Bashotan
Hardy and resilient ground dwellers, following a strange way of life.
RACIAL TRAITS
Average Height: 4’ 0”-4’8”
Average Weight: 200-300 lb.
Ability Scores: +2 Strength, +2 Constitution
Size: Medium
Speed: 6
Vision: Darkvision
Languages: Common, either Deep Speech or Dwarven
Skill Bonuses: +2 Endurance, +2 Dungeoneering
Thick Hide: You gain a +1 racial bonus to your AC defense.
Adjusting Eyes: If you move directly from bright light to total darkness, or vice versa, you are blinded until the start of your next turn.
Stone’s Way: You gain a +2 racial bonus to unarmed attacks, and the damage dice for unarmed attacks increase to d6s.
Ball Up: You can use ball up as an encounter power.
Ball Up Bashotan Racial Power
You curl up, protecting your weak points or preparing to bowl your enemies over.
Encounter
Standard Action Personal
Choose one of the following:
The bashotan only recently emerged from their Underdark cities. Not much of their history or customs are known to non-bashotan. Many wonder why they never fight with weapons.
Play a bashotan if you want…
• to be secretive and mysterious.
• to be armored and tough.
• to be a member of a race that favors the fighter, rogue, and warlord classes.
The main problem I see is that they look a lot like Goliath Monks; I'm not sure if I'm being paranoid though.
Ability Scores: +2 Strength, +2 Constitution
Races with bonuses to ability scores that would normally boost the same defense are typically given a +1 racial bonus to one of the other two defenses. For example, the Eladrin are given a +1 racial bonus to Will because DEX and INT both go towards Reflex, and the Goliath are given a +1 racial bonus to Will because STR and CON both go towards Fortitude.
Vision: Darkvision
Normally I'd complain about this, but the fluff for your race actually supports this, unlike the vast majority of homebrew races who just get it, so it's probably fine.
Thick Hide: You gain a +1 racial bonus to your AC defense.
This should be removed. The problem isn't necessarily one of balance (though it is questionable) but one of consistency and comparison with other races. Are you honestly going to tell me that your race's skin is thicker than that of a race made out of metal and stone? Because if Warforged don't get a bonus to AC, you're going to have a really difficult time justifying why it's in any way logical for your race to.
No, how about you change this to a bonus to Reflex? It'll fix your STR/CON problem with defenses and go perfectly in theme the same way that shield bonuses now also apply to Reflex Defense.
Adjusting Eyes: If you move directly from bright light to total darkness, or vice versa, you are blinded until the start of your next turn.
This should be removed. 4E races are never supposed to get penalties.
Stone’s Way: You gain a +2 racial bonus to unarmed attacks, and the damage dice for unarmed attacks increase to d6s.
You're going to have the same problem here as you do with that AC bonus. There are many other races out there with much better reasons to have better unarmed strikes, but they don't. Minotaurs and Shifters specifically come to mind.
And that's not even the only thing wrong with this. Another problem is that it's pretty useless no matter what class you select. Every non-improvised weapon is better than this, so there's actually no reason ever to want to use an unarmed attack as a member of this race, and that's not even considering later levels when magical enhancement bonuses on weapons become necessary to keep up, and of course unarmed attacks cannot be so enchanted.
Basically, it should be removed both because it's useless and because it makes no sense.
Ball Up: You can use ball up as an encounter power.
Ball Up Bashotan Racial Power
You curl up, protecting your weak points or preparing to bowl your enemies over.
Encounter
Standard Action Personal
Choose one of the following:
You know what? Normally, I would tell you that a standard action racial power is a terrible idea, but I knew that there would be one exception out there, and I think this is it. Now, be aware that the only reason that I say that is because the Total Defense action is already a standard action anyways, so this is basically just an upgrade to that. Furthermore, if this didn't allow that total defense modification option and was just the bull rush thing, it would indeed be a terrible idea, because racial powers are supposed to be useful to all classes, and that second bonus is most definitely not that useful to any but STR-focused, melee classes.
However, I still feel like this is a very underpowered racial power that won't get much use, so just as a possible alternative idea, how about the race doesn't get a racial power at all and instead gets this as a simple racial trait:
Ball Up: Once per encounter, you can use Total Defense as a minor action instead of a standard action
You're going to have the same problem here as you do with that AC bonus. There are many other races out there with much better reasons to have better unarmed strikes, but they don't. Minotaurs and Shifters specifically come to mind.
And that's not even the only thing wrong with this. Another problem is that it's pretty useless no matter what class you select. Every non-improvised weapon is better than this, so there's actually no reason ever to want to use an unarmed attack as a member of this race, and that's not even considering later levels when magical enhancement bonuses on weapons become necessary to keep up, and of course unarmed attacks cannot be so enchanted.
Basically, it should be removed both because it's useless and because it makes no sense.
My main thought behind this was In Case of Rust Monster, Break Glass. If I took out the fluff about them not using weapons, maybe it'd be okay? (My in-game reason was that they had claws, but mayhaps they champion versatility instead...)
You know what? Normally, I would tell you that a standard action racial power is a terrible idea, but I knew that there would be one exception out there, and I think this is it. Now, be aware that the only reason that I say that is because the Total Defense action is already a standard action anyways, so this is basically just an upgrade to that. Furthermore, if this didn't allow that total defense modification option and was just the bull rush thing, it would indeed be a terrible idea, because racial powers are supposed to be useful to all classes, and that second bonus is most definitely not that useful to any but STR-focused, melee classes.
However, I still feel like this is a very underpowered racial power that won't get much use, so just as a possible alternative idea, how about the race doesn't get a racial power at all and instead gets this as a simple racial trait:
Ball Up: Once per encounter, you can use Total Defense as a minor action instead of a standard action
My only objection to this is that this would mean a combo: Total Defense + Daily power + Run away. I'm not sure I trust my PCs with that.
Darkvision: Knee jerk reaction is no, but it really does fit the fluff and there is one offical race hailing from the Underdark with Darkvision already, so I approve.
Thick Hide: It really shouldn't be a bonus to AC. This race kind of reminds me alot of Gorons from the Zelda series of video games, so it makes sense to be. But I feel boosting AC is a bit too strong as there is no precidence for it amongst any offical races. I'd advise switching it to either Fort, to go in line with the fluff, or Reflex for more diversity.
Adjusting Eyes: I'm with Crimson, 4e races never NEVER have penalties, but I still kind of like the idea of the race thriving in darkness. Maybe change it to a +1 bonus to attacks in total darkness and change the name to suit that. I'm undecided wether it should grow with tiers or not, as in +1 at Heroic, +2 at Paragon and +3 at Epic, probally too much then.
Stone's Way: If you can come up with a good fluff reason for having this it might fit. Change the wording a little to, like, "You gain proficiency with unarmed attacks, granting you a +2 prof bonus, and increase the dice size by one category to d6." Something like that, it would also allow you to
This is me kicking around ideas for Stone's Way: Possible racial feats in relation to Stone's Way could be, treating it as a different weapon group in addition to the unarmed group. Granting it one of the other weapon properties like High-Crit or Brutal or Parry, only being able to take that feat once probally. Maybe even one that lets you increase the dice up to d8s at paragon tier. Sorry about that got distracted by rabid creativity.
Ball Up: Again, like Crimson mentioned, Standard Action racial powers are a bad idea, like all the time. But I find this one to be pretty cool as well and a possible exception to the rule. As it is, it feels a little underpowered and I don't really have any advice for improving it. However, I think you should changne the wording of your choices, just to remove any ambiguity that might exist. Something like, "You perform a Total Defense with an additional +2 bonus to all defenses" and "You perform a Bull Rush with a +2 power Bonus."
All in all, I like the idea behind this race and sorry for calling them Gorons.