I've got that Character Creating disease right now, and I happened upon the Amonkhet Planeshift PDF, which amounts to a setting book essentially. I thought the Ibis Headed Aven looked really interesting, so I created the Aven race (and both subraces) with the Homebrew Builder. But I'm kinda left scratching my head about how balanced the race is against official races. Or each other, really. I'll link the PDF at the bottom, and I'll put the traits here:
Aven common traits:
+2 Dex
Speak/Read/Write Common and Aven (I replaced with Auran)
25 ft walk, 30 ft fly
Hawk-Head subrace:
+2 Wis
Proficient in Perception
Making ranged weapon attacks at Long Range does not impose Disadvantage
Ibis-Head subrace:
+1 Int
Half Proficiency to any Int skill that doesn't already get Proficiency
It just feels like there's something missing on the Ibis-Head. The Hawk-Head get +2 on their ASI, against the Ibis-Head getting only +1. Proficiency in Perception for free is nice, but probably not as effective as Half Proficiency to any INT skill you aren't already Proficient in. But making long range attacks without Disadvantage is kind of a huge advantage. That allows you to use a Longbow at 600 foot range with no penalty. Between the 2 subraces, the Hawk-Head seems substantially more powerful.
It also strikes me we can look at the Aarakocra, since they are rather similar.
+2 Dex, +1 Wis
25 ft walk, 50 ft fly
Unarmed Strikes become 1d4 + STR and Slash rather than Bludg
Comparatively, 50 ft fly is huge, which is probably where most of the power-budget goes. I'm not sure it's the equivalent of ignoring disadvantage at long range, nevermind the extra +1 to Wis. I kinda feel like the Hawk-Head subrace is a little over-the-top. Or maybe I'm wrong...? Am I overvaluing the long ranged lack of disadvantage, or the extra +1 ASI? Am I not valuing the 20 ft difference in flight speed adequately? Am I wrong that just generally the Ibis is missing a little something?
I've got that Character Creating disease right now, and I happened upon the Amonkhet Planeshift PDF, which amounts to a setting book essentially. I thought the Ibis Headed Aven looked really interesting, so I created the Aven race (and both subraces) with the Homebrew Builder. But I'm kinda left scratching my head about how balanced the race is against official races. Or each other, really. I'll link the PDF at the bottom, and I'll put the traits here:
Aven common traits:
Hawk-Head subrace:
Ibis-Head subrace:
It just feels like there's something missing on the Ibis-Head. The Hawk-Head get +2 on their ASI, against the Ibis-Head getting only +1. Proficiency in Perception for free is nice, but probably not as effective as Half Proficiency to any INT skill you aren't already Proficient in. But making long range attacks without Disadvantage is kind of a huge advantage. That allows you to use a Longbow at 600 foot range with no penalty. Between the 2 subraces, the Hawk-Head seems substantially more powerful.
It also strikes me we can look at the Aarakocra, since they are rather similar.
Comparatively, 50 ft fly is huge, which is probably where most of the power-budget goes. I'm not sure it's the equivalent of ignoring disadvantage at long range, nevermind the extra +1 to Wis. I kinda feel like the Hawk-Head subrace is a little over-the-top. Or maybe I'm wrong...? Am I overvaluing the long ranged lack of disadvantage, or the extra +1 ASI? Am I not valuing the 20 ft difference in flight speed adequately? Am I wrong that just generally the Ibis is missing a little something?
The Amonkhet PDF: https://media.wizards.com/2017/downloads/magic/plane-shift_amonkhet.pdf