Why Kobolds? There are many, better alternatives for races and there is no shortage of fantasy races that could be implemented. To put it bluntly, I can't. I am partial to lizardpeople of all walks, and what could be cuter than an incompetent, chubby lil' dragonling? I'm sure you could find some other small creature that would have wider appeal, an easier fluff, and a tastier crunch. In fact, I found several writing all of this out! But I got bored halfway through writing them up, so Kobolds it is.
Naturally, as R has noticed, everyone's suggestions are tailored to how they play their character. I've mostly played as a Leopard Cavewoman, and my general suggestions at the bottom reflect that. Everyone has their own biases.
Kobolds are a small race of reptilian humanoids, of similar stature to a Halfling, but are pathetic creatures by comparison--they drew the short stick in life, and they've forever envied everything else for it. Their draconic heritage leaves a small bit of vigor in their bones, at least, and their scaly visage and fiery breath can certainly remind others of the fact--but at the end of the day, they are small, weak little lizards struggling to avoid being crushed underfoot by their betters. Despite this, their tenacity and the inherent magic of their dragonblood allow a Kobold to challenge their lot. Kobold shamans and soothsayers have long been known for the unusual quantity of power their words carry; in stark contrast to the quivering mess they otherwise present to the world.
Kobolds gain resistance to fear and paralysis while using a shield. They also gain a 15% damage boost while using one, as the added confidence strengthens their stance and allows for stronger strikes. Unlike the other racial damage bonuses, whatever number this one ends up at, I want it to be visible. Whether that's a second damage message ("The added force from your resolute stance smashes brown rat like an angry god ofpinwheelsandcottoncandy !") or just a message upon equipping one ("Having something strong to hide behind lets you strike 15% more boldly."). Really, for optimal min-maxing, it should be high enough to make up for 75% of the lost damage by not using a two-handed weapon, but I am curious if a small, visible damage bonus is sufficient to feel good in play. The goal isn't to give a Kobold a shield and a hand-and-a-half sword--they're still a Tiny race!
Due to their reptilian nature, Kobolds have twice the base healing rate, and gain twice as much healing per point in the skill.
A lot of newbis are unaware of the other racial damage bonuses, some quite significant like the Halflings' or the Humans', and yet veterans and newbis alike do not play them! I feel this is a player perception issue: because it is hard to perceive how much damage you do, it is hard to perceive improvements in damage. R has been fairly generous in letting you make a large number of characters. It is pretty easy to make a bunch of different races and see which one you like. However, most people are not very good at noticing moderate improvements in cleartime without clocks or stopwatches. By making their damage boost visible, we get the benefit of the placebo effect ("This character says it does 15% more damage and this other one doesn't!") and we get a constant reminder that this boost is in play, strengthening the perception that their melee is boosted, when in fact a 15% damage boost is very little. I feel that it should be in the character creation(", combat bonuses for using shields,").
Finally, Kobolds have a mollifying presence on larger or greater creatures than themselves--they find their silly, incompetent antics to be quite charming, and will not attack a Kobold unless attacked first. This improves a newbi's experience as getting spellblasted or cut through the instant you step somewhere you really shouldn't be is quite jarring and it can feel as though nothing could have stopped you from dying... There's also the infamous mage problem of being the first onto a new RD floor, and the melee problem of dying en route to ranged attackers. This unique ability of the Kobold solves all 3 problems in one easy step, without providing much of an in-combat bonus. Ideally, everything within eyesight would drop the dopey attitude when they see one of their own being attacked.
Buffs cast by Kobolds inherently affect the whole party. They start the game with Enchantment skill and gain some more points in Enchantment every few levels. They also start with the Evocation of Fire, Fire Breath. It's a 3 tile long cone spell of relatively high base damage but poor Fire scaling, as you really should be hitting a higher lore quickly as a magician. I played around with the idea of a lingering poison cloud/acid spit, but Nagas already do the poison bite thing and no playable race (even the Naga's dragon transformation!) as of yet breathes fire.
Summary:
Kobolds: 30(+5) HP 50(+5) SP 60 strength 8 moves/second, 3 skillpoints per level, 1.0~4.0 attacks/second, default unarmed attack is a 10 wc piercing bite
Skills: Enchant 3 + 1 per 2 levels, Lore 1, Healing 4
Buffing Enchantments cast by a Kobold apply to everyone in the party. This applies to Enchantments like Bravery, Fly, Regeneration, Resist Cold; not like Bless or Frost Blade. Additionally, the Kobold receives a 15% increase in effect from buffing Enchantments they cast.
Kobolds are tiny and can only wear tiny armor.
Kobolds have a doubled Healing rate and a higher base rate.
Kobolds receive level x 4 resistance to fear and paralysis when they have a shield equipped.
Kobolds receive a 15% melee damage bonus while using a shield.
Monsters larger than a 1x1 tile or a higher level than the Kobold will not be initially hostile, but attacking one will resume hostility for the group as normal.
Kobolds cannot join the Paladins' Guild as they are rather uptight about 'purity' and a shedding Kobold is not the shining image of cleanliness that they would like to project. All the weird shamanic rituals would probably have been OK, though.
Kobolds cannot join the Archers' Guild as they lack the fine motor control to precisely handle a bow and arrows. Or maybe they can and nobold has ever heard of trimming their nails. We'll never know :c (also because it wouldn't be particularly interesting, unless there's something special that their equipment enables that I don't know about because I've never used it)
A Kobold in the Monks' Guild would receive an unarmed WC of 20 pierce.
Generalized suggestions that would make a Kobold race more interesting:
Tiny races in general, not just pixies, should probably have a couple of points of dodge in the same way that races have a couple points of sneak. It would emphasize how much harder it is to hit something that small and close to the ground. I admittedly counted Sneak when I was trying to figure out the upper limit of how many skills to give at level 1, as neither Healing nor Enchantment are particularly impactful together so I would need to ride the line.
The healing skill should recover a % of max HP and not a flat amount. Flat healing makes it relatively useless on tanky Guildspeeps with lots of pool, like Cavepeeps or Paladins. This also solves the need of Giants to have their own Healing scaling. To make it effective, it would probably need a tickrate increase as even 100% of your health every tick will not benefit you as much as recovering 10% per second.
In reference to the above, Cavemen should have a 2x healing rate, overwriting any lesser racial bonus. or multiplied by the base rate I'm just some peep on reddit not a mathemagician To facilitate the use of this boon, Cavemen would gain +1 healing per guild level. This provides an alternate, viable way to heal besides rods or potions.
An interesting healing item in support of the above would be bandages. They would bolster your natural healing rate substantially for a period of time, and would be found in most hospitals or general stores.
The Armor skill should give a % bonus to the AC of an equipped shield, with each point improving the coverage of a shield as well but on a diminishing returns system like the magical arts or find weakness. Maybe 10 points for a 1.5x improvement in coverage, 20 points for 2x, and so on. I think part of the problem for the shield+weapon vs two handed weapon argument is that a shield does not substantially improve your durability as it would in reality unless it is heavily enchanted, and even then that only goes so far. My coverage improvement is likely not high enough given what slot a shield occupies.
Berserk is only useful if you are using it somewhere where dying does not affect you. There's no real reason to use it during the more dangerous situations that can arise in an RD... which I think is wrong. That's the exact kind of situation where dancing with death would be the most intense and impactful. I admittedly haven't thought of this one very much, but it might be more appreciated if it automatically healed you to full HP and activated when health-gating saves you from a lethal blow. In that way, you can emulate the berserkers of old who went out into battle with no other thought than glory or death.
Submitted March 22, 2019 at 02:19PM by Gwennifer https://ift.tt/2ToyBr5
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