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Other than a greater ECL, I wonder what other things players might like besides acces to various races for these high awards? It's obvious most players prefer humans, so what other things might someone earn an award for when rolling a character?
For some of us, we aren't really all that interested in playing some of those other races, for various reasons. So... what other things could we wish for? It really mean that rolling and trying for a high award is not very appealing.
Any thoughts?
1 Greater Award for 1 Extra Major Gift.
The award system in general irks me a bit.
Game of Thrones is probably the biggest adult oriented fantasy franchise ever, and part of the appeal of the setting is that virtually everyone is a human. You really have to work your Snuggybear off writing a character if you can't rely on exotic races as a crutch.
Granted, this is Forgotten Realms. We would be lacking without dwarves and elves and goblins and whatnot. But the institution of grinding and rolling until you finally end up with horns or wings or a planar ancestor takes away some of the gritty medeival quality that D&D can have.
I stopped following later editions of D&D when I realized that all my friends who were involved in tabletop sessions were in a party with a warforged and a half-dragon and two members of the furry fandom. While I don't think Arelith is nearly that outlandish, I feel like I've been seeing that kind of mindset creep in slowly over the past couple years. Granted, this is not a facts based "I'm right, you're wrong" thing but it is how I feel.
On the positive side I tend to love the level 8 start award because it keeps you from dying to rats at level 3. The noble award is cool because it helps facilitate a certain kind of roleplay angle. The language award is fun too.
I would like to see more awards that grant flavor options like weak pets, access to restricted areas, character background angles and whatnot. Flavor stuff. It's never going to happen but I'd like to see the more exotic race awards reduced.
[Insert sassy comment about how award discussions pop once every week here]
It's hard to add anything that doesn't tend toward power creep, but I am a huge fan of always more customization and character options. Being able to select weird languages from the getgo is pretty cool to me.
Having a functional familiar - anything but the fey - in any character would be rad.
Other non-functional companions would also be cool if you can emote through them. Pets, shadows, illusions.
Some innate spells for rp - bestow curse, contagion, hellball, faery fire. A whole skillset of useless but notoriously interesting spellslike abilities.
Perhaps some fixtures, props, devices to start with, though most of those I wouldn't pay a Greater for. At best a Normal.
I don't mind more races because I like an exotic monstruous character well written, and I just... don't see Arelith or DnD as a GoT equivalent. The appeal for me is in the interaction with the fantastical, not with the mundane and the gritty politics of a medieval setting.
Unique weapon glows or spell vfx could be an option for awards. Or perhaps re-skins for some summon streams.
Starting with one of the existing summon streams already known could be a good reward, but probably isn't worth a major or greater.
Maybe also a use for awards outside of character creation? If your character is dead and in the fugue, maybe spend a reward turning them into a ghost that haunts the place where they died permanently (or until someone figures out how to put them to rest for good)?
To make it worthy of a major award, what about you get all the streams of a certain alignment or type. like all draconic streams or all neutral streams?
I know some people who would immediately drop a Greater award on the ability to have a mechanically-useless pet dog (maybe make it tied to a 1x1 describable summon item, like golems?). This gets a +1 from me!
Rolled: Solveigh Arnimayne, "Anna Locksley"
Shelved: Ninim Elario, Maethiel Tyireale'ala
Current: Ynge Redbeard, ???
Amateur Hour wrote: ↑Tue Jan 09, 2024 1:50 pmI know some people who would immediately drop a Greater award on the ability to have a mechanically-useless pet dog (maybe make it tied to a 1x1 describable summon item, like golems?). This gets a +1 from me!
That's me, I'd totally drop an award to have a mechanically useless pet. Dog, cat, bird.
Gimmie a house pet without having to be a wizard! I could see Commoners using it for this, too, loads of people who wouldn't be an adventurer would have a pet.
+1
Juniper Oakley - A Little Bitey
Ny'aza 'Peggy' Philor'tyl - Travelling
Tiffa Took Hss'tafi - Happy in Sigil
I doubt they'd go for it, but what about some templates for normal races that let you get +2 in a stat at an ECL cost so you could make like, an exceptionally strong human starting with +4 strength but no other major gifts. Reason being, a lot of special races are taken for only the mechanical benefit and to my thinking I'd rather just give some access to mechanical benefits on standard races instead of encouraging people to play, say, a genasi that never mentions it's a genasi but they had a reward to burn and wanted that little edge.
level 24 start B)
I have to agree with a post above, please no more wings and tails.
The ability to use a greater or major to be able to take a minor AND normal on the same character.
A way to increase storage for that single character.
Starting with one piece of end gear.
A commoner who can take the Lore Master secret of crafting or even open ALL crafts to them no matter race or class.
I'd pay a greater to be able to play with keen senses without having to be either elven or sunlight-sensitive.
Using an award to make an Outcast without the Outcast tag.
As someone who is directionally challenged.
LM/Ranger map reveal as a normal award.
I have to say I don't feel comfortable saying "I don't want to have a pc with wings so no one else should". My point was, I don't want any of those things, so i just don't have an inecntive to roll my characters and try for a high level award. My understandings is that is partially to help clear the character vaults from players storing up fifty pcs. So currently I have 3 extra pcs in the vault, you know. just in case.
Geting extra gifts seems possible. I wonder if we cold think of something very unique that wouldn't stomp on those prestige classes. (ie. Using gifts to basically become a Loremaster without actually becoing a Loremaster.)
Some nice ideas up there!
I thought about it and keen senses should probably be a minor gift and not an award, as it'd constitute a mechanical advantage.
What would be award-worthy would being able to play any statblock with any another appearance. For example, spend a normal award to play a moon elf with the half orc's racials. This would open up things like keen senses and 8 dex dual-wielding to some different appearances.
Would obviously need some brainstorming so people aren't playing ogres with halfling stats, but the general idea doesn't power creep anything and our character sheets and RP are pretty separate here already.
I thought about that too. It would be interesting to be able to play say an unusually strong halfling with half orc racials for a greater reward. Maybe if it was kept to standard races (generic elf/dwarf/hin/gnome/halforc/human) to keep it from being absurd.
A big advantage to this is you can have your unique character that feels worth spending a reward on, but outwardly it's a standard race that wouldn't be adding to winged/tailed/etc characters bloat.
Eyeliner wrote: ↑Thu Jan 11, 2024 9:51 pmI thought about that too. It would be interesting to be able to play say an unusually strong halfling with half orc racials for a greater reward. Maybe if it was kept to standard races (generic elf/dwarf/hin/gnome/halforc/human) to keep it from being absurd.
A big advantage to this is you can have your unique character that feels worth spending a reward on, but outwardly it's a standard race that wouldn't be adding to winged/tailed/etc characters bloat.
Strongly disagree.
I've seen some really cool characters that used sub-optimal races for the role. Gristle is a gnomish barbarian, lol.
When someone decides to do this they're shooting themselves on the foot a tiny bit, but it's not a huge deal. You can generally make playable builds for any class with almost any race. I think you really shouldn't be able to have your cake and eat it too when you decide to do something silly like a hin in full plate or a half-orc sorcerer.
I've played some RPG systems where there were very few meaningful mechanical differences between races and they tend to feel pretty bland.
Eyeliner wrote: ↑Thu Jan 11, 2024 9:51 pmI thought about that too. It would be interesting to be able to play say an unusually strong halfling with half orc racials for a greater reward. Maybe if it was kept to standard races (generic elf/dwarf/hin/gnome/halforc/human) to keep it from being absurd.
A big advantage to this is you can have your unique character that feels worth spending a reward on, but outwardly it's a standard race that wouldn't be adding to winged/tailed/etc characters bloat.
Yep, I thought standard races would make the most sense, too.
Can I ask why not?
I agree, but that's not the case here. Our selection of playable races have vast cultural differences, they can start in different places and have many culturally- and racially-oriented settlements, none of which would be affected at all.
I'm with Waldo on this case.
You can play a hin STR-based barbarian and excel, and part of the point is that you don't /have/ optimal stats. You are fighting against your nature going out of your way to play the character you want. Something that is irregular and memorable.
You don't need the stat incentive to do that.
Arelith already has the gift system to get some free stats if you want to move some points around, and that's enough for most builds.
Though I will admit that some builds are a lot more stat hungry than others, and some classes are vastly easier to build than others. Some classes in particular may even have perhaps too much love. But that's a different discussion.
I agree, but that's not the case here. Our selection of playable races have vast cultural differences, they can start in different places and have many culturally- and racially-oriented settlements, none of which would be affected at all.
So, as a greater/major award option I like this idea well enough, because it still keeps it rare.
But I know that DnD 5 is moving away from the idea that certain races get certain stat bonuses. And I'm not particularly in favour of that.
I think the blandness argument works more if we say, allowed this for all of Arelith races, then as players we'd be moving away from playing concepts that would fit into the expectations of the races.
As is, most PCs you'll meet who are halflings are fairly likely to have a level or two of rogue in there. By no means certain, but it's pretty likely. And that's fine. Fits to the halfling sterotype, and that gives flavour to the race. At the least, certain classes will be rather rare amongst some races, due to weaknesses.
You can of course, play something that goes against type. A halfling barbarian. A dwarven bard. A gnome fighter. An ogre Priest. It won't be the most optional thing in the world, but honestly? I think DnD is forgiving enough that it doesn't entirely need to be. Unless you're working quite hard to absolutly nix your pc, you're probably going to still be pretty effective in most combat situations, no matter what race you play. The Most Effecting Murderlicous Death Machine In All The Universe? No. But still good. Good enough that people more interested in unique roleplay concepts can take part in a game effectivly enough, but not so good that those who are more interested in strong builds would do it.
So if there's no incentive to play 'classic combos' then less people are likely to play 'classic combinations' because why? And because more people like to be unqiue than be classic. (No judgement there, I'm the same)
Yet if everyone is going purely for 'unique in roleplay bit still a powerbuild' some of that uniqueness fades.
So (in Arelith terms) you'd enter Brogendenstein to find that 80% of the dwarven population are playing Wizards, and Sorcerers running about in robes,. because of this nifty new feature Kalopsia put in that makes it the Best Build right now, for example. And that's not a terrible thing I guess but i'd make me a bit... sad.
Again though - this is why I'd be against it in general, for all pcs. As a Greater/major award I think it's OK, as it'd be still rare and unique. Though I susspect there might still be concerns re. power building maybe because of other combos? IDK.
Given that shield/gold dwarves are already a top-tier wiz/sorc race, yet brog doesn't seem to be overrun with them yet, I'm not sure what you're getting at with the analogy.
What I'm getting at is that dual-wielding ftr/cav/BG shouldn't be half-orc locked (and optimal as earth genasi half-orc), and gloaming shouldn't be categorically the best warlock race etc. If I want to play a ftr / LM / EKD, there's no reason that a wild dwarf should be noticeably better than any other earthkin at it, but they are.
There are a lot of complaints that wing 'n' tails characters don't feel rare enough and earth genasi outnumber actual humans at this point and those complaints have a certain amount of validity. That issue isn't helped by award races being the optimal choice for certain builds, as some number of players will prioritise having the "correct" race over RP considerations.
Personally, I try my hardest to RP the character well and in a way that respects the setting and I think I do just fine, but I am always going to go with the optimal choice, presuming I know what it is. My suggestion allows for flexibility in that regard, so if a player wants to play a build with +4 STR from gifts, they don't have to become part of the genasi conversation. Or, if they want to be a peak EKD, they don't have to play as a wild dwarf in full plate, which doesn't really respect the setting very much.
