Okay, so the "rough sketch" of what I thought for the Lizard Folk as a playable species went up and opened up some ideas and thoughts and changes, including some from my end as well. While fluff, you can write whatever you feel inspired to write, crunch needs to ground itself somewhere with the other rules around it, so I want to get things "right" and not just say my first pass is the one we're using.
So, a whole new set of thoughts:
I think the Ability Section is just fine, the +1 to STR being opposed to a -2 CHA instead of a 1 for 1 trade-off comes from the almost universal understanding that CHA is a dump stat (not to me, but, come on, let's all face it), so if you're going to get a bonus to STR and not take a penalty to another physical ability, you should make it count. Also, I've already portrayed the Lizard Folk as intelligent and wise, so it doesn't work taking a hit to INT or WIS.
As for their special abilities, one reader said they didn't seem "lizardfolky" and that it gave of a vibe of a 3.5E race which "just "kinda sorta" gives you some stuff that fits the race, rather than LL/AEC style which has more extreme stuff to help you fit in" I'm not sure how I would approach that to fix it, I felt "built in armor" and "half fire resistant/double cold vulnerable" fit the species, but maybe because they're more "combat mechanic" abilities they stray away from the "dungeon exploring" vibe earlier editions have. That's a fair point.
Of course, another ability I thought of is "combat mechanic" related, so I'm right back at square one! I was thinking of giving the Lizard Folk the ability to do 1d4 damage + STR Mod unarmed to represent claws (as opposed to the 1-2 + STR Mod that LL states for normal unarmed attacks), meaning a Lizard Folk stripped of weapons is still as effective as someone wielding a dagger, but not so effective that if he picked a melee fighting class having a weapon would be pointless.
Another reader mentioned the need for Lizard Folk to have Ultraviolet Vision, a rule already supported in the AEC, which makes it a good candidate since it does not introduce a new mechanic and, as he stated, "most demi-humans have some sort of additional sight anyway." Which I agree.
Other ability ideas that were less "Combat" would be to somehow play up the balance a tail provides, an ability to "taste the air" like many lizards and snakes do to help compensate for being blind/in complete darkness. Being cold blooded, they don't need to eat as much, warm-blooded animals of the same size require 5-10 times the amount of food as a cold blooded creature, so an ability to survive without food longer could be helpful. Also, since cold blooded creatures do not generate their own heat, wouldn't they be harder to spot with infravision?
If anyone has an suggestions into how to turn them into mechanics or which ones strike you as an interesting ability that would make you want to try out the species as a character, please comment below.
I think the +4 save vs. Poison still fits the species pretty well.
Between the natural AC of 7 and the potential ability to do 1d4 damage unarmed, the Lizard Folk make tempted choices as Magic-Users, especially since Magic-Users would look to getting magic items that lower AC (rather then "override" it like armor does), a higher level Magic-user with some Rings/Cloaks of Protection could be formidable, as he wouldn't be taking the same amount of hits a MU of another species would be.
Because of that, I may wish to knock down the maximum level a Lizard Folk can achieve in MU and Illusionist classes, maybe to below "name" level and the ability to research and make their own spells.
Finally, I think the Thief skills fit well and are within the bonus/penalty levels of other species. The penalty to picking locks and pockets come from clawed hands that don't have the same amount of fine manipulation that other species do, the bonus to climb walls is also based on the claws, and the move silently, hide in shadows bonuses come from the quiet and stillness most cold blooded creatures seem to excel at.
So, again, thoughts on the proposed changes or how to work out new mechanics based on some of the "non combat" abilities I thought up?
These guys really are skirting the border of brokenly-powerful, it's hard to nerf them enough to keep them equivalent to other classes and still get all the flavor you want.
ReplyDeleteA very old-school thing is to make the "more powerful" races and classes take longer to level, see Elf in B/X. Since we're going with Non-Human + Class, rather than Non-Human as a Class, that sort of gets a little busted. I'd be strongly tempted to slap an XP penalty on them - say 5% - to slow them down. I can't really think of a fluffy reason why that would be, though.
The -2 CHA is hardly a penalty, even to only counter a +1 STR. They are flavored as Strong, Fast, Tough, Smart and Wise...oh, but Ugly. What if you just nix the Ability modifiers all together? After all, a Lizardman is ugly because he is a Lizardman - Lizardchicks might dig his scaly good looks, though, so the CHA penalty doesn't really apply. Even if you use CHA as a Social, rather than Physical, stat, the same idea fits.
Umm...more later, I think.