Hybrid Races - Downloaded from the Wizards Community, all coding removed by Solauren

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 deadsent Dec 25, 2010 21:15:01	A friend of mine and I were joking around recently about some strange races that would be very amusing to battle or even play as, it started out utterly rediculous with things like a Chuul/Human(cause you know...why not?), then it became much more interesting. I began thinking about a PC that was half-human/half-troll. Attractive? No. Awesome? Without a doubt. The more we talked about this and broke down what it might have we started to like the idea of hybrid races more and more. We dove into our books and found nothing about this. So we were curious if this was forbidden in a book we didn't have(sadly none of us in the party have the magazines), or would this be something that might be entirely up to the DM?
#2 Namagem Dec 26, 2010 0:37:33	It's not forbidden; In fact, there are some feats called "bloodline feats" that kinda simulate this, such as Vampiric heritage or Deva Heritage. If you want a completely unique race that's a hybrid of two, you might want to take a look at the darksun Muls, who are a half-dwarf, half-human race.
#3 Sabelkatten Dec 26, 2010 4:42:27	Of course there are always the half-elf and half-orc races on PHB1&2... If you do a search there is at least one fairly long thread on hybrid races hereabouts. IIRC it had ironed out the worst problems, at least.
#4 slobo777a Dec 26, 2010 6:06:56	There are several threads on this, each showing a different starting mindset. Here is one I started: community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/758... . . . it is less interesting for my general rules suggestion, than for later comments about game balance. I would actually suggest you look at any combination that a player wants individually, and attempt to work out rules for just that combination. If you find them useful you could use my old suggestions, or any other thread you find on the subject, as a guide The point is you need to give it just a little extra effort and thought, if you want to step off the beaten track.
#5 stargazer_dragon Dec 28, 2010 0:35:50	as stated there r plenty of other threads on this that probably are better then my sugestions but all the same here is my thoughts. Pick race A Pick Race B Stats: stat gain 1 is the first stat gain listed for race A Stat gain 2 is the second stat gained from race B in the case that a stat overlaps use the other stat option so +2 dex +2 con and +2 str +2 int would be +2 dex +2 int While +2 con +2 wis and +2 str +2 con would be +2 con +2 str just a thought As for skills and such again prob take half from 1 class half from the other in a similar manor. Option B Take stats from race A skills from race B defences from race A and alternate. Option C Take all the stats and what not from race A then use the revnent past life feat (matching Race B and given as a free feat) this way they get all the stats defences of 1 race and the powers of race 2 very similar to a revnent. So anyhows those r of cource just quick thoughts on possible direction. But using the revnent and half breed races as a base or the hybrid class as a base r probably the best 2 routs to go. no matter how you spin it it could be a fun idea but lots of work. last option of cource is take any race combo your players desire and as the dm creat a write up for the race (forums could help said dm assure game balence) once writen up said race combo will be done and ready for future use. limits work to just the race combos players in your game desire removed min maxing thoughts as it puts the true power int he dm hands. Ok ok so 1 last idea that was posted some time ago, stip races down to just looks and make a new system for stats and powers and junk. this allows any form of race combo to purely effect looks and rp while the stats remain the same though it also allows a lot of possible min maxing and would be a lot of work but when I first read it on the forums it sounded interesting and still seams a interesting though hard to pull off idea
#6 stargazer_dragon Dec 28, 2010 0:37:23	anouther possible way to handle it while perhaps not fitting your desired effect would be take looks of parent A and all stats and abilities of parent B like some cross dragin breads do (forget what dragon book or edition this was is but remember reading it in one of the zillions I have read)
#7 deadsent Dec 28, 2010 20:04:34	Thanks all of you. However these all use the assumption of both parents being player races...what about the previously mentioned Troll/Human? Where the Troll is a monster.
#8 stargazer_dragon Dec 28, 2010 22:00:19	takes little to no effort to turn a moster race into a playable 1. Take the 2 hgihest stats from the monster race (or maybe 3 highest if u want a choice betwean 2 stats) those are the +2 stats the race gets, look acrost the monster builds of said race and find the attributes that repeate, those r the base attributes. now do a quick balence. (find whatever race is closest and use ti as refrence) prety much any race can be turned into a player playable race within a few minutes after that just goto follow same steps for half breading as if all parents were current playables. up side you get the monster parent races as stated ready to use playable races and you get the hybrid races as a stated ready to use playable race. I think so far every edition I have allowed players to make chars of races not normaly allowed though we do so much less in 4.0 becouse the char builder is so nice and lends itself very poorly to homebrew races and classes. So far though I still allowed 1 char to play a centaur. offtopif thought: one other thought for a fun and very difrent game is to allow the players to actualy play monsters. monster compendium works great fro this. is more for short fun type of game but can be a load of fun for a while. just to play soemthing difrent without swapping to a new game alltogether.
#9 Namagem Dec 28, 2010 22:01:51	Thanks all of you. However these all use the assumption of both parents being player races...what about the previously mentioned Troll/Human? Where the Troll is a monster. Bloodlines are one possibility. I could see something like this as a Bloodline feat, but I'm too lazy right now to stat it up.
#10 stargazer_dragon Dec 28, 2010 23:44:33	If you want I could do a quick not full but quick stat up for examples just give me base races. past that further idea of what your after is needed
#11 pluisjen Dec 29, 2010 3:17:42	Personally if someone were to play a Troll I'd just let them play a Shifter, the one with the Regeneration. You could always make your own Half-Troll of course. I think the first step would be getting a clear image of what a Half-Troll is, then convert that to mechanics once you have the fluff done.
#12 deadsent Dec 31, 2010 4:07:31	Thank you everyone. Seriously. Stargazer, I would really appreciate that. As far as the hybrids I'm not too sure. Obviously a Troll/Human. Beyond that I'm not too sure. I could probably flip through the manuals and find various humanoid races that would make interesting crosses.
#13 pluisjen Dec 31, 2010 5:14:17	Here's an idea for a different kind of Half Troll (I'm of the opinion that there's more then enough "big brute" monsters, so this one has a bit of a twist). I'm not sure how balanced it is, but it shouldn't be terribly overpowered. Half Troll Half Trolls are the result of smaller trolls breeding with larger humans, and fairly rare creatures. They look like fairly tall humans, and most are very slender, even unhealtily thin. Their skin has a green taint under regular skin, making them look somewhat sickly at all times. Half Trolls have an apetite unmatched by any creature, and can eat up to their own bodyweight in food per day, requiring at least 4 times as much food as a normal human to survive. This is caused by their human bodies being powered by the incredibly powerful troll metabolism, which gives them way more energy then they can deal with, but also requires a lot of fuel to keep pumping. As a result, Half trolls are always looking for stuff to eat, and quick to burst to action. They hardly ever tire, and their sleep is usually troubled by a desire for late night snacks or the urge to run a mile between one hour naps. Most Half trolls have more energy they can deal with, and spend a lot of time simply trying to tire their body out so they don't burn out with excessive energy. Many halftrolls take to the adventuring life because of this desire to do things that require a lot of energy. For the same reason, many Half troll adventurers take up professions that require a lot of their abundant inner energy, resulting in a lot of Troll Sorcerors and Barbarians. Despite (or perhaps because of) their sickly appearance, Half trolls are often well liked. Nobody is sure whether this comes from the innate desire of people to nurture the sick, or from their large energy pool making them always willing to land a help when there´s heavy work to be done, many Half trolls that live among people are welcomed into the community and respected members of it. Half trolls usually do not live very long, most being simply unable to keep up with the enourmous amounts of food they need to consume, but they can live to be as old as regular humans. Play a Half troll if: - You want to be full of untapped potential - You enjoy being able to devour everything you come across - You like being able to shrug off damage and diseases easily - You want a race well suited towards the Sorceror, Barbarian of Fighter classes Half Troll Racial Features Abilities: +2 Con, +2 Cha Skills: +2 Athletics, +2 Endurance Vision: Normal Size: Medium Speed: 6 Innate Regeneration: During a short rest, you regain hitpoints equal to half level + your Con mod, without needing to spend a Healing Surge Ravenous: You require food and water as if you were a Large creature. In addition, you gain a +5 bonus to defenses against imbibed poisons. Troll metabolism: The first potion you drink each day does not require you to expend a healing surge, or the first elixer you drink each day does not count against your daily item usage limit. Untapped Power, Half-Troll Racial Power You tap into the almost limitless power of your troll metabolism to strike in a lightning fast flurry. Minor action, personal Make an at-will attack. If you are bloodied, gain temporary hitpoints equal to 3 + half your level.
#14 deadsent Dec 31, 2010 5:24:12	Interesting. I do like the idea of having an insanely fast metabolism. It helps considering some of my buddies are big into the role play part(one going as far as to keep track of his, and the party's, food supplies) so that makes a half troll seem not as overpowered. I also like the twist making smaller Trolls that bred with humans rather then the hulking brutes, I hadn't even thought of that.

Post/Author/DateTime

Post

deadsent

Dec 25, 2010 21:15:01

A friend of mine and I were joking around recently about some strange races that would be very amusing to battle or even play as, it started out utterly rediculous with things like a Chuul/Human(cause you know...why not?), then it became much more interesting. I began thinking about a PC that was half-human/half-troll. Attractive? No. Awesome? Without a doubt. The more we talked about this and broke down what it might have we started to like the idea of hybrid races more and more. We dove into our books and found nothing about this. So we were curious if this was forbidden in a book we didn't have(sadly none of us in the party have the magazines), or would this be something that might be entirely up to the DM?

Namagem

Dec 26, 2010 0:37:33

It's not forbidden; In fact, there are some feats called "bloodline feats" that kinda simulate this, such as Vampiric heritage or Deva Heritage. If you want a completely unique race that's a hybrid of two, you might want to take a look at the darksun Muls, who are a half-dwarf, half-human race.

Sabelkatten

Dec 26, 2010 4:42:27

Of course there are always the half-elf and half-orc races on PHB1&2...

If you do a search there is at least one fairly long thread on hybrid races hereabouts. IIRC it had ironed out the worst problems, at least.

slobo777a

Dec 26, 2010 6:06:56

There are several threads on this, each showing a different starting mindset.

Here is one I started: community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/758...

. . . it is less interesting for my general rules suggestion, than for later comments about game balance.

I would actually suggest you look at any combination that a player wants individually, and attempt to work out rules for just that combination. If you find them useful you could use my old suggestions, or any other thread you find on the subject, as a guide The point is you need to give it just a little extra effort and thought, if you want to step off the beaten track.

stargazer_dragon

Dec 28, 2010 0:35:50

as stated there r plenty of other threads on this that probably are better then my sugestions but all the same here is my thoughts.

Pick race A
Pick Race B

Stats: stat gain 1 is the first stat gain listed for race A
Stat gain 2 is the second stat gained from race B
in the case that a stat overlaps use the other stat option

so +2 dex +2 con and +2 str +2 int would be +2 dex +2 int
While
+2 con +2 wis and +2 str +2 con would be +2 con +2 str

just a thought

As for skills and such again prob take half from 1 class half from the other in a similar manor.

Option B
Take stats from race A skills from race B defences from race A and alternate.

Option C
Take all the stats and what not from race A then use the revnent past life feat (matching Race B and given as a free feat) this way they get all the stats defences of 1 race and the powers of race 2 very similar to a revnent.

So anyhows those r of cource just quick thoughts on possible direction. But using the revnent and half breed races as a base or the hybrid class as a base r probably the best 2 routs to go. no matter how you spin it it could be a fun idea but lots of work. last option of cource is take any race combo your players desire and as the dm creat a write up for the race (forums could help said dm assure game balence) once writen up said race combo will be done and ready for future use. limits work to just the race combos players in your game desire removed min maxing thoughts as it puts the true power int he dm hands.

Ok ok so 1 last idea that was posted some time ago, stip races down to just looks and make a new system for stats and powers and junk. this allows any form of race combo to purely effect looks and rp while the stats remain the same though it also allows a lot of possible min maxing and would be a lot of work but when I first read it on the forums it sounded interesting and still seams a interesting though hard to pull off idea

stargazer_dragon

Dec 28, 2010 0:37:23

anouther possible way to handle it while perhaps not fitting your desired effect would be take looks of parent A and all stats and abilities of parent B like some cross dragin breads do (forget what dragon book or edition this was is but remember reading it in one of the zillions I have read)

deadsent

Dec 28, 2010 20:04:34

Thanks all of you. However these all use the assumption of both parents being player races...what about the previously mentioned Troll/Human? Where the Troll is a monster.

stargazer_dragon

Dec 28, 2010 22:00:19

takes little to no effort to turn a moster race into a playable 1.

Take the 2 hgihest stats from the monster race (or maybe 3 highest if u want a choice betwean 2 stats) those are the +2 stats the race gets, look acrost the monster builds of said race and find the attributes that repeate, those r the base attributes. now do a quick balence. (find whatever race is closest and use ti as refrence) prety much any race can be turned into a player playable race within a few minutes after that just goto follow same steps for half breading as if all parents were current playables. up side you get the monster parent races as stated ready to use playable races and you get the hybrid races as a stated ready to use playable race. I think so far every edition I have allowed players to make chars of races not normaly allowed though we do so much less in 4.0 becouse the char builder is so nice and lends itself very poorly to homebrew races and classes. So far though I still allowed 1 char to play a centaur.

offtopif thought: one other thought for a fun and very difrent game is to allow the players to actualy play monsters. monster compendium works great fro this. is more for short fun type of game but can be a load of fun for a while. just to play soemthing difrent without swapping to a new game alltogether.

Namagem

Dec 28, 2010 22:01:51

Thanks all of you. However these all use the assumption of both parents being player races...what about the previously mentioned Troll/Human? Where the Troll is a monster.

Bloodlines are one possibility. I could see something like this as a Bloodline feat, but I'm too lazy right now to stat it up.

#10

stargazer_dragon

Dec 28, 2010 23:44:33

If you want I could do a quick not full but quick stat up for examples just give me base races. past that further idea of what your after is needed

#11

pluisjen

Dec 29, 2010 3:17:42

Personally if someone were to play a Troll I'd just let them play a Shifter, the one with the Regeneration.

You could always make your own Half-Troll of course. I think the first step would be getting a clear image of what a Half-Troll is, then convert that to mechanics once you have the fluff done.

#12

deadsent

Dec 31, 2010 4:07:31

Thank you everyone. Seriously. Stargazer, I would really appreciate that. As far as the hybrids I'm not too sure. Obviously a Troll/Human. Beyond that I'm not too sure. I could probably flip through the manuals and find various humanoid races that would make interesting crosses.

#13

pluisjen

Dec 31, 2010 5:14:17

Here's an idea for a different kind of Half Troll (I'm of the opinion that there's more then enough "big brute" monsters, so this one has a bit of a twist). I'm not sure how balanced it is, but it shouldn't be terribly overpowered.
Half Troll

Half Trolls are the result of smaller trolls breeding with larger humans, and fairly rare creatures. They look like fairly tall humans, and most are very slender, even unhealtily thin. Their skin has a green taint under regular skin, making them look somewhat sickly at all times.
Half Trolls have an apetite unmatched by any creature, and can eat up to their own bodyweight in food per day, requiring at least 4 times as much food as a normal human to survive.

This is caused by their human bodies being powered by the incredibly powerful troll metabolism, which gives them way more energy then they can deal with, but also requires a lot of fuel to keep pumping. As a result, Half trolls are always looking for stuff to eat, and quick to burst to action. They hardly ever tire, and their sleep is usually troubled by a desire for late night snacks or the urge to run a mile between one hour naps.

Most Half trolls have more energy they can deal with, and spend a lot of time simply trying to tire their body out so they don't burn out with excessive energy. Many halftrolls take to the adventuring life because of this desire to do things that require a lot of energy. For the same reason, many Half troll adventurers take up professions that require a lot of their abundant inner energy, resulting in a lot of Troll Sorcerors and Barbarians.

Despite (or perhaps because of) their sickly appearance, Half trolls are often well liked. Nobody is sure whether this comes from the innate desire of people to nurture the sick, or from their large energy pool making them always willing to land a help when there´s heavy work to be done, many Half trolls that live among people are welcomed into the community and respected members of it.

Half trolls usually do not live very long, most being simply unable to keep up with the enourmous amounts of food they need to consume, but they can live to be as old as regular humans.

Play a Half troll if:
- You want to be full of untapped potential
- You enjoy being able to devour everything you come across
- You like being able to shrug off damage and diseases easily
- You want a race well suited towards the Sorceror, Barbarian of Fighter classes

Half Troll Racial Features
Abilities: +2 Con, +2 Cha
Skills: +2 Athletics, +2 Endurance
Vision: Normal
Size: Medium
Speed: 6

Innate Regeneration: During a short rest, you regain hitpoints equal to half level + your Con mod, without needing to spend a Healing Surge
Ravenous: You require food and water as if you were a Large creature. In addition, you gain a +5 bonus to defenses against imbibed poisons.
Troll metabolism: The first potion you drink each day does not require you to expend a healing surge, or the first elixer you drink each day does not count against your daily item usage limit.

Untapped Power, Half-Troll Racial Power
You tap into the almost limitless power of your troll metabolism to strike in a lightning fast flurry.
Minor action, personal
Make an at-will attack. If you are bloodied, gain temporary hitpoints equal to 3 + half your level.

#14

deadsent

Dec 31, 2010 5:24:12

Interesting. I do like the idea of having an insanely fast metabolism. It helps considering some of my buddies are big into the role play part(one going as far as to keep track of his, and the party's, food supplies) so that makes a half troll seem not as overpowered. I also like the twist making smaller Trolls that bred with humans rather then the hulking brutes, I hadn't even thought of that.