Racial Traits

This is really a more minor thread at the moment, focus more of your attention to the threats at hand of the general trees. If we have ideas for racial traits and such post them here. I'll fill this out more thoroughly as I have time.


Human

Dwarf

Master Rune of Flight - 2 points
Requirements: Dwarf
Type: Powerful Short/Medium Ranged attack. - Requires melee weapon.
Effect: Makes a ranged attack with a melee weapon. The weapon returns to your hand after throwing.

Grudge - 2 points
Requirements: Dwarf
Type: Passive
Effect: You gain +5/10 to wound any foe that damaged you last round.

Gromil Armor - 1 point
Requirements: Dwarf
Type: Passive
Effect: Receive an additional +1 armor from heavy armor. You may no longer dodge in heavy armor.

High Elf

Elven Grace - 1 point
Requirements: Elf
Type: Passive
Effect: +20 to initiative checks.

Dark Elf

Elven Grace - 1 point
Requirements: Elf
Type: Passive
Effect: +20 to initiative checks.

Wood Elf

Elven Grace - 1 point
Requirements: Elf
Type: Passive
Effect: +20 to initiative checks.

Chaos Mortal

Chaos Armor - 1 point
Requirements: Chaos Mortal
Type: Passive
Effect: Reduce for casting penalty for casting in heavy armor by 5 pts.

Chosen Armor - 1 point
Requirements: Chaos Mortal
Type: Passive
Effect: Receive an additional +1 armor from heavy armor. You may no longer dodge in heavy armor.

Skaven

Ogre

Vampire

Armored Caster - 1 point
Requirements: Vampire
Type: Passive
Effect: Reduce for casting penalty for casting in heavy armor by 5 pts.

Tomb Kings


Lizardmen



-Anyone I'm forgetting about?

Mark of Khorne - 2 Ranks
Requirements: None
Type: Passive
Effect: As long as you are in Good or Perfect condition, you gain 4 Strength. At Rank 2, this bonus increases by 4 for the duration of the encounter every time you kill an enemy in melee. The entire bonus is lost if you become Wounded.

Mark of Tzeentch - 2 Ranks
Requirements: None
Type: Passive
Effect: As long as you are in Good or Perfect condition, you gain 4 Willpower. At Rank 2, this bonus increases by 4 for the duration of the encounter every time you kill an enemy with a spell. The entire bonus is lost if you become Wounded.

Mark of Nurgle - 2 Ranks
Requirements: None
Type: Passive
Effect: As long as you are in Good or Perfect condition, you gain 4 Toughness. At Rank 2, this bonus increases by 2 for the duration of the encounter every time an attack fails to wound you or a spellpower roll fails against you. The entire bonus is lost if you become Wounded.

Mark of Slaanesh - 2 Ranks
Requirements: None
Type: Passive
Effect: As long as you are in Good or Perfect condition, you gain 4 Weapon Skill. At Rank 2, this bonus increases by 2 for the duration of the encounter every time you an enemy misses you or you dodge an attack. The entire bonus is lost if you become Wounded.

Daemonic Possession -2 Ranks
Requirements: Chaos Mark Rank 2
Type: Passive (Powerful)
Effect: When you fall below 25% of your maximum Wounds (Dying), you are possessed by the furious spirit of Chaos. For an instant, you are filled with the power of your chosen deity. Starting on your next turn, you gain +15/+30 to all rolls, and gain a 20%/40% Ward Save as the power of the warp deflects all threats against you. In exchange for this gift, your god demands victory - if you have not killed an enemy by the end of your turn, you are immediately reduced to zero Wounds. This effect continues until the encounter ends or you fail to kill an enemy during your turn.

Came up w/ a couple for other races. I'm still torn a bit on if I like having straight stat increases. I'd almost prefer something like.

Mark of Khorne- While above wounded, whenever you slay a foe you gain +3/6% critical strike chance for the duration of the encounter.

Mark of Slaanesh - While above wounded, whenever you damage an enemy you gain +1/2% dodge chance for the duration of the encounter.

Mark of Tzeentch - While above wounded, whenever you successfully cast a spell you gain ____ something.

Mark of Nurgle - While above wounded, whenever you take damage you gain a 2/4% ward save.

Humans

Also you had an updated version of the Daemonic Possession didn't you? Where did that go? Also I've been toying with some daemon themed mastery paths just for you.

May as well post what I've got so far for lizardmen. For most it's just the names.

Cold Blooded -
Scaly Skin - Begin each encounter with DR 2/4 (or DR equal to 5%/10% of your maximum W with a minimum of 1)
Servants of the Old Ones -

I think we need a stronger focus for starters. I know people want to basically only work on their race but let's try and spread the love a little. We'll still be working on yours but try and offer some suggestions for other folks too.

One other major possibility which might be a fun addition / variant to the racial traits previously suggested is instead having a single Racial Background stat, chosen at character selection. This would allow us to offer the possibilities of things like VC bloodlines, Chaos Marks etc, without being too over the top and excessively complicated. It also would free up skill points players would spend elsewhere and differentiate/ unify character creation to an extent.

So instead of a 5-10 point skill tree accessible by race a player may take the following, gaining all the benefits at character creation.

EXAMPLE

---

Mark of Khorne - Background (Chaos)-
Insert fluffyness here.
- Increase critical strike chance with melee weapons by 2%.
- The critical strike chance above increases to 5% when you are wounded.
- Suffer a -5 penalty to casting and spellpower rolls.
- Gain DR equal to 10% of your S whenever you slay a foe.

---

-or-

---

Devoted of Sigmar - Background (Human)
Insert fluffyness here.
- Gain a 1% critical strike chance.
- All hammers and mauls you wield deal +1 maximum damage.
- While wounded you gain magic resistance 5.
- Once per adventure you can add half your WP to a hit roll.

---

This would be applicable to all races but would focus exclusively on the characters background. This would allow players who both possess the mark of khorne for example to have a unifying feel despite picking potentially very different skill trees. In addition it would characters with very similar skill selections (Teheboq and Malacab for example - Guard/Comm/Ass vs Guard/Comm/Marks) to differeniate themselves even more from one another. I think this would also be easier to brainstorm ideas with and add more possibilities later. We could also have common backgrounds accessable to any race, such as Former Soldier, or something else fairly generic and applicable to all races. We could come at this from a variety of angles including profession, race, or birthplace (Kislev vs Aldorf for example).


If you guys think I am full of crazy and we should stick with the original idea of 5-10 pt skill trees let me know. If that is the case we could use suggestions for the following races. Since we're all playing them.
(*not sure forte if you'd be taking VC, DE, or HE racial traits so i have VCs listed.)
@ Ferret - We worked out a couple different things involving the marks and I do not remember what was decided.

Chaos -

Human -

Lizardmen -

Vampire Counts -

Please offer feedback on this idea. I think having the races ironed out and a more professional/ fluffy feel would do wonders for generating interest into the site. Currently with both the skill trees, magic lores, and racial traits unfinished it feels too unpolished for new players to try and support. If we want more examples I can toss some more up.

Here's two more samples. Background Powers are usable once per adventure.


Chosen of Khorne
- Brutal: 2% Critical Strike Chance with melee weapons.
- Bloodlust: 3% Additional Critical Strike Chance when Wounded.
- Hatred of Magic: -5 penalty to casting and spellpower checks.
- Magic Immunity: Magic Resistance 5.
- Blood Frenzy - Background Power - (Only usable while wounded) - Make two melee attacks against a foe.

Chosen of Nurgle
- Tough: Lowers opponents chance to critically strike you by 5%.
- Disease Ridden: Poisons have two less maximum stacks.
- Cloud of Flies: Ranged attacks suffer a -5 penalty to hit.
- Regeneration: Whenever you regain W regain that amount +1 instead.
- Slow with Purpose: -10 penalty to initiative.
- Aura of Disease - Background Power: You lose 10% of your maximum wounds and deal this much poison damage to all foes in your zone.

Chosen of Tzeentch
- Overpowering: Your minimum chance of casting with Irresistable Force is 10% (instead of 5%).
- Other Crap -

Asrai (Wood Elves)
- Skirmishers - Lower the penalty for moving and shooting by up to 5. - or - Gain +1 damage on a charge.
- Agile - 2% dodge chance.
- Bow Specialists - Increase the maximum damage on all bows w/Shoot and Move or Skirmish by 1.
- Quick - +5 to initiative.
- Fragile - All foes gain a +3% increased critical strike chance against you.
- Call of the Hunt - Background Power - Medium Range Ability - All allies gain +5% critical strike chance and +5 to hit the chosen foe for the duration of the encounter.

Asur (High Elf)
- Agile: 2% dodge chance
- Quick: +5 to initiative.
- Fragile: All foes gain a +3% critical strike chance against you.
-

This all seems fine. I had to think about it for a while to decide if I actually like it BETTER than the current system, and I decided I do, for the following reasons:

All characters can have backgroundy racial shit without using points, so everyone will actually have it. This seems preferable to the current situation, where a High Elf fire mage and a Chaos fire mage could be exactly identical if neither of them took racial skills. Some inherent differentiation is a good idea.

Also, not having to spend points means that all characters will see a power bump from this system, which I think is appropriate, especially for new characters (if we ever have any).

I know you said Daemonic Possession would be a mastery path, but losing the ability to get (non-Background) racial skills seems unfortunate to me. This system doesn't necessarily have to be mutually exclusive with racial skills you buy for points: Just to use a random example, "Improved Mark of Khorne" or something could be a one or two point skill, requiring that you have the background, and giving you additional benefits, either increasing the passives (both positive and negative) or giving you an activated skill like Daemonic Possession (or whatever).

I have a feeling that you're going to want to be a passive purist and shun all skill point based racials now that you're moving toward this system, but I think that's uncalled for. We may not even want to make such skills right now, but leaving the door open to them is a good idea.

I'm not all out opposed to the idea of having race specific skills but I feel the same effect is achomplished with masteries. I agree with all the reasons you mentioned but in addition I also feel it is incredibly fitting with the fluff. Ogres can be stronger but dumb, elves fast but frail, etc. lastly I feel it has the addition of being easier to balance and open up a few new options we didn't have before.

So while I am not completely shutting the door on race specific skills we have much larger fish to fry, (finishing spell trees, getting players etc).


Also a few more ideas.


Ogre
Stupid: -5 penalty to all casting rolls, initiative checks, and loot rolls.
Bully: You gain +5 to hit enemies with less S than you and +5 to wound enemies with less T.
Tough: Gain a 5% ward save when wounded.
Bash: Background Ability - (Attack) - If this attack wounds the target you may move the target one zone.

Slightly new idea/revamp.

Alrighty here is how I'm thinking backgrounds should be broken down.

5 Total

2 Race - Dictated by your race. Basically 1 pro/con. These cannot be chosen or selected. All dwarfs for example share the same two stats.
Unique - Represents a special condition for your character such as a mark, tramatic event etc. These abilities may be available to all races or may be race limited. Find two that fit your character.
Profession Indicates your characters prior calling - These are available to any race.

Race-
Race-
Unique-
Unique-
Profession-

Race List - All Abilities listed here are Powerful Free Abilities.

High Elf
-Speed: +10 Initiative
-Supernatural Grace(Ability): You gain a 20% dodge chance for 1 round. Extend this duration by 1 round if you dodge an attack.

Dark Elf
-Speed: +10 Initiative
-Vengeful(Ability): +5% critical strike and IF chance against a foe that has wounded you this combat for 1 round. This increases to 10% if you are wounded and 20% if dying. Extend this duration another round if you deal at least 1 critical strike this round.

Wood Elf
-Agility: 2% dodge chance vs ranged attacks.
-Skirmish(Ability): You gain +3 weapon damage for 1 round. Extend this duration another round if you move and damage a foe in the same round.

Dwarf
-Tough: Gain a 10% ward save when dying.
-Dug In(Ability): Gain +5% block chance and +1 armor until you move.

Human (Empire/Tilean)
- Vigor: +5 to your first roll each turn while at full health.
- Perseverance(Active): If an attack would slay you ignore it instead and this effect ends immediately. If you suffer non-lethal damage this effect ends at the start of your next turn.

Human (Chaos)
- Tainted: Magic Resistance (5)
- Chosen of the Dark Gods (Active): You gain +10 to all rolls for 1 round. Extend this duration another round if you succeed all rolls this turn. The round after this effect ends you suffer -5 to all rolls until you succeed all your rolls in one turn.

Beastman
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Vampire
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Daemon
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Orc
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Goblin
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Ogre
-Tough: Gain a 10% ward save when dying.
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Profession Ideas

Archer - +3% critical strike chance with all ranged weapons when at medium range or farther.

Soldier - +1% block, dodge, and increase the minimum damage of all melee weapons by 1.

Assassin - +1 damage against dying opponents, and 2% increased melee critical strike chance while unengaged.

Mercenary -

Battlemage - After you damage an opponent you gain +5 to casting and spellpower rolls for 1 round.

Wizard - +5% to Irresistible Force.

Unique Ideas -


Gork's/Mork's Chosen - Every time you wound an opponent in melee you gain +1% ward save until the end of the encounter.