~The Half-Minotaur Template- horribly broken!?! [Archive] - Wizards Community

~The Half-Minotaur Template- horribly broken!?! [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
rice830
05-06-07, 02:09 AM ~So i've heard that the half-minotaur template is broken, but i've never seen it. Can anyone tell me of the stats, because i have no Dragon Magazines.
~Thank you all for this, because i was planning on playing something of the sort.
j3st3r
05-06-07, 04:54 AM One option would be not to use the template but rather use the minotaur from the DragonLance Campaign (http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=826676) manual and call it a half-minotaur.
AMGriffin
05-06-07, 09:27 AM I'm not sure if we're allowed to share it but you do get the following (and more)

Bonuses to strength, constitution, and wisdom.
Natural armor
increase in speed of your base land movement
Go up one size category if you're small or medium originally
Scent
runestar
05-06-07, 09:47 AM The template itself is fairly strong as is for a LA+1 template, not not enough to be labelled as broken.
The problem is that it bumps you up one size category, and the designer, in his "infinite wisdom", stated that the half-minotaur gets all the associated bonuses with being large, which can be interpreted to mean you get the +8str, +4con and extra NA as well.

All in all, you end up with +12str and large size for +1LA...:weep:
Warforged Goblin
05-06-07, 10:42 AM www.crystalkeep.com
AMGriffin
05-06-07, 11:38 AM Ah hell, here's what the template grants

•+4 Strength, +2 Constitution, +2 Wisdom, -2 Intelligence
• +2 Natural Armor
• Small or medium creatures increase one size category and gain a +10' bonus to their base movement speed.
• Scent and Track feats
• Darkvision out to 60 feet.
• +2 racial bonus on listen, search, and spot checks.
• +4 racial bonus on checks to escape mazes as if under the maze spell (or something along those lines)

That's a helluva lot for LA+1, it'd be a balanced race ON ITS OWN.

Crystalkeep then has the balls to post the half-ogre template after it which is BLATANTLY inferior.
Mr_Teapot
05-06-07, 12:46 PM The half-minotaur is in Dragon 313.

The LA is almost certainly a typo: under the Darkvision ability, they refer to the half-minotaur as a "half-ogre", suggesting that they copied and pasted then modified the half-ogre elsewhere in the same article (which is more balanced for +1 LA). But they missed the reference to "half-ogre" and apparently missed the LA too.
StruckingFuggle
05-06-07, 03:04 PM The template itself is fairly strong as is for a LA+1 template, not not enough to be labelled as broken.
The problem is that it bumps you up one size category, and the designer, in his "infinite wisdom", stated that the half-minotaur gets all the associated bonuses with being large, which can be interpreted to mean you get the +8str, +4con and extra NA as well.

All in all, you end up with +12str and large size for +1LA...:weep:

Best solution I've found to that is replace "size increases by one step" with "powerful build".

Then it's a decent race, to be sure, but it's not much different than the Goliath, and misses out on the neat Goliath racial sub levels for Barbarian.

(Of course, it also, and this is something LA can't account for, depends on what you slap it on. A Half-Minotaur Dwarf is a lot nastier than a half-minotaur elf. Heh. I wonder if Dragonborn stacks with the Half-Minotaur Dwarf...)

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
rice830 05-06-07, 02:09 AM	~So i've heard that the half-minotaur template is broken, but i've never seen it. Can anyone tell me of the stats, because i have no Dragon Magazines. ~Thank you all for this, because i was planning on playing something of the sort.
j3st3r 05-06-07, 04:54 AM	One option would be not to use the template but rather use the minotaur from the DragonLance Campaign (http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=826676) manual and call it a half-minotaur.
AMGriffin 05-06-07, 09:27 AM	I'm not sure if we're allowed to share it but you do get the following (and more) Bonuses to strength, constitution, and wisdom. Natural armor increase in speed of your base land movement Go up one size category if you're small or medium originally Scent
runestar 05-06-07, 09:47 AM	The template itself is fairly strong as is for a LA+1 template, not not enough to be labelled as broken. The problem is that it bumps you up one size category, and the designer, in his "infinite wisdom", stated that the half-minotaur gets all the associated bonuses with being large, which can be interpreted to mean you get the +8str, +4con and extra NA as well. All in all, you end up with +12str and large size for +1LA...:weep:
Warforged Goblin 05-06-07, 10:42 AM	www.crystalkeep.com
AMGriffin 05-06-07, 11:38 AM	Ah hell, here's what the template grants •+4 Strength, +2 Constitution, +2 Wisdom, -2 Intelligence • +2 Natural Armor • Small or medium creatures increase one size category and gain a +10' bonus to their base movement speed. • Scent and Track feats • Darkvision out to 60 feet. • +2 racial bonus on listen, search, and spot checks. • +4 racial bonus on checks to escape mazes as if under the maze spell (or something along those lines) That's a helluva lot for LA+1, it'd be a balanced race ON ITS OWN. Crystalkeep then has the balls to post the half-ogre template after it which is BLATANTLY inferior.
Mr_Teapot 05-06-07, 12:46 PM	The half-minotaur is in Dragon 313. The LA is almost certainly a typo: under the Darkvision ability, they refer to the half-minotaur as a "half-ogre", suggesting that they copied and pasted then modified the half-ogre elsewhere in the same article (which is more balanced for +1 LA). But they missed the reference to "half-ogre" and apparently missed the LA too.
StruckingFuggle 05-06-07, 03:04 PM	The template itself is fairly strong as is for a LA+1 template, not not enough to be labelled as broken. The problem is that it bumps you up one size category, and the designer, in his "infinite wisdom", stated that the half-minotaur gets all the associated bonuses with being large, which can be interpreted to mean you get the +8str, +4con and extra NA as well. All in all, you end up with +12str and large size for +1LA...:weep: Best solution I've found to that is replace "size increases by one step" with "powerful build". Then it's a decent race, to be sure, but it's not much different than the Goliath, and misses out on the neat Goliath racial sub levels for Barbarian. (Of course, it also, and this is something LA can't account for, depends on what you slap it on. A Half-Minotaur Dwarf is a lot nastier than a half-minotaur elf. Heh. I wonder if Dragonborn stacks with the Half-Minotaur Dwarf...)