Talk:Bahari-Samaki (5e Race)

Hello. I've been rewriting and rebalancing this page on and off for a while now. If you have any suggestions at all, feel free to comment them here or on my page. --Protopyne (talk) 18:51, 27 May 2018 (MDT)

With the speeds, can you switch between the two options?

In 5e it is strongly discouraged to give negative ability score modifiers because in almost all cases it doesn't balance the race because it can be worked around and instead it just discourages players from picking classes that use that ability score which limits options and makes the race more boring.

The Deep Walker is very underpowered compared to the other subraces, it has an extra negative ability modifier and all of its features are negatives.

Overall nice lore/fluff but poor mechanics, however, I would be happy to help with the mechanics. Babosa (talk) 03:13, 19 October 2018 (MDT)

I meant the speeds to be an option, but if you have something else in mind feel free.

I already heard that about negative scores, but never changed it. The intention was to add some more variety but definitely change it if you can.

Deep Walker was intended to be more of a challenge to play, and I tried to hint at that in the description. If you have ideas to better achieve that, go ahead.

This is my first page, and I know a lot of it is a mess. I tried to overhaul it from what it was originally, to bring it closer to completion. You probably have much more knowledge about mechanics, so do whatever you see fit. Protopyne (talk) 18:51, 27 May 2018 (MDT)

It is not a mess, rather your race has very few positive features which is a refreshing change. I'm just going to suggest some features based off the lore and if they sound good we can add them.

Since they are experienced with arguments and have a sharp mind how about all Insight checks against them are made with disadvantage

Since you want Deep Walkers to be more challenging, you should give them a fair few circumstantial bonuses to make them powerful but only if the player is able to make all of their circumstantial bonuses come into play which would be challenging

An example, since they live with horrific deep sea creatures they have advantage against frighten and intimidation

Since Coral Folk make beautiful crafts, when things they have crafted are being sold to nobles or other people that are rich and appreciate beauty, the price is doubled

The river folks Overthinking feature can probably just be left in the lore because stressful situations are not defined

To make their overthinking an advantage, you could say it lets them reroll an intelligence or wisdom check

Do you want to keep the negative ability score modifiers or can they just be mentioned in the lore

Babosa (talk) 17:49, 19 October 2018 (MDT)

I'd like this race to remain neutrally balanced (tending towards underpowered) because I'd much rather have more challenge than less. Quite frankly I think creating anything more powerful than RAW is silly.

Bearing that in mind, here's my take on those suggestions:

I do like the disadvantage in insight checks made against them, and because it's stated in the alignment that they are able to hide their true intentions it makes sense. I can incorporate that elsewhere in the fluff.

I also like the circumstantial strengths of the Kina. Advantage against fear and intimidation is decent, but perhaps something else as well; i.e., their lore could permit for a trait akin to the Lizardfolk's Cunning Artisan.

As for the Samaki's craftsmanship, is there not a more discrete trait that may apply? I feel as if there is a predefined trait out there that encapsulates what you're trying to convey, but I can't find it.

With the Maji, I intended 'stressful' to mean combat but leaving it up to the DM's discretion, although I can see where that's not a great term. I wrote up most of this just a few days after my second game ever, so I wasn't too sure how everything worked. I'd still like some kind of weakness there, but maybe offset it with an advantage. Perhaps they have disadvantage against charmed and fear in combat but advantage outside of combat? I'm really not sure about this one.

Other than mechanics, I think I'm going to move the page to straight "Fishfolk" because Bahari-Samaki is a mouthful and I frankly hate it. Have since the start. The subraces are going to go to "Deep Fishfolk" and so on. Nobody in any world is going to look at a fishman shlopping around and say, "Oh, a Maji-Safi Bahari-Samaki!" No, they're going to say, "Oy, it's one of them River Fishfolk. Slimy bugger, that one."--Protopyne (talk) 11:54, 21 December 2018 (MST)