Talk:Spartus Hoplite (3.5e NPC)

I'd like to note that while this race would seem grossly overpowered, I would argue that it isn't. The most overpowered things, I find, can be argued against in two categories: the Regeneration and the various combat bonuses (Strength, Natural Armor, DR, inherently awesome weapons, Thunderous Throw).

First, it's important to say what this race is about. I actually made this for friend, wanting minions like the ancient greek Spartoi, fought most famously by Jason. I took inspiration from Percy Jackson, and started building a skeleton (pun entirely intended) of a race, but the more I built, the stronger it got. Finally, I took a step back and was going to give it something like LA +5, but then I remembered the purpose. I made guys are literally made for two things - feral, brutal murder, characterized by mythology, and being part of a phalanx, because the friend wanted them specifically for that purpose. So I changed it up a bit, and I think you'll find that it works pretty well together.

Regeneration might seem like an overly defensive ability, but in fact any Spartus is going to be terrible at defense. Why? Because melee defenders need either size or AoO's to defend an area, and Spartoi can do neither. Not only are they medium sized, they also have heavy penalties to BAB, no bonus to Dexterity, barely offset to-hit loss with Strength, and have no constitution score (thus limiting their health). So what the Regeneration really does is two things. One, it makes them excellent in a phalanx - with Formation Expert, a phalanx of these can be taking heavy damage but keep formation indefinitely, because the units regenerate while being walked over by the rest of the phalanx. Two, it encourages reckless offense. If you can get back up whenever you fall, why should you fight defensively? However, once they drop Spartus are rendered useless for at least a full turn, and can be severely impaired by somebody kicking a bone away for a round. In DM situations, the PC's should be able to have a way to kill them by the time they are fighting these minimum CR 14 enemies.

It might seem like this race as an absurd amount of combat bonuses. I mean, at their base, CR 14 selves, they're basically optimized for crit-power attacking! However, they're combat prowess is severely restricted by their half-BAB hit dice and their level adjustment. Even so, there's some pretty good stuff in there. I justify this by noting that, while they are powerful, they are too restricted to optimize, which is basically the only way melee characters can be compete with nonmelee. So in a low-level, beginner game, as PC's they give some fun bonuses that will make them hilariously strong attackers, but their fragile bodies and missing levels prevent them from overshadowing. In a higher level, experienced game, they lack the optimization capabilities to be overpowered.

Feel free to disagree! I like debate, that's why I put this up preemptively - out of boredom.

Is the crit range on the ranged attack 11-20? How does that work out? Marasmusine (talk) 07:51, 4 September 2013 (MDT)