a little help on homebrew race PF (advanced races guide )

Hello I'm here to ask for some help on my home brew race I made for pathfinder using the advanced race guide. I know a lot of people ask for help but I'm just asking for pointers and information on what I missed.

Well anyway here it is, I counted the total rp points and it has 10.

The Adelind

Physical analysis
They resemble kobolds but on average stand closer to three and a half to four feet making them tower above their cousins. They have a thick coat of coarse hair like filaments that coat their entire bodies keeping them warm in harsh winters. They tend to be omnivorous but fifty percent of their diet is usually meat.

Coloration
The scales and fur of these small reptilians are nearly random in color. They have been seen to have reds, browns, greens, yellows, blacks, whites and grays. Sometimes they are speckled with more than one color upon their hides. Their eyes have few variances, limited to browns and greens, although a blue or a red will appear it is uncommon or even rare.

The age of these reptilians has been extended by their extensive use of magic. Their ages are equal to that of a human. Refer to the human charts for aging effects and starting age.

Base height and weight is equal for both genders
Base height 3ft - 4ft (2d6)
Base weight 30lbs - 48 (3d6)

+2int +2cha -2str
While these creatures may not be the most physically intimidating, graceful, or resilient humanoids, they are quick witted and highly book smart. They are able to use knowledge or excessive flare to get out of situations or sometimes into them. Melee or ranged combat they do not excel at, although they are bigger and slightly stronger than their kobold cousins.

Small creature: small races gain a +1 size bonus to their AC, a +1 size bonus on attack rolls, a -1 penalty on combat maneuver checks and their cmd, and a +4 size bonus on stealth checks. Small races have a space of 5 feet by 5 feet and a reach of five feet.

Base speed: 30ft
Languages
Linguist: Common and Adelind; members of their race with a high intelligence score can choose any languages from the language list. (Although Dwarven, Gnome, and Halfling are among the top languages learned due to their good relationships with said races)
Defensive racial traits
Their scales provide them a + 1 natural armor bonus.
Magic traits
Arcane focus: a plus 2 racial bonus on concentration checks while casting defensively.
Envoy: creatures with higher than an 11 intelligence score can use the following spell-like abilities once per day: comprehend languages, detect magic, detect poison, and read magic.
Light bringer: creatures of this race are immune to light based blindness and dazzle effects, are treated as one level higher when casting light based spells or effects, including spell like or supernatural abilities. If they have an intelligence score over 10 they gain the following spell like ability. At will- Light
Other traits
Prehensile tail: cannot use tail to hold a weapon but can retrieve items from its person as a swift action. Can be used to draw a light or one handed weapon under 6 pounds and transfer it to the main or off hand. Can be used to pick up objects within your square, or snatch objects from a person if you preform a stealth dc check. The person must be adjacent but not behind you. If you fail the dc you are caught.



This small reptilian race despises its distant relatives, the kobolds, for their primitive and cave dwelling habits. The Adelind, as they began to call their new race when they broke away from the rest of the kobolds, were lucky enough to be blessed with high intelligence and an enthusiasm for learning. They quickly evolved past their cave dwelling brethren and took to the surface world, also to separate themselves further. Unfortunately they ended up in a high mountainous series of valleys, while nice in the summer and early fall the rest of the year was cold and sometimes harsh. Fur clothes helped but their poor body heat regulation still caused many deaths. Salvation was found when one of their members who they thought was “disfigured” actually survived easily in the cold temperatures. They quickly realized why, he and a few others like him suffered from a genetic deformity where their scales grew a layer of thick wiry filaments that originally looked unsightly to them. Somehow this thick layer of filaments, that made them look slightly more like a lizard mixed with a rat, allowed them to regulate body their natural body temperature coupled with the fur clothes they survived. Quickly they spread the mutation to as many new children as they could and their race began thriving in the new environment.

Without survival as their main concern they began studying the world around them and how the arcane energies flowed through it until they became heavily magically inclined. They strove to improve their knowledge of the physical as well as the arcane. As their intelligence grew they created their own language and written language to aid in their discoveries and helped train young ones in their powers. Because in the winter the days were so short they began to use light magic as often as possible to replace the sun eventually they were able to use the simple spell: light as a spell like ability and could use it at will. For living on the surface and constantly using light magic their natural dark-vision degraded but so did their sensitivity to bright light. They revere science and magic instead of brute force and try to use logic and reasoning to get past problems instead of just bashing them away. Another quirk about them is that they never claim reverence for any one deity, although they are numerous. They believe that the deities of evil and chaos abandoned them when they abandoned their brethren long ago. They also believe that the deities of good and order still see them as evil kobolds and decided not to help them at all even during their darkest moments at the winter. Because of this they are one of the few races as a whole who do not revere any deity and do not rely on a deities power for their magic because the deities did not aid them when they needed help for survival. These creatures make excellent arcane spell casters of all kinds but they are distasteful of being up-close and personal or borrowing power from an all-powerful being.


Here are the point values to this race from the advanced race
linguist: (1rp) specialized: +2int +2cha -2str (1rp) natural armor: (2rp) arcane focus: (1rp) envoy: (1rp) light bringer: (2rp) prehensile tail: (2rp)


(edit) I added more detail to the description and I changed low-light vision to linguist. I know it might be a step down but I honestly thought they Didn't need unlimited ability to create light but then also have low-light vision.
(Edit) I changed the abilities to the specialized set instead of paragon because with negitives in all physical scores it caused playability issues. Now I feel it is less clunky.

I would say it's overpowered, simply because of the +4 to casting stats and bonus to concentration checks. I don't care what the advanced races guide says, if you min-max your race you've min-maxxed your race.

I would replace the "+4 to either stat" with "+2 to both stats". This greatly reduces the potential for abuse. Even though you're giving them +2 to two mental stats, it's pretty well-balanced by the large physical ability score penalties. I also recommend giving them some kind of skill bonus, I believe that the racial trait for making a skill always be a class skill is cheap.

The problem I see is that these seem to be made for wizards and sorcerers, but not really anything else.
Which in some cases might be appropriate, but generally I think a race should be able to work for a diverse society with warriors, rogues, priests, craftsmen, and so on.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Thomar_of_Uointer

I would say it's overpowered, simply because of the +4 to casting stats and bonus to concentration checks. I don't care what the advanced races guide says, if you min-max your race you've min-maxxed your race.

I would replace the "+4 to either stat" with "+2 to both stats". This greatly reduces the potential for abuse. Even though you're giving them +2 to two mental stats, it's pretty well-balanced by the large physical ability score penalties. I also recommend giving them some kind of skill bonus, I believe that the racial trait for making a skill always be a class skill is cheap.

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I intended this race to be better than most at one thing but seriously falling behind in other things. Similar to the Orcs, they have +4 to strength which is highly useful for counteracting the armor penalties for climbing and swimming and allows them to carry huge amounts of items whilst doing so. Every time I play and I'm near a cliff or a body of water I'm paranoid we are gonna be flanked by swimming Orcs while fighting a group of knolls. But they have -2 to all their mental stats so that makes it harder for them to basically do anything with a decent thought process. but of course they don't need to because they have enough strength to disembowel you with one swing of an axe.

Another thing is the concentration checks bonus are only to cast defensively if the player forgets to state that they are casting defensively to avoid attacks of opportunity they don't get the plus 2.

Honestly a racial skill bonus? If you stick with the class skills you get a instant +3 if you put a single rank into it, thus making it a +4, then you add the ability score to the skill which is anywhere from 0-5 on the average character. That means on a class skill they get anywhere from +4 to +9 at first level. I am pretty sure they don't need any help with any skill if they play right. The only skill that I think could deserve a bonus in is perception, and that's because I usually have crap for wisdom modifier and I don't put ranks into it cause its not a class skill. But then again the player has the choice to tell the party what they notice, and only the rouge chaotic neutral or any evil rouge would not tell their party when they saw something.

Honestly I gave them plenty of spell like abilities so that they don't waste the precious limited number of spells. Honestly I can't count the number of times the Dm made us walk into a town that only speaks a language we all didn't have. Not to mention the time where the wizard didn't prepare detect magic as one of the cantrips he could use that day and we ended up tripping every magic based trap in the book.

Also what is min-maxing I heard it once or twice before but I don't quite get it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Yora

The problem I see is that these seem to be made for wizards and sorcerers, but not really anything else.
Which in some cases might be appropriate, but generally I think a race should be able to work for a diverse society with warriors, rogues, priests, craftsmen, and so on.

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Sorcerers and wizards are not the only thing that benefits, all arcane spell casters can walk away with this race and benefit. Bards, sorcerers, wizards, alchemists, magi, summoners, and witches all benefit. They gain more spells per day, which is needed badly because they don't get very many, their skills are better for it, and a few other things that I cant think of right now.

Like I told Thomar they are like Orcs in the way they are useful to the party for one thing and one thing only, Orcs have negetive to all their mental skills but a +4 to str. So that means they really are only good for being a melee combat role. So these guys are really good arcane spell casters.

I edited my race because after a mock playthrough I realized how clunky the set up for the ability scores was. It made it more difficult than need be. I hope it covers it nicely.

It's much more balanced now. As i see it, it's completely ready to use.

If i where to give a suggestion, it would be to elaborate on what the tail can be used for. Can you draw a weapon with it? since it's a swift action i might allow an Adelind to pick up items on the ground in it's square as well.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kasbark

It's much more balanced now. As i see it, it's completely ready to use.

If i where to give a suggestion, it would be to elaborate on what the tail can be used for. Can you draw a weapon with it? since it's a swift action i might allow an Adelind to pick up items on the ground in it's square as well.

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If you were to draw a weapon with it it would only to be to pass it to the weapon hand. because the prehensile tail option specifically says you can't weild a weapon with your tail. I also think there would be a weight limit to the weapon drawn because tails can't be stronger than hands. So I would think only light weapons or one handed weapons under a certain weight could be drawn. Its is only a swift action and so you have a limited number per round so the quick draw feat is still worth looking into.