Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 kutulhu Feb 01, 2009 20:36:20	This probably doesn't happen much, but I was wondering if anyone ever played a character where they traded out their character's standard racial ability for one from a different race. Or if you were a DM and allowed it, or not. Basically, I want to make a warforged rogue. I want to trade out Warforded Resolve for the Drow's Cloud of Darkness. I am wondering if anyone thought that this particular change would be game breaking. (Note: I am using +2 DEX and +2 INT for the warforged). This racial ability change works into the backstory of the character. Its is explained that his warforged was stolen and prepared to accept the soul of a dying leader of a mercenary/assassin company. This leader was a Drow, so in order to make him feel more 'at home', the warforged host was augmented with a cloaking component similar to Cloud of Darkness. I am still working on this backstory. Anyway, I don't want to do this if it seem uneven, but I don't think it is. I am new to the game, so this might be sacreligious or something.
#2 rikiji Feb 02, 2009 12:58:13	It smacks of cherry-picking (as does swapping out the attribute bonuses - I can't see any justification for that). From a balance standpoint it defeats any attempt at making a reasonably balanced race to start with. Balance concerns aside, you're damaging the flavor and integrity of both of the races. If I were to allow it as a DM, you'd have to propose some mechanism reasonably within the bounds of the rules - a power substitution feat might work, although I'd probably insist that it replaces a utility power instead of the racial. To be honest though, if you're going to replace a majority of a race's charactersitics, then why are you playing that race in the first place? It sounds like you want to play a Drow, so play a drow.
#3 tequila_sunrise Feb 02, 2009 13:24:40	I don't think I'd let you switch racial traits or powers, but I have a standing house rule that allows my players to apply their two racial +2s to any two abilities they want. Traits and powers really help define a race, so I wouldn't like the precedent of swapping those around, but ability boosts are invisible so I don't really care about those. TS
#4 kutulhu Feb 02, 2009 18:44:38	It sounds like you want to play a Drow, so play a drow. Well, I want to play a warforged, a dual hand-crossbow warforged. And while I was trying to figure out how to make that work, I came upon the Drow's Cloud of Darkness, which would work well with that build. Sure, I could just switch to Drow, but another player is already playing one and I had my heart set on warforged. Its not a big deal, I was just wondering if anyone ever did that (swap racials) To me, it doesn't really hurt the flavor of the character, because this particular warforged is unique (or could be). And techincally, I dont really have to switch the ability modifiers, ...I just wanted to because of the flavor (the warforged was modified/tampered with to make it more assassin-like) It was just an idea.