My first homebrew race has finally been published here and I wanted to get some feedback on it. Please review the Maristo here!
I came up with these guys late one night while looking for a rat-kin race, but all the rat people I found in homebrew seemed descriptively bare-bones and stereo-typically schemey, skulky, sneaky, and evil, which while cool, doesn't give players a lot of latitude to make heroes and is just a bit too much like Skaven for my taste. So I built these folk from the ground up to be more adaptable to any playstyle, and with a distinct culture (cribbed from feudal Japanese mixed with a bit of Spanish flair).
I tried not to make them OP in any way, but if I missed something that makes them too good, let me know. They may even be a tad bit underpowered, but I'm more okay with that than the other way around because I'd like them to be a race people enjoy because they are evocative and make for great roleplaying, rather than because they have incredible stats.
Please let me know what you think either here or in the comments on the details page. Thanks!
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Goadfang leans forward in his seat, his ale gently sloshing in it's tankard, he says "Let me tell you a tale that will make the hairs on your head stand up and ask for the check..."
Just looked it over and you have a lot of flavor text in there! I really enjoyed that and can help your players get into the roleplaying!
I did wonder about the boots. You made it so where the race can't wear shoes at all. Is there a reason for this? I think it's kind of odd that I couldn't play a Maristo with boots on, even if I was found by a human family, or kidnapped as an infant and raised in a village and my foster family fashioned some shoes for me. In this example, the maristo has no negative feelings towards boots and they're made specifically for them. So I'm just curious as to why you limited that.
I would suggest bumping darkvision down to 60 feet, but at the same time, in my games I feel like 60 feet and 120 feet hardly provide any difference, so this doesn't really matter. Because I had only seen underdark races have the superior darkvision.
Also, their swim speed might as well be 30, or equal to their walking speed. Only because swimming without a swim speed becomes difficult terrain, meaning if the maristo didn't have a swim speed, it would be 15 anyways, 20 isn't really doing anything for it.
But overall, i didn't think it was over powered or underpowered. I think it was pretty great and could definitely see some players choosing this race.
I did the boots thing because I felt like this is a race that can use their feet just as well as their hands and would feel crippled with those feet being bound up into boots, I suppose the Maristo word for feet would directly translate to "hind hands". I imagine footwear would feel really confining trying to cram 6 digits plus webbing in there.
These are people very used to using their "feet" for all kinds of delicate tasks and they'd never even seen protective footwear until they met another race that wore it. I kind of get a kick out of them having a sort of pity on all these other races walking around on a pair of deformed and practically useless hands that have to be protected by shoes.
That said, I can imagine them having developed weapons specifically for use by their "lower hands", one could go as far as making a subclass of fighter or rogue that specializes in using their quadridexterity and these kinds of Maristo-only weapons to perform flurries of multi-attacks. Or maybe this is better accomplished through a feat. (a feet feat?)
As a DM I would rule that a Maristo player could choose to cram their feet into boots, but that doing so is extremely uncomfortable and cumbersome, that they lose benefits for Quadridexterity, and take disadvantage on acrobatics, athletics, and stealth for the duration, but could at least gain any magical benefits of the boots.
The darkvision was kind of up in the air for me, I originally didn't give them any darkvision, but felt that they lacked something ratlike in their physiology that affected mechanics and decided that their ears, whiskers, and larger eyes should give them some advantage there. It also gives them a boost outside of quadridexterity and skills, which everyone gets, and helps make up for the boots thing. Like you said, the difference between 120 and 60 isn't really game breaking so I just went with the higher.
I agree on the swim, I had originally considered 30, but thought it might be too fast. I just checked and Merfolk, Merrow, and Sahuagin who have actual fins and have a 40 speed, so I suppose 30 wouldn't be overdoing it for something with partial webbing. The higher swim would also provide more padding and justification for the impact of the boots restriction.
Goadfang leans forward in his seat, his ale gently sloshing in it's tankard, he says "Let me tell you a tale that will make the hairs on your head stand up and ask for the check..."
I did the boots thing because I felt like this is a race that can use their feet just as well as their hands and would feel crippled with those feet being bound up into boots, I suppose the Maristo word for feet would directly translate to "hind hands". I imagine footwear would feel really confining trying to cram 6 digits plus webbing in there.
I dig that. You might make it to where they can't wear boots, but they can wear gloves on their "hind hands". I think that would be an interesting character trait. Unable to wear magic boots, but can wear two pairs of magic gloves lol
That said, I can imagine them having developed weapons specifically for use by their "lower hands", one could go as far as making a subclass of fighter or rogue that specializes in using their quadridexterity and these kinds of Maristo-only weapons to perform flurries of multi-attacks.
As a DM I would rule that a Maristo player could choose to cram their feet into boots, but that doing so is extremely uncomfortable and cumbersome, that they lose benefits for Quadridexterity, and take disadvantage on acrobatics, athletics, and stealth for the duration, but could at least gain any magical benefits of the boots.
I think making their hind hands "delicate and uncomfortable in shoes, even ones make specifically for maristos" is a good addition. You could reduce their movement for wearing boots and the disadvantage is a good touch.
The darkvision was kind of up in the air for me, I originally didn't give them any darkvision, but felt that they lacked something ratlike in their physiology that affected mechanics and decided that their ears, whiskers, and larger eyes should give them some advantage there. It also gives them a boost outside of quadridexterity and skills, which everyone gets, and helps make up for the boots thing. Like you said, the difference between 120 and 60 isn't really game breaking so I just went with the higher.
Yes, I agree, the darkvision doesn't matter or really change the game. My thought on that is that most (if not all) races that have darkvision of 120 feet live in the underdark. Of course, if this doesn't apply to the DM's setting then it legitimately isn't an issue at all.
I agree on the swim, I had originally considered 30, but thought it might be too fast. I just checked and Merfolk, Merrow, and Sahuagin who have actual fins and have a 40 speed, so I suppose 30 wouldn't be overdoing it for something with partial webbing. The higher swim would also provide more padding and justification for the impact of the boots restriction.
I did not check the monsters for swim speed before I gave that number, but 40 does sound about right for creatures that spend most, if not all, of their time in water. So 30 could work, I think the Planeshift merfolk have 30, as well as the water genasi, but I haven't checked so that may be inaccurate.
All in all I still like the race with or without these changes! Great job!
I did the boots thing because I felt like this is a race that can use their feet just as well as their hands and would feel crippled with those feet being bound up into boots, I suppose the Maristo word for feet would directly translate to "hind hands". I imagine footwear would feel really confining trying to cram 6 digits plus webbing in there.
I dig that. You might make it to where they can't wear boots, but they can wear gloves on their "hind hands". I think that would be an interesting character trait. Unable to wear magic boots, but can wear two pairs of magic gloves lol
That was a bit of genius there, thanks! I would definitely allow that.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Goadfang leans forward in his seat, his ale gently sloshing in it's tankard, he says "Let me tell you a tale that will make the hairs on your head stand up and ask for the check..."
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Hi all,
My first homebrew race has finally been published here and I wanted to get some feedback on it. Please review the Maristo here!
I came up with these guys late one night while looking for a rat-kin race, but all the rat people I found in homebrew seemed descriptively bare-bones and stereo-typically schemey, skulky, sneaky, and evil, which while cool, doesn't give players a lot of latitude to make heroes and is just a bit too much like Skaven for my taste. So I built these folk from the ground up to be more adaptable to any playstyle, and with a distinct culture (cribbed from feudal Japanese mixed with a bit of Spanish flair).
I tried not to make them OP in any way, but if I missed something that makes them too good, let me know. They may even be a tad bit underpowered, but I'm more okay with that than the other way around because I'd like them to be a race people enjoy because they are evocative and make for great roleplaying, rather than because they have incredible stats.
Please let me know what you think either here or in the comments on the details page. Thanks!
Goadfang leans forward in his seat, his ale gently sloshing in it's tankard, he says "Let me tell you a tale that will make the hairs on your head stand up and ask for the check..."
Just looked it over and you have a lot of flavor text in there! I really enjoyed that and can help your players get into the roleplaying!
I did wonder about the boots. You made it so where the race can't wear shoes at all. Is there a reason for this? I think it's kind of odd that I couldn't play a Maristo with boots on, even if I was found by a human family, or kidnapped as an infant and raised in a village and my foster family fashioned some shoes for me. In this example, the maristo has no negative feelings towards boots and they're made specifically for them. So I'm just curious as to why you limited that.
I would suggest bumping darkvision down to 60 feet, but at the same time, in my games I feel like 60 feet and 120 feet hardly provide any difference, so this doesn't really matter. Because I had only seen underdark races have the superior darkvision.
Also, their swim speed might as well be 30, or equal to their walking speed. Only because swimming without a swim speed becomes difficult terrain, meaning if the maristo didn't have a swim speed, it would be 15 anyways, 20 isn't really doing anything for it.
But overall, i didn't think it was over powered or underpowered. I think it was pretty great and could definitely see some players choosing this race.
Published Subclasses
Thanks for the feedback!
I did the boots thing because I felt like this is a race that can use their feet just as well as their hands and would feel crippled with those feet being bound up into boots, I suppose the Maristo word for feet would directly translate to "hind hands". I imagine footwear would feel really confining trying to cram 6 digits plus webbing in there.
These are people very used to using their "feet" for all kinds of delicate tasks and they'd never even seen protective footwear until they met another race that wore it. I kind of get a kick out of them having a sort of pity on all these other races walking around on a pair of deformed and practically useless hands that have to be protected by shoes.
That said, I can imagine them having developed weapons specifically for use by their "lower hands", one could go as far as making a subclass of fighter or rogue that specializes in using their quadridexterity and these kinds of Maristo-only weapons to perform flurries of multi-attacks. Or maybe this is better accomplished through a feat. (a feet feat?)
As a DM I would rule that a Maristo player could choose to cram their feet into boots, but that doing so is extremely uncomfortable and cumbersome, that they lose benefits for Quadridexterity, and take disadvantage on acrobatics, athletics, and stealth for the duration, but could at least gain any magical benefits of the boots.
The darkvision was kind of up in the air for me, I originally didn't give them any darkvision, but felt that they lacked something ratlike in their physiology that affected mechanics and decided that their ears, whiskers, and larger eyes should give them some advantage there. It also gives them a boost outside of quadridexterity and skills, which everyone gets, and helps make up for the boots thing. Like you said, the difference between 120 and 60 isn't really game breaking so I just went with the higher.
I agree on the swim, I had originally considered 30, but thought it might be too fast. I just checked and Merfolk, Merrow, and Sahuagin who have actual fins and have a 40 speed, so I suppose 30 wouldn't be overdoing it for something with partial webbing. The higher swim would also provide more padding and justification for the impact of the boots restriction.
Goadfang leans forward in his seat, his ale gently sloshing in it's tankard, he says "Let me tell you a tale that will make the hairs on your head stand up and ask for the check..."
Published Subclasses
Goadfang leans forward in his seat, his ale gently sloshing in it's tankard, he says "Let me tell you a tale that will make the hairs on your head stand up and ask for the check..."