Rebalancing the races.

[Variaz]

Well, I'm looking at the races, and it seems like some races feels a little underpowered. For 008, I am making some changes to the races, so that the currently underplayed races gets a little more love. Not that I have anything against Celestials and Zulgors, but since we're humans, I thought it may be interesting to be able to play as our own race.

Anyway, here's some changes, along with some comments.

HUMANS:

+1 skill points every 3 levels is almost as good as the Marksman's Accurate Shots or the High Monk's Energize Self ability. Because this bonus was completely overpowering the humans, I decided to remove it to balance things a bit. ;D

All right, it was a pretty obsolete bonus that completely failed to reflect Humans' adaptability. So instead, while keeping their existing bonus, I am giving them +25% to Fighting, Shooting and Spellcraft, the general skills. Now THAT'S adaptability. And that means they make nice Fighters too! And I gave them +25% to Conjuration and the new Music skill as well. With bonus to Charisma, Leadership and Music, they should make good bards. And summoners. And fighters. And anything, really.

HALF-ELVES:

+1 skill point every 5 levels was even worse than the humans. Removed that, and gave them +10% to Fighting, Shooting and Music, and also Conjuration and Mysticism(see Elves below). The bonus to spellcraft is now 25% instead of 10%, because both humans and elves have it, and is therefore not affected.

ELVES:

Removed the -25% constitution penality. Constitution is too important at higher levels to allow any races to have penalities in it. Also, I gave them +25% to Mysticism, due to the fact that their kingdom of Nimbraya is more religious in nature, and so Mysticism is a natural choice for would-be priests.

DWARVES:

Dwarves now gets +25% to Mining. Other than that, no other changes. I think they are pretty good overall.

GNOME:

Removed the -25% Strength penality. There are strength-based and dex-based fighters out there. But being bad at both isn't a good thing. Plus, they descend from dwarves, and while weaker, they don't have to be THAT much weaker. Also, I've given them +10% to Mining, since they no longer live in mines, but they did at one time if you read their history, so it's not completely lost.

KOBOLD:

I have taken away all their penalities. The constitution penality didn't make much sense. Having spent so much time in contact with poisons of all kind, they cannot have a bad constitution. They won't get a bonus due to their smaller size, but certainly not worth a penality. For strength, despite being short, they had to survive for many years in dungeons full of monsters, so it make sense that they can fight well. And charisma? Originally, I made them to be aggressive and wild. So far, I have depicted them as anything but that. Kobolds are capable of adapting themselves to a civilized life style, and therefore, I have removed their penality to Charisma.

As for bonuses, I've given them +25% to Swords if they wield one-handed swords, as they are often depicted as using, and also +25% to Daggers since they are short blades as well. The Swords bonus works with "COULD2H" swords, such as long swords or katanas. I think these changes makes the race much more playable now.

DEVLINGS:

Removed the constitution and strength. You would expect demonic blood to at least give descent constitution, and it's a shame to have a polearm bonus without strength to benefit from it. Other than that, I don't think they need any other changes. Devlings are good at hitting stuff with spears and moving very quickly. Exactly as they are in-game.

CELESTIALS:

Gave them bonus to Mysticism and Divination schools. Since they are divine beings, it makes sense that they would have a better control over the spiritual realm(as well as healing magic) and the fate of other beings.

DEMONS:

Demons now gets +25% to Elemental and Alteration schools. Even if the Rhyzendalian demons are more moderate, they will always enjoy burning and cursing stuff.

ZULGORS:

After all, they are raised along with other humans, there's no reasons why their intelligence should be inferior. So they now get +25% to intelligence, but not charisma, they tend to be less sociable and more reclusive. For skills, they now get Fighting at +33%, because zulgors just LOVE Power Attacks.

Well, that's about it for now. If anyone has any ideas, feel free to post. But I think that it makes the races more playable now.

[divinefistoka]

Ought to make humans more playable! nice! Especially since monster race 'humanoids' were better then regular humans Love those paragon points.

[junyortrakr]

This is a serious boost to some of the races. It will take the more crippling penalties away from some of the weaker ones.

This will definitely make humans stronger, although I liked having the extra skill points to put where ever I liked. Even though I get lots of points to spread out from items, I'm always short on the pure character ones that give you the skill special abilities. In my opinion(very likely a seriously minority one), I'd trade all those specific skill bonus improvements for a 1 skill point a level bonus. I suppose this would apply to half-elves, too.

It may be mostly because of the way I think of magic-using characters, but it seems to me that the demon bonus to alteration and elemental magics is a whole lot more powerful than the celestial bonus to mysticism and divination magics. Still, both are definitely an improvement.

As for the zulgors, the changes you mentioned make sense, but they were already strong enough that I wonder if they really need them.

[Variaz]

Specific skill bonus are especially good if paired with a class that also has a bonus to the skill, because it's multiplicative. Which means I will probably give some new skill bonus to classes. Some classes such as Monk and now Bard gets skills to their main skill, and I believe other classes should.

[junyortrakr]

That is a good point. If I remember correctly, currently you have to put in enough base character skill points to reach the skill ability break points before any racial advantages are added. Since one of the reasons a racial advantage exists is to help you excel at that skill, maybe this could be changed to allow the racial bonus to count toward these break points. After all, if you have a racial penalty to a skill, you have to put in the extra points to overcome it.

Of course, it does work the way it is. I was wondering if anyone else had a thought on it.

[Gando]

Yeah I dont like the fact that skill/stat bonuses from races/classes do not count for lots of things. Makes calculating what you need difficult at best.