Sunday, April 24, 2011
Racial Benefits
Prior editions of D&D gave various bonuses to the different races when it came to class. Some classes were even limited to certain races. I have some Combat Proficiencies like that, but so far none of my classes are race-restricted. However, I just recently considered the option of giving a reduced experience cost to certain classes, based on race. At this point I'm not sure how much of a bonus it should be, or if it's even truly desirable as an aspect of the game. I would like to include some sort of technical variance due to race, but I could just include the bonuses based on size and the different types of vision and be done with it. Thoughts?
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2 comments:
Just so long as the bonuses have some basis, and don't appear arbitrary. We had one player who loved to select small races just because they had a huge advantage on the grappling tables (1st ed). Of course he was just gaming the system, which as it turns out was seriously flawed.
If, for example, a hobbit - excuse me, halfling (excuse me, kender) - is naturally a better thief, that would be reflected in some kind of boost in the thieving abilities, and that in turn will work out to more experience without a 10% boost to xp. Seems kind of redundant.
At present, all of the skills like climbing, swimming, picking pockets and locks, etc., are based off of stats. They aren't dependent upon class at all. My classes more or less deal specifically with fighting styles, magic use, or crafting.
I could give skill bonuses to races, as well. I hadn't really considered that just yet, but a kender could get a bonus to sleight of hand skills and so on.
As for combat, a hobbit by any other name still gets a bonus to thrown weapons, and elves typically get a bonus to bows (and sometimes either longsword or rapier) so I wouldn't have to give them any sort of experience cost bonus to a class that focuses on ranged attacks.
Dwarves, though, are typically known for their smithing, clerics, and fighters. If they got a small experience cost bonus for classes that dealt with these things to reflect that racial tendency, would that be more or less preferable to things like bonuses to the stats based on race?
I guess I'm getting into the idea of whether different races should have any technical differences, behind the scenes, or if their differences are defined solely by the player's roleplay.
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