D&D (2024) Earthdawn races for Dnd 2024, views welcomed.

[Zanshin]

Earthdawn is an amazing setting with a clunky system. Have done a take on the 4 races from that game. Welcome input on how thematic and balanced you think they are. Prepping for a campaign set in that world based mostly on 2024.

Racial backgrounds

Tskrang

Darkvision 60’, Proficient in one of Deception, Performance or Persuasion.

Adds Str Mod to acrobatic tests, add Dex Mod to Athletics tests (in addition to base stat).

Tail attack – may make an unarmed attack with tail as a bonus action doing d4+mod damage. Finesse weapon. If the Tskrang grapples, with a hand and tail, they have advantage on the attack.

Obsidimen

Darkvision 120’.

May not wear armour. Skin counts as heavy armour with an AC of 14+ CON bonus. They have no penalty to stealth from this. If they gain AC from another skill or spell, choose best.

DR Slashing & piercing equal to proficiency bonus.

May make unarmed attacks doing d6+Str Mod.

Troll

Darkvision 60’. Proficiency in Athletics.

May use the versatile damage weapon die when wielding such weapons in one hand.

When using heavy weapons, add proficiency bonus to the damage.

Trolls blood – may spend a hit dice using a bonus action. Regain an additional hit dice on a long rest.

Windling

Windlings are tiny

An unencumbered windling can fly at 30’ round. A windlings walking speed is 10’

Windlings know the Friends cantrip.

Windlings damage die is reduced by one step, and they can only use light or finesse weapons.

Windlings hit point die is reduced one step.

They may use the dodge action as a bonus action.

They may move through the space of another character.

A windling may hide behind a character of small size or larger.

 

[Darklion]

For t’skrang, instead of trying to cross-wire Dex and Str for the skills, I’d just give them starting proficiency in either (or both) Acrobatics and Athletics. As they get free skills proficiencies, I’d probably dump the selection. Dump darkvision; t’skrang didn’t have it in the original edition. Keep tail attack. Since t’skrang are amphibious, consider giving them some sort of water-related benefit — swim speed equal to their walking speed, longer breath holding, advantage of checks related to water-based boats/sailing, etc.

For obsidimen, dump darkvision; they didn’t have it in the original edition. Between the DR (which doesn’t exist in 5E) and their armor ability, it’s all too weirdly defined. It wouldn’t be ultra-consistent with Earthdawn, but for consistency and balance, I’d model it after what dragonborn get: 13 + Dex. I’d say let them pick the higher of Dex or Con, but that just means Con lets them get both a higher AC and more hit points, so that might be doubling up too much. Going that route automatically eliminates the need for the “no stealth penalty” because natural armor never imposes stealth penalties. And, yes, it would also mean that obsidimen could wear other armors, but if it’s okay for warforged, it’s okay for obsidimen. Lastly, I’d ditch the slam attack, and instead perhaps go for something more related to their strength, weight, and/or stone affinity — advantage on Strength checks to resist forced movement, stonecunning ala dwarves, etc.

For trolls, keep darkvision and proficiency in Athletics. I’d probably get rid of the “add proficiency bonus to damage”; they already have a damage-dealing benefit in being able to wield the two-handed version of a versatile weapon in one hand, thus allowing them to also use a shield. If you’re really intent on giving them an additional damage-dealing boost, consider allowing them to re-roll ones for physical weapon damage, or a limited number of times a day, reroll one (or more) damage dice and take the re-rolled value. The troll’s blood is okay.

Windlings will always be difficult, because they’re so small. I know it puts them a bit at a disadvantage, but like with other winged species, they should get a flying speed equal to their walking speed. Unfortunately, that’s the break you get for playing an itty bitty race. Everything else is kind of okay-ish, although it’s a laundry list of “you’re being penalized severely for being small” — you can’t use good weapons, you can’t inflict good damage, you can’t survive good hits. I’d actually consider flipping the script here, and instead of penalizing damage and durability, give them abilities that lean into their small size. Maybe they have “flying dodge”: proficiency bonus times per long rest, force attackers to re-roll a successful attack and take the worse value, potentially turning a hit into a miss. Also, based on the first edition, I’d actually argue that “detect magic” would be a better cantrip than “friends” — windlings had astral-sensitive sight.

 

[James Gasik]

One of the big draws of Windlings is their Karma die and cost. I'm not sure how you'd translate that into D&D terms, but it feels weird not having it. OTOH, Windlings are pretty OP so I suppose they needed to be nerfed somewhere (you might think the limits on strength and weapon size would be a nerf, but trust me, it's trivial for a Windling character to get consistent armor-defeating hits, and watching a Windling Beastmaster totally break Claw Shape is terrifying). The real weakness is taking Wounds more easily and having a rotten Recovery Test (you can always get more health, but there's only a few ways to get more healing- Windling Warriors spending Karma on Wood Skin for temporary health is probably the most efficient method).

Obsidimen (and to a lesser extent, Trolls) kind of get hosed a bit in D&D, since you can't have a Strength above 20 or use oversized weapons and have things be even remotely balanced.

 

[Zanshin]

Thank you both for your comments, appreciate the feedback - the campaign is yet to get off the ground so I still have time to refine these things.

Agree that intrinsic ability to fly is amazing, and trying to balance windlings is difficult. You could give them the lucky feature that Halflings have to reflect the Karma, but they are already pretty strong. The idea of only letting them have the dodge as a bonus action a number of times = proficiency makes sense.

For Obsidimen, Heavy Armour master does give damage reduction (though it doesn't call it that) in the same way as they have it above. But yes, perhaps AC13+Dex aligns them to Dragonborn.

Good catch for darkvision on Tskrang. Would be less complex to just offer another skill proficiency. Swim speed = walking speed I think.

With Trolls, sure , reroll 1's for heavy weapons. They need something for when they use 2 handed, otherwise its always going to be versatile plus shield.

 

[Darklion]

Re: obsidimen getting hosed, yeah, they’re supposed to be super strong and super tough, and 5E is kind of designed to not let you be super strong and super tough, at least in raw stats and durability. So I think that’s where you need to perhaps balance it with things that are adjacent to super strong and super tough — carrying limits doubled, advantage of strength checks to resist forced movement, advantage on constitution checks for environmental effects, resistance to poison and disease, “advantage” on damage checks against objects, etc. Obviously not all of them, but you could add one or two that kind of leans into the durability or strength. You could also go with something more esoteric that leans into the stone aspect, like a “merge with stone”, “talk to stone”, or burrow speed.

Regarding the Heavy Armor master, that’s true, but no species starts off with heavy armor proficiency (or I think any armor proficiency of any kind). So in your original version, you’re basically giving them medium armor AC, plus the benefits of heavy armor mastery but applying to medium armor equivalent, and taking away any stealth penalty. It’s a lot.

For windlings, you’re right, the biggest analog for karma would probably be luck — giving them built-in luck points to blow around, as if they had the feat, or something in that same vein. 5E has really leaned away from making races actively bad at things, so if you want them to feel “natural”, it’s less about giving them penalties and more about figuring how to reflect their small flying nature as a balanced benefit.

You make a good point on trolls. I wonder if there’s something that could apply either way here — akin to the goliath. For example, regardless of what kind of weapon they use, because of their size, they can do an extra die of weapon damage, proficiency times a day. Then you don’t have to deal with “versatile” or “2-handed” or anything like that — it becomes a pretty straightforward mechanic. Also, in my original post, I meant to mention that because trolls are associated with airships, you could give them a ribbon ability like advantage on checks dealing with running/maintaining/flying airships.

 

[James Gasik]

Something I learned the hard way- if you make one race clearly better at a thing, all other choices vanish. If there was one race that said "hey, I do more damage as a melee warrior than anyone else", then it becomes harder to justify other options.

The reverse can be true as well- Halflings being bad at using Heavy weapons means you won't be seeing many, say, Halfling Barbarians*.

*For anyone who wants to come in with "uh, actually, people in my games play Halfling Barbarians all the time- they can dual wield or use a shield"- you know what I'm getting at, so don't be That Guy, lol.

Earthdawn was a great game in that you could play even a Windling as a melee warrior class and do all right (ok, well, Windling Cavalryman might not be a great choice, lol). But if you had a small, agile, hard to hit, flying race in D&D with penalties for armed combat, you're just going to see a lot of Windling spellcasters, as this is all upside.

If you've ever looked at 5e races and said to yourself "huh, you know, there aren't too many options that stand out head and shoulders above the rest"- that's kind of the point. The system can't really support extremes of benefit and hindrance. Everything has to be kind of bland so as not to break the curve too badly.

Like look at your sample Obsidimen. Great natural armor and always-on resistance to injury. You'd expect these to be great melee characters. But in 5e, you can get high AC with money a lot faster than you can high Constitution, and Heavy Armor Master is something an Alt Human could start with.

But now imagine an Obsidiman Wizard or Rogue. These advantages are incredible for those classes. It's like how Mountain Dwarf was seen as a quick way to get great AC for Wizards in 2014 (or how about Tortles?)- and what's the downside? You might have to start with a 15 Int instead of a 16 or 17? You'll be able to catch up and the loss of performance is minor (I mean, yeah, there are those people who always have to have the best possible stats, but they may be focusing too much on short-term power as opposed to long-term sustainability).

I don't mean to discourage, I love Earthdawn and how the game treats it's Namegivers, making sure almost any character concept is playable while simultaneously having options with extreme advantages (and disadvantages- like, sure, your Windling Thief is incredible, but uh, well, how do you actually carry your loot?).

But 5e is a game with flatter math, where proud nails could easily warp the game out of shape in unexpected ways. Even a simple option like "+1 AC" can be controversial and beg the question "well, why pick anything else?".

 

[Zanshin]

These are very valid points you are both making, and I do want to balance the Earthdawn races against the 2024 ones while making them thematically distinctive. Some musing follows.

I liked the versatile 1 handed thing for Trolls because it fed directly into the Earthdawn Lore, so I am quite attached to that.

I know attribute maximums are not a thing now (other than the 20 one). I could houserule order of attributes I guess but the more complexity the less universal utility there is...

Good points about Obsidimen going full caster. I guess Dragonborn is a good basis to work them round - something unarmed instead of breath weapon, unarmed damage bonus

Very difficult to balance flying without throwing a fair amount of other thematic disadvantages at Windling. The Fairy race gives them flight and not much else - maybe thats the answer. Flight (not in any but light armour) and Halfling Lucky.

 

[Ath'kethin]

Earthdawn my my introduction to TTRPGs back in like 1993, and I think it's awesome that you're doing this conversion. But I have to ask, how are you handling the Blood Elves?

 

[mellored]

Re flying.

Consider having it only be 5' off the ground.
Jump checks are doubled +5', and they can cast feather fall on themselves at-will.

Still plenty useful for avoiding Web and Spiked Growth or there ground based effects. But not immune to melee.

 

[James Gasik]

Re flying.

Consider having it only be 5' off the ground.
Jump checks are doubled +5', and they can cast feather fall on themselves at-will.

Still plenty useful for avoiding Web and Spiked Growth or there ground based effects. But not immune to melee.

4e did this, the pixie/fairy race could fly with a 10' ceiling.