PhoneLobster wrote:
It really isn't hard to represent individual variation for physical "race" options mechanically. And I would argue almost certainly easier than writing up every physical "race" or "monster" physical ability ever as a magically class agnostic zero synergy option.
"Easier" is not better. The designs that are the hardest to get right are usually better.
Certainly, there are easier design choices. It takes a lot of creativity and thought to come up with good designs for abilities that are useful to all classes, and that's what you have to do to get a better design for races than RPGs use today. The easy designs have been used and we know how well they work (not great, and usually racist).
For example, you wouldn't give Minotaurs a list of abilities that are good for only melee characters like a regular melee horn attack that monsters use. That shit is so incredibly easy to design that you could pull ten guys out of a con randomly and ask them to design minotaur abilities and 9/10 would have "horns" somewhere in their design.
If I went the hard design rout, I'd probably give minotaurs a Powerful Charge ability that lets them break free from and through terrain features, thus negating a lot of combat-control situations. For spellcasters and warriors, the ability would be both a defensive ability and an offensive way to ignore things like
Walls of Ice that can bork spell and attack targeting. This is pretty fitting with the theme of minotaurs as maze runners since it means that they are really good in mazes because they can burst through walls and obstructions Kool-aid Man-style while hunting prey, but it's also useful to other classes because fantasy RPG players constantly need to negotiate fields of black tentacles, walls of ice, units of chaff blocking a BBEG, force spheres, entangling animated vines, getting trapped in cubes of semi-sentient jelly, littered fields of bones, pools of oil (burning sometime), etc, etc, etc, in order to survive and make attacks.
Now, you may not agree with my evaluation of this as a good ability, but I think it's pretty nice considering I spend thirty seconds thinking about it. It's certainly good enough to make it into a first draft and get some playtesting.
If instead my design philosophy was "easiest", then I'd just add some stat bonuses and be done with it. I could write a whole playable game in an afternoon if all it needed was numbers.
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As an aside, things like natural weapons shouldn't ever be bought with race or class slots. Having horns on your head really should not be better or worse mechanically than simply wearing a horned helm.
Being physically powerful really should be a function of class abilities. The gnome wrestler beats the ogre wrestler because the gnome is
supernaturally powerful and the ogre is just meat-powerful. Class really is supposed to represent the core of character while stats should be the minor variations that make two PCs with the same class feel a little different (I know, this statement is RPG heresy).
That being said, "a gnome so powerful that he can wrestle ogres" sounds like an iconic fantasy PC character if I ever heard one, doesn't it?