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Accountant
2007-08-09, 11:22 PM
Yeah, that's the idea. I'm working on a campaign, and it'll be my first time DMing (woo!), and I've been thinking about making it to where base saves should be based on your race, rather than class.

I've usually played as elves in the past, so this sort of made sense to me. Like, as an elf, shouldn't you have a high reflex save, regardless of what your class is?

So, would there be a good balancing way of doing this, or would it just make classes such as the monk suck even more and make classes like the wizard even better?

bingo_bob
2007-08-09, 11:27 PM
I'd say that it's a bad idea.

As it stands, although nice, at higher levels, racial stat bonuses (and penalties) really don't matter that much.

High saves, on the other hand, do. Very much so.

It also means that some race options become much more powerful than others. If I had to choose between a one-save race and a two-save race, the one-save race had better have a LOT to attract me, or the two-save one would have to be gimped otherwise to get my attention.

And though it works for elves, there's points where it breaks down quite a bit. Humans, for example.

Matthew
2007-08-10, 06:54 PM
Uh, yeah. That's what Attribute adjustments are for. On the other hand, I'm a proponent of giving Good Saves to all Classes, which might work out for you in the long run.

dariathalon
2007-08-10, 07:18 PM
I would have to say it probably isn't a great idea either. I mean, yes, it does make sense that saves would be higher or lower based on race, but if you look at the racial descriptions, many races already have bonuses build in for a variety of circumstances.

Elf... +2 saves vs. enchantment, +1 Reflex (from Dex), -1 Fort (from Con)
Dwarf... +2 saves vs. poison, +2 saves vs. spells, +1 Fort (from Con)
Gnome... +2 saves vs. illusions, +1 Fort (from Con)
Half-Elf... +2 saves vs. enchantment
Halfling... +2 saves vs. fear, +1 to all saves, +1 Reflex (from Dex)

That's a pretty extensive list of plusses and minuses. Human and Half-Orc are the only ones that aren't altered at all (barring the non-phb races).

If you really want to include the idea of good and poor saves by race, I would suggest implementing racial paragon levels (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/races/racialParagonClasses.htm)as an optional rule, though if this is your first time DMing, I might not. They aren't that complicated, but as a first timer you want to keep it simple.