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View Full Version : [3.5] Help me brew up some races



Keinnicht
2012-01-26, 03:35 PM
So, I'm working on a campaign setting, and have a couple ideas for races that have been bouncing around in my head for awhile. Here's what I'm trying to make, along with vague ideas for them:

1. A race of playable giants. Possibly two. "Playable" in this instance means "no racial hit dice, no more than +2 LA. Ideally +0." If anyone has a link to a balanced +0 la giant race, it'd be awesome.


2. Smart kobolds. I don't know why, but I've always liked kobolds. So I thought I might make some variant kobolds that are also descended from dragons - but kept draconic intellects. I have some vague fluff and crunch for them:

-For stat adjustments, +6 int, -2 wis, -2 cha, -2 str. Basically they're incredibly smart, but sort of abrasive, absent-minded professor types. -2 strength because they're small. And also nerds.

-20' land speed

-small size

-No natural armor bonus

-Yes, they're more powerful than regular kobolds. Making kobolds that are playable requires making them more powerful

-Very small population, mainly concentrated in one city. Not welcoming of outsiders at all. At all.

-Said city contains some of the (if not the) best libraries, laboratories, etc. in the multiverse. Naturally they almost never share.

-Generally evil, but not in a "for the evulz" or a "right thing, wrong reasons" way. More of a "Use the souls of sentient beings to power a lawn mower? ALRIGHT, LET'S SEE IF IT WORKS!" kind of way.

One way to put it, if this makes sense, is that their evil springs more from an overabundance of curiosity and a deficit of ethics, rather than a concerted effort to be evil.

They generally consider themselves to be good or neutral (Most of them are honest, don't worship evil gods, don't steal, don't murder without justification, etc.) but are prone to extreme lapses stemming from their poor judgment ("Huh. I suppose I am depriving that soul of his eternal reward by using him to power my lawn mower. I never thought about it like that.")

-Comparatively high level of technology, sort of a magi-tech kind of thing. Since they're not very open, the technology won't be pervasive or damage the general sword-and-sorcery aspect of the game. I just figure being able to throw in a three foot tall, insane lizard piloting a giant magical Exalted-style mech (or whatever) will be amusing.

-I may add warforged to this setting, with them being created by these guys as slaves. I want to give the impression that what they were trying to make was something that resembled a Roomba, but then one of them said "Hey! Let's make them sentient!" and everyone went along with it without thinking about the possible ethical issues this raised.

-PCs of this race could be on missions to find new information and knowledge to add to the libraries, could be exiles, could be searching for new materials, etc.

-Favored class: Either wizard, or I may rework on some homebrew rules I came up with awhile ago for a inventor class. It was sort of like a spellcasting class, but with technological inventions.


As for the giant race, I'm not sure. The thing is, Wizards seems to consider being large by itself to merit +1 LA, which I'm honestly not sure I agree with, given that the penalties for being large aren't really that great.

Yitzi
2012-01-26, 04:16 PM
Let's see...

1. If by "giant" you just mean the giant type and being sort of big, the half-giant (available in the psionics section of the SRD) is just what you're looking for. Immunity to things like Hold Person and Charm Person means that you can't really get LA +0 with a giant. (If you want, you can make a "lesser half-giant" the same way as the planetouched races, changing the type to humanoid for an LA +0 version. I'd remove the ability bonuses too, as Powerful Build is pretty good for LA +0.)
If you want something that's actually Large size, then it would be the "cheapest" Large creature by far AFAIK, and for good reason; reach is quite significant. Even for something with horribly low strength for a full-blooded giant, you'd need a pretty big (action-economy level) penalty to offset the effect and stay at LA +2; something like the Single Actions Only effect of a zombie or some sort of hit recovery mechanic (i.e. dazed after getting hit).
2. Your kobolds are stronger than the standard one, and +6 to an ability score is quite major. I'd say if you want the +6 INT give them -4 STR, -2 CON, -2 WIS, -2 CHA, and 20' speed (like a halfling, rather than 30' like a normal kobold). Or give them +1 LA, and then you can keep it at -2 STR and drop the CON penalty as well.

And large isn't worth +1 LA; it's worth (at least based on what I can see) +2 LA and several racial HD; the reason, as I said, is reach.

Togath
2012-01-26, 05:01 PM
half giant is fine, I'd say it's only really worth at most +1 lvl adjustment, giant type aint that good, and certainly isn't worth +1 lvl adjustment by itself, nor is large worth +2 level adjustment and racial hd, large just isn't that good beyond gaining a small increase in damage from weapons, also, edit; nevermind, half giant is only +1 level adjustment. The +6 int kobolds actually seem more useful then standard ones in my opinion, as the normal ones basically have -1 lvl adjustment due to poor stats(-2 as your total ability modifier is not worth taking just for +1 natural armour).

Keinnicht
2012-01-27, 03:30 PM
2. Your kobolds are stronger than the standard one,

Well, yeah. I mean, the standard kobold should have -2 LA, IMO. It's pathetic.



and +6 to an ability score is quite major. I'd say if you want the +6 INT give them -4 STR, -2 CON, -2 WIS, -2 CHA, and 20' speed (like a halfling, rather than 30' like a normal kobold). Or give them +1 LA, and then you can keep it at -2 STR and drop the CON penalty as well.


The 20' speed thing is helpful. I hadn't actually recalled that kobolds had a 30' speed, I assumed it was 20.

I'll consider the suggestion. Based on other races, though, it seems that a bonus to strength is considered to be worth about twice as much as a bonus to a mental stat (Half-orcs, for example, have +2 str, -2 int, -2 wis) so I figured that'd work out.

Thanks for the help with the giants.