tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264635622364229027.post5302539400901108..comments2012-06-07T14:34:31.887-07:00Comments on Alea Iacta Est: A new race...Thrower of Stoneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15598551470559673576noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264635622364229027.post-62897868612986191722011-12-10T22:25:46.044-08:002011-12-10T22:25:46.044-08:00You are right that Wizards breaks their own rules ...You are right that Wizards breaks their own rules about natural attacks requiring an LA. Kenku are definitely the worst violators of that, although Warforged are probably a close second. Kobolds get a free pass because c'mon, they're kobolds.<br /><br />Leaving it as it is makes it a bit more unique, which I like, but I do agree that iron nails != punching really hard. It might work if I added in that they becoming piercing, but that might be too periphrastic.<br /><br />Upon rereading this race does sort of feel like it needs something to spruce it up just a tad. It's lack of ability scores and lack of any useful synergy with any class makes it a little lackluster, as a bonus on binding and use magic device hardly makes it an obvious Binder or Warlock choice. The bonus on Enchantment spells, though, perhaps is enough to make them good Sorcerers and Wizards. I dunno, I'll have to think on it.Thrower of Stoneshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15598551470559673576noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264635622364229027.post-75977638220668664182011-12-01T12:00:11.359-08:002011-12-01T12:00:11.359-08:00Out of curiosity, what makes you think a natural w...Out of curiosity, what makes you think a natural weapon would be too good? There are LA 0 races with natural weapons (Kenku, for example), and I've never thought it particularly unbalancing. What's more, having iron nails makes more sense to me as a claw attack than as being able to punch people really hard, especially because unarmed strikes are bludgeoning by default.<br /><br />It would also be cool if the claws overcame DR as if they were cold iron, but that might be edging towards too good.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264635622364229027.post-59433985152871261012011-11-22T14:06:51.558-08:002011-11-22T14:06:51.558-08:00Yeah, I wanted to keep it LA 0 as honestly I disli...Yeah, I wanted to keep it LA 0 as honestly I dislike LA races. Either you allow LA buy-off and they end up being nearly free power boosts, or you don't, and they end up being largely worthless choices. I tried to skew the flavor on this so that they can "co-exist" with hagspawn, since hagspawn are basically "baby hags" or male hags whereas these are the spawn of hagspawn, but the distinction is kind of thin. I haven't played NWN2, nor do I generally purchase Forgotten Realms books, so I haven't seen the stats on them, although I did read about them in "Ecology of the Annis Hag" in Dragon 345 in preparation for writing this.<br /><br />While designing it I did run into the issue of having too much I wanted to include. Hags are very strong, so I wanted to give them a strength bonus, and since I wanted it to be a spell-casting race a bonus to any mental stat would have been appropriate (if hard to balance), but decided it was a bit excessive. In Pathfinder, yeah, I'd give them a +2 to strength, probably, or maybe a +2 to a mental score of their choosing.<br /><br />I was also tempted to add more Binder or Warlock synergistic abilities, but couldn't decide on a way that wouldn't make it too good, so decided a bonus on binding checks was a nice, low impact way to tie the two together without making it a "must-be" race for Binders.<br /><br />I'm a little iffy on the iron nails ability myself - it's great flavor but it's useless for spellcasters and extremely useful for Monks, but a Hagblood Monk just seems silly. I felt an all out natural attack was too good and would require bumping this to a +1 LA, though, so this was a compromise.Thrower of Stoneshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15598551470559673576noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264635622364229027.post-80944179854897074802011-11-22T13:55:00.612-08:002011-11-22T13:55:00.612-08:00Interesting. It's worth noting that there are ...Interesting. It's worth noting that there are actually stats for Hagspawn in "Forgotten Realms: Unapproachable East" (One of your Allies in Neverwinter Nights: Mask of the Betrayer was actually a hagspawn)<br /><br />It's more powerful, but has an LA so its probably not worth it.<br /><br />I like this one better, since it has more "Haggish" abilities. I think it's about balanced for 3.5, but could probably use an ability bonus to be balanced for Pathfinder.<br /><br />I do like the flavor though, Gannayev (The Hagspawn) was one of my favorite characters in NWN:MotB.<br /><br />If I could suggest something though, it'd be cool to see a dream-oriented ability, since that's something very associated with hags...or possibly companion 1st level feats indicating a hag bloodline (Night Hag, Anise, Sea Hag)RarerMonstershttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05562677067344511186noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264635622364229027.post-13391335536784628432011-11-22T13:54:01.063-08:002011-11-22T13:54:01.063-08:00This comment has been removed by the author.RarerMonstershttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05562677067344511186noreply@blogger.com