K wrote:Here is the short version:
The design goal is: make sure people don't lose at chargen by making racial abilities equally useful to all classes. This means altering a bunch of core assumptions about how several simple abilities and conditions need to work so that they aren't completely unbalanced when used. The two we've discussed are ranged attacks and low-light vision vs. darkness, both variations of the Flying Archer problem.
Okay, let's see if we can do something with this. Because I'm infatuated with the idea of houseruling it right now and it doesn't have hyperdetailed combat, let's go with OSH (
http://www.oldschoolhack.net/ ) as a basic system to work off of.
Basically, the attributes have little bearing inside of combat except for use as "saving throws" and determining whether you can carry heavy weapons and armor. Classes give you one thing by default, and you can pick one thing off the list of secondary abilities per level.
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Races:
Midgardian:
- Can go twice as long without food. You skip every other check for starvation penalties.
- You skip every other check for fatiguing out from a chase.
- For Daring, roll 3d10, keep 2 highest.
Jotunese:
- Don't take discomfort penalties in cold environments, and your blood can't be frozen. You can sleep in open snow without dying of exposure.
- You can turn into a wolf. This uses stat-block replacement, so how powerful you are personally doesn't really figure in. If the wolf dies, you appear, knocked out but unharmed.
- For Brawn, roll 3d10, keep 2 highest.
Alfar:
- Don't take penalties from poor visibility purely from darkness. Smoke and dust clouds are still a problem.
- Adapt to new environments so after 1 day, you don't take discomfort penalties. Don't keep old adaptions, you have to re-acclimatize.
- For Cunning, roll 3d10, keep 2 highest.
Bastoi
- You are small and furry. This means you can fit into spaces an adult human could not. You are also ridiculously strong for your size, so you roll for Brawn normally.
- You can turn into a cat. Stat replacement, but unlike the Jotunese, you don't change back if you die. Instead, the can be brought back from the dead with a simple ritual if it isn't too mangled.
- Take half damage from falls.
- For Charm, roll 3d10, keep 2 highest.
Earthborn
- You can eat stuff a human couldn't. Dirt gives you all the nutritional input you need to survive.
- You only need 2 hours of sleep a day.
- For Commitment, roll 3d10, keep 2 highest.
Vanara
- You are a monkey person who can climb stuff easily (count as having tools whether you do or don't) and hold small things in your tail.
- You can meditate instead of sleep. Take half penalties if you get surprised while you rest.
- For Awareness, roll 3d10, keep 2 highest.
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Classes:
- Red
Basic: You may evoke fire. This comes in the form of a ball about the size of what you'd see on the end of a torch. The ball dissipates if you let go of it, but you can chuck it like you were an imp from Doom. Counts as a Ranged weapon if you do, and you can burn or warm stuff.
Secondary 1: Boost someone's fighting abilities. If they go more than a few rounds without getting re-boosted, it wears off.
Secondary 2: Make a super-flaming attack that deals extra damage. Needs to recharge by moving to a new combat zone.
Secondary 3: Once per day, unleash chaotic fire magic that sets the whole arena on fire.
- Blue
Basic: You may channel energy into people, creating spastic surges of speed that could throw someone off of their attack or help someone connect. This lets you force a reroll on someone's attack, but you need to recharge to reuse the ability.
Secondary 1: Evoke blasts of wind strong enough to move unattended objects like keys and such. You get a wind-based knockdown attack that needs to recharge.
Secondary 2: Evoke blasts of water that work like the last ability, but have different MTP applications and give you another special knockdown attack before you need to recharge.
Secondary 3: Once per day, gain magical flight, but it starts dealing unblockable damage to you if you hold it for more than a couple minutes. The flight comes from obvious glowy energy wings.
- Green
Basic: Your life magic allows you to heal people nearby, but only works on relatively fresh injuries. Negate a bit of damage from an attack, and you can use this in arenas you aren't in. Need to recharge.
Secondary 1: Through channeling a huge amount of life force and directing it very carefully, you can heal people even after the wounds are no longer fresh. Once per day, heal someone a significant amount.
Secondary 2: Once per day, supercharge plant growth make an arena full of entangling vegetation. You can't exempt someone from getting entangled, so friendly fire is a concern.
Secondary 3: Fire venom bolts that deal damage over time. It's a Ranged weapon, but has the special property of dealing more damage to someone hit next round if they don't do something to wipe it off.
- Purple
Basic: You can fire frost bolts, counting as a Ranged weapon. You may also freeze water and other fluids by touch. This sort of lets you slide over the surface of pools, but the ice melts pretty quickly if the area isn't cold.
Secondary 1: Once per day, cover the arena in slippery ice. People fall over easily if they aren't careful, and this ice is magically charged so it won't melt for at least half an hour even in the desert.
Secondary 2: Once per day, get the ability to read surface thoughts, but it starts dealing unblockable damage to you if you hold it for more than a couple minutes. This gives you a bonus to defence.
Secondary 3: Once per day, create a magical ward around an arena. Entering or exiting the arena triggers a magical attack that is really noisy and flashy. The ward is made of magical runes that can be targeted and destroyed, but it is tough.
- Yellow
Basic: Once per arena, call down damaging lightning on a particular target.
Secondary 1: If you attack someone you succeeded in attacking last round, your attack channels crackling electricity, increasing the damage of a hit. If you attack someone you succeeding in hitting with the electricity-enhanced strike last round, you deal extra lightning damage whether the main hit succeeds or not, but you don't count the attack as a success for the purposes of this ability.
Secondary 2: You can curse enemies. This is essentially the debuff opposite of the buff granted by Red.
Secondary 3: Once per arena, use an electricity-based attack that has a chance to stunlock, but doesn't deal much damage. Can only be used on targets in the same arena or connected to you by something really conductive.
- Silver
Basic: Once per arena, transform your weapon into a weapon of another category.
Secondary 1: Once per arena, everyone in your arena takes a point of damage. Including you, and this doesn't count as an attack.
Secondary 2: Once per day, come back from the dead with 1 hit point.
Secondary 3: Once per day, teleport to another arena without using up your action.
