Talk:Gems (5e Race)

Hello, "+2 statistic of choice", this should read "+2 to an ability score of your choice". Marasmusine (talk) 09:58, 12 August 2016 (MDT)

Hmm, also, 5e doesn't have "physical" or "water" damage types. Marasmusine (talk) 09:58, 12 August 2016 (MDT)

Photokinesis

Please add the photokinesis as there is none for any of the gem subraces.

Thank you

Racial Traits

There were too many racial traits for the preload to handle. The removed trait is as follows:

Summon Armament Depending on the position and cut of her gemstone, most Gems are capable of 'summoning' some form of weapon or shield, one or more times. Most of these armaments have multiple uses; they can be used in melee attacks, ranged attacks, or as tactical tools. When discarded, these weapons disappear as though they were temporary holograms. If a Gem becomes fused with another Gem, that Fusion is capable of summoning one or more of any of the armaments of the Gems that comprise her, and is also capable of fusing these into a "weapon fusion". The weapon fusion usually makes some sort of mechanical sense (ie: a staff and a whip combine into a bow with bowstring) though the weapon doesn't have to look like its constituent parts (the bowstring merely looks like a bowstring, not the original whip). Coaldstone (talk) 14:51, 12 October 2018 (MDT)

Major Page Update

I'm currently working on a major overhaul to the Gems as a race, including adding flavor text, rewording much of what currently exists, specifying the capabilities of some traits, and changing/adding many of the others to work within reason (for example, limiting Lapis' hydrokinesis and giving Peridots gnome-like tinkering). Does anyone following this page have major issues with these changes, or suggestions on how I do this? Dirkmon97 (talk) 21:15, October 14 2018 (PST)

No qualms. Good luck and if you are going to do so pop a {{WIP}} template at the top so people know you're working on it and that way it doesn't mark itself as a completed page when you eventually remove the maintenance templates. —ConcealedLight (talk) 02:37, 15 October 2018 (MDT)

Thank you for the tip, I'll do that now. Dirkmon97 (talk) 7:34, October 15 2018 (PST)

Alright. It's up. Dirkmon97 (talk) 23:17, 15 October 2018 (MDT)

This is much better from a syntax perspective and the quality of the page is much higher. The traits are definitely clearer on what they do so good job. However, this is really overpowered to the point of absurdity when compared to any of the first party races. I can think of three ways we can sort that out:

1. Nerfing everything to be more in line with the first party content - This method may involve removing content because of balance issues and lead to a final product that lacks details from the source material.
2. Instead of trying to fit everything the race gets into racial traits, taking some of the more specific/ powerful abilities and making them racial feats as seen in Xanathar's Guide to Everything.
3. Finally, there is the offloading those specific/ powerful abilities into a composite class or a prestige class specific to the race that a player can take as if they were multiclassing.

—ConcealedLight (talk) 06:24, 16 October 2018 (MDT)

Thanks you for the advice. I know this is wildly imbalanced, but wanted to get all down before trimming or editing content. Putting a bunch of the traits into racial feats is a great idea, and I'll be sure to do that. I'll have to look into the class creation to see if that'll work too. Dirkmon97 (talk) 12:10, 16 October 2018 (MDT)

That's what the challenge of this was: How to translate the Gems of Steven Universe into DnD while keeping all of the race's abilities. Magnetin Darkwind (talk) 4:31, 8 January 2019 (EST)

• "You only need to rest for 4 hours to gain the full benefits of a long rest." - Nope. That means you're getting two long rests while everyone else gets one. That's not how the Hit Dice economy works. (2)
• Gem Poofing (?!?!!) - What's going on? Do I continue making death saving throws after being poofed? Am I in my gemstone, or am I my gemstone? If I'm in my gemstone, can other people still stabilize me or restore my hit points? Am I not already unconscious, since I'm at 0 hit points? Am I regenerating hit points, or is my gem regenerating hit points? How many hit points do I have when I reform?
• The Gemstone - really confusing, perhaps because you are talking about shattering and cracking before introducing those terms
• Cracking and Shattering. What is a "destruction spell"? How do you directly attack the gemstone? Now there's gem shards? How big are they? If I got shattered in a flowing river or a gale do I roll up a new character, or does the adventure stop while the other PCs search for my bits?
• I think my brain came out through my eyes while I was reading Gem Fusion.
• I tried rating this using the Marasmusine Meter, and thought I was getting somewhere, then saw that the Diamond had Large size and resistance to all nonmagical attacks... well, we're off the scale now. Marasmusine (talk) 16:22, 29 January 2019 (MST)

Thank you for the criticisms. These are all very good points, and ones I hadn’t considered – or had underestimated the effects of. A fresh look like yours may have been what this page needed.

* I probably shouldn’t have messed with the hit dice economy, especially on my first major page contribution. The long rest period can and should be changed back to the standard 8 hours.

* As its written now, the gemstones undermine the death saves, stabilization, and resurrecting D&D mechanics. The idea was that the gemstone is protruding somewhere on the Gem’s body and when they fall unconscious they become just the gemstone for a while. Death only comes if the stone itself is then shattered. Looking back on it now, yes “monstrously complicated and overpowered” does apply. I’ll change how that works to be in line with existing near-death D&D mechanics, probably including the removal of shattering and cracking as a whole. For now, anyway.

* Gem fusion just needs to be removed. It’s the sort of thing that needs so many other mechanics and qualifications added in until it isn’t D&D anymore.

* Diamonds as a subrace was intended less for player characters and more for rare, regal NPC’s or end-of-dungeon encounters. I’ll be honest, I didn’t know where those went when I first wrote this page. In time I may relocate them to the NPC section. For now though, they need to go too.

* Looking back, I can also see Imbue Intelligence, Gem Bubble, and Gem Glow abilities to be disposable in terms of keeping to canon.

I think that’s at least a good start. Thoughts?

Dirkmon97 (talk 14:41, 30 January 2019 (PST)

Well, for starters, you may want to reorder the traits.

Magnetin Darkwind (talk) 2:25, 31 January 2019 (EST)

Definitely. Rewording it as well, to make sure something doesn't get mentioned until after it's explained. I think I'll have a version ready for publishing sometime tonight.

(Edit - it's up now! Thoughts? 23:58, 31 January 2019 (PST))

Dirkmon97 (talk 15:46, 31 January 2019 (PST)

I'm working on another little update to this page, addressing mostly the concerns ConcealedLight pointed out in the balance template. I have a couple of points of concern going through my mind I'll put here before I put everything together:

• I've honestly been considering removing Half-Gems entirely at this point, since its the type of thing that breaks a lot in terms of balance. It'll probably go in this update
• An invisible mage hand is the type of thing that fits this really well and honestly would make this fit better. How reasonable would it be to say it may only lift objects with metal components?
• For the Pearls, I'm trying to figure out what to replace Fleet Footed (+3 AC when mobile) with. Would something akin to Bugbears' and Goliaths' Powerful Builds fit well?
• I want to balance the in-show Bismuth's complete immunity to lava with actual D&D 5e balance. Would dropping the conditional immunity to an unconditional resistance fit that?
• To the person who added Saphirres' Future Vision and the Quartzs' Dash, I apologize. Those are already covered in feats I've put together so they'll be removed. Is there a place on this page to link those feats so repeating abilities don't happen again?

--Dirkmon97 (talk) 23:47, 23 March 2019 (MDT)

Fixing This work of Art

Hi!, I've been wanting someone to Update this work of Art, and I just updated the it, to add more balancing to it,

HALF GEMS: None of the Sub-race ability's Go over lv 5, Except Half Gem, because it really needs it, but it only goes up to ten, getting Parent Gem Sub-race lv 5 ability. They get two of there Organic Parent's race Features, to compensate the loss for two Gem racial features.

OTHER GEMS: None of the Subraces Go over lv 5 for abilities, Rearranged the Peridot Ability to where it's fairly different from a worse Mage hand. Rearranged the Quarts Abilities: Giving them 1d4 Unarmed strikes. Rearranged the Pearl abilities: Being a Pearl gives you Proficiency of Dex Saves and The option to using Performance with Dex. Got rid of The Quart's Dash and Sapphire's Future sight, because they are Feats you can take in the Feat's list.

All Gems: All resistances/Immunity from sub-races come in at level 5. --Kangaboom11(Talk) 03:07 AM October 12, 2019 (EST)

Stop adding Dash and Future sight please.

Both the Dash and Future sight are Feats, And I will Put the Link to the Feats themselves to the subrace they belong to, but They are Feats!

Reworked some Balancing

+ Gem Withdrawl does not give your items a "Super protection", to match the other races. + Redid some balancing on the Diamond sub race. Now Special Ability affects other creatures and only do status effects or a singular buff.

Please don't undo the balancing.