Critique Godswalk

[brainface]

And, yes. I'll crunch up some PC Troll stats if you tell me a few things:

i've also got some (pretty unfinished) stuff i made for 'ecl 1 troll' sitting around in my dnd junk folder, if you'd wanna idea mine it.

[Numinous]

Sure, you can try and put it up here, or e-mail it to me.  I'm going to sleep now though.  Bye-bye

[Raelifin]

Wouldn't it make sense to associate each race with a god? Here are some ideas.

 Intonsus: Dwarves
Optimas: Elves
Versutus: Gnomes
Gestamena: Halflings
Proeliarus: Trolls?
Ignixus: Flameshapers? (New Race?)
Hircus: Gnolls? (I know you like them)
Perficeus: ???
Papilia: Faeries? (New Race?)
Testudia: ???
Fasa: ???
Vastator: Dragons

[Numinous]

Indeed.  I debated doing it through larger species though.  ie one god is for giants, and it's PC race is half-giants(enter psionics).  I'm not sure I want gnolls to be that important, but at this point it's certainly a possibility.

[CYMRO]

Gnolls make a great core PC race.

[Numinous]

For papilia, I thought of using the Raptorans from RoTW.  I like gnolls, but I'm thinkin gof just generifying it into goblinoids as a whole or something...

[Numinous]

Ok, as a note to everyone, the gods are not final.  The only thing sure about each of them is that there will be 3 tied to each of the basic elements.  As for trolls, I want as low of an LA as possible, preferably 0.  some traits I'd like to see are...

1. Regeneration(maybe a faster healing or something.
2.natural weapons(claws?)
3. Tribal society
4. respect nature
5. fear change
6. high land speed
7. still weak to/fearful of fire
8. more coming soon...

Let's call them Thrin, cuz it sounds cool.

[Elven Doritos]

Both regeneration and natural weapons are, by themselves, worthy of an LA. Unless, of course, the creature has HD, but I assume that you meant you did not want any ECL adjustment whatsoever.

-Elven Doritos
Maximum Power

[brainface]

Both regeneration and natural weapons are, by themselves, worthy of an LA.

meh, screw that. natural weapons are frontloaded--it's really hard to improve them. at 12th level, you've basically got a normal, unimproved shortsword or dagger that you're paying la for.
and regeneration is just too good for a pc race--my suggestion is to make up something with similiar effects and use it instead.

[Raelifin]

Don't worry. I can still see an ECL 0 race here. I still need at least 3 more traits though.

[brainface]

i'll cook up some troll stats real quick, raelifin, you throw down with what you go?
(most of this i had sitting around already, just added some things in to meet w/ description)

medium-size humanoid ('trolling') humanoid is best type for pc. others screw up both pc buffs and give weird, sporadic immunities against npc attacks
speed: 40 ft.
Ability adjustments: +2 con, -2 cha (fear of change?)
Skill bonuses: +2 to Knowledge (nature) and Survival checks naturalness?

Tough hide (Ex): (regenish ability) Whenever a trolling takes physical damage, he gains a natural armor bonus equal to his constitution score during his next turn, as his hide thickens in response to injury. con based means it can scale with player level. you could use minor DR or something instead. fast healing or full regen is just too much, imo..

Adaptive skin (Ex): Whenever a trolling takes acid, cold, electricty, or sonic damage, he gains energy resistance 5 against that specific type of energy for a number of rounds equal to his constitution bonus, starting on his next turn, as his skin adapts to injury. This resistance increases to 10 at 8th level, and 15 at 16th level. scales with level to remain important, duration based on con so it can be improved.more than 1 round duration so it can help against dragons ;)

Fire weakness (Ex): Whenever a trolling takes fire damage, he is shaken until the end of his next turn. shaken is the lowest level fear effect (-2 attack, saves, skills, ability checks) you could change this to a stronger effect, or something like nausea, but that might not be fun for a pc.

Claws: trollings gain improved unarmed strike as a bonus feat. their unarmed attacks deal slashing damage, instead of bludgeoning. they can still choose to deal nonlethal damage instead of lethal. good enough for natural attacks, in MY opinion ;).

I originally wrote most of this up while messing around. (i wanted to create a race with 'roving' resistances, as opposed to the weird, arbitrary resistances and immunities most ecl 1 races have, as well as fun-player oriented abilities. i don't know if these guys would be worth ecl 0 or 1, if they're too tough, their bonuses could be dropped.)

you could change it however or not use it at all, just thought it might be helpful. i never wrote descriptions for them. some of the abilities may be hard to keep track of, i dunno.

[Ishmayl-Retired]

How about instead of regeneration, you've just got some sort of "Quick Recovery" ability that comes natural to the race?  Or maybe, you could create some paragon troll levels, and make that "Quick Recovery," an ability for the paragon level, thus, they don't even have to have LA for it, because it comes as a level-based ability.

[Soup Nazi]

Those tough hide and adaptive skin abilities seem very cumbersome. Not too weak or over-powered but kind of awkward.

The fire weakness seems perfect

On improved unarmed strike, but it counts as slashing damage? what's up with that? Are claws dealing 1d4 slashing damage too good?

I don't think fast healing would be too bad if it scaled. Say they got fast healing 1 at level 5 (or five HD), and for every four levels more itÃ, goes up by 1. Sure it's buff, but you could off-set it with more ability score penalties. -2 to intelligence as well, because trolls are notoriously dim-witted.

Am I nuts here?

[Polycarp]

You could also just make their healing rate faster, say triple the normal amount of hp healed per day.  This would be a good bonus for adventuring long-term, but wouldn't unbalance combat.

You could also do something combat related but more minor: Say, trollings are always stable at negative hit points, or that they gain fast healing 1 as long as they are at less than 0 hp.  Perhaps you could also give them limb regeneration, so that severed limbs grow back by natural and magical healing just like regular wounds.

I also like the fire weakness, that's a good effect.  I may have to "borrow" something similar.

[brainface]

Are claws dealing 1d4 slashing damage too good?

You could also just make their healing rate faster, say triple the normal amount of hp healed per day.[/quote]

is that actually a good ability? i see it in several feats/races, but i got my doubts. every game i've played in, natural healing was ignored after 3rd level or so, unless someone was just missing a handful of hitpoints. if a 'triggered' ability is too cumbersome, maybe a small dr (dr 2/-, dr 2/bludgeoning, or something). fasthealing in small amounts seems like it would be cumbersome, cuz between fights you'd be asking like "has it been 2 or 3 minutes since we fought?". that's what i'd think, at least. i may be wrong.