Revision as of 17:29, 26 July 2006

D&D Races: An Exalted Conversion

To-Do List ==

• Add a description to each race.
• Add suggestions for where they belong in Creation.
• Add Etherscope races.
• Add Races of Destiny races.
• Add Races of the Wild races.
• Add Urban Arcana races.
• Add Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting races.
• Add Expanded Psionics Handbook races.
• Add Races of the Dragon races.
• Add Races of Faerun races.
• Add a friggin' legal disclaimer.
• Definately organize by racial types (elves, dwarves, elementals, half-breeds, ect.)

Changes =

07/26

• Removed secondary attribute decrease for Half-Orcs, Shifters, and Warforged.
• Added Glacier Dwarves, Snow Elves, Ice Gnomes, Neanderthals, and Uldra.

Terms

• Modified Attributes:
  • Increased (Attribute): (Attribute) maxima are one higher than allowed by Essence - for example, a maximum rating of •••••• at Essence •••••.
  • Decreased (Attribute): (Attribute) maxima are one lower than allowed by Essence - for example, a maximum rating of ••••• at Essence ••••••.
• Racial Specialties
  • A race with racial specialties has one or more specialties at zero cost.
  • Characters of this race recieve the benefits of these free specialties only if they have at least • in the related Ability.
  • Racial specialties do not count toward specialty caps.
• Statures
  • Small Stature: Remove one success from all Strength-based rolls. Gain a •• bonus to Dodge DVs.
  • Large Stature: Recieve •• penalty to Dodge DVs. Add one success to all Strength-based rolls.
• Vision
  • Low-Light Vision: Any sight-based penalties involving light, for anything less than absolute darkness is negated. Vision is colou.
  • Darkvision: Any sight-based penalties involving light, including absolute darkness, are negated. In complete darkness, vision is black and white.

Races

Changelings

• Changelings begin with Linguistics •.
• Changelings are granted immunity to shape-changing and Wyld-based effects, as if they were Lunars.
• At any time, a Changeling may grow or shrink up to a foot in height, widen or narrow by a foot in length, and change any aspect of their physical appearance, such as eye color, skin tone, hair color, facial features, or gender. Mimicing someone exactly, or temporarily raising their appearance may require a Charisma + Performance roll, and such transformations may only last for a scene. Shapechanging in combat takes three Initiative ticks. Items, unless attuned, do not change shape with the Changeling. Changelings revert to their original form when they die.

Dwarves, Standard

• Dwarves begin with Stamina ••.
• Increased Stamina.
• Decreased Charisma.
• Racial Specialties: "Stones" in Awareness, Investigation, and Crafts.
• Racial Specialties: "Poison" and "Knockdown" in Resistance.
• Darkvision.

Dwarves, Glacier

• Glacier Dwarves begin with Stamina ••.
• Increased Stamina.
• Decreased Charisma.
• Racial Specialties: "Ice" in Awareness, Investigation, and Crafts.
• Racial Specialties: "Cold" and "Knockdown" in Resistance.
• Darkvision.

Elf

• Dexterity ••.
• Increased Dexterity.
• Racial Specialty: "Sleep" in Resistance.
• Low-Light Vision.
• Awareness • and Investigation •.
• Subrace: Standard
  • Decreased Stamina.
• Subrace: Snow
  • Decreased Charisma.

Gnomes, Standard

• Gnomes begin with Stamina ••.
• Increased Stamina.
• Decreased Strength.
• Racial Specialties: "Illusions" in Awareness and Investigation.
• Small Stature.
• Low-Light Vision.

Gnomes, Ice

• Ice Gnomes begin with Stamina ••.
• Increased Stamina.
• Decreased Strength.
• Ice Gnomes begin with Survival •.
• Racial Specialties: "Illusions" in Awareness and Investigation.
• Small Stature.
• Low-Light Vision.

Half-Elves

• Half-Elves begin with Awareness • Investigation •, Presence •, and Socialize •.
• Racial Specialty: "Sleep" in Resistance.
• Low-Light Vision.

Half-Orcs

• Half-Orcs begin with Strength ••.
• Increased Strength.
• Decreased Appearance.
• Large Stature.
• Low-Light Vision.

Halflings

• Halflings begin with Dexterity ••.
• Increased Dexterity.
• Decreased Strength.
• Racial Specialty: "Listening" in Awareness.
• Halflings begin with •• to all DVs. This stacks with their size bonus for Dodge DV.
• Small Stature.

Humans

• Humans gain an additional six points in any combination of abilities. This is not to exceed their Essence cap.
• Humans gain an additional favored ability. This is lost if building an Alchemical Exalted.
• Humans gain an additional seven bonus points at character generation.
• Humans reduce two experience points from the final cost of any Charm or Combo purchase.

Kalashtar

• Kalashtar begin with Presence • and Socialize •.
• Kalashtar begin with •• Social DV bonus.
• Kalashtar are able to form a telepathic link with anyone with an Intelligence score. It allows them to communicate as a free action. It lasts for one scene. Forming a bond requires a Charisma + Permenant Essence roll. Only one bond may be formed at a time, even between two Kalashtar. This ability does not count as a charm, and may not be disrupted as such.

Neanderthals

• Neanderthals begin with Stength •• and Stamina ••.
• Increased Strength and Stamina.
• Decreased Dexterity and Intelligence.
• Neanderthals begin with Awareness • and Survival •.
• Racial Specialty: "Clubs" in Melee.

Shifters

• Shifters begin with Dexterity ••.
• Increased Dexterity.
• Decreased Manipulation.
• Shifters begin with Athletics •.
• Shifters gain, with the expenditure of one Willpower point, the use of Deadly Beast Transformation for a scene. Shifter DBT does not stack with Lunar DBT (and thus may not be active at the same time), does not produce a tell, and does not count as using a charm (and may not be disrupted as such). Shifter DBT should be built as a standard DBT, or it's second edition equivilant.

Uldra

• Uldra begin with Stamina ••.
• Increased Stamina.
• Decreased Strength.
• Uldra begin with Lore • and Survival •.
• Uldra are ice-based elementals. As such, they do not make Survival checks involving cold.
• Small stature.
• Darkvision.

Warforged

• Warforged begin with Stamina ••.
• Increased Stamina.
• Decreased Charisma and Wits.
• Warforged recieve an automatic 3B/3L/1A bonus to soak.
• Warforged may not wear armor.
• Warforged have a +0L unarmed combat modifier.

Comments, Complaints, and Death Threats Go Here

I don't have much time, but I gotta say that this is very cool. I am glad that you did it, it brings forth new concepts and character types to play with. I definitly like it, and with an indepth read probably will find way to fit it in. - Heru

Thanks. And here I was convinced people weren't going to like this. - bassist159

I made the page more legible for you. It's often easier to define terms once rather than about six times; it keeps your information density dense.

In most cases, I don't agree with the "Increased (one Att), Decreased (two social Atts)" form; this works in D&D because it's a game designed for specialist characters, and, importantly, having a weakness tends to mean that a character's significantly less good at accomplishing stuff, but it doesn't make the character much less good at enduring stuff. The impact of a penalised Attribute in Exalted is a lot harder. Similarly, the impact of an increased Attribute is a lot sharper; you can be sure that the world of D&D-Exalted is populated by elvish, halfling, and shifter sword princesses.

Finally, what's with the specialties? Two to four XP worth of "free" purchases that you can't make choices about, and resultantly constrict your concepts and effectiveness, are a penalty, not a bonus, when they occupy your 3-specs-per-Ability slots. - willows

First off, the edit is appreciated. This was originally written one race at a time, making such redundancy nessicary, but yes, this looks a lot nicer. As for specalties, I'm thinking that they actually shouldn't count against caps, if it's something the entire friggin' race has. As for the Attributes - well, I'm willing to take suggestions. I kept it pretty close to the D&D formula because it fit the character concepts - Halflings aren't naturally as strong as other races, Half-Orcs aren't as intelligent, and so forth. If you think in some cases (ie, Shifters, Half-Orcs) one of the penalties should be dropped, I could see that.-Bassist159

I'm not sure about the dot modifiers, but I do agree partially. In D&D, Strength is the Prime Ability, and thus tends to force drops in multiple other Abilities to match its increase. That's definately not true in Exalted. Similarly, I would agree that racial specialties shouldn't count towards one's Specialty caps. - FrivYeti

Yeah, I'm thinking that's not a bad idea myself. Thus, changed it. - Bassist159

Another possibility for the specialties is that characters can purchase their racial specialty for the normal XP, but it doesn't count towards the specialty cap. Stanoje

Another good idea, one worth considering in later revisions. - Bassist159

And in a similar vein, perhaps Increased Att. and Decreased Att. modify the XP cost required to raise the particular attribute? -- Somori

I might actually tack that on for buying the last dot in the Decreased Att. - Bassist159

Only one issue I see: Everyone should want to be a human. Totally. Point-wise, they're far superior to the others at creation, and then they only get better. Amazing. -- GreenLantern

Yeah, maybe the xp bonus is too much? And frankly, I'm more worried about the unbalance of the other strains of Humans (and most the ECL 2+ races with lots of inborn bonuses.) as compared to others. - Bassist159, who is utterly amazed at his ability to keep from making a Green Lantern joke/reference.