Racial Stat Modifiers Poll

[imported_Rasyr]

Okay, the question has been posed about reducing the overall stat modifiers.

Right now, the modifiers total out to zero (this is intentional), but there is a total of +5 points spread across all stats and a total of -5 points also spread among the stats.

It has been suggested dropping this to +/-3, but I am leery of this for 2 reasons (human's get 4 points that they can set as they wish, and half-races currently max out at +/-3).

Now, I wouldn't mind changing it down to +/-4.

So, I have put up this poll to see what you guys think....

[imported_Raf Blutaxt]

I'm fine with +/- 4 as well. It was just my impression that 5 was too much given the number of stats and their range. It just feels a bit forced.

[Fidoric]

IMO +5/-5 is fine as it allows for great variations between races. Halflings are definitively less strong than humans and so on. I ike when races are really different.

[imported_Raf Blutaxt]

I like it too, when races are different. The problem imo is more in the way they are different. The racial abilities are a great way to emphasize the differences, but the stat modifiers show some problems. Dwarves are supposed to be great craftsmen and get a negative Dex modifier for example. Reducing the number of mods might just make it all a bit less awkward. Imo this all comes from the goal of making races ballanced which is one of the fundamental design decisions and I am not critizizing it. It's just that in unballanced games like Merp or WHFRP you don't need to apply negative modifiers just to ballance things out, some races just are better than others. If you don't choose this direction, you have to put up with some mods people will always argue about.

Sorry for the rambling, it's still pretty early

[Fidoric]

I agree with you. It may be possible to make balanced races with variable mods.
One race could be a -3/+3 and another a -5/+5. Usually, humans are the reference for the balance point. Other races are said to be more agile or less strong in comparison with human standards. The further a race is from human standards (Trolls for example) the more points they have to adjust their stats.
Ex : Trolls (+/- 5), Elves (+/-3), Half-Elves (+/-2)...

[imported_Witchking20k]

+/-4 is fine with me

[gamewizard]

The current +5/-5 is good with me.

[Darkmage]

I voted +4/-4 but I came from the camp where everything was based off of 2's not 5's.  But 5's work too just used to everything being even.

Matt

[Teslonelf]

My vote is to keep it at +5/-5.  It accentuates and really tells you your races strong and weak points and adds flavor to your character.

[imported_Rasyr]

For now, I have left them at +/-5 (+/-3 for racial crossbreeds), as I prefer that as well.

[Ashtara]

I voted +5/-5 because I feel it gives a wide variety of difference between the races and makes customizing/creating my own races a bit easier.

Would it be feasible, as an option, though to alter this just a tweak for some races, like maybe give one race +5/-3 and then include another racial flaw in their makeup so by their raw stats they might get a slightly bigger bonus but they also then have a racial flaw that makes up for it, or maybe give a different race +3/-5 and they get a racial benefit to make up the difference. By doing this they could be modified to +4/-4 across the board but then some might be +5/-3 and other could be +3/-5 to add to 8 total. I don't know if something like this would be feasible but its an idea that just popped into my head.

[imported_Rasyr]

I don't know if it would be feasible either. I will put the idea on my list of things to look at on down the road when I have more time.

However, I do want to point out that the races are roughly balanced against one another, so we don't want to overly complicate things