Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 stormknight Apr 23, 2010 12:30:30	As is, the point buy and racial bonus system strongly penalize you for picking a race that doesn't match your class, since you want your primary stats high and costs escalate as a stat increases. So I'm adding the following houserule: Instead of the normal +2 bonus, you may choose to take a racial bonus as +4 to the stat, to a maximum of 14. Why? Consider a Half-Elf Warlock. Wanting a high CHA and CON, she puts 16s in both those stats, then gets her +2 to get up to an 18. Going from a 16 to an 18 costs 7 build points, so between the two stats she's gotten 14 bonus build points. Meanwhile, her identical twin the wizard has put her high stats in INT and WIS, and doesn't care much about CHA or CON. She's put a 10 in both. She gets up to a 12. That's 2 build points each for 4 extra build points. Not only a lot less, but in places she doesn't need it. The Warlock got an extra 10 build points over the wizard! The idea of playing twins might have sounded fun, but should the wizard really get punished that much for it?
#2 pluisjen Apr 23, 2010 13:04:08	So if I understand correctly, you could bump a 10 to a 14, or a 16 to an 18 on your racial stat bump? That sounds okay, means you can get a character with very all round stats (a 14 or 16 in each stat probably, even?) which I don't think is going to break anything really, other then give you access to a lot of feats.
#3 stormknight Apr 23, 2010 13:22:01	So if I understand correctly, you could bump a 10 to a 14, or a 16 to an 18 on your racial stat bump? That sounds okay, means you can get a character with very all round stats (a 14 or 16 in each stat probably, even?) which I don't think is going to break anything really, other then give you access to a lot of feats.  The can get a very balanced spread; you could do all 14s for example. But with point buy you could do 14,14,14,14,14,10, or 15,15,14,13,13,13. Pretty close. A balanced spread isn't generally as good as high values in stats you use a lot though.
#4 tequila_sunrise Apr 23, 2010 15:36:58	That sounds confusing. Have you considered floating racial bonuses?
#5 stormknight Apr 24, 2010 1:53:28	No, I figure if I throw them in water they'll just get all soggy. :D Ok, what's a floating racial bonus?
#6 pluisjen Apr 24, 2010 2:35:48	Like the new Races have; +2 to X and +2 to Y or Z.
#7 tequila_sunrise Apr 24, 2010 8:52:06	Or "You can switch one of your racial bonuses. You can't apply two +2s to the same stat." Or even "You can switch your two racial bonuses to whatever stats you want. You can't apply two +2s to the same stat." DMs who allow these rules usually give humans a second +2, with the same caveat as above.
#8 stormknight Apr 26, 2010 14:19:16	Hm. The 'floating' option would kind of negate the point of racial bonuses entirely if you can just put them wherever you want. At any rate, I used the current idea for the game I'm playing right now. One PC used it; the Deva Paladin doesn't have either of his bonuses lining up with his class. The other PC is a half-elf warlock and thus had no use for it.
#9 tequila_sunrise Apr 26, 2010 15:11:47	Glad everything worked out for you! Hm. The 'floating' option would kind of negate the point of racial bonuses entirely if you can just put them wherever you want. The purpose of racial bonuses is to penalize players for playing race/class combos that the designers don't want them to play. I want my players to play whatever they want to play, so I float the bonuses.
#10 stormknight Apr 26, 2010 15:54:26	Different approaches to fixing the same problem :D
#11 stargazer_dragon Apr 27, 2010 2:07:38	I use a half floating rule, I make +2 float so that a race can be of any class and still have the primary stat buffed and the other +2 goes into one of the racial bonus so for a dwarf it gets +2 wis or con and +2 any stat still gives slight preference to some classes but I think some races should be slightly better at some things but still gives players enough room that they can play any class of any race and not suck compared to others