Talk:Fishfolk (5e Race)

Ta-da, I've moved Bahari-samaki to Fishfolk because it's in my power and I see it fit. So there. Now we'll all have to suffer between remembering the name and knowing how to spell and pronounce it. I'm going to go ahead and implement some of the changes that were talked about.--Protopyne (talk) 12:35, 21 December 2018 (MST)

Previously, on Bahari-Samaki:

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 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:

The insight perk would make sense with the lore, but I worry that adding it to the base race might make it too bard-centric; instead, I'm considering it for the River Folk. I've added Aquatic Empathy, similar to things I've seen in other races.

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, Triton's Guardians of the Depths, Changeling's Unsettling Visage or Gnoll's Frightening Presence.

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. I'm also thinking of something similar to Dwarf's Stonecunning.

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.

So what are your thoughts?

Other than mechanics, I think I'm going to move the page to straight "Fishfolk" because Bahari-Samaki is a mouthful and I frankly don't like it. Haven't 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) 14:02, 21 December 2018 (MST)

Heyo, this seems pretty nice, although I do have a few comments to review on this, firstly, the fact that a Fishfolk is using Charisma, I can understand that this might be as it is talking more compared to other creatures. Although, people are not exactly the most willing to talk back, I feel like this should be considered to have a mixture of wisdom and charisma, although the lore of this does push more towards charisma, as this is the talking fishfolk race. Regarding the Coral, with the artisan's tools, that seems pretty useful, although saying that. It just means a d4 on every check you do, seen as artisan's tools are not used as much. That's all I have for now Joter (talk) 13:41, 2 June 2019 (GMT)