PDA

View Full Version : D&D 5e/Next Homebrew Races 2: The Refinening! (5e experts, help me balance these races?)



Arracor
2014-12-22, 07:21 AM
Some of you may remember me from my Homebrew Races contest thread. Well, I've been working on statting those races out, then decided to start using 5e as my main system; so, I converted/reworked them to conform to 5e. Because of my total lack of experience with 5e it's impossible for me to make judgement calls about balance. That's where you lovely folks come in!

These races are (at least initially) intended for a self-contained world, where none of the PHB races are around. So while balancing these ones with 5e as a whole is ideal, my main goal is to make sure they're balanced against each other. That said, let's get started shall we?

So there are 9 races in total. 5 are the remnant of an ancient empire, while 4 are races that have integrated into society in the hundreds and hundreds of years after that empire's fall. After each race's name, (but before their stats,) I'll provide a little blurb about them that describes them and why I designed their stats the way I did.


Dragonspawn

Dragonspawn are similar in idea to the PHB's Dragonborn, but here they're far more malleable. As they level, Dragonspawn characters choose draconic features that suit their playstyle. I tried to keep them all roughly equal in value, though I'm sure that can be balanced better.

Medium Humanoid (Draconic)
Speed 30ft
+1 to any 2 different stats
Dragon Type: At 1st level, Dragonspawn choose a type of dragon to emulate. This determines the element of their breath weapon and resistance type.
Aspects of Dragonkind: Dragonspawn become more and more like true dragons as they grow in power. At every level in which they increase ability scores, a Dragonspawn chooses one of the following Aspects. Each Aspect can only be chosen once.
Dragon Breath: (15ft cone, 1d6+1d6 every 4 levels, recharge 5-6, DC 8+Con+Proficiency vs Dex, chosen element)
Dragon Wings: Flight 30ft, Wing Attack (Str/day, 30ft Cone, DC 8+Str+Proficiency vs Str, Prone)
Dragon Scales: +2 Natural Armor, Resistance (chosen element)
Dragon Fury: Bite (1d6 Piercing), 2 Claws (1d4 Slashing), Tail (1d8 Bludgeoning), Multiattack (Bite, 2 Claws, Tail)
Dragon Fright: Frightful Presence (60ft, DC 8+Cha+Proficiency vs Wis, Frightened until save is successful)
Dragon Senses: Darkvision 60ft, Blindsight 30ft, Advantage on Perception to hear or smell
Dragon Magic: 1 Sorcerer cantrip, Identify Int/day, Advantage on saves against Charmed
Dragon Cunning: Proficiency in any 3 Skills, Advantage on Insight



Skyborne

A sort of elementally air-aligned race, I wanted them to be the primary flying choice, while also having an interesting feature to distinguish them from the others. My main goal here is to balance their flight capability so that they aren't -too- attractive a choice, which is also a concern with Dragonspawn...

Small Humanoid (Air)
Speed 25ft, Fly 30ft
-2 Str, -2 Int, +2 Wis
Resistance (Electricity)
Wispform: Wis/day, 1 minute, affected as Blur spell, gain Hover.
Slipstream: Skyborne can take an action to attempt to pull a target within 60ft towards themselves. (DC 8+Wis+Proficiency vs Str or Dex) If the target is within 30ft, they have Disadvantage on their save. On a failed save, the target is pulled 10ft closer. This ability functions on targets up to 2 sizes larger.



Arcanae

A race of beings literally composed of arcane magic. Their bodies are translucent, and filled with colorful patterns of the 9 schools of arcana. They have no special movement mode or unique ability, but they do get some limited casting ability of their own choosing, allowing players to roll say, a fighter with some Spellsword potential without having to go Eldritch for it, or burn a feat. Notably, this race has no negative physical stat modifiers; their balance comes from not having the unique special abilities the other races possess.

Medium Humanoid
Speed 30ft
+1 Int, -2 Wis, +2 Cha
Magic Resistance: Arcanae have advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.
Murai: The patterns of magical energy inside an Arcanae, called Murai, grant them some innate arcane potential. Each day they gain 2 racial spell slots, and choose 2 schools of magic. They can cast cantrips from those schools, chosen from the Sorcerer spell list. At every level in which ability scores are raised, the Arcanae gains access to a higher level of Sorcerer spells from which to choose. These spells are always cast at the lowest possible level.



Nevigne

This one was a bit harder to convert to 5e, since types (like Plant) no longer have the standardized suite of special traits they did in 3.5. This race has the innate Climb speed, some decent resistances, a couple flavorful but not overly powerful specials, and one unique ability of decent usability. Spiderclimb is another of those highly valuable movement types, so I hope I managed to balance this one without making them either too attractive, or not interesting enough.

Medium Humanoid (Plant)
Speed 25ft, Climb 25ft
+2 Wis
Spider Climb
Resistance (Light)
Vulnerability (Fire)
Advantage on saves vs Charmed, Poisoned, Stunned
Advantage on Acrobatics checks vs Grapple and Shove
Pacifying Spores: (1/day, 10ft radius, DC 8+Con+Proficiency vs Con, Stunned for 1 minute or until save is made)
Photosynthesis: Nevigne heal twice as much HP when they spend HD to recover health while resting in consistent sunlight, and need not eat as long as they get at least 1 hour of sunlight a day.
Treespeech: Nevigne can freely communicate with plants, as with the Speak With Plants spell.



Bailecroi

Easily the most mechanically tricky. I like to call this race's special trait 'discount lichdom'. Of all of them, this one's actually not quite done; there's important char-gen factors I badly need help figuring out how to stat out. The simplest way to describe this race is, they're a house spirit that can possess a custom-built doll called a Shell to go out and adventure with and get stronger. Aside from other lore motivations to do so, they reproduce by, upon reaching a certain level of power, splitting off a part of their soul and imbuing it into a structure which then becomes their 'child'. This race is the 'living construct' race, so it has no actual special abilities but instead has a suite of resistances/immunities, including against typical adventurer death. The balance to THAT needs help easing into the game mechanics, but basically those Shells are very expensive to produce, and if their Shell dies and they have no replacement then they can't exactly go out and rejoin the adventuring party until they can have a new Shell built. (Suggestions more than welcome, here.)

Medium Construct (Living)
Speed 30ft
Does not require air, food, drink, or sleep
Immunity (Poison)
Immune to Blinded, Deafened, Exhausted, Poisoned, Stunned, Unconscious
Home Is Where the Heart Is: A Bailecroi’s soul resides in its home, not in its shell. It is always aware of any damage to its structure, and as an action can shift its attention to its home form; the shell is effectively Unconscious until the Bailecroi returns to it. The destruction of a shell does not mean death, merely inconvenience. A Bailecroi does not truly die until its home form is destroyed, and it may at any time inhabit a properly attuned shell.
Bloodless Life: Bailecroi reduced to 0HP never have to roll death saves and are considered automatically stable, though their shell can still be destroyed by taking failed saves from damage.


Those were the 5 Empire races; now for the 4 Ascended ones.


Sylethans

Simply put: snake people. Aesthetically, imagine the male Naga from World of Warcraft. No special movement type, but they're the fastest race. They have minor natural armor, are good at lying no matter what class they choose, and have 2 strong natural attacks, including one with a nasty poison. If anything, I think this one might be a teensy bit underpowered when compared to the others..?

Medium Humanoid
Speed 35ft
+1 Dex, -2 Int, +2 Cha
+1 Natural Armor
Resistance (Poison)
Darkvision
Conniving: Proficiency in Insight and Deception
Sunlight Sensitivity. While in sunlight, the Sylethan has disadvantage on attack rolls, as well as on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on sight.
Tail Slap (1d8 Bludgeoning)
Bite (1d6 Piercing; can apply Paralytic Venom on hit)
Paralytic Venom (1d8 Poison, Con save vs Poisoned, Con/day minimum 1)



Starlings

I'll be the first to admit, they could use a better name. This is the Swimming race, with a bevy of aquatic-themed abilities. They're naturally good at grappling, and can put out decent hurts for free while doing so. They notably lack the Humanoid type, providing them with some subtle immunities to common mind-affecting spells to reflect their -weird- nature; they're easily the most physically unnatural, looking essentially like a 6-limbed starfish standing on 2 legs. In an aquatic environment they shine, and everywhere else I think (hope) their racial talents are useful enough to make them a fair choice. Another contender for 'potentially underpowered'.

Medium Monstrosity (Water)
Speed 25ft, Swim 60ft
+2 Str, -2 Cha
Amphibious
Vulnerability (Electricity)
Hydrated Vitality: Starlings heal 1HP per round when fully submerged in water.
Water Sense: Starlings gain Blindsight out to 60ft in water.
Multiple Limbs: Starlings can make up to 4 attacks per round with their tentacles (1d4 Bludgeoning). If 2 consecutive tentacles attacks hit, the Starling may initiate a Grapple as a free action.
Digestive Spray: Starlings may spend their action making an acid touch attack (1d8 Acid). This attack hits Grappled foes automatically.



Koromet

The earth-aligned race, originally created as a slave race of miners for the old Empire who have broken free after its fall. This is the Burrowing race, and the naturally tankiest. They eat rocks and naturally process valuable metals in their furnace-like stomachs. This has the AWESOME side effect of granting them a special 'attack', in which they can make themselves vomit goddamn lava on their enemies at the cost of temporary nausea. Lava being the scary stuff it is, this ability is pretty damn strong starting out. It may require some balancing, probably in the realm of further limiting how often it can be used, or stacking additional penalties on the user. This race possibly has uncannily high utility, being natural smelters, diggers, tanks, and having a both powerful and -cool- special ability, not to mention their decent but not especially noteworthy natural attacks. They're slow, and take mental penalties, but that may not be enough of a balance.

Medium Humanoid (Earth)
Speed 25ft, Burrow 20ft
+2 Con, -2 Int, -2 Cha
+2 Natural Armor
Burrow: Koromet can dig through earth up to solid rock.
Detect Metal: Koromet can sense the presence of metal within 30ft, as per the Detect Magic spell except that it can only be blocked by lead.
Vomit Lava: (3d8+1d8/4 levels Fire, DC 8+Con+Proficiency, Con/day, Poisoned until end of next turn)
2 Claws (1d6 Slashing)



Haaruq

Ok, let's be totally honest. These are straight-up ORCS. Or rather, half-orc stats, with the additional natural attack built in. Physically, imagine a shaggy, slightly more bestial orc with giant walrus tusks. I'm not at all worried about this race being too strong by 5e standards, but I'm a bit concerned about their standing amongst the other 9 races.

Medium Humanoid (Orc)
Speed 30ft
+2 Str, +1 Con
Darkvision 60ft
Menacing: Haaruq gain Advantage on Intimidation.
Relentless Endurance: Once per day, when a Haaruq is reduced to 0HP but not killed outright, it can drop to 1HP instead.
Savage Attacks: When a Haaruq scores a critical hit with a melee weapon attack, it can roll one of the weapon’s damage dice one additional time and add it to the extra damage of the critical hit.
Gore (1d8 Piercing)


So there you have it! Keep in mind the main goal here is to balance them all against each other, not necessarily against the PHB player races. However, that would be an added perk as long as it doesn't necessitate watering down their flavor. Suggestions and comments are of course always welcome, and if you can also help work out the kinks in the Bailecroi race's mechanics you'll have my purest gratitude. And maybe my firstborn.

Kryx
2014-12-23, 10:51 AM
These races are (at least initially) intended for a self-contained world, where none of the PHB races are around. So while balancing these ones with 5e as a whole is ideal, my main goal is to make sure they're balanced against each other.

I started going through your Dragonspawn and realized that it is massively powerful and not balanced at all. Some of the unbalanced factors are in comparison to the default races - which you aren't using so that is less of a concern, but many are just poor design (see AC boosts, Advantages on skills, recharge rates, multiattack, etc).
If you decide to take a second look and get rid of some of the elements that unbalance races and invalidate classes or the action economy I can take another look.

Some general design principles for races:

Do not give static bonuses to AC. Reason: This concept is gone from 5e and allowing static bumps can make AC go to unacceptable levels.
Do not give multiattack Reason: Classes give extra attacks, not races. If races give it then immediately that race is by far the best for damage.
Do not give advantage to skills. Reason: Elves had it on Perception in the playtest. It was determined to be too powerful. It should really be proficiency.
Do not give minuses to stats. Reason: This was removed from 5e to prevent he min-max stuff. I loved min-maxing, but the concept of negative modifiers is gone and should stay gone



Dragonspawn


Dragon Breath: (15ft cone, 1d6+1d6 every 4 levels, recharge 5-6, DC 8+Con+Proficiency vs Dex, chosen element)
This starts out worse than the Dragonborn one, but scales to being better than it. Dragonborn can't use it more than 1/short rest and yours has a 33% chance of recharging every round.


Dragon Wings: Flight 30ft, Wing Attack (Str/day, 30ft Cone, DC 8+Str+Proficiency vs Str, Prone)
The attack seems fine - as long as it's an action. Prone isn't too terrible.


Dragon Scales: +2 Natural Armor, Resistance (chosen element)
With this you could have a character with 20 AC. Chainmail (16) + Shield (2) + NA (2) = 20. More AC than Adult black dragons. Don't increase AC by a static amount. If you must increase AC then do it with the model of the Sorcerer: Having a base level of AC.


Dragon Fury: Bite (1d6 Piercing), 2 Claws (1d4 Slashing), Tail (1d8 Bludgeoning), Multiattack (Bite, 2 Claws, Tail)
Multiattack? This has to be a joke. You're allowing a lvl 1 character to do 4 attacks? The DPR is insane.
Assuming 3 strength you're giving them (d6+3) + (d4+3) + (d4+3) + (d8+3). For an average damage of 25 assuming all hit (or half that if you assume they have a 50% chance to hit). Now if you were to add a barbarian on top that's another 8 damage.
Multiattack on a race is not balanced. Do not do this.


Dragon Fright: Frightful Presence (60ft, DC 8+Cha+Proficiency vs Wis, Frightened until save is successful)
This doesn't specify if it's against one creature or multiple. Either way the barbarian gets this at 10 to ONE creature within 30 feet as an action. Giving it to a race along with everything else here is bad design.


Dragon Senses: Darkvision 60ft, Blindsight 30ft, Advantage on Perception to hear or smell
Remove advantage on perception. Elves had this in the playtest and it was found to be too powerful. If it was a temporary basis that would be ok, but not permanent.
Blindsight? Don't do this on a permanent basis.


Dragon Magic: 1 Sorcerer cantrip, Identify Int/day, Advantage on saves against Charmed
This one is decently balanced. Identify is on a short rest so no big deal to give it more often. Advantage vs Charm is good. Extra cantrip.. pretty good.


Dragon Cunning: Proficiency in any 3 Skills, Advantage on Insight
You're giving more proficiency than the bard class gives. Do not do this. Also as expressed earlier Advantage on a skill is a bad idea.


Overall the Dragonspawn is by far the best race you have up there. The myriad of overpowered choices outweighs any other race by far.


The other races seem much less unbalanced. Though I would highly recommend understanding the design of 5e and going back to the drawing board. For instance the skyborne's attack which the enemy gets disadvantage if w/in 30ft shouldn't give disadvantage - I don't know of any ability that does this.

Arracor
2014-12-23, 05:00 PM
Alright, so after reviewing with those things in mind, I went over the races and tweaked a bit. Dragonspawn lost the Multiattack and the Advantage on Insight, and their Nat Armor went down to 1. Skyborne's Slipstream lost the disadvantage line. Sylethans lost Nat Armor entirely. I dropped Starlings' natural attacks down to 2 tentacles (I don't think 2 1d4 attacks from a medium attacker is too good, since it's less effective than just 2-handing a longsword aside from when it's being used to initiate their grapple.) Koromet got their Nat Armor dropped to 1 as well. Haaruq had their Advantage on Intimidation changed to Proficiency.

On the note of the natural armor. I am fully aware it's a much more potent ability in 5e! But, I also don't think it's a -huge- deal to grant it in cases where a creature has armor plating for skin, especially given it's only a single point. Any jackass can carry a buckler for a few gold and get +1 to AC.

About the minuses to stats: I disagree with that design choice! I like the minmaxing just fine, and there's no better way I can think of to compensate for the special abilities these races have unless I were to simply neuter them completely, and make them nothing but generic human-substitutes. If a better alternative for counterbalancing is presented I might consider removing negatives, but I rather doubt that. If it's about making sure things aren't too powerful that's one thing, but conforming to a change just for the sake of conforming is bunk.

Kryx
2014-12-24, 04:11 AM
I would review the recent thread about buffing Dragonborn: Is Dragonborn a bit of a runt? (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?389480-Is-Dragonborn-a-bit-of-a-runt) They discuss the breath weapon and blindsight.

Blindsight is VERY rare. It negates invisibility and allows cheesy tricks like hiding in fog cloud which allows you to see and enemies to not. This choice invalidates ranger and rogue class features. There is more detail on this in the thread.

Breath weapon: I'd recommend using their adjustments. They make the breath weapon more impactful. They discuss recharge and more often instead - it's generally worse for the dragonborn as their normal action would be better.

AC: I think you're going to be very sorry when you have a PC with 21 AC. (Plate [18] + Shield [2] + NA [1] = 21). 1 AC is flavorful, but it should not be additive. That whole additive model is completely removed from 5e except for magic armor which is very rare. It's your game, but this is mechanically an amazing choice.


At every level in which they increase ability scores, a Dragonspawn chooses one of the following Aspects. Each Aspect can only be chosen once.
This should be reworded as Fighters gain the ability much more than other classes. Based on your other races the Dragonspawn is still vastly superior due to being able to pick multiple of these. I would limit the Dragonspawn to 2 choices over his career and allow them to select 2 more in place of stats/feats.

Multiattack: If you're going to keep this in you should at least mold it to the 5e system. Multiattack is for monsters and isn't intended to scale/stack with normal attack. What happens with Multiattack when a fighter gets an extra attack? You should change this to match the Alter self spell: The attacks count as unarmed attacks. Allow one as a bonus action if you attack with the main one (See TWF description for the wording). I would still be VERY cautious here. At the baseline it's not amazingly powerful, but it becomes more problematic as it scales when you stack on buffs like Barbarian's extra damage on attacks or get your Strength to a 5 modifier (or higher if you use belt's of giant strength which should exist imo - they break bounded accuracy hard. See Belt of Giant Strength and bounded accuracy (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?387747-Belt-of-Giant-Strength-and-bounded-accuracy)). I'm sure there are other damage buffs that I'm not considering. Another factor to consider is the increased chance of crits. (9.75% instead of 5%).

Minuses to stats: They were removed to prevent dumping stats and choosing races based on mechanical advantage: 5e's philosophy around this is to encourage roleplaying choice around race instead of "Oh, I could be the Half-Orc, but the X has better negative stats". I would encourage you to google around about this and read opinions.

Arracor
2014-12-24, 04:21 PM
Hrm. Going down in order, then.

Blindsight: I'm seriously on the fence about this one. On the one hand it's clearly too powerful as-is, so I could drop it to 10ft. On the other, if I cut it entirely then that Aspect is a far less attractive choice. Is there maybe some alternate, dragon-relevant sense ability I can substitute for it?

Breath: I'm pretty set on the duration. Given that, do you think its damage is too strong? I could alter how/when it scales, if so.

AC: I think I'll be alright with handling that. If it ends up presenting too much of an issue in gameplay, though, I've thought of an alternative way to treat it. Natural Armor can instead function as a static AC, exactly like wearing armor except that it doesn't affect your mobility. Mechanically speaking, you're not wearing armor at all, and you can wear armor on top of it.... BUT, that armor won't stack, simply overwrite (assuming it's got higher AC.) So a Dragonspawn's Aspect could grant it, say, an innate AC 16, and Koromet could have the equivalent of plate armor for skin.

Aspects: Perhaps they get an Aspect for free at 1st level, and at every ability level after they can choose another in place of an increase/feat? Same idea as before, but now it's more of a character choice. I don't think it's a huge issue for balance to let them take a 5th and 6th Aspect at levels 16 and 20, since by that point they're probably fighting Godzilla over tea every Tuesday morning.

Multiattack: Oh, this is exactly what I intended in the first place. It's not a set of extra attack slots, it's a special action INSTEAD of your normal attack in which you can make x natural attacks. I can clarify in the writing.

Minuses: I understand that, and I simply happen to think there's nothing wrong with stat-based character decisions. I never saw a problem either as a player or DM in 3.5 with designing your character's backstory to fit the abilities, and vice-versa, and usually I've found that players will in fact take a slightly mechanically inferior choice if they damn well please because they like the race.

Now I understand Dragonspawn merit special attention due to their unusual choice mechanic. Now that they're a little more balanced out and their issues identified, however, the other races could definitely benefit from some more opinions/attention. Thoughts?

Kryx
2014-12-24, 06:07 PM
Blindsight: I'm seriously on the fence about this one. On the one hand it's clearly too powerful as-is, so I could drop it to 10ft. On the other, if I cut it entirely then that Aspect is a far less attractive choice. Is there maybe some alternate, dragon-relevant sense ability I can substitute for it?

Darkvision and proficiency with perception are amazing. I would not give more than that. This is probably one of the best choices as is.


Breath: I'm pretty set on the duration. Given that, do you think its damage is too strong? I could alter how/when it scales, if so.

If you keep the recharge then don't up the damage. The problem with the current setup is many classes will have better options than to use an action to breath. Which is why I suggest more damage and 1/short rest as suggested in that thread. Casters will have cantrips that scale better and melee will probably be more effective in other ways.



AC: I think I'll be alright with handling that. If it ends up presenting too much of an issue in gameplay, though, I've thought of an alternative way to treat it. Natural Armor can instead function as a static AC, exactly like wearing armor except that it doesn't affect your mobility. Mechanically speaking, you're not wearing armor at all, and you can wear armor on top of it.... BUT, that armor won't stack, simply overwrite (assuming it's got higher AC.) So a Dragonspawn's Aspect could grant it, say, an innate AC 16, and Koromet could have the equivalent of plate armor for skin.

Exactly what I suggested before. See the dragon bloodline from sorcs for an example.


Aspects: Perhaps they get an Aspect for free at 1st level, and at every ability level after they can choose another in place of an increase/feat? Same idea as before, but now it's more of a character choice. I don't think it's a huge issue for balance to let them take a 5th and 6th Aspect at levels 16 and 20, since by that point they're probably fighting Godzilla over tea every Tuesday morning.

1 free and others in palce of ability/feat would be probably be underpowered. I would give 2 and 2 on a feat. But imo at that point you're basically giving them a dragonborn (the modified version from that thread). Might as well use that as the baseline and make the rest chooseable by a feat (Select 2 as a feat).


Multiattack: Oh, this is exactly what I intended in the first place. It's not a set of extra attack slots, it's a special action INSTEAD of your normal attack in which you can make x natural attacks. I can clarify in the writing.

It should follow the bonus action system setup in Two Weapon Fighting - not two attacks for one action. If you want to keep all of the attacks on some guys like the Starling then you can make half on the action and half on the bonus.



Now I understand Dragonspawn merit special attention due to their unusual choice mechanic. Now that they're a little more balanced out and their issues identified, however, the other races could definitely benefit from some more opinions/attention. Thoughts?

The rest seem mostly fine on first glance.


Skyborne:
Fly Speed: I wouldn't do this as it would invalidate a lot of enemies and challenges for PCs. It's flavorful, but mechanically too good.

Arcanae:
Resistance: I would try to limit this somehow. See the gnome's advantage on int/wis/cha saves as an example. All magic is probably too powerful imo.
Spells: Giving several free cantrips and 2 additional spells... I mean it's their only thing, but mechanically it's the best choice for any Cha class then. Spells in 5e are meant to be the same across the board. I would do something different here.. maybe allow them to recover spells if they are a casting class? I just imagine a barbarian casting spells and having advantage on saves vs spells.

Nevigne:
Seems fine

Bailecroi:
Seems like a warforged kind of thing. No stat boosts? Seems Underpowered. Maybe check the warforged from the playtest materials for inspiration. Ignoring breathing and these other rare conditions is nice, but there needs to be some mechanical choice. I would still give stats on this guy.

Sylethans:
Seems fine without the natural armor as you mentioned above.

Starlings:
Seems balanced, but that swim speed is insanely fast. I'd lower it greatly.

Koromet:
I would still remove the 1 natural armor and give it a set AC like you mentioned on Dragonspawn.
Lava Vomit: I'd scale it like the dragonborn breath from that thread.

Haaruq:
Seems like Half-Orc copy&paste. Should be totally fine.

Arracor
2014-12-26, 02:01 AM
Is Darkvision really -that- great though? Especially given how many of the others have it?

Certainly wasn't planning on upping the damage, I was mainly asking if it needed nerfing.

Given how good the options are individually, I'm not too worried about making them slightly underpowered. It's still easily the most modular race.

I guess how it'd probably end up being worded is, they can make a single tentacle attack as normal, OR they can take a special action to make -only- their tentacle attacks. So there's no possibility of stacking with class-feature-granted extra attacks. Given that treatment, do you think it's too OP to give them all 4 of them? Since they're only 1d4, and not enhancable with weapon buffs or anything.

For Skyborne, I won't cut their flying speed. But, I am open to suggestions to balance them in other ways. Perhaps by nerfing the speed? Or some other drawback to them as a whole involving their air-aligned nature?

I could look into changing how the spell resistance works. The spellcasting thing, though, is only 2 slots per day; not that much worse than just a barbarian taking that cantrip feat, and if they're busy casting, they're NOT making 50 Raging attacks per round, right?

Bailecroi will take a lot of work. I don't feel like the Warforged from the playtest are a good base though, given they only have stats and a natural armor bonus and are otherwise the same (minus the discount lichdom, which I feel is a pretty strong feature..!)

With Koromet, I want their lava vomit to feel exactly as powerful as dumping GODDAMN LAVA on someone. Given that I feel like the Dragonborn thread's breath isn't quite strong enough to start with. It could, however, probably do with less uses; the 1/short rest thing might be the way to go. Makes sense too, mechanically speaking.

And lastly for Haaruq... do they seem good enough, compared to the other races? I worry that, perhaps, they might be not attractive enough of a choice as-is, and I'm open to suggestions on making them a more appealing choice.

Leuku
2014-12-27, 12:36 AM
Is Darkvision really -that- great though? Especially given how many of the others have it?

I agree with Kryx. It really is a big deal, even given how many others have it. If you're a human fighting at night and have no light source, that's disadvantage on all your attacks. Dungeons are virtually a third of the game, and darkness in a dungeon are peas in a pod, especially magical darkness.


For Skyborne, I won't cut their flying speed. But, I am open to suggestions to balance them in other ways. Perhaps by nerfing the speed? Or some other drawback to them as a whole involving their air-aligned nature?

I offer to you this incomparable Guide to Homebrewing Races (http://zappyman2.wix.com/musicushomebrew#!guide-to-homebrew-races/c8co)

It breaks down the builds of the official races, labels their features with point values, then gives examples of homebrewed races.

The creator of the guide and I have discussed at length how to manage Flight speeds, and the one he came to conclude is the following:

1. Every 5 feet of flight speed is equal to 0.5 points. So a 30 feet flight speed is 3 points.

2. You cannot fly in armor you are not proficient in. You cannot fly in heavy armor, even when you are proficient.

3. Vulnerability to piercing damage while flying

4. When you take damage while flying, roll a Constitution saving throw, DC 10 or half of the damage you took, whichever is higher. On a fail, you fall.

5. Disadvantage to Strength checks when interacting with objects on the ground

6. On your turn, if you are in the air you can spend a bonus action to stay aloft until your next turn. If you do not, then at the end of your turn you fall.

Arracor
2014-12-27, 04:57 AM
Ok, so then... Probably setting aside Dragonspawn given their modular nature, and Bailecroi due to their obvious incompletion, what would you rank these races at in terms of points?

In other news: Arcanae will go with the gnome way of doing things for their magic resistance. I also had an idea on how to represent the differences between Bailecroi shells at character creation without dipping into spending gold (because I can't seem to find whatever rules 5e has for wealth-by-level, if that even still exists.) Basically different types of shells would be their subtype. The tricky bit here, I guess, is accounting for the differences without them being all in different tiers of power; the wealthy shell with all the moving parts and gold trim is supposed to (lorewise) be far higher quality than the equivalent of a jointed mannequin, but if it were strictly superior in game terms then nobody would ever choose it unless they really wanted to be poor.

JamesMusicus
2014-12-31, 04:22 AM
I'm just going to leave this here: http://www.reddit.com/r/DnD/comments/2j6xbo/5e_guide_to_homebrewing_races/

Arracor
2014-12-31, 10:06 PM
I'm just going to leave this here: http://www.reddit.com/r/DnD/comments/2j6xbo/5e_guide_to_homebrewing_races/

Yeah that was posted by someone, and props and all, but it doesn't really cover some of the stuff I've got so I'm trying to get opinions from people who have a better idea of 5e balance. That said, as the creator of that scale I feel you'd probably be the best one to gauge these..?