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Oerlaf
2015-12-02, 09:50 AM
Azers are dwarf-like beings native to the Elemental Plane of Fire.

Azer Subrace Traits
The azer subrace has the dwarf traits in the Player's Handbook, plus the subrace traits below:

Ability Score Increase. Your Wisdom score increases by 1.
Elemental Affinity. You gain immunity to fire damage but any cold damage you get is multiplied by 3. This trait replaces the Dwarven Resilience trait in the Player's Handbook
Heat. Your unarmed strikes and weapon attacks that use metallic weapons deal 1 extra point of fire damage.
Languages. You can additionaly speak and write Ignan.

Updated Version from 2015, the 3rd December
Azer Subrace Traits
The azer subrace has the dwarf traits in the Player's Handbook, plus the subrace traits below:

Ability Score Increase. Your Wisdom score increases by 1.
Azer Resilience. You are immune to fire damage. This trait replaces the Dwarven Resilience trait in the Player's Handbook
Heat. Your unarmed strikes and weapon attacks that use metallic weapons deal 1 extra point of fire damage.
Languages. You can additionaly speak and write Ignan.
Natural Armor. You have a natural armor bonus of +3. When unarmored, your AC is equal to 10 + your natural armor bonus + your dexterity modifier

Ninja_Prawn
2015-12-02, 10:09 AM
Are you looking for comments/critique?

Because I don't like the immunity/triple damage thing. Neither are standard for PC races, and the MM Azer isn't even Vulnerable to cold so I don't see much justification for going so far off-piste. The +1 damage also rubs me the wrong way for some reason, but I can't quite put my finger on why.

And shouldn't there be something to represent the fact that Azers are literally made out of bronze? If anyone should have AC=13+Dex, it's them.

Oerlaf
2015-12-02, 01:54 PM
I am looking for critique and also some advices.
How can one achieve some sense of balance so that a homebrew game option would not outweigh the standard one?
I considered adding some natural armor to Azer but wasn't quite sure.

Ninja_Prawn
2015-12-02, 02:11 PM
I am looking for critique and also some advices.
How can one achieve some sense of balance so that a homebrew game option would not outweigh the standard one?
I considered adding some natural armor to Azer but wasn't quite sure.

My starting point for ensuring balance is Musicus' guide. You can find it here (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ViqLSEN67mmd2Lo_OJ-H5YX0fccsfI97kFaqx7V1Dmw/edit).

That gives you a point system to rank various features. You have to improvise a bit, of course, but it's a good starting point. The second step is to ask the Playground (that's us) to see if there are any glaring problems, such as synergies you haven't taken into account. Finally, you need to playtest. That is the path to peace, tranquility and balance.

So, Musicus rates the Hill Dwarf as +2.5 and the Mountian Dwarf as +3. If you want to be on par with them, you can work towards that.

So +1 Wisdom is 1 point.

Immunity to fire is 1 point, vulnerability (double damage) to cold is -1. So we're still at +1.

Dwarven Resilience is +0.5, so if you're losing that, you buy a bit of breathing room. Now we're at +0.5 overall.

An extra language... Musicus says 0.5 but I would value it closer to 0.25. +0.75.

Then the +1 damage. That's not in the guide because there's nothing like it in the core rules. My instinct is to change it because it doesn't make sense and outside of the lowest levels, it's almost pointless... but as-is, I'd value it at maybe 0.5.

So your total is +1.25. That's weaker than either of the PHB dwarf subraces (though some might argue they are overpowered) and thus probably fine. But like, my complaints weren't about balance. They were about logic. Why is it vulnerable to cold? Why doesn't it have the resilience? Why bother with +1 fire damage? I'm not even sure I agree with the Wisdom boost...

Oerlaf
2015-12-02, 02:25 PM
I bothered with a +1 Fire Damage from the old times of 3.5 edition: now at lower levels this trait can be very useful. And it can also pay off at higher levels if your damage roll scored low: it might land a killing blow on a severely injured target.

And I added vulnerability to cold because I thought that immunity to some type of damage is overpowered.

Ninja_Prawn
2015-12-02, 02:56 PM
And I added vulnerability to cold because I thought that immunity to some type of damage is overpowered.

Immunity to a damage type is strong, for sure, but not necessarily overpowered. And it's easy for the DM to get around. Not many monsters or NPCs are going to be dumb enough to use fire attacks against an Azer, after all! So it ends up being useful (it might force some creatures to use weaker secondary attacks, and it lets your allies Fireball you without fear, plus you can wade through magma to reach that secret treasure) but not game-breaking.