Some homebrew races

[sirpercival]

Originally for my Magipunk setting, but really applicable anywhere and I want some feedback.

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GRUM


   
"Crush 'em!  Bash 'em!"

 A Grum (or "Pinhead", because of the small size of its head compared to the muscular body) is a hybrid between a goblin and a troll.

GRUM RACIAL TRAITS

• +4 Con, -2 Int, -4 Cha
• Medium Humanoid (goblinoid)
• Base speed 30 feet
• Accelerated healing (Ex): A grum heals 1 hp of damage every 10 minutes.
• It burns!: Grums suffer a -2 racial penalty to saves vs acid and fire effects.
• Darkvision 60 feet.
• Automatic languages: Common, Goblin, Giant.  Bonus languages: Draconic, Elven, Giant, Gnoll, Orc.
• Favored Class: Barbarian

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STARTING AGE
 Adulthood:
 Barbarian, Rogue, Sorcerer:
 Bard, Fighter, Paladin, Ranger:
 Cleric, Druid, Monk, Wizard:

AGING EFFECTS
 Middle Age:
 Old:
 Venerable:
 Maximum Age:
 If there are any aging effects that differ from norm list them here.

HEIGHT AND WEIGHT
 Base Height: Male:  Female:
 Height Modifier:
 Base Weight: Male:    Female:
 Weight Modifier:

RACE CHARACTERS
 Quick generalization of what this race is good for as far as characters go..
 Adventuring Race: Why members of this class go on adventures.
 Character Development: Give suggestions for making a character with this race.
 Character Names: Give examples of names by gender or other arrangement.

ROLEPLAYING A RACE
 Quick generalization about playing a member of this race.
 Personality: Give general stereotype of the personality of a member of this race and some roleplaying applications.
 Behaviors: Typical behaviors for a member of this race..
 Language:Notes on this races language..

RACE SOCIETY
 Description of this races society, culture, and civilization.
 Alignment : What alignment is common to members of this race and why.
 Lands : Where do they normally live.
 Settlements : Where do they normally live when not in their homelands.
 Beliefs :Typical religious beliefs.
 Relations: How do they relate to other races.

RACE ADVENTURES

• Give at least three examples of an adventure for or involving a member of this race

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GREMLIN


   
"Look out, mister!  I need to torque the flanges or the whole thing'll blow!"

 Gremlins are tiny, mechanically-minded fairies.

GREMLIN RACIAL TRAITS

• -4 Str, +2 Dex, +2 Int, -2 Wis
• Tiny Fey
• Base speed 10 feet, fly 20 feet (good maneuverability)
• Magitech: Gremlins receive a +2 racial bonus on Craft and Use Magic Device checks.
• Fixitup (Sp): mending 3/day, CL 1.
  
• Low-light vision.
• DR 2/cold iron
• Automatic languages: Common, Sylvan.  Bonus languages: Draconic, Dwarven, Elven, Halfling.
• Favored Class: Artificer

(click to show/hide)

STARTING AGE
 Adulthood:
 Barbarian, Rogue, Sorcerer:
 Bard, Fighter, Paladin, Ranger:
 Cleric, Druid, Monk, Wizard:

AGING EFFECTS
 Middle Age:
 Old:
 Venerable:
 Maximum Age:
 If there are any aging effects that differ from norm list them here.

HEIGHT AND WEIGHT
 Base Height: Male:  Female:
 Height Modifier:
 Base Weight: Male:    Female:
 Weight Modifier:

RACE CHARACTERS
 Quick generalization of what this race is good for as far as characters go..
 Adventuring Race: Why members of this class go on adventures.
 Character Development: Give suggestions for making a character with this race.
 Character Names: Give examples of names by gender or other arrangement.

ROLEPLAYING A RACE
 Quick generalization about playing a member of this race.
 Personality: Give general stereotype of the personality of a member of this race and some roleplaying applications.
 Behaviors: Typical behaviors for a member of this race..
 Language:Notes on this races language..

RACE SOCIETY
 Description of this races society, culture, and civilization.
 Alignment : What alignment is common to members of this race and why.
 Lands : Where do they normally live.
 Settlements : Where do they normally live when not in their homelands.
 Beliefs :Typical religious beliefs.
 Relations: How do they relate to other races.

RACE ADVENTURES

• Give at least three examples of an adventure for or involving a member of this race

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ENT


   
"Deep in the green vale, my people sleep.  I have come to address those who would bring them down."

 An ent is a sentient plant, a walking tree.  They are the youths of the plant world, seen by treants as hotheaded children who run about the world.

ENT RACIAL TRAITS

• -2 Dex, +2 Wis
• Medium Plant
• Base speed 20 feet
• Immunity to poison, sleep effects, paralysis, polymorph, and stunning.
• Light fortification.
• Low-light vision.
• -4 on saves vs fire.
• +2 racial bonus on grapple checks, as well as to resist overrun and bull rush.
• Automatic languages: Common, Sylvan.  Bonus languages: Draconic, Elven, Halfling.
• Favored Class: Monk.

(click to show/hide)

STARTING AGE
 Adulthood:
 Barbarian, Rogue, Sorcerer:
 Bard, Fighter, Paladin, Ranger:
 Cleric, Druid, Monk, Wizard:

AGING EFFECTS
 Middle Age:
 Old:
 Venerable:
 Maximum Age:
 If there are any aging effects that differ from norm list them here.

HEIGHT AND WEIGHT
 Base Height: Male:  Female:
 Height Modifier:
 Base Weight: Male:    Female:
 Weight Modifier:

RACE CHARACTERS
 Quick generalization of what this race is good for as far as characters go..
 Adventuring Race: Why members of this class go on adventures.
 Character Development: Give suggestions for making a character with this race.
 Character Names: Give examples of names by gender or other arrangement.

ROLEPLAYING A RACE
 Quick generalization about playing a member of this race.
 Personality: Give general stereotype of the personality of a member of this race and some roleplaying applications.
 Behaviors: Typical behaviors for a member of this race..
 Language:Notes on this races language..

RACE SOCIETY
 Description of this races society, culture, and civilization.
 Alignment : What alignment is common to members of this race and why.
 Lands : Where do they normally live.
 Settlements : Where do they normally live when not in their homelands.
 Beliefs :Typical religious beliefs.
 Relations: How do they relate to other races.

RACE ADVENTURES

• Give at least three examples of an adventure for or involving a member of this race

Feedback, please?

[Garryl]

Grum: Lopsided stats (that mimic the Lifetorn's array and are exactly the same as the Mongrelfolk's), no real racial traits. Accelerated Healing might be useful at level 1 or 2, but 6 hp/hour isn't much in an adventuring day (especially the 15 minute kind).

Gremlin: Such easily accessible low-level flight is a game changer. Stat mods and tiny size virtually require this race's members to be spell casters of some sort.

Ent: You don't see many Wisdom-boosting races, I'll give you that (although plant/animal/nature = Wis feels a little cliche at this point). Other than having those helpful immunities, there's not much to this race, is there?

Do you have a crush on fire or something? Both Grums and Ents are weak to them.

[littha]

Generally living green wood burns about as well as flesh.

Other than that
Grum:
See Garryls post. Lopsided Stats and otherwise useless traits.

Gremlin:
Needs at least 1 LA due to Tiny Size, DR and flight.

Ent:
Probably better to come up with a new (Non-copywritten) name
20' base speed sucks for a medium race. I get where it is coming from but I think it limits usefulness.
Wis boost makes sense, personally would go for Cha penalty due to alien mindset but Dex works.
Plant type immunities are rather powerful but less so than Warforged, consider more abilities or stealing druid abilities like Woodland Stride or Trackless Step.


I would have thought Favoured Class: Druid but that is just flavour in most cases anyway.


Plant vs Living Construct:

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Construct: Immunity to poison, sleep effects, paralysis, disease, nausea, fatigue, exhaustion, and energy drain.
Plant: Immunity to poison, sleep effects, paralysis, polymorph, and stunning.
Immunity to Polymorph is actually a penalty in most cases.

[sirpercival]

OK, sweet, thanks guys.

So my first thought is: axe the Grum entirely (give their racial subs to goliath), give Gremlin +1 LA, and edit the "Ent" and we're cooking with grease.

Some thoughts:
~If I bump Gremlin's size to Small, they're not too different from anthrobats.  Maybe not the best race to use as a comparison, though... I could do away with the DR, I'm not attached to it.  I'm also not attached to the Dex increase.  Would it go down to LA +0 with those changes (axe DR and Dex bump, size->Small)?  If that's not enough, I'll leave it as-is and keep LA +1.

~Ent's name shall change.  Chloromorph?  I can up the speed to 30 ft and remove the fire vulnerability.  I could definitely give something like Trackless Step (favored class: Druid makes much more sense than Monk, my brain stopped working there).  So how about this for the plant race:

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CHLOROMORPH


   
"Deep in the green vale, my people sleep.  I have come to address those who would bring them down."

 A chloromorph is a sentient plant, a walking tree.  They are the youths of the plant world, seen by treants as hotheaded children who run about the world.

CHLOROMORPH RACIAL TRAITS

• -2 Dex, +2 Wis
• Medium Plant
• Base speed 30 feet
• Immunity to poison, sleep effects, paralysis, and stunning.
• Light fortification.
• +2 save vs mind-affecting and polymorph effects.
• Low-light vision.
• Trackless step (as druid)
• +2 racial bonus on grapple checks, as well as to resist overrun and bull rush.
• Automatic languages: Common, Sylvan.  Bonus languages: Draconic, Elven, Halfling.
• Favored Class: Druid.

(click to show/hide)

STARTING AGE
 Adulthood:
 Barbarian, Rogue, Sorcerer:
 Bard, Fighter, Paladin, Ranger:
 Cleric, Druid, Monk, Wizard:

AGING EFFECTS
 Middle Age:
 Old:
 Venerable:
 Maximum Age:
 If there are any aging effects that differ from norm list them here.

HEIGHT AND WEIGHT
 Base Height: Male:  Female:
 Height Modifier:
 Base Weight: Male:    Female:
 Weight Modifier:

RACE CHARACTERS
 Quick generalization of what this race is good for as far as characters go..
 Adventuring Race: Why members of this class go on adventures.
 Character Development: Give suggestions for making a character with this race.
 Character Names: Give examples of names by gender or other arrangement.

ROLEPLAYING A RACE
 Quick generalization about playing a member of this race.
 Personality: Give general stereotype of the personality of a member of this race and some roleplaying applications.
 Behaviors: Typical behaviors for a member of this race..
 Language:Notes on this races language..

RACE SOCIETY
 Description of this races society, culture, and civilization.
 Alignment : What alignment is common to members of this race and why.
 Lands : Where do they normally live.
 Settlements : Where do they normally live when not in their homelands.
 Beliefs :Typical religious beliefs.
 Relations: How do they relate to other races.

RACE ADVENTURES

• Give at least three examples of an adventure for or involving a member of this race

[littha]

For the chloromorph you have to note that they are specifically not immune to critical hits and things for most of the features to makes sense. RAW they have immunity to critical hits as well as light fortification now. Same with mind affecting and polymorph

[AfterCrescent]

Yeah, if you want them to be nature-y without being a plant, just make them Humanoid (greenblooded) or something. And then add the abilities. You can't really make them plants and then take away their natural immunities. Although I'd argue that immunity to Stunning is ridiculously good.

Everything they have and their type makes them easily a +1 LA. Take a look at Planetouched. The only reason they're +1 LA is their type. Lesser Planetouched are +0 LA and the only difference is they're Humanoid instead of Outsiders.

As for the Gremlins, making them small size and making the DR 1/4 or 5 HD would make it +0, imo.  Keeping the Dex boost and making it small seems fine. The fly speed is pretty good, but their land speed is crap and they don't have perfect mobility...

[littha]

Everything they have and their type makes them easily a +1 LA. Take a look at Planetouched. The only reason they're +1 LA is their type. Lesser Planetouched are +0 LA and the only difference is they're Humanoid instead of Outsiders.

The only thing they have besides their type is trackless step which I think we can all agree is a fairly minor ability. I would compare them to Warforged, especially if the wording on fortification and polymorph/mind affecting is resolved. Perhaps even a bit weaker.

[sirpercival]

How's this for chloromorph? 

And the post above it is the revamped Gremlin.