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2011-08-23, 07:45 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Aug 2010
[3.5 race] Natural-born intellectual
Rather than dumpster diving through various race books to find the race with the stat bonus/penalty I want and then holding my nose because the race is just downright weird and not enjoyable, I figured it might be fun to homebrew something appropriate. I wanted to keep it really simple, so:
Race: Natural-born intellectual
Appearance: indistinguishable from a human, treated as a human for all purposes except racial bonuses/penalties.
Cost: give up all racial bonuses - no extra skill points or feats a human typically gets.
Benefit: +3 INT (or would +2 be more appropriate)
It's so simple and nice that I'm surprised I haven't seen it before. Anything obviously wrong with it?
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2011-08-23, 09:07 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Feb 2011
Re: [3.5 race] Natural-born intellectual
Make the Int bonus +4. +3 is just weird and goes against untold design principles (actually the DMG may put it into writing that races never have odd racial bonuses to abilities), and +2 is too weak to give up the feat.
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2011-08-23, 10:04 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jun 2008
Re: [3.5 race] Natural-born intellectual
+2 INT should be just fine. If people are willing to play Grey Elves solely for the +2 INT bonus, then getting it on a human will be just as good.
+4 INT seems like it could become too abusable, especially with old age and a template. (There are +0 LA that add to INT, correct?)SpoilerThank you to zimmerwald1915 for the Gustave avatar.
The full set is here.
Air Raccoon avatar provided by Ceika
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A big thanks to PrinceAquilaDei for the gryphon avatar!
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2011-08-24, 12:56 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Apr 2011
- Location
- Illinois, USA
- Gender
Re: [3.5 race] Natural-born intellectual
Perhaps + 2 INT and some other bonus then? Because less skill points and a lost feat really is not just +2 INT worthy, but there does seem to be a precedent of avoiding going past +2 without a counterbalance or LA.
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2011-08-24, 02:15 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Apr 2007
Re: [3.5 race] Natural-born intellectual
Just because it hasn't been brought up yet, getting +2 Int means that you don't actually lose any skill points when compared with a human (still +4 at 1st level and +1 at each additional level).
That said, the additional benefits that +2 int can grant (+1 bonus to many skill checks, what amounts to an extra spell slot, and +1 DC to all spells) easily matches what a bonus feat can do (a combination of master of knowledge from heroes of horror, extra spell slot from complete arcane, and a universal Spell Focus effect seems worthwhile) and thensome.
No further benefits are really required from this race and it's actually decently powerful for a +0 LA race, all things considered.
As far as getting over +2 to a stat for +0 LA, as somebody asked, there is the Mongrelfolk (+4 Con) from Races of Destiny, which can turn into a Dragonborn (another +2 Con) from Races of the Dragon for a total of +6 to a stat with no LA. For spellcasting stats, however, I know of no real precidence and this race seems plenty powerful enough for the reasons provided above.
Edit: I don't personally like the idea of this race as they are utterly worthless (moreso than any other race I can think of) for anything that doesn't fit their niche (intelligence-based classes) and thus don't feel like they could act as a race so much as a conveniant means to get a free Int-boost (which this race is). Even so, the idea is serviceable and remains balanced.
Edit Edit: I'm guessing that the +3 bonus to Int in the OP is so that a venerable Natural-born Intellectual gets an even +6 Int at level 1. While I am a fan of nice round numbers in general, even numbers remain the norm for racial bonuses.Last edited by Realms of Chaos; 2011-08-24 at 02:28 PM.
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2011-08-24, 02:22 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Apr 2011
- Location
- Illinois, USA
- Gender
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2011-08-24, 02:25 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Apr 2007
Re: [3.5 race] Natural-born intellectual
The thing about this race is that it has to be used for a Wizard or Factotum. If you use one of these two classes, the benefits you get far exceeds those that a normal human would give.
Play anything else with this guy and you just chose the wrong race 9 times out of 10, even when dealing with races that are okay with intelligence (such as Archivists and Rogues).Last edited by Realms of Chaos; 2011-08-24 at 02:26 PM.
I'm try not to be too vain but this was too perfect not to sig.
At long last, I have an extended signature
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2011-08-24, 02:41 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jun 2008
Re: [3.5 race] Natural-born intellectual
+2 INT and the human's +1 skill point/level would probably help them keep some distinctiveness, although with giving them a small niche beyond "that one race you play as wizards".
SpoilerThank you to zimmerwald1915 for the Gustave avatar.
The full set is here.
Air Raccoon avatar provided by Ceika
from the Request an OotS Style Avatar thread
A big thanks to PrinceAquilaDei for the gryphon avatar!
original image