Subraces Pack : Genasi

[Tioma]

Hi, it's been long time since I played and modded IWD2 the last time, more than 4 years. I worked on "Subraces Pack" Tioma's Mods: Baldur's Gate, IceWind Dale adding Sun and Wood Elves (but it's not a big deal). Now I wanna complete my old idea of implementing Genasi too. Here what I'm planning to do :

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All Genasi are ECL +1, and should start with the same XP as aasimar and tieflings. All Genasi have darkvision.

Air Genasi
Abilities: +2 Dex, +2 Int, -2 Wis, -2 Cha
electric resistance +10
Special Ability: Whirlwind or Static Charge 1/day

Earth Genasi
Abilities: +2 Str, +2 Con, -2 Wis, -2 Cha
acid resistance +10
Special Ability: Stoneskin 1/day

Fire Genasi
Abilities: +2 Int, -2 Cha
fire resistance +10
Special Ability: (modified level-dependent) Aganazzar's Scorcher 1/day

Water Genasi
Abilities: +2 Con, -2 Cha
cold resistance +10
Special Ability: Smashing Wave 1/day
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For the sake of comparison, IWD2 Aasimars and Tieflings have +5 resistance to fire, cold and electricity (among other abilities).

Any comments or ideas ?

Yigor/Tioma

[Tioma]

General info : Genasi are extraplanar human creatures with "elemental blood" in their veins. Similarily, Fey'ri are elementaly planetouched elves, so I can implement them too.

Hmm ... and elementaly planetouched half-elves ? I guess we could cald them Feynasi or Gey'ri.

[Aerich]

Nice idea. I've got a few comments.

1) Is the idea behind giving Earth Genasi 5/ bludgeoning resistance to overcompensate for the utter uselessness of their special ability? I'd favour reducing the bludgeoning resistance and finding a better special ability. I'd suggest Invisibility, but that seems a bit strange.

2) For Water Genasi, note that Rainstorm doesn't work inside. How about Frost Fingers or Ice Dagger instead?

3) Favoured classes?

4) What do you think about giving each one an elemental feat as a bonus? If you didn't want to give one to the Earth Genasi, you could just stick with the bludgeoning resistance.

[Tioma]

Hey Aerich, thanx a lot for your comments! Yeah, I've already made some modifications after discussions at Sorcerer's place forum and comparing with NWN2 implementation Category:Races - NWN2Wiki - a Wikia wiki. Air genasi have now Call Lightning, earth genasi Stoneskin and water genasi Smashing Wave (cf. the modified first post). In addition, earth genasi are resistant to acid while water genasi to cold. It balances everything better and similar to NWN2.

Unfortunately, favored classes are hardcoded.

Nice idea about elemental feats! Have U any suggestions ? As a compensation, genasi could start with 0 XP instead of 5000 XP in the case of aasimars and tieflings.

I started to work on the mod planning to finish it this week. There will be Fey'ri too with slight modification in skills due to differences between human and elves.

Any additional ideas ?

Tc, Yigor

[Aerich]

Well, it would make the most sense to have the elemental feats correspond to the resistances, but that would grant 15/ resistance to one element, which is a ton. You might have to reduce the original resistances.

Call Lightning is also an outside-only spell. Static Charge is comparable, but might not fit the concept as well. Burning Hands is starting to look feeble by comparison. You could add Scorcher to BH, or upgrade it to Wall of Fire or Flamestrike. I consider Fireball too overused as it is, so I wouldn't make it Fireball.

You could play around with granting feats. E.g. Air could get Dash, Deflect Arrows, Lightning Reflexes, or a ranged weapon feat (or two feats, such as Battleguards get in Axe). Earth could have Toughness, Great Fortitude (Resist Poison if it can be coded), Strong Back, Iron Will, or a bludgeoning weapon feat. Water could have Spell Penetration, (or Slippery Mind, Snake Blood or Mercantile Background if they can be coded) or whatever. I'm not sure what Fire could have. I'm not sure if you can give a race Fiendslayer, Heretic's Bane, Heroic Inspiration etc without the proper class, otherwise those might be options for Fire.

[Tioma]

All right with Aganazzar's Scorcher. How about Lightning Bolt for air genasi ? A minor version of Whirlwind would be probably better, I'll try to make it later. I'll think about fetas too but not for this version.

Tc, Yigor

[Tioma]

I think now that Static Charge is good for air genasi. (Despite its name) it's similar to Call Lightning, represents well uncontrolled elemental power and can be used indoors.

[Tioma]

I finished Air Genasi and tested it a bit. At the moment, I put Whirlwind as a special ability. I could modify Air Genasi's Whirlwind and make it level-dependent, for example. Any ideas ?

[Aerich]

Any particular reason why the fire and water genasi only have 2 stat changes compared to 4? I could see fire having +2 Int and Cha and -2 Wis and Con, for example, and water with +2 Dex and Con and -2 Cha and Int or Wis. I know you're basing it on NWN's implementation, but nothing says you have to hold to it.

I like the idea of making Whirlwind level-dependent. Lightning Bolt would be a good choice.

[Tioma]

It seems that those stat modifications for air and water genasi are just from standard D&D rules. So I'll leave it like that.

Do U have any ideas about the damage amount per level and maximal damages for modified Whirlwind and Aganazzar's Scorcher ?

Yigor

[kmonster]

At level 3 the original Aganazzar's Scorcher does 3d6 damage, that's 1d6 per level. But since it does the damage twice without a save, 1d6/level might be overpowered compared to flame arrow which does only 1d6/level once and even allows a save for half damage (but it doesn't immobilize the caster). Fireball on the other hand allows even a bigger damage output if you hit several targets.

I'd choose 1d4/level for the twice dealt damage to the main target and 1d3/level for the other creatures caught in the flame.


If the whirlwind spell is as uncontrollable as in its description, you can raise the damage output a lot without making it overpowered. It can get frustrating if it hits your own party members however.
I'd choose 1d3 crushing and 1d3 slashing damage per level and remove the instant-kill of level 2 creatures.


I wouldn't cap the spells. In normal mode you won't reach more than level 16 anyway and the HOF monsters you'll meet at level 17+ have more than enough HP.

[Tioma]

kmonster, you make always good suggestions! I'll work on spell modifications at the end after implementation of all genasi subraces. So far, due to lack of time, I finished only air genasi.