Topic: "Elemental Races"

[Mr. Fixit]

Hey all,
Needing a little advice.
In my home brew setting, I want to link four playable races to the four Elements.  Gnomes to Earth, Sylphs to Air, Undine to Water, Salamanders to Fire.  Going with the Paracelsus classics!
However, I am running into a little problem with how exactly to do this in their racial profiles.
At first, I thought about giving them the Affinity Talents from pg. 45 of College of Magics, but I'm afraid it might be a little much, adding a 30 point Talent on top of everything else.


Any ideas on how to make four "elemental" playable races without over balancing? Thanks in advance for any help!   

[kasalin]

What about adding a penalty when facing opposing elements? Ex.  Those aligned with fire suffer a -15 when defending and resisting against water and a -10 when defending/resisting against air or earth.

Try different combinations of penalty's if they seem too minor. 

You could add a talent for any of the non-elemental races to offset the Affinity talents.

You could also reduce the some of the racial abilities of the elemental races - give them less hits or give them a DP penalty per level to "pay" for the Affinity talent over time.

[munchy]

Maybe you could change the stats for them, traditionally giving Earthbound a bonus in Co (or St or SD), the Airborn a bonus in Pr, the Watery ones a bonus in Ag, the Firestarters a bonus in Re (quick mind). Just ideas at the moment.

Also you could maybe allow them a bonus in Resisting their own element but a malus in resisting the opposing element ... thus basically outbalancing the ability by itself ...

[janpmueller]

An in-campaign option would be for elemental races to gain advantages while they develop. So, a starting player would (to use munchy's example) only have a special racial bonus, and maybe a reduced affinity talent (only +10 on resistances, no casting bonus, no DB) for, say, 10 DP cost.
Then, by time, experience or ritual, individuals gain maturity later on, pay the other 20 DP and have the full affinity.

I do like the "reduced DB and resistance vs opposing element" option. That would also be a thing for starting players to suffer, but to overcome by coming of age.

Hope that helps - to me, it seems very fitting to have elemental powers grow and evolve, as they do in nature. Also, you could surprise your players with new elemental options later on (a "free" spell (treat as +1 spell adder) with a fitting spell, e.g.).

On a sidenote: You could go with a "every 5th/ 7th level" thing, and either swap that "ability" for any professional ability a character might have, or make "earth elemental gnome" a profession.

Cheers,

Jan

[Dr_Sage]

Good ideas from 2 above. Idea pont for munchy.

Maybe open a range of Talents and Blood Magic specificaly designed for then.