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kuhl
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How unbalanced is this 3 Kobold's in a Trenchcoat Player Race

A player wants to try to play the 3 Kobolds in a Trenchcoat meme. I'm inclined to allow it to add some lighthearted content to our next campaign (Curse of Strahd). I came up with this, based largely on a 3 Halflings in a Trenchcoat player sheet that someone else had created. I suspect this is unbalanced, but I'm not sure by how much. I tried to score it in the Detect Balance spreadsheet, but I wasn't sure what score to give to features such as the Power of Six Arms and Multi-Form Technique.

Base Kobold features

  • Ability Score Increase Your Dexterity score increases by 2, and your Strength score decreases by 2.
  • Age Kobolds reach adulthood at age 6 and can live up to 120 years but rarely do so.
  • Size Small
  • Speed 25 feet base walking speed (Changed from base of 30 due to focus on keeping balance)
  • Darkvision You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can’t discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.
  • Grovel, Cower, and Beg As an action on your turn, you can cower pathetically to distract nearby foes. Until the end of your next turn, your allies gain advantage on attack rolls against enemies within 10 feet of you that can see you. Once you use this trait, you can’t use it again until you finish a short or long rest.
  • Pack Tactics You have advantage on an attack roll against a creature if at least one of your allies is within 5 feet of the creature and the ally isn’t incapacitated. The player does not get the Pack Tactics bonus from the three Kobolds alone when in the Single Form
  • Sunlight Sensitivity You have disadvantage on attack rolls and on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on sight when you, the target of your attack, or whatever you are trying to perceive is in direct sunlight.
  • Languages You can speak, read, and write Common and Draconic

3 Kobolds in a Trenchcoat Additions

  • The Price of Power Your Dexterity is focused on keeping balance. All dexterity checks or saves have a disadvantage. You cannot add a proficiency bonus to any dexterity skills. Finesse weapons cannot use dex properties. When knocked prone or grappled, you must succeed on a DC10 Acrobatics/Athletics check in order to keep your Single Form. Any attacks made with a two-handed weapon are made with disadvantage.

  • Power of Six Arms If within melee range, you can make three attacks each action. When you do so, you must make a slight of hand check to avoid other characters noticing. This must beat other characters' passive perception score or they will notice that you have more than the two hands of a normal human.

  • Multi-form Technique At 3rd level, you can use a free action to split into three kobolds and surround an attacker to make an attack. This feature can only be used twice per short rest, if there are no hostile witnesses beyond the enemy who is being attacked. While separated, you do not suffer the Price of Power, but each Kobold's HP is 1/3 of the total. If a Kobold dies while in Multi-form Technique, the Character's Max HP is permanently reduced by 1/3.

  • Incognito You have profiency in the Performance skill and with disguise kits. You have advantage on any check made to disguise yourself or convince someone that you are, in fact, just a tall person.

  • Quick Swipe As an object interaction on your turn, you can pull an item from your space into your coat and replace it with an item from your coat. The item must be small enough to fit in a 1-foot cube. It might look like you just grabbed it with an extra green arm, poking out of the jacket for only a second, but that's just a trick of the light.

  • Flavor The character speaks awkwardly, as if trying to emulate a human. Their name is most likely something that emphasizes the fact that they are in fact a human, such as: Tomas A. Hooman, Ima Wu-man, etc.

I'm most concerned with the combination of Pack Tactics with the Multi-Form Technique and also with the Power of Six Arms feature. The Power of Six Arms is slightly counteracted by the fact that all attacks are made with Strength and the Base Kobold has a Strength decrease of 2.

kuhl
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