Genestealer Cult Races And Creeds

[JNAProductions]

Acolyte Hybrid

Ability Score Increase
Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, and any one mental stat increase by 1. In addition, your cap for any ability is 22.

Almost Human
You look very nearly human-to the point that the average person won't run screaming at the sight of you. Use this power wisely.

Darkvision
You can see perfectly in the dark up to 60'. Even in color.

Size
Your size is Medium.

Speed
Your speed is 40'.

Weapon Training
You are proficient in all weapons.

Aberrant

Ability Score Increase
Your Strength increases by 4 and your Constitution by 2. Your max ability score for Strength is 26, Constitution 24, and Dexterity 22.

Darkvision
You can see perfectly in the dark out to 60'. Even in color!

Size
You are Medium, but you may treat yourself as Large when it would be beneficial to you.

Speed
Your speed is 35'.

Bestial Vigor
You gain two additional HP every level.

Purestrain

Ability Score Increase
Your Dexterity increases by 4, your Strength by 1 and your Constitution by 1. Your maximum for Dexterity is 26, and your maximum for Strength and Constitution is 22.

Blindsight
You have Blindsight out to 30'.

Size
You are a Medium creature.

Speed
Your speed is 50'.

Lightning Reflexes
You gain Advantage on Initiative checks, and also may double your movement speed for one round. After doing so, you must spend a round not moving to regain the ability to double your speed.

Pick any one of these for your Acolyte Hybrid, Aberrant, or Purestrain.

Cult Of The Four-Armed Emperor
You deal double damage against surprised foes.

Pauper Princes
You have Advantage on Wisdom saves.

Hivecult
You may Disengage as a Bonus Action.

Bladed Cog
Your AC improves by 2.

Rusted Claw
You may Dash as a Bonus Action.

Twisted Helix
Your Strength and Constitution improve by 2, as does their maximum.



Note: These are NOT meant to be balanced against standard races. Only against each other.

[Blackbando]

I'm not really going to do a huge in-depth review like I normally do for these, primarily because it's kind of hard for me to say if these seem balanced against one another (at a glance, i think Aberrant might just be better than the others?), but I would like to point out that increasing the maximums of Strength and Constitution really devalue Barbarian's capstone feature. As well as the Manual magic items that increase scores, and I believe there's an Ioun stone or two that boosts a score and its max by 2?

Frankly, I also think it's sort of a poor idea to be boosting scores with races at all - you're fundamentally altering the expected power level of a party by a fairly significant amount, meaning that the base ways of calculating Challenge Rating won't really function all that well in a party with these races.

But, perhaps you've thought it through, and I'm just repeating concerns you've already gone over - if so, then I apologize for wasting your time.

[JNAProductions]

I'm not really going to do a huge in-depth review like I normally do for these, primarily because it's kind of hard for me to say if these seem balanced against one another (at a glance, i think Aberrant might just be better than the others?), but I would like to point out that increasing the maximums of Strength and Constitution really devalue Barbarian's capstone feature. As well as the Manual magic items that increase scores, and I believe there's an Ioun stone or two that boosts a score and its max by 2?

Frankly, I also think it's sort of a poor idea to be boosting scores with races at all - you're fundamentally altering the expected power level of a party by a fairly significant amount, meaning that the base ways of calculating Challenge Rating won't really function all that well in a party with these races.

But, perhaps you've thought it through, and I'm just repeating concerns you've already gone over - if so, then I apologize for wasting your time.

I've not done anything in-depth in terms of power relative to CR, but I am aware that these are significantly more powerful than normal races.

I would, however, recommend that stuff like the Barbarian Capstone increase the current max by 4, not simply increase to 24. So an Abberant could, in theory, hit 30 in Strength.

That in mind, the absolute cap should be 30. I don't care how many stat tomes you read or how many times you hit Barbarian 20, no higher than 30.

And I do appreciate feedback! So thank you for that. :)

[Zhorn]

I'm guessing the idea in only worrying about the balance between each other and not the core races is these are intended as the only player choices for a homebrew game?
Sounds interesting.

Is this like a variation on Simic Hybrids, or is it not that far down the GMO pathway?

Aberrant size: Is it a case of they can grow and adjust their mass, or is this intended to be like Powerful Build?

[JNAProductions]

I'm guessing the idea in only worrying about the balance between each other and not the core races is these are intended as the only player choices for a homebrew game?
Sounds interesting.

Is this like a variation on Simic Hybrids, or is it not that far down the GMO pathway?

Aberrant size: Is it a case of they can grow and adjust their mass, or is this intended to be like Powerful Build?

Like Powerful Build. Only moreso, since it applies to virtually anything, not just carrying capacity.

Also reflects that, like Goliaths, they're right on the edge of Medium.

[Zhorn]

Like Powerful Build. Only moreso, since it applies to virtually anything, not just carrying capacity.

Also reflects that, like Goliaths, they're right on the edge of Medium.

As you're not worrying about balancing against core races, it may not be a concern at all for your design intent, but I do worry a little over the implication of the Aberrant size feature.
The big one would be the ability to wield oversized weapons of the Large category (2d12 greataxes, 4d6 greatswords, etc) without disadvantage.
Grapples are still within one size category of medium, so for most standard enemies this doesn't change much, though it does enable the character to grapple the Huge category is desired.
Still able to ride about on regular sized mounts and interact with spaces as if they were medium sized is a lesser concern.
But it does feel like they are getting ALL the benefits of being a Large sized creature with none of the drawbacks.
So be it if this is all the design intent.