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I have created another race to go along with the Faetouched and Shadetouched. This race is designed to be a (former) human, elf, dwarf, etcetera that was melded with some of the spirit of insanity from the Far Realm. Worried that it is overpowered but not sure.

Voidtouched

Ability Score Increase. Your Constitution, Intelligence, and Wisdom scores all increase by 1.

Age. Voidtouched mature at about the same rate as humans, but live much longer. They can live up to 1000 years.

Alignment. Most voidtouched are chaotic due to the madness that lives within. They are not always evil but have no special inclination towards good.

Size. Voidtouched are about the same size as humans. Your size is Medium.

Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet.

Darkvision. Due to the dark areas you and your kin favor, you have darkvision with a range of 120 feet.

Armor of Madness. You have resistance to psychic damage, and are immune to the Modify Memory spell.

Grasping Mind. You have telepathy with a range of 30 feet.

Magic of Madness/Voidtouched Psionics (can't decide which). You know the Mage Hand cantrip, and when you cast it with this feature the hand is invisible. At 3rd level, you can cast Chaos Bolt with this trait once, and must finish a long rest before you can cast it again. At 5th level, you can cast Detect Thoughts with this trait once, and must finish a long rest before you can cast it again. Intelligence is your spellcasting ability for this spells.

Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common and Deep Speech.

Is this race balanced?

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    \$\begingroup\$ I would add "at its lowest level" to Chaos Bolt if that is your intention. \$\endgroup\$
    – Blits
    Commented Aug 24, 2019 at 0:54

3 Answers 3

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Ability Score Increases

The ability scores seem moderately well-balanced, if a bit on the underwhelming side. Less powerful than those of a half-elf (+2 Charisma, +1 to two other abilities) and a little better than the variant human (+1 to two scores),the human gets a feat while Voidtouched gets access to some spells.

The ability scores are underwhelming because they don't synergize well. Although Triton's get a +1 to Strength, Constitution and Charisma. These synergize well together. A Paladins uses Strength for attacking, Constitution for HP, and Charisma for spell casting. As no class uses both Intelligence and Wisdom, you're effectively throwing away one skill and the two skills you utilize will be at a lower tier than everyone else(+1, +1 instead of +2, +1.)

Size

Should be the size of being before it was exposed to the Void.

Speed

Should be the speed of the of the being before it was exposed to the Void.

Darkvision

This darkvision has a radius of 120 feet, while most races have a radius of 60 feet. Should probably changed thusly.

Telepathy

This is very comparable to the Great Old One warlock's Awakened Mind feature. Awakened Mind requires that the recipient understand a language.

Memory of Madness

Resistance to psychic damage is very similar to Tieflings' fire resistance, but instead it covers a less common damage type.

Immunity to Modify Memory. This is fine. It's immunity to a single spell and makes sense based on the race.

Magic of Madness/Voidtouched Psionics

You have the ability to cast Mage Hand and make it invisible. The Arcane Trickster Rogue can do exactly this. I don't feel like this takes away from the Arcane Trickster, as the purpose appears to be telekinesis.


At 3rd Level you can cast Chaos Bolt once per short rest. Chaos bolt does 2d8+1d6 damage, with a with a 12.5% chance of bouncing to another target. The closest equivalent to this is the Tiefling's ability to cast Hellish Rebuke (2nd Level). This does 3d10 damage and can only be used as a reaction, not as an action. Chaos Bolt does. As stated by other people, this should be only be cast at first level.

While it's balanced, I don't feel like Chaos bolt fits in with the theme of the race.


At 5th level, you can cast Detect Thoughts once per long rest. The equivalent of this would be the Tiefling's ability to cast Darkness once per long rest. Both spells are 2nd level, though Darkness is more combat-oriented than Detect Thoughts.

Detect Thoughts is a much better fit than Chaos Bolt for this race.


Conclusion

I'm conflicted on the overall feel of the race. Structurally, it's very similar to Tiefling. Mechanically, I can see this being a very good race for interrogations, subterfuge, and reconnaissance. However, most if not all of the features in this race can be obtained as a warlock. The race kind of feels like a warlock; however, the ability scores wouldn't be good for a warlock. It also feels like a mystic, with the telepathic and telekinetic abilities.

There's no real unbalance to this race. However, I can't really figure out what this would be good for. I feel like it would be improved by adjusting the ability score bonuses (maybe retaining the bonuses of the creature of the creature's original race, and giving a penalty to wisdom to simulate insanity).

This is a very good start. It just needs some tweaking to improve the overall feel of the race.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Grabbing a class feature like that (GOO Warlock) strikes me as the one piece of this that isn't balanced. That said, this was nice and thorough, and a logical breakdown of your analysis. +1 \$\endgroup\$ Commented Sep 2, 2019 at 2:36
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    \$\begingroup\$ @KorvinStarmast: It's worth noting that the Ghostwise halfling from SCAG also gets one-way short-range telepathy. \$\endgroup\$
    – V2Blast
    Commented Sep 2, 2019 at 5:12
  • \$\begingroup\$ "what this would be good for", why does a race need to be good for something specific, other than filling a gap in lore, as long as it is balanced? Maybe I misunderstand what you meant here, but creating this concept by just re-skinning something seems difficult, so there's the justification to have it. \$\endgroup\$ Commented Jan 29, 2020 at 10:53
  • \$\begingroup\$ @WakiNadiVellir Something being capable is just as important as not being overpowered. I don't mean that it has to be good at a specific thing. \$\endgroup\$
    – NeutralTax
    Commented Jan 29, 2020 at 17:12
  • \$\begingroup\$ @NeutralTax So do you mean you do think this race is underpowered, after all? \$\endgroup\$ Commented Jan 29, 2020 at 19:11
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It is underpowered

The Ability Score Increase is unusually weak, and the rest does not add enough to compensate.

Ability Score Increase

Rather weak: Not all ability bonus combinations have the same value. Wisdom and Intelligence (any mental abilities actually) do not go well together.
No viable build needs Intelligence and Wisdom, so this is only marginally better in practice than ( +1 to Con and +1 Wis or Int ).

Age, Alignment

Neutral: These do not matter much to balance.

Size, Speed

Neutral: These mostly matter to weapon users, but the abilitiy score increases only favor casters.

Darkvision

Slight boost: As mentioned here, it does not add much to power.

Armor of Madness

Slight boost: Resistances are nice, but psychic damage is quite rare, and the rest is too situational to matter.

Grasping Mind

Slight boost: Rarely useful. Is it two-way?

Magic of Madness/Voidtouched Psionics

Slight boost: Mage Hand is nice, but very far from powerful.
Neutral: Chaos Bolt is mediocre at low levels, and ridiculously weak later. Damaging spells do not scale well, compare to Faerie Fire (Drows get it), which retains its usefulness throughout the game.

How to fix

Increase Con to +2.
Still, I would pick Hill Dwarf for a Cleric and Hobgoblin or Fire Genasi for a Wizard over a Voidtouched. (just to mention Con +2 races)

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  • \$\begingroup\$ FWIW, the Triton in Volos' guide does the old +1 to three stats thing. \$\endgroup\$ Commented Sep 2, 2019 at 2:37
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    \$\begingroup\$ @KorvinStarmast a Triton's ASI is great for a Paladin. This is less than mediocre for a Cleric, Druid or Wizard, and even worse for anything else. \$\endgroup\$
    – András
    Commented Sep 2, 2019 at 4:59
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Hmm... race looks okay to me. I will evaluate using detect balance.

ABSI. Con, Int, Wis all +1. (12) Triton's get 3 seprete plus 1's.

Age, Alignment, Size, and Speed. (0) age and alignment don't matter. Size is medium, which is the standard, and speed 30ft, which is also standard.

Darkvision. 120ft is a 4, drow get this and they live in the underdark.

Armor of Maddness. Psychic Damage is rare (2 points) and immunity to modify memory is a pure ribbon (1 point)

Grasping Mind. Telepathy 30ft (6)

Magic of Madness/Voidtouched Psionics. Standard Delayed Magic (6) mage hand is invisible. (1)

Languages. 0

Total. 26, races should be from 25-27 points, this falls in between.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ i did link it, try the link thats in th answer. \$\endgroup\$ Commented Jan 30, 2020 at 1:23
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    \$\begingroup\$ Can you explain how the point system works inside the answer? A paragraph explaining the point system would be appreciated. \$\endgroup\$
    – NeutralTax
    Commented Jan 30, 2020 at 1:29

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