Racial Abilities: flat bonuses & + level bonuses

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Galannor
Mist Elf
Posts: 48
Joined: Mon Aug 10, 2009 7:00 am

Racial Abilities: flat bonuses & + level bonuses

Post by Galannor »

Hi everybody: there are some racial abilities that don't have a flat bonus, such as the Elven "Move Silently" Ability: how do you handle them? Do you give the heroes who have them the + level bonus to relate Siege Checks?

There are also some racial abilities that give flat bonuses, such as the elven (again) "Enhanced Senses" Ability (+2). How do you handle them? Do you give the players just the flat bonuses, or even a + level bonus?

Maybe I'm missing something, but the PHB doesn't seem to me to be very clear about this issue.
Many thanks,
G.

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KaiserKris
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Location: Manitoba, Canada

Re: Racial Abilities: flat bonuses & + level bonuses

Post by KaiserKris »

For a lot of racial skills, I have players add half their player level to checks if there's another character in the party that has that skill, and the full level bonus if they don't, on the basis that while elves are much better at moving silently than regular humans, a trained rogue is going to be better at it than an elven wizard, say.

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Lord Crimson
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Re: Racial Abilities: flat bonuses & + level bonuses

Post by Lord Crimson »

Whereas I'd give them a full level bonus and treat it exactly as a "class ability". Since elf rogues get an extra bonus to Moving Silently over and above other rogues, this seems to be most in line with what was intended in the text.

It's a matter of what scale makes sense to you. KaiserKris' scale is a good one. Mine is: Human Rogues and Elves both Move Silently better than normal humans and roughly equivalent to one another. While Elven Rogues Move Silently better than all of them.
-- Lord Crimson, Champion of Darkness

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** As always, my suggestions/statements/ideas come with the caveats of YMMV and IMO. :D

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