Monday, September 8, 2008

New Sub-Races

I've been talking with our DM's about removing some sub-races and adding new sub-races and it was suggested to ask for some player input.

What kind of sub-races would you want?
Which sub-races are totally worthless and why?

I've always thought of BadLands as a big island that is used as a prison by all the known realms. We are left to die or survive. Only the strongest or the smartest survived to breed with the local monsters.

One of the things the sub-races are missing is racial spells and spell-like-abilities. I want to start adding these to the sub-races. Yes, it would be backwards compatible and existing chars would get the long over due spells. An Arctic Dwarf might get "Freeze Blade", an on-hit spell similar to Dark Fire.

Overwhelm us with ideas please. Even a "bad" idea might be the spark of something neat.

Qwildurn

8 comments:

Angelic_ninja said...

First of all I am so sorry that this is off topic.. I've been trying for about two hours to make a new post and I can't for the life of me work out how to do it... I'm not really computer minded. Any assistance in this would be greatly appreciated.

Okay. On topic. I love the subrace maker Q. I really do :) but the only problem i have with it is that some subraces are forced into looking like a particular person. I have so many characters that all look identical and I feel that they have been disallowed to make there own stamp on badlands.. there own identity.

I'm sure other people feel the same way, but I'm not really going to make any demands.. i tend to see it as a minus to the race as a whole (instead of having -2 to an ability or taking extra divine damage for example) that race has the issue of an unchangable aperance.

Qwildurn said...

Angelic_ninja said...
First of all I am so sorry that this is off topic.. I've been trying for about two hours to make a new post and I can't for the life of me work out how to do it... I'm not really computer minded. Any assistance in this would be greatly appreciated.


You can't start a new post because your not on the short list of those allowed to start a new post. Those that are, are listed in Contributors. I did not start this blog and I am not authorized to change the contributors list.

Darian, Deimonos and Simon have contributed heavily to the creation of new sub-races. So lets give them a pat on the back as well.

When I first introduced the new look of "monster" bodies it was really so cool. Still is too. That was before the 1.69 upgrade and horses.
I do like the ability to look like an Ogre or an Orc, but I also like riding on horses. Since I can't do both, (it is impossible), I have to make a choice on my char and my build.
If nobody could look like a Kobold or a Hobgoblin, then we would still all look the same. If all your characters look the same, and your tired of it, maybe that's a clue to try something new.

Given the ability to custom build your next char, what would you pick?

Body style:
Race mix/blend:
Attribute increase/decrease:
Skill boost/loss:
Feats added:
Racial spells:
Resistant to:

And, in an RPG style, Why? What is the history or ancestry of this sub-race?

How are improved qualities offset with weaknesses and shortcomings to keep it in balance (well, sort of balanced). Getting into ECL 3 would be to hard to balance.

Q

Simon Hawk said...

When it comes to subraces like "Drow" for example, it'd be nice to be able to create the toon how ever you wanted and then the scripting would give the toons skin and hair the correct racial colors. One server I checked out in the past had this option and it was pretty cool. I believe it was "A Carpathian Nightmare".

I also enjoy having the option to totally change the "looks" of a character from head to toe. Most of the time I HAVE to play the char for awhile before I get and idea of what he or she should like. I know thats a little backwards but thats just how I think (backwards :P).

Alot of other servers have that option and I've always enjoyed it. I can make 100 different fighters if I want and they can all look different.

Blade said...

Wow, this looks like a complicated minefield, but i will try to give some helpful comments.

I would like to start my input to this discussion by listing my " Favorite SubRaces " with a view to perhaps enhancing a few of the other SubRaces to make them more attractive (Adding SR increments/Lvl would help in many cases to make a SubRace more attractive )

I have found the following to be most useful:-

Githzerai
Yuan-Ti
Shades
Athaslan
Tanarukk
Drow
Deep Orc
Ogrillon
Githyanki

I have also made :-
Air Genasi
Water Genasi
Dwark
Arctic Dwarf
Tiefling

I would consider :-
Svirfeneblin
DerroDwarves (Sorry forget how to spell these )

Where i see the most obvious area to improve the SubRace choice is in the area of Elves. I would like at least one more Elf alternative to Drow that also offers High SR along with maybe INT & DEX :) I don't know what the correct name would be, but maybe some type of High Elf ?.....is this possible ?

I see "Elf " as being higher profile than just the Gray Elves and Aquatic Elves, and would really like to make use of the Elf Portraits available too.

Also Elves & Gnomes should be more geared up to magic, yes ?

I was disappointed with some of the SubRaces, I didn't feal that Aasimar was powerful enough as a choice to make it favorite for a Paladin.....i even had a Paladin Tanarukk with Devils Wings in order to get decent SR lol.

On the other hand, a SubRace like Githzerai became almost an inevitable choice for a Dex Build or Monk build, there should be an alternative perhaps here ?

Having mentioned Aasimar, i was also disappointed with Tiefling, no SR here either. Maybe we could make another SubRace which is available to all races, other than Aasimar and Tiefling, but which had the added attraction of SR ?

These are just my first impressions, however i do think that they reflect a balanced view from a player who has 36 chars now, and tried most of what is on offer that seemed attractive:)

All the Best .......Blade:)

SF Daishi said...

Hey guys! Sorry im away from high speed internet ATM. Dial up..... I'm at the Oregon coast now.
Anyways.... I do like the vampires... What about a spectre. like the ones from shaddow tombs. I just think those look cool. Well miss ya all take care.
,SF

Simon Hawk said...

"HA HA, You miss us!" ~ Nelson Muntz.
Nelson

Garble said...

If you're going to mess with the races again I'd suggest 'unstacking' racial and class SR.

Also, the elementals should be able to do elemental damage. Maybe

On hit does +1/2 Level damage with unarmed attacks. (type would change with the elemental type. Might make unarmed monks more popular.

Can we play giants?

How about penguins?

How about a celestial as a race? (some sort of alignment restriction?
Or a doom knight?

Or a quest that gives you a lich body? Kill whatever+get 15 levels of PM and than see shorty.

That's an idea, races you have to earn through quests and such. Maybe get 20 levels of pally, kill dark ryuji see shorty and you get the celestial body and a nice chr bonus.

Could some of the races have a bonus to movement speed instead of a stat bonus? At this point I don't think there's stat that you can't start at +4 if you want to.

Deurack said...

Wow, Garble has some cool ideas. I specifically like the idea of getting a different body with some sort of bonuses (and negatives?) as a result of doing quests and getting levels.
My ideas aren’t that well-thought out. I have always wanted to play a Were-beast of some sort. Were-tiger specifically, but there are tons that could be cool. I know Q and I have talked about that in the past, the fact that there are some difficulties with that, but it sure would be interesting, and there are lots of different stat bonus and negative combinations available there. Were-cats get Dex with less Wis, Were-bears get more Str with less Dex, ect.
Also, I would love to play a Minotaur. Always thought they were cool. In paper D&D I once created a Minotaur Psion that was really fun and unconventional.
That’s it. My 2 cents.