Talk:Wolfen (5e Race)

Ratings

Blocked Rating

Ghostwheel opposes this article and rated it 0 of 4.

This rating refers to a substantially different version of the article, or concerns mentioned in it have already been addressed.Needs a bit of clarification. Does the natural armor stack with normal armor? With barbarian/monk con/wis to AC? Blindsight of what radius? And +5 total to stats focused in things you want is a bit too good if you take mustelids. And what does "magical" even do? Just too many things that need explaining, and might be too much.

Discussion

Thank you for your feedback, I've made some edits to that effect, but would love some extra help with the balance and mechanics of this race. While Wolfens are near and dear to my heart as a part of the world I've created, I have always struggled to set them up properly mechanically. So any help is appreciated. ~Dingobabee

Feedback

Hello there!

I am here to review your Wolfen race after seeing it - I'm mostly here to review the mechanics and see if they fit into line of what the 5e System gives us and if they're balanced up against other races. As you may have noticed, there's a Winter Cleaning on your work because there are some problems here-and-there with some formatting and some mechanical issues that we'll work through and try to fix with a good couple of revisions.

It's nothing bad; it is just about iterative revisions to get things up to a good working standard, so we can all be happy with things. So, let's get going on this!

The first thing that I notice is that this seems like this is an attempt at a 3.5e / Pathfinder conversion (as it contains several of such conventions). I don't know if that is the case, but a lot of things that I'm going to pick at are the these incremental bonuses.

• Dual Minded. So, in 5e, we don't give out these small nickel-and-dime bonuses of +2 here, +2 there. It complicates the system and 5e is all about a more stream-lined approach to things. But this ability is very similar to the Kalashtar, who have an ability called "Dual Mind". This allows them to use their reaction to get advantage on Wisdom saves. You could apply this to just Intelligence saves or just Wisdom saves, but I don't know if doing so to both would be a fabulous idea.
• Claws. Getting two claw attacks means nothing - since a PC doesn't have the Multiattack action, they do not get to make multiple attacks with their claw weapons unless they have a feature that does this. Just saying they have two claw attacks does not do this; and if it did, this would be ridiculous. Furthermore, there is no indication of how much damage these claws do - we can look at the Tabaxi's 'Cat Claws' ability to show how natural weapons are referenced and used.
• Weapon Familiarity. I really (really) do not like Weapon Familiarity as a racial feature. But, including it is not a problem - but there are more than one type of bow. Are they proficient in all bow types? Also... why?
• Broken Bond. Wow. This is a massive drawback to the entire race, and makes it entirely non-usable to me. Just by having your animal companion killed, you're now out for the count until you manage to make a DC 20 save? But then again, does the animal companion have to be with me at any time if I'm a Wolfen? Do they require proximity? I don't know. But still, if I do have to cart around my animal companion, then this is super restrictive. But, then, they can turn into their companion - is this like Wild Shape, or Polymorph, or...? Further, as an actual formatting note, there should be no 'per day', it's 'per long rest' instead.
• Companions. I think this section should be their sub-races? Or at least a list of defined abilities. But, most of these suffer from the nickel-and-dime incremental / decremental bonuses that plagued older editions; +2 here, +1 there, -1 over there. Giving out proficiency in skills is pretty much a better option for most of these (Bird, Feline, Rodent, Mustalids). I like Canine and Venomous, actually. They're not too bad, Venomous just needs some different wording.

Okay, I'm dropping out of the list for Companions here because now we come to the biggest problems; Arachnid, Reptile / Insects, and Bats.

Arachnids. This ability is just absolute junk in relation to every other ability that companions give. I would rather have anything else than just some advantage on crafting checks; something that rarely actually comes up. This could very easily be something like; Using your claws, you have a climb speed of half your walking speed.

Reptile / Insects. I think that this is a problem, giving additional armour as a +2 bonus because nothing else does that. Natural Armour is always granted as a different way of calculating armour - like the Lizardfolk's Natural Armor ability, or the Loxodon's Natural Armor. These give a new calculation for armour, instead of giving you a free shield that stacks with another shield. I would advise changing these to...

• Reptile. Your skin has toughened with scales. When you aren't wearing armor, your AC is 13 + your Dexterity modifier. You can use your natural armor to determine your AC if the armor you wear would leave you with a lower AC. A shield's benefits apply as normal while you use your natural armor
• Insect. You have become developing a chitinous hide. When you aren't wearing armor, your AC is 12 + your Constitution modifier. You can use your natural armor to determine your AC if the armor you wear would leave you with a lower AC. A shield's benefits apply as normal while you use your natural armor.

Bats. Blindsight is an insane ability and it's amazing. A Rogue gets Blindsense - similar - out to 10ft at level 14. These guys get it for existing, which is just crazy for a player race.

Hopefully this is some useful feedback on how things are and work. I'd like to see this get fleshed out and become a great article here. --TK-Squared (talk) 04:26, 24 June 2019 (MDT)

I think TK covered the main points I was thinking of. --Ghostwheel (talk) 04:51, 24 June 2019 (MDT)

The new broken bond is suuuuuper dangerous as there isn't a limit on the CR of your companion creature, and allowing a PC to turn into a creature of undefined CR is not a good idea.

The bond itself is also broken, as just that is much, much better than a beastmaster's entire subclass.

Also, the 20' climb speed is a bit much from the arachnid subrace, I'm playing in a high-level game and despite having very good alternate equipment, the rogue still chooses to attune slippers of spider climb, which makes me think that just handing out as part of the race is too strong.

The blindsight is also still a problem, as it's getting half of what a level 14 rogue gets. Instead, perhaps give them proficiency in perception? --Ghostwheel (talk) 12:40, 24 June 2019 (MDT)