wich gives him a +3 base attack bonus; base saves Fort +4, Ref +1, Will +1; two feats of choice; and skill points equal to 7 x (2 + Int modifier, minimum 1). Its class skills as a half-giant are Climb, Jump, Listen, and Spot. Note that half-giants do not receive the x4 bonus to starting skill points when they take their first class level.Large: As Large creatures, half-giants receive a -1 size penalty to Armor Class, a -1 size penalty on attack rolls, a –4 size penalty on Hide checks, and a +4 bonus on grapple checks. They must use much larger weapons than humans would, and their lifting and carrying limits are double those of Medium-size characters. In addition, half-giants have increased reach of 10 feet in melee combat as described on page 132 of the Player's Handbook.Half-giant base speed is 40 feet. Natural Armor +2: Because of their tough skins, half-giants are more resistant to blows. Proficient with all simple weapons and greatclub. Proficient with light armor and shields.Axis Alignment: One aspect of the half-giant’s alignment must be fixed, and chosen during character creation. The other half must be chosen when they awake each morning. They are only bound to that alignment until they sleep again. For example, a half-giant may have a fixed lawful alignment. Every morning, he must choose to be lawful good, lawful neutral or lawful evil. This alignment change is not mandatory.Automatic Languages: Common. Bonus Languages: Dwarven, Gith, Giant and Tarek. Half-giants will often pick up a race’s tongue if imitating then for long enough.Favored Class: Brute.Level Adjustment +2: Half-giants are more powerful than the other races of the Tablelands and gain levels accordingly.+2 Dexterity, -2 Strength: Halflings are swift, silent and stealthy, but they are small and therefore not as strong as other humanoids.Small: As Small creatures, halflings gain a +1 size bonus to Armor Class, a +1 size bonus on attack rolls, and a +4 size bonus on Hide checks, but they must use smaller weapons than humans use, and their lifting and carrying limits are threequarters of those of Medium-size characters.Halfling base speed is 20 feet.+1 racial bonus on all saving throws against: Halflings are surprisingly capable of avoiding mishaps.+2 morale bonus on saving throws against fear.+2 racial bonus on Climb, Jump, Listen and Move Silently checks.Halflings may take the Scent special ability as a feat.Weapon Focus: Halflings add +1 to all attack rolls with thrown weapons and slings. These are common weapons in feral halfling society, and many halflings are taught to throw at an early age. This bonus does not stack with the Weapon Focus Feat.Automatic Languages: Halfling. Bonus Languages: Common, Dwarven, Elven, Gith, Rhul-thaun, Thri-kreen and Yuan-ti.Favored Class: Ranger.+4 Strength, +2 Constitution, -2 Charisma: Combining the human height with the dwarven musculature, muls end up stronger than either parent race, but their status as born-to-be slaves makes them sullen and difficult to be friend.Medium-size. As a Medium-sized creature, muls have no special bonusesor penalties due to size.Mul base speed is 30 feet. Darkvision: Muls can see in the dark up to 30 feet. Darkvision is black and white only, but is otherwise like normal sight, and muls can function just fine with no light at all.Tireless: Muls get a +4 racial bonus for performing a physical action that extends over a period of time (running, swimming, holding breath, starvation, thrist, and so on). This ability stacks with the Endurance feat. This bonus may also be applied to savings throws against spells and magical effects that cause weakness, fatigue, exhaustion or enfeeblement.Extended Activity: Muls may engage in up to 12 hours of hard labor or forced march without suffering from fatigue. Dwarven Blood: For all special abilities and effects, a mul is considered a dwarf. Muls, for example, can use dwarvish weapons and magic items with racially specific dwarven powers as if they were dwarves.Automatic Languages: Common. Bonus Languages: Dwarven, Elven, Gith, Giant and Tarek.Favored class: Gladiator.Level adjustment +1. Muls are more powerful than the other races of the Tablelands and gain levels accordingly.+4 Dexterity, -2 Intelligence, +2 Wisdom, Charisma -4. Thri-kreen are fast, but their alien mindset makes it difficult for them to relate to humanoids; furthermore, their "clutch-mind" instincts leave them with a poor sense of themselves as individuals.Type: Monstrous Humanoid. A thri-kreen character begins play with Hit Dice 2d8, wich gives it a +2 base attack bonus; base saves Fort +0, Ref +3, Will +3; one starting feat of choice; and skill points equal to 5 x (2 + Int modifier, minimum 1). Its class skills as a thri-kreen are Balance, Climb, Hide, Jump, Listen, and Spot.Size: Medium. Thri-kreen receive no advantages or penalties due to their size.Thri-kreen base speed is 40 feet. Darkvision: Thri-kreens can see in the dark up to 60 feet. Darkvision is black and white only, but it is otherwise like normal sight, and thri-kreens can function just fine with no light at all.Natural Armor: Thri-kreen are covered in a naturally tough chitin, giving them a +3 bonus to their Armor Class.Natural Weapons: They have four primary claw attacks wich deal 1d4 damage, and a secondary poisoned bite attack wich also deals 1d4 damage.Immunity to Sleep: Since thri-kreen do not sleep, they are immune to magic sleep effects. A thri-kreen spellcaster or psionic still requires 8 hours of rest before preparing spells or recovering power points.Leap: A thri-kreen is a natural jumper. It gain a +30 competence bonus on all jump checks, and its maximum jumping distance is not limited by height. Poison: A thri-kreen delivers its poison (Fortitude save DC 11 + Con modifier) with a successful bite attack. The initial and secondary damage are the same (paralysis for 2d6 minutes). A thri-kreen produces enough poison for one bite per day. Dodge Missiles: Thri-kreen gains the benefit of the Deflect Arrows feat. weapon Proficiency: Thri-kreens receive the Exotic Weapon Proficiency feats for the chatkcha and gythka as bonus feats. Automatic Languages: Thri-Kreen. Bonus Languages: Common, Dwarven, Elven, Jozhal, Scrab, Tari and Tohr-kreen.
Favored Class: Psychic Warrior.
Level adjustment +1. The mantis warriors are more powerful than the other races of the Tablelands and gain levels accordingly.
Originally posted by Kelsen
Originally posted by Shei-Nad
Personally, I went with bigger racial adjustment, based on original DS works and on the fact that I just find +/-2 to be too much of a minor adjustment, anyways. Its much more accurate, fun and flavorable to have races with bigger adjustments, in my view anyways.
The problem with "many" adjustments (ie, twiddling with 4 stats) as I observed it from back when the athas.org conversion actually featured such things was that, even while (strictly speaking) balanced, they tended to really hyperfocus a race on just a small handful of classes.
Whether or not that's a bad thing, I don't know. We shifted towards the core number of ability adjustments when we moved other things back towards core. I wasn't driving the decision to kill the "many" adjustments on the races, but I've never really been upset about it either.
As for high ... well, when you start getting races with high ability score adjustments, you either compensate with cripplingly low adjustments for the other stats, or with level adjustments. It'd be an extremly odd game, where nearly all of your core races are at +1 LA. In some cases, that missing HD really hurts, especially at lower levels.
On the other hand, I wouldn't mind seeing the HG with a higher strength, provided the half-giant were of a higher LA as well ... But he's already quite formidable -- and toned down, in order to keep it playable at reasonable levels. But I don't really belive that it's only an LA +1 creature. (That said, we're just going to standardize on whatever implemetation of the race is actually published in the PsiHB.)
Just some thoughts, without having looked over the traits much. It's, erm, early.
Originally posted by Shei-Nad
Personally, I went with bigger racial adjustment, based on original DS works and on the fact that I just find +/-2 to be too much of a minor adjustment, anyways. Its much more accurate, fun and flavorable to have races with bigger adjustments, in my view anyways.
For the most part I'm going to have to agree with Flip here, especially after running a few campaigns in 3.0/3.5, one of which was an Epic campaign that was doomed from the start.
Anyways, I've looked at most of your rules, and while I don''t agree with the very high stat adjustments you so like to give to the races, I do like the fact that everyone has psion as a favored class. Whether that's a balancing issue and should require a LA adjustment or something else to balance it out I don't know, doubtful since everyone gets it across the board and it's more of a campaign setting flavor thing. I would take it one step further though and give them a psionic class based on the race, like psychic warrior for TK instead of psion, etc.
Some of the racial abilities, like the whole killing some of the Aarokocra's dex when on the ground is a little silly and too much paperwork IMO, though I do feel that the movement reduction is appropriate.
Other than what was mentioned above, I like what you have done with the races.
The feats look great, and there are plenty of them.
Concentrate fire I would mirror more to the Aid combat ability, but other than that, I like what I see so far, great job.
I'll take a look at this more as I start preparing for what I'm going to be using in my Dark Sun campaigns from now on. :D
Keep up the good work.