I'm working on a "Draconic Elf" and I'm trying to fix it where you receive all the traits of both Dragonborn and Elf without being overpowered at Level 1. I've set some traits that will be available after leveling up.
Some traits start only half as strong and the idea is that after reaching certain levels you gain the full benefits and replace the old trait. However, I have no idea on how to do this. How do I set a trait that can later on be added/replaced without it showing up at level 1?
Ah okay, yeah I figured if I halved the benefits of the traits it might help balance them out. For example, Darkvision allows you see 30 feet in front of you instead of the normal 60 feet, however, let's say at level 6, you can choose to upgrade it to 60 feet. But if it's not possible to do so then I'll find other ways to balance the race.
Well, now, for something like that it might actually be possible. You would need to rely on the player to do whet they’re supposed to do when they’re supposed to do it and not any sooner though. Or, alternatively you would have to set it up in such a way where they would make a single choice at character creation and the rest would just happen whenever they reached the correct levels. If either of those sound like something you could live with lemme know and I’ll explain how.
Okay. You would basically set it up in a similar way to how the PHB Dragonborn are built. They have one trait that grants the player a choice of Options (Draconic Ancestry), and then they have a couple of traits for which the Options are automatically granted based on the player’s choice of ancestry (Breath Weapon & Damage Resistance). Everything else is standard across the board for all dragonborn.
So, for your drelfborn* you need to decide what is universal to all of them, what stuff is different depending on how they develop individually, and how many paths of development there are (or at least how many you wish to account for). For the sake of explaining this I’ll guess one path that leans more dragonborn, one that leans more elf, and one (maybe two) in the middle somewhere.
Presumably the Creature Type, Size, and Speed traits will be standardized and universal. Also presumably you’re going with the floating ASIs and Languages like the new races get. Most races tend to get around 4ish more traits on top of that.
So, you would give one trait 3 (or 4) Options for the player to pick from. That trait doesn’t have to do anything other than present the choice, but it can, and those Options don’t have to grant anything themselves, but they can too. For the other two-four traits, they would each also have 3 (or 4) Options. Each of them would use a different Option from the first trait as a prerequisite, and get automatically granted to the character. Those options would be designated to appear at specific levels and grant their benefits and bonuses accordingly.
Now, if you really, really wanna be fancy you could technically give a trait a set of Options that get granted at one level such as at character creation, and another set of Options that kick in at a higher level like 3rd or 5th, but that might be too complicated depending on what you have in mind.
I'm working on a "Draconic Elf" and I'm trying to fix it where you receive all the traits of both Dragonborn and Elf without being overpowered at Level 1. I've set some traits that will be available after leveling up.
Some traits start only half as strong and the idea is that after reaching certain levels you gain the full benefits and replace the old trait. However, I have no idea on how to do this. How do I set a trait that can later on be added/replaced without it showing up at level 1?
I don’t believe that’s possible. Also, I don’t believe it’s possible to give the full benefits of both of those races and stay balanced at all.
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Ah okay, yeah I figured if I halved the benefits of the traits it might help balance them out. For example, Darkvision allows you see 30 feet in front of you instead of the normal 60 feet, however, let's say at level 6, you can choose to upgrade it to 60 feet. But if it's not possible to do so then I'll find other ways to balance the race.
Thank you for answering my question.
Well, now, for something like that it might actually be possible. You would need to rely on the player to do whet they’re supposed to do when they’re supposed to do it and not any sooner though. Or, alternatively you would have to set it up in such a way where they would make a single choice at character creation and the rest would just happen whenever they reached the correct levels. If either of those sound like something you could live with lemme know and I’ll explain how.
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I could live with that, would love to here your explanation!
Which? Option A (relying on the players), or Option B (narrowing their choices)?
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Option B
Okay. You would basically set it up in a similar way to how the PHB Dragonborn are built. They have one trait that grants the player a choice of Options (Draconic Ancestry), and then they have a couple of traits for which the Options are automatically granted based on the player’s choice of ancestry (Breath Weapon & Damage Resistance). Everything else is standard across the board for all dragonborn.
So, for your drelfborn* you need to decide what is universal to all of them, what stuff is different depending on how they develop individually, and how many paths of development there are (or at least how many you wish to account for). For the sake of explaining this I’ll guess one path that leans more dragonborn, one that leans more elf, and one (maybe two) in the middle somewhere.
Presumably the Creature Type, Size, and Speed traits will be standardized and universal. Also presumably you’re going with the floating ASIs and Languages like the new races get. Most races tend to get around 4ish more traits on top of that.
So, you would give one trait 3 (or 4) Options for the player to pick from. That trait doesn’t have to do anything other than present the choice, but it can, and those Options don’t have to grant anything themselves, but they can too. For the other two-four traits, they would each also have 3 (or 4) Options. Each of them would use a different Option from the first trait as a prerequisite, and get automatically granted to the character. Those options would be designated to appear at specific levels and grant their benefits and bonuses accordingly.
Now, if you really, really wanna be fancy you could technically give a trait a set of Options that get granted at one level such as at character creation, and another set of Options that kick in at a higher level like 3rd or 5th, but that might be too complicated depending on what you have in mind.
You can learn all about how to set up those different traits and their respective Options from the Homebrew Subclasses & Species FAQ, question #1: (https://www.dndbeyond.com/forums/dungeons-dragons-discussion/homebrew-house-rules/131411-a-homebrewers-how-to-faq#HomebrewSubclasses&SpeciesFAQ).
*I don’t know what the name of your race is, and “drelfborn” was the best one out of the possibilities I came up with, so that’s what I went with.
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Thank you, this is very helpful! I was just planning on calling the race "Draconic Elf', but I like "Drelfborn'" better lol. Thank you again.
Happy to help.
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