Please Help me Design Races for Dynama (need help and evaluation)

[LoA]

Okay, I know this is like the ten hundredth time I've brought this up here, and I could've made an incredibly lame joke title going "Dynama Infinite (Take 2K)" and figure out how long it takes or people to get the joke, but I'm serious this time. I have a game this time, and he said he wanted to play Dynama Enigma.

Alright, so from the top...


[ooc]None of the pictures I use here are mine for the record. I wish they were.[/ooc]

Dynama: World of Swing n' Sorcery was originally a Dieselpunk fantasy world where there were dragons, and stuff. Technology managed to achieve a diesel engine level, but also magic existed in the world.

Then it turned into a pure Art Deco Magitek setting....

Then it turned into an Alternate History earth where magic and monsters came back into the world in the 19th century and its set in the roaring twenties.

Then it almost turned back into an Art Deco Magitek world...

It's been through a lot of phases....

But now I have an honest to goodness game going on now, and I need to organize and create! And I've been reading a ton of material from other sources...

We're using 3.5/Pathfinder material for the record. And were going with the Alternate History setting this time around. And were also using the E6 Variant.

Here are some things I want for my game:

Races
[spoiler]

Monster Races that aren't overpowered. I want non-humanoid races for my game, but I can't tell how to make them without being obnoxiously overcomplicated. I want my party to look alot less like a Fantasy novel cover, and more like a Breath of Fire poster, without completely breaking the game as well. [spoiler][/spoiler]

I was rereading Arcana Evolved, and I have to admit I like some of the ideas from that. Mainly about letting overpowered races start small but then let them grow. But I don't think that would work well with an E6 campaign, but I do have my own ideas for things. Mainly for racial features that are only good when you take a feat chain, but there awesome when you take them.

I also want to differentiate racial traits (physical), from things that should really be a matter of culture, and personality.

Here are some of the Race ideas I had for my setting (Different from other Incarnations of Dynama for those who remember).
#1-Kobolds that don't suck:

I love kobolds. Love, love, love them. I always hated how looked down upon they are, and thought to myself "man if you gave these guys capitalism...." and then I remembered I was making a Dieselpunk DnD world... So of course I nerfed the stats a little and made them little industrialists. I loved that race, and I still hold that affection. However I need to do more to improve their stats. I was thinking of giving them the Dragon type, but then I would have to do all kinds of things to balance that out. Still, more appealing character options.

#2-Human Special Abilities: If I'm going to give other races an array of options I was thinking of giving humans there own set of feats that separate them from the rest of the pack.

And now that I think about it, I think I'm going to separate physical traits from cultural traits, and now that I think about it again, the bonus feat and skill points are the only interesting things about humans. Separate the two and all you have is a medium creature with a base land speed of 30, and a +2 bonus to one attribute if you're using Pathfinder. I was thinking to mediate this, I would use the Heroic Destiny feat from Races of Destiny as a racial trait (lame human aggrandizing but still....).

#3-Pegacorns:
http://fc06.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2012/234/f/1/f1ca450fb75ffe7e58d9813a9bf7490a-d5c1boi.png
Yeah laugh all you want, but I love the notion of a sentient horse race, and really why should I have to choose between Unicorns or Pegasi. And yes I know that the true name for them is "alicorn", but Pegacorn works better with the early 20th century Lingo. The thing is... How do they work statistically without being overpowered? I would love some input on this. Here were some ideas:
Quadrupeds: Four legged creatures and all that entails.
Magical Abilities: Can pick up light objects with Telekinesis as a free action. Develop magical abilities through feats such as magic shields, and energy blasts, and all that good stuff.
No hands: cannot wield simple, or martial weapons normally, and treats all Hand-held weaponry as exotic weapons, and takes appropriate penalties when trying to use them with their innate Telekinesis.
Wings: Works like the Raptoran race. They can't fly out right, but the ability to fly grows with leveling (or something like that), or maybe through feats... I'm not sure.
And that's all I have for now.

And that's mainly what I have at the moment. I'm going to search through the DnD errata to figure out some more interesting race ideas.
 [/spoiler]

Classes

[spoiler]I also want a unique array of classes that fit my world, but i'm having a couple of problems. Mainly with technology based classes, and with artificers. I don't know what I'm looking for to be perfectly honest... Also guns (perfectly aware of the Gunslinger class), and how that affects combat...

I've been going through a lot of steampunk Fantasy rpg's, but I can't pinpoint a system I like that really gets the feel for what I want out of my setting.... Reskin the coglayer from Dragonmech, Eh.... Iron Kingdoms, eh...... Shadowrun, Ehhhh.......

Also I'm kind of lost on the Artificer (which I definetely want for the record). I can't figure out how to reconfigure it into how I want for my setting....

And that's really how far i've gotten as far as classes are. Input would be greatly appreciated.
[/spoiler]

So yeah, there's my plea to the Guild. Please give me advice on whatever you can. I know there are amazing forum games on this site going on, and I especially know that I'm as reliable as a broken clock, but I came on here for world-building advice, so pretty, pretty, pretty please???

[LoA]

Okay, so maybe I should be more specific for now.

I am currently in the process of redesigning humans, and kobolds for Dynama (Alternate History), and designing some new races for my world. Basically I'm separating all of the cultural stuff from the physical stuff, so that races represent physical beings as apposed to physical beings that belong to a monoculture.

There are a couple of things that are bugging me about humans.

If you take away the bonus feat that humans have, and the extra skill points all that's left is this.

+2 to one stat (Pathfinder version)
Medium Creature
Base land Speed: 30 ft.

And that is pretty boring as a race alone. I was wondering what to give humans to give them a little more spice. The whole bonus feat thing would be okay, but I want to do something else to make humans a little more... Interesting...

Here were my thoughts:

+2 to one stat (Pathfinder version)
Medium Creature
Base land Speed: 30 ft.
Then add

Heroic Destiny: Once per day, add 1d6 to a D20 roll
But then again, that seems like something that would only really work for PC humans, and not so much NPC's.

I have to go for now. WIP

[sparkletwist]

My suggestion is to set races apart by how you define them in the game world, rather than with crunch gimmicks.

[LoA]

My suggestion is to set races apart by how you define them in the game world, rather than with crunch gimmicks.

Yeah okay. I've been clinging to 3.5/PF for so long that it kind of gets hard to define them by role rather than by stats. Okay here's what I have.

Humans: Naturally the native race to planet Earth, humans are, well humans. They've ruled the planet for 5000 years of recorded history, and most of them aren't too pleased about having to share this world with other sentient creatures. Exceptions of course exist.

Kobolds: Naturally productive, kobolds hard work have transcended them from lowly reptilian miners back on their home world, into highly successful lizards of industry. Kobolds are easily one of the wealthiest, if not the wealthiest group on the planet. Exceptions exist though.

Pegacorns: A race of sentient horse like beings with wings and a horn growing out of their heads, Pegacorns can fill a number of roles. Scouts, shield magicians, and the like, however they don't have hands and wielding hand weapons like guns and stuff is very difficult for them. Exceptions though do exist.