Psionic Thri-Kreen (PEACH)

[sandmote]

This page on the homebrewery (https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/H18b-dlgr)

I really need to dump some of my newer stuff. Presenting my version of the mantid Thri-Kreen, using my psionic disciplines overhaul (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?584600-Mystic-Psionics-Disciplines-Rebalance-(PEACH)).

I'm not good at fluff, so here's the crunch:


Ability Score Increase
Your Strength score increases by 2 and your Wisdom score increases by 1.

Age
Thri-kreen age rapidly, reaching adulthood at the age of 6. It is rare from a Thri-kreen to naturally reach the age of 30.

Alignment
Thri-kreen care little for good or evil, and their nomadic, brutal lifestyle leaves little for concerns of law. Most Thri-kreen are neutral or chaotic neutral.

Size
Thri-kreen average around six feet tall, but are very thin and usually weigh around only 120 pounds. Your size is Medium.

Speed
Your base walking speed is 35 feet.

Darkvision
You have superior vision in dark and dim conditions. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can’t discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.

Natural Jumper
You add your proficiency bonus to your base long jump distance and high jump height.

Psionic Chameleon
You have innate access to certain psionics. You can manifest the Light Step talent. When you reach 3rd level, you can manifest the Chameleon power once with this trait and regain the ability to do so when you finish a long rest. Wisdom is your psionic ability for these powers.

Extra Arms
You have a pair of extra arms, which are weaker than your main pair. These arms are able to use tools, make the somatic components of spells, and wield a weapon with the Light property, but not form the somatic components of spells. Additionally, you can wield a weapon with the Two-handed or Versatile property using any three of your hands, and you gain the benefits of holding the weapon in two hands when doing so. You cannot hold a shield in your extra pair of arms.

Languages
Most Thri-Kreen speak only their native Thri-kreen. A select few also speak common, including adventurers like you.

In addition the big question about the arms, I am adding proficiency to jump calculations. This is less of a bonus to jumping ability than I've previously given to my other homebrew races, but more consistent.

Here the psionic abilities:
Light Step
Psionic Talent

As a bonus action, you alter your density and weight to improve your mobility. For the rest of your turn, your walking speed increases by 10 feet, and the first time you stand up this turn, you do so without expending any of your movement if your speed is greater than 0.

Chameleon (2 psi). As an action, you can attempt to hide even if you fail to meet the requirements needed to do so. At the end of the current turn, you remain hidden only if you then meet the normal requirements for hiding.

I've also written a racial feat:

Strong Armed
Prerequisite: Thri-kreen

With training, a thri-kreen's additional arms can become almost as strong as their main pair. Yours are so strong, and you gain the following benefits:


You can wield a weapon in your second pair of hands as long as it doesn't have the heavy or two-handed properties. This does not count as holding the weapon in two hands for the purposes of weapons with the versatile property.
You count as wielding a weapon with the versatile property in two hands when you wield it in one hand from your main pair and one hand from your extra pair.
You can hold a shield in your extra pair of hands.

[Rerem115]

The Extra Arms feature is probably a bit on the strong side. As written, you can hold a Two-Handed weapon with 3 arms (1 main arm + 2 secondary arms), and hold a shield in your remaining main arm. It's relatively minor, but it does open up shenanigans like Longbow+Shield or Greatsword+Shield.

[sandmote]

The Extra Arms feature is probably a bit on the strong side. As written, you can hold a Two-Handed weapon with 3 arms (1 main arm + 2 secondary arms), and hold a shield in your remaining main arm. It's relatively minor, but it does open up shenanigans like Longbow+Shield or Greatsword+Shield.

Would it be reasonable to allow this with versatile weapons? That would allow a 1d10 longsword+shield. And if you feat stack Dual Wielder with Strong Armed you can dual wield two 1d10 longswords.

[Rerem115]

Hmm. When I ran it through the Detect Balance scale, I got a score of ~33, putting this on par with Variant Humans and better than the rest of all published races. You might want to trim some parts if you want to keep it more in line with what others at the table are using.

With regards to the arms, one third of the Warcaster feat and/or a +1 damage to S&B builds is probably fair, and keeping in the flavor of the race, but that's definitely a spot that could be altered to better balance things if you choose to do so.

One thing to also keep in mind is that if you got rid of the Psionics, it comes to ~28 on the DB scale, which is about perfect for homebrew.

[sandmote]

Hmm. When I ran it through the Detect Balance scale, I got a score of ~33, putting this on par with Variant Humans and better than the rest of all published races. You might want to trim some parts if you want to keep it more in line with what others at the table are using.

With regards to the arms, one third of the Warcaster feat and/or a +1 damage to S&B builds is probably fair, and keeping in the flavor of the race, but that's definitely a spot that could be altered to better balance things if you choose to do so.

One thing to also keep in mind is that if you got rid of the Psionics, it comes to ~28 on the DB scale, which is about perfect for homebrew.
Based on the 5 point drop you got from from removing psionics, I'd like to note that a 2 psi point power is equivalent to a 1st level spell.

I will also remove the part of the warcaster feat and remove the ability to use your additional hands to hold a two-handed weapon. I'm not clear on whether or not the latter was already factored into your calculations.

I'd also like to know how you weigh the extra arms, as I get 23 + the arms when I check detect balance.

[Rerem115]

My breakdown was 12 points for ASI, zero points for skills and languages, 1/day 1st level spell at 3rd added 2 more, 2 more for 35 movement, 3 points for +10 movement and instant stand (It's ~1/3 of Aggressive and ignores a common difficult terrain), 3 more for Darkvision 60, 8-9 points for arms (I figured it counted as frequently useful or powerful, since it helps with damage, AC, casting, and throwing builds and also had feat support) and either 1-2 points for jumping.

Total ~ 31-33, depending on how you value arms and jumping. The 5 points from psionics was a combo of Lightstep (3) and Chameleon (2).

I think I might have added an extra point by mistake in my original calculation, but yeah, it averages out to 32 with potential to be higher. With your proposed changes, the arms would probably be 5-7, since it still lets you TWF with a shield or give Versatile damage with a shield.

[sandmote]

My breakdown was 12 points for ASI, zero points for skills and languages, 1/day 1st level spell at 3rd added 2 more, 2 more for 35 movement, 3 points for +10 movement and instant stand (It's ~1/3 of Aggressive and ignores a common difficult terrain), 3 more for Darkvision 60, 8-9 points for arms (I figured it counted as frequently useful or powerful, since it helps with damage, AC, casting, and throwing builds and also had feat support) and either 1-2 points for jumping.

Total ~ 31-33, depending on how you value arms and jumping. The 5 points from psionics was a combo of Lightstep (3) and Chameleon (2).

I think I might have added an extra point by mistake in my original calculation, but yeah, it averages out to 32 with potential to be higher. With your proposed changes, the arms would probably be 5-7, since it still lets you TWF with a shield or give Versatile damage with a shield.

This is very helpful, thank you.

Given the change to the extra arms puts the high estimate at 31 and low estimate at 27 (counting a talent as equivalent to a cantrip/being knocked prone as rare rough terrain), I think I'm okay with the race's balance.