Paradigm Concepts

[Chris24601]

Here's a little quiz...

I have a race that gets a +1 to Vigor, Persuasion as their racial skil, a +1 to the defense of their choice and with their racial talent choice can inflict a d4(Might) with their bare hands. Which race is it?

I have another race that gets +1 to Logic, Artisan:Weaponsmith as their racial skill, and gets a +1 to their Fortitude defense and an extra skill talent. Which race is this?

I have a third race that gets +1 to Charisma, Artisan:Jewel Crafting as their racial skill, and a +1 to their Discipline defense and an extra Arcanum talent. Which race is this?

While you might be tempted to answer Dark-Kin, Solani, and Encali Dwarf... the correct answer to all of the above is HUMAN (the first with the Pugilist talent instead of "sharp claws" from Infernal Heritage).

A human can get all the same abilities as a Dark-Kin only without suffering the stigma of the Dark-kin. A human can get the exact same benefits as a Solani or Encali dwarf with no racial spellcasting restrictions thrown in on top.

Is restoring stamina once per day, a swim pace, a +1 bonus to the Wild Assault maneuver, or +5' pace any better than the talents a human could select from with their bonus talent?

Gnomes lose stamina for an extra wound, but get no defense bonus. And are GNOMES.

Val have a limited racial skill selection and don't get a racial attribute or defense bump in exchance for a bloodline talent.

And humans are better at spellcasting than any other race... and better at combat than every race except the Marokene Elorii (able to start at 4 ranks in any Arcanum or Combat skill).

I never thought I'd be saying this... but, as written, humans are overpowered compared to the other races.

They get something from every category that most races get (attribute bonus, racial skill, defense bump, bonus talent or eqivalent) only unlike the other races whose selections are fixed and who often have social penalties to one degree or another... humans get to select what will benefit them most from each category, but pay nothing for being able to be so versitile.

I'm thinking that the other races could use some slight bump to make them competitive with humans. For example, attribute bonus increases are fairly marginal in terms of effect. So perhaps the other races could be made a bit more attractive with a second attribute bump (Gnomes getting +1 to both Vigor and Resolve for example), while humans retain the ability to get one attribute bump of their choice.
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Christopher D. Johnson
Emrys val'Holryn-Steele - Master of Disguise.

[Milandir]

You can certainly consider Humans too good, but they are restricted from several game elements.
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Eric Wiener
Paradigm Concepts, Inc.

[hustonj]

There's also the issue that humans just aren't cool enough.

Munchkins may well certainly migrate to humans under this system instead of whichever race the preferred under D20 (base don what they were trying to do).

I'm playing a human because I prefer to start with a "normal" baseline for the world. Last time I eventually branched out to Dark-Kin (a bard, so it wasn't a munchkin choice) and Val, but the "normal" human was my touchstone.

My daughter will play a Val, again, because of the cool factor.

My wife will play an Elorii because she ALWAYS plays some variant of Elf.

The munchkins will always do whatever they think gives them the best advantage. The people who try to role-play their way into representing major aspects of the story will play whatever they think gives them the best story. And others will be like my wife, and play the closest thing they can find to what they ALWAYS play.

Nothing any game designer does can "fix" those three options, not without negatively impacting the fun factor of playing the game in the first place.
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Valeriano Innocenzo Camillo de Larissa la Galletti
San Antonio, Tx-based Harvester
Jeff Huston
huston.harvester@cox.net

[KarmaInferno]

[IanQuentin]

Actually, IMO, Humans were the best race in the previous version of the campaign as well, with their bonus skill points and feat. Of course, not being able to learn psionics, the inability to take tainted feats (at least, not without special certed help), the lack of access to certain spells (say from Eldest Sons), and other access prevention did much to balance out the choice of being human.
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Jay Anderson - Knoxville, TN area
aka Obuasi Okoru, Altherian Priest of Althares
aka Morgan val'Virdan, Altherian War Psion (retired)
aka Ayeb, Gnomish Masseuse of Anshar (retired)
aka Liliana, the Troubled (retired)

[Chris24601]

[StatMonkey]

[hustonj]

[mjmistele]

[Milandir]

[Deviknyte]

Sir Tirpin was the COOLEST person in the room thank you very much!
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-Devin Redd, Detroit Harvester
"The Elorii shall rise again!"
Current- Vaerdos kyr'Taliis, Ardakene Elorii Chanter of the Rebirth and the Bright People
Retired- Elysian, Ardakene Elorii Hierophant of Belisarda