Post/Author/DateTime	Post
BrokenJade 03-04-07, 06:35 PM	Hi guys i have been trying to develop a elven off-shoot for my asian themed setting. I am still working on thier back story but i cooked up thier stats. I would appreciate any feedback The Tao * +2 Wisdom, -4 Charisma, +2 Dexterity. The Tao tend to be very lithe and Insightful but have little tolerance for unnessecary conversation or fun. * Medium: As Medium creatures, Tao have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size. * Tao base land speed is 30 feet. * Immunity to magic sleep effects, and a +2 racial saving throw bonus against enchantment spells or effects. * Low-Light Vision: An Tao can see twice as far as a human in starlight, moonlight, torchlight, and similar conditions of poor illumination. She retains the ability to distinguish color and detail under these conditions. * Weapon Proficiency: Tao receive the Martial Weapon Proficiency feat for the longsword and Improved Unarmed Strike as a bonus feats. * Master Swordsman: When fighting with a sword in melee combat the tao recives a +1 parry bonus to AC *Special Note: A sword is considered a monk weapon to Tao Monks * +2 racial bonus on Listen, Search, and Spot checks. An Tao who merely passes within 5 feet of a secret or concealed door is entitled to a Search check to notice it as if she were actively looking for it. * Automatic Languages: Common and Tao. Bonus Languages: Draconic, Gnoll, Gnome, Goblin, Orc, and Sylvan. * Favored Class: Monk. A multiclass Tao's Monk class does not count when determining whether she takes an experience point penalty for multiclassing.
Isomer 03-04-07, 09:13 PM	The stat modifiers aren't particularly balanced. +2,+2-4 does= 0 however taking a hit to charisma is a big so what when you think about it. You've set them up to be monks which lose nothing for a charisma, even if they don't play a monk pretty much the only classes that would be heavily harmed by a low charisma would be sorcerer or bard. So you lose 4 to a stat that noone would care about, but gain 2 to 2 stats everyone cares about. Wisdom for spell casting, monks AC and overall perceptiveness, then dex which helps for intiative, AC and more than a few skills important to monks/other skillful classes. If you are running a high power game then maybe this isn't a worry, but if you are going more balanced, this guy will likely out preform the other PC races all day long. Also if it is a elf subrace, it should either have access to elven as a base or bonus language.
RoCkEtInToXiCaTe 03-04-07, 09:20 PM	Man I just get tired of generic, run of the mill, hardly different in anyway elves "subraces".
Isomer 03-04-07, 09:24 PM	Man I just get tired of generic, run of the mill, hardly different in anyway elves "subraces". i was kind of thinking that myself, but i was trying not to be too negative, just giving honest feedback. Fact is there is not, nor will there ever be a shortage of new elf subraces :(
Ozzymandias 03-04-07, 09:43 PM	How much importance does Charisma play in your game? I try to emphasize roleplaying in my games, and when the players are obviously behaving far more Charismatic (or Intelligent) than their characters' stats would indicate I call for skill checks, or otherwise find a way to hint that they might be straying too far from their chosen path. If your game is similar, in the sense that Charisma skills and interaction makes a big difference in how things turn out in the end, then having a -4 penalty can be a major hindrance. Otherwise, as it stands, Isomer is right: Charisma isn't that important in the standard rules set, unless you're a sorcerer or bard.
AZNsupermarket 03-05-07, 12:00 AM	To balance it, I would give it a penalty to con and lessen the penalty to cha if I were you.
JarionSilverblades 03-05-07, 08:37 AM	I like the race, but somethings just don't seem right for an Oriental elf sub-race. The Tao * +2 Wisdom, -4 Charisma, +2 Dexterity. The Tao tend to be very lithe and Insightful but have little tolerance for unnessecary conversation or fun. With the Favored Class Monk, The +2 Wisdom is made so much more powerful, I would have to say, Remove +2 Dexterity, -4 Charisma, and Add -2 Strength. * Weapon Proficiency: Tao receive the Martial Weapon Proficiency feat for the longsword and Improved Unarmed Strike as a bonus feats. If the Favored Class is Monk then Improved Unarmed Strike is redundant, and I would give them Proficiency with the Katana, not the longsword. * Master Swordsman: When fighting with a sword in melee combat the tao recives a +1 parry bonus to AC. When fighting with a Katana, they recives a +1 on attack rolls, "Master Swordsman" says to me, Mad combat skills. *Special Note: A sword is considered a monk weapon to Tao Monks. Nice, but again should be limited to the Katana, not all swords.
Edo_555 03-05-07, 09:02 AM	It have on broblem. Tao (taoism) is chinese religion;) Of coarse chinese don't have -ismus.
Magocrat 03-05-07, 09:07 AM	Anyone who has Charisma as a dump ability score had better not play in a psionic setting. Point buy and no points in Charisma means Charisma 4. 25% of the time, that character's going to get his ass handed to him with an ego whip. Think about that the next time you play a character with a low Charisma. Also, a low Charisma means that you'll be in the back seat when it comes to social encounters, which can be boring. But then again, to each his own.
BrokenJade 03-05-07, 04:53 PM	Thanks for the input, charisma is actualy pretty important in my campaign especialy when dealing with emessaries of the noble caste. The setting is based more off chinese myth than japanese. Looks like i need to work on them a bit.
Willie the Duck 03-05-07, 05:33 PM	The problem is that once you have the -2 to charisma, you've already set yourself apart as the party member that they have to keep from speaking during diplomatic incidents, and excluded sorcerer and bard (and likely cleric and paladin) from your likely class choices. At that point, the additional -2 to charisma is no penalty at all. Why the parry bonus? are they intended to be be tai-chi sword weilding monks? +1 AC that stacks with everything is pretty powerful, and the "only when weilding swords" limitation isn't really a limitation, especially for a monk who can have a sword in hand, and simply fight with the rest of their body even if they aren't proficient in swords.