In my opinion, there are a few things the wrong with this gnoll; a) the little braids near the ear, need to go, this is, in a sense, a bipedal, humanoid hyena, so the ear hair, looks unnatural, b) they need to look dumb, but not like Quasimodo, the hunchback thing is weird and awkward, it needs to look hyena like, so have their back straighter, but give them sloping shoulders, c) their knees do not ALWAYS have to be bent, they are humanoids, so give them something that says 'feral' without...
View full commentIn my opinion, there are a few things the wrong with this gnoll; a) the little braids near the ear, need to go, this is, in a sense, a bipedal, humanoid hyena, so the ear hair, looks unnatural, b) they need to look dumb, but not like Quasimodo, the hunchback thing is weird and awkward, it needs to look hyena like, so have their back straighter, but give them sloping shoulders, c) their knees do not ALWAYS have to be bent, they are humanoids, so give them something that says 'feral' without saying 'unevolved' or 'underdeveloped', d) they need to be muscular, but not so bulky, they're hunters, not lumbering oafs, so their necks do not have to bee 4 feet in circumference, and lastly, e) their faces need to be a tad more humanoid, they should be distinctly hyena like, but not so much it looks like someone cut out a hyena head and stuck it on a body.
I like the racial archtypes created by racial penalties as well, but my playgroup is full of oldschool players anyway, so regardless of what the rules say, we never have Elves with 16+ Constitution; its just lore that we'll never let die. So whether or not they include the racial penalties in the mechanics, they'll always show up when ya want 'em to.
Floating bonus for humans: sounds pretty good. Bonuses in every stat as well? Not so much. I think it would serve the archetype of the adaptable, "everyone's unique" human better to have multiple floating bonuses (probably with a limit of +2 -- +3 at the most -- per stat) than to have static, across the board +1s. Humanity's adaptability comes from the adaptability of each individual, true, but also from the slough of differing abilities found when the race is taken as a whole. Additionally, I...
View full commentFloating bonus for humans: sounds pretty good. Bonuses in every stat as well? Not so much. I think it would serve the archetype of the adaptable, "everyone's unique" human better to have multiple floating bonuses (probably with a limit of +2 -- +3 at the most -- per stat) than to have static, across the board +1s. Humanity's adaptability comes from the adaptability of each individual, true, but also from the slough of differing abilities found when the race is taken as a whole. Additionally, I like the idea of racial penalties. An Elf and a Half-Elf should generally have similar wisdom, but the Elf should normally have the lower constitution score. I feel like the penalties -- in addition to making it possible to add more bonuses without becoming overpowered -- really make it possible for the races to each have a truly unique feel (and a truly unique physiology/personality).
I agree with marcos9999 that the idea of hit points is lunacy especially considering its origin, but I do think Gygax and Arneson did it in the best possible way: characters started with the same HP (D6) as an attack could cause (D6). The blog post talks about the trouble of being stuck with 1 HP: 1 HP nothing! Every character was tromping around with enough health to maybe survive one sword blow - 1 was definitely worse but you weren't exactly sitting pretty anywhere else, either. The tactics...
View full commentI agree with marcos9999 that the idea of hit points is lunacy especially considering its origin, but I do think Gygax and Arneson did it in the best possible way: characters started with the same HP (D6) as an attack could cause (D6). The blog post talks about the trouble of being stuck with 1 HP: 1 HP nothing! Every character was tromping around with enough health to maybe survive one sword blow - 1 was definitely worse but you weren't exactly sitting pretty anywhere else, either. The tactics mentioned in the blog post weren't just standard to HP 1 characters, but to pretty much the entire party! It differentiated low-level play in a way I enjoy, though I'm not sure the progression of HP is really the best way to solve it, as I agree with marcos' other conclusions if not, necessarily, the suggested solutions, but let's not go over it point for point.