Hombrew Race: Homunculus - Downloaded from the Wizards Community, all coding removed by Solauren

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 Ginjiro Apr 16, 2015 14:58:04	Hello heyo folks alright so I'm gonna lay this flat out, literally have not played DnD yet but recently I stumbled upon the 5th edition starter kit and for god knows how many years I've been wanting to play it but felt like it was something I needed a person to guide me through. So I've jumped in myself and bought the DM's Guide and the Player Hand Book and have been reading so freaking much. Ok so while looking and reading over races back like... I think 4 years ago if not longer I was being helped along in making a character and I wanted to be a warforged. However from what I could find there was no 5th edition update for them so I was kinda sad in the fact that I'd have to piece one together myself. It wasn't long that after spending several days calculating, thinking and planning that I finally bumped into the actual WotC official warforged thingy. At this point I felt I had already put in so much effort into making my own "Living Construct" race that why should I just drop it?! So folks I present to you! My own "Living Construct" race, the Homunculus or an alternative name would be Haemunculus! And yes for those of you wondering it was inspired by the Full Metal Alchemist series in its creation but I also did my own digging and found a small one someone made on a homebrew site for 4th edition and have been working on it since borrowing and modifying traits and ideas from other races to try and balance it out. Now I'm looking for any kind of feed back as I have no experience in the game itself so I'm clueless on what would be considered broken or unbalanced I've just been using what I've read and finding that there is sort of a formula for races to all remain balanced. *Race: Homunculus* Homunculus Traits Ability Score Increases: +1 to constitution Age: Homunculus were made to be everlasting, thus regardless homunculi age is normally determined by how long they have been active but their appearance age wise is based upon what their creator wanted. Alignment: Similar to Humans, Homunculi can come in any form of alignment as the soul powering them is what determines it. Size: Also like humans they vary in height and weight from but with even more variety, however they overall remain medium in size. Speed: Base walking speed is 30ft Language: Speak, read and write common and one extra language of choice as a homunculus can be infused with the knowledge or the memory of the language within the Soul-core can sometimes remain intact. Artificial Being: As Homunculus are considered constructs powered by a magically enhanced soul-core they don't need to eat or breathe, trance for 4 hours per day instead of sleeping for 8 hours for the same effect, immune to disease. Trance state semi-conscious and start seeing memories from your past, some of which may have been lost/forgotten by you. Superior Body: Since homunculus are artificially created through means of magical and alchemy the creators can change and modify the body as they see fit before the soul-core is imbedded bringing the homunculus to life. Choose two of the 4 passives. Living Weapon: +1 to strength, you now have a “Natural Weapon” one of your limbs can becomes a weapon with which you are automatically proficient with. The weapon does either Slashing, Piercing or Bludgeon damage, rolls a 1d10 plus a strength modifier. High Density Skin: +1 to Constitution and..... (Need help here) The bonus health was originally +1 to armor class but I realized it made them into a superior warforged so wanted the extra armor to belong to them. Also was considering something similar to the Goliath in rolling a d12 with a constitution modifier to reduce a damage source once per trance. Enhanced Physique: +1 to Dexterity, Your base movement is 35ft walking and base climbing and swimming is set to 20ft Inscribed Mind: +1 to intelligence, proficiency in one skill of your choice you also get +1 added to your initiative. Would love some suggestions, ideas and potential modifications that would help in making this more balanced and rounded out as to make it feel like a versatile race but also having its own unique feel and perks to it. I've been trying to stride for it to not be superior to any 1 race as my beginning idea originall had them as pretty much beter warforged but I feel I'm quite close to finding a good balance in each field. If I can pull this off I will totally be using this for my first character as nothing says "This is MY character" then using the race one has taken the time and effort to create it.
#2 Weedeater Apr 16, 2015 19:46:04	There actually is an official war forged! It's in this pdf published by wizards: http://media.wizards.com/2015/downloads/dnd/UA_Eberron_v1.1.pdf Yours is not bad though. Significantly less powerful than a lot of home brew races that are kind of ridiculous. I think it's mostly balanced as far as it goes.
#3 EmpactWB Apr 16, 2015 22:36:16	Using Catodon's nifty guide, here are some pointers. The base hovers around 2.5-3 points (disease immunity is an oddball thing, as it also happens to make you immune to the spells contagion and harm). Let's assume 3 (slightly underwhelming is easier to fix than slightly overwhelming). Keeping with your "choose 2" and Catodon's baseline 12 point total, each option needs to be worth 4.5 points to be perfectly balanced. Living Weapon: 3.5. Needs a slight boost by straight numbers, but I'm not sure if or how making the natural attack light (and therefore eligible for two-weapon fighting) changes things. There are a number of thematic options here: proficiency with one weapon of player's choice, reach 10 ft with the natural attack, bumping the damage to 1d10, the true strike cantrip once per day... If you go with either the increased reach or the increased damage, I'd recommend cutting the light property from the natural weapon attack. High Density Skin: 10. The extra hit point per level is extremely strong, particularly when you're also adding in other bonuses from another option. Hill Dwarfs get a +1 stat boost and the bonus hp, and that's set as the equivalent to Mountain Dwarfs getting a +2 stat boost and proficiency with light and medium armor. So the armor proficiencies and a +1 stat boost roughly balance against the bonus HP. You felt that a small boost to AC fit well, so I think you should trust your gut on that. Enhanced Physique: 2.5. Your instincts are good about this one. Adding a swim and climbing speed of 20 ft makes it perfect. Inscribed Mind: 4. About as close to spot on as you could have. Nicely done. Maybe a +1 Initiative bonus to round it out? All in all, very nifty.
(Reply to #3) Ginjiro	EmpactWB wrote:
#5 EmpactWB Apr 17, 2015 14:43:36	Catodon mentions in his thread that the Warforged looks underwhelming in terms of points anyway, so while I agree that your Homunculus is better, I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing.
(Reply to #5) Ginjiro	EmpactWB wrote:
#7 EmpactWB Apr 17, 2015 22:36:13	The flat +1 AC is like half a point over what you need, sadly. The damage reduction is on the chart he has, ranked by die size, so 1d6 gives you an extra two points. But that last half a point is a real pain in the tukas to find. Most don't seem to fit the tough skin concept, except immunity to a single type/source of damage. Something like non-magical slashing or acid, maybe? But this will definitely need play testing, as its in the theoretical section. The less thematic options for the extra half point are the +1 initiative, +5' speed (35 feet is +0.5, 40 feet is +1.0, so it stacks well with Enhanced Physique if you write them as each increasing base speed instead of setting the speed to 35), proficiency with simple ranged weapons, and increasing the unarmed strike damage (also happens to stack perfectly well in terms of points). There may be a few others too, so you might want to look over the spreadsheet a bit.
(Reply to #7) Ginjiro	EmpactWB wrote:
#9 Ginjiro Apr 19, 2015 15:29:35	Just gonna bump this once to try and get some more feed back.

Hello heyo folks alright so I'm gonna lay this flat out, literally have not played DnD yet but recently I stumbled upon the 5th edition starter kit and for god knows how many years I've been wanting to play it but felt like it was something I needed a person to guide me through. So I've jumped in myself and bought the DM's Guide and the Player Hand Book and have been reading so freaking much. Ok so while looking and reading over races back like... I think 4 years ago if not longer I was being helped along in making a character and I wanted to be a warforged. However from what I could find there was no 5th edition update for them so I was kinda sad in the fact that I'd have to piece one together myself. It wasn't long that after spending several days calculating, thinking and planning that I finally bumped into the actual WotC official warforged thingy. At this point I felt I had already put in so much effort into making my own "Living Construct" race that why should I just drop it?!

So folks I present to you! My own "Living Construct" race, the Homunculus or an alternative name would be Haemunculus! And yes for those of you wondering it was inspired by the Full Metal Alchemist series in its creation but I also did my own digging and found a small one someone made on a homebrew site for 4th edition and have been working on it since borrowing and modifying traits and ideas from other races to try and balance it out.

Now I'm looking for any kind of feed back as I have no experience in the game itself so I'm clueless on what would be considered broken or unbalanced I've just been using what I've read and finding that there is sort of a formula for races to all remain balanced.

Race: Homunculus

Homunculus Traits

Ability Score Increases: +1 to constitution

Age: Homunculus were made to be everlasting, thus regardless homunculi age is normally determined by how long they have been active but their appearance age wise is based upon what their creator wanted.

Alignment: Similar to Humans, Homunculi can come in any form of alignment as the soul powering them is what determines it.

Size: Also like humans they vary in height and weight from but with even more variety, however they overall remain medium in size.

Speed: Base walking speed is 30ft

Language: Speak, read and write common and one extra language of choice as a homunculus can be infused with the knowledge or the memory of the language within the Soul-core can sometimes remain intact.

Artificial Being: As Homunculus are considered constructs powered by a magically enhanced soul-core they don't need to eat or breathe, trance for 4 hours per day instead of sleeping for 8 hours for the same effect, immune to disease.

Trance state semi-conscious and start seeing memories from your past, some of which may have been lost/forgotten by you.

Superior Body: Since homunculus are artificially created through means of magical and alchemy the creators can change and modify the body as they see fit before the soul-core is imbedded bringing the homunculus to life. Choose two of the 4 passives.

Living Weapon: +1 to strength, you now have a “Natural Weapon” one of your limbs can becomes a weapon with which you are automatically proficient with. The weapon does either Slashing, Piercing or Bludgeon damage, rolls a 1d10 plus a strength modifier.

High Density Skin: +1 to Constitution and..... (Need help here)

The bonus health was originally +1 to armor class but I realized it made them into a superior warforged so wanted the extra armor to belong to them.
Also was considering something similar to the Goliath in rolling a d12 with a constitution modifier to reduce a damage source once per trance.

Enhanced Physique: +1 to Dexterity, Your base movement is 35ft walking and base climbing and swimming is set to 20ft

Inscribed Mind: +1 to intelligence, proficiency in one skill of your choice you also get +1 added to your initiative.

Would love some suggestions, ideas and potential modifications that would help in making this more balanced and rounded out as to make it feel like a versatile race but also having its own unique feel and perks to it. I've been trying to stride for it to not be superior to any 1 race as my beginning idea originall had them as pretty much beter warforged but I feel I'm quite close to finding a good balance in each field. If I can pull this off I will totally be using this for my first character as nothing says "This is MY character" then using the race one has taken the time and effort to create it.