Wacky Races

[AndreiChekov]

And if you have a Were rat? What about a small nasaly voiced little person, that isn't very strong, and still isn't very strong when they are in ratform?

[Chamomile]

Centaurs are my favourite race. I honestly don't think that being large is an advantage for centaurs, because they don't get any of the benefits of it. (bigger weapons).

They don't? I double-checked and there's nothing in the 3.5 MM that says as much. A centaur's torso is the same size as a human's, but they're still way taller and stronger, which makes it possible to wield significantly larger weapons.

[AndreiChekov]

By tome rules, yes. By 3.5 rules, they have a medium torso, damning them to medium weapons.

[codeGlaze]

And if you have a Were rat? What about a small nasaly voiced little person, that isn't very strong, and still isn't very strong when they are in ratform?

Unfortunately I think there are enough people out there that would think of something like this

or this


...before they, necessarily, think of master splinter or a normal skaven.

Simply because it has "were-" attached to it.

[Chamomile]

I have double-checked the centaur's entry in the 3.5 MM as well as both references for "size" in the 3.5 PHB index, the one reference for size in the DMG, and the size entry in the MM glossary. If that rule exists, it's either not core or very well hidden.

[AndreiChekov]

@codeglaze: Those rats still look pretty small to me. Stronger than a kobold maybe, but not as strong as a half-orc. I agree that giving them a penalty to strength would be off, but I wouldn't give a bonus to strength as automatic. The only automatic thing I would give is Scent and +2 spot and listen.

@chamomile: I looked through my stuff, and I can't find it either.

[Orca]

On the lycanthropes issue, is the Shifter in Eberron an option? It looks a lot like it was created to give people their were-creature fix without having to write ten different were-races and to avoid the 3.5 lycanthropy rules.

[OgreBattle]

Centaurs can fall into two kinds

The medium sized human-scale kind you could make your girlfriend:


And then the ;large sized horse-scale 'ogres' you go kill for gold:

[TiaC]

Shifters are horribly weak as written. PF does it a bit better with the Skinwalker.

[radthemad4]

I found a few minotaurs a while back though they're for or converted to Pathfinder.

In the Company of Minotaurs, a third party Pathfinder product, copied from a review of it:

We get two racial trait-sets for the minotaurs:
Pure Taurians get +2 to Str, Con and Wis and -2 Dex and Cha, Darkvision 60 ft., always know where North is, +2 to perception and intimidate, immunity to magical confusions, a gnatural 1d4 gore attack and familiarity with Taurian weapons.
Mereitaurs (the impure ones) get +2 Con and Wis and -2 Cha, Darkvision 60 ft., always know where North is, +2 to Craft and Profession checks as well as any research-based Knowledge-checks, are immune to magical confusion effects, familiar with Taurian weapons and finally can choose two of these three: To gain +5 ft. movement, the 1d4-gore attack or +2 to pereption.

The Taurians get 7 alternate racial traits:
-At home in the Wild: +2 to Survival in exchange for the +2 to Perception
-Bestial: Additional +2 to Str for another -2 to Int, this is supposed to bridge the gap towards bestiary minotaurs and not necessarily available for players
-Divine Life: Exchange immunities against confusion effects for a +2 to saves against necromantic effects
-Dwarven Heritage: Proficient in Dwarven weapons instead of Taurian ones.
-Orcish Heritage: Proficient in Orcish weapons instead of Taurian ones.
-Quickfooted (only Mereitaurs): Base speed 40 ft. and +4 to acrobatics when jumping/leaping. Replaces Taurian Heritage.
-Surefooted (only Taurians): +2 to CMD against trip and bull rush, but base speed becomes 25 ft.

An Eberron conversion for Pathfinder

Monstrous Humanoid Type
Large Size (-1 to AC & Attack, +1 CMB & CMD)
Base Speed: 30'
Attribute Modifications: +4 to Strength and Constitution, -2 to Dexterity and Charisma
Natural Armor: +1 natural armor bonus to AC
Natural Attack: Gore (1d6, primary)
Reach: Minotaurs have +5' reach.
Automatic Languages: Giant. Bonus Languages: Common, Goblin, Orc, Undercommon
Favored Class Options:
Barbarian: Add +1 to the barbarian's total number of rage rounds per day.
Fighter: Add +2 to the fighter's Constitution score the purpose of determining when he dies from negative hit points.
Ranger: Add +1/4 to a single existing favored enemy bonus (maximum bonus +1 per favored enemy).
Witch: Add one spell from the witch spell list to the witch's familiar. This spell must be at least one level below the highest spell level he can cast. If the witch ever replaces her familiar, the new familiar knows these bonus spells.

A Dragonlance conversion for Pathfinder

Minotaur Racial Traits

+2 Strength, +2 Constitution, -2 Charisma: Minotaurs are strong and powerful, but their arrogance and brutish appearance can be offencive to other races.

Medium: Minotaurs are Medium creatures and have no bonuses or penalties due to their size.

Normal Speed: Minotaurs have a base speed of 30 feet.

Thick Hide: Minotaurs gain a +2 natural armour bonus.

Gore: A minotaur may use his horns as natural weapons to make a gore attack, dealing 1d6 points of damage plus the minotaur’s Strength modifier. A minotaur can attack with a weapon at his normal attack bonus and make a gore attack as a secondary attack (-5 penalty on the attack roll and half Strength bonus on the damage roll).

Born to the Sea: Minotaurs receive a +2 racial bonus on Intimidate, Profession (sailor), and Swim skill checks. Minotaurs are familiar with the sea and are fearsome.

Heightened Senses: A minotaur can select the scent special quality (see the Pathfinder RPG Bestiary) as a feat.

Weapon Familiarity: Minotaurs treat any weapon with the word “minotaur” in its name as a martial weapon.

Languages: Minotaurs begin play speaking Common and Kothian. Minotaurs with high Intelligence scores can choose from the following: Kalinese, Nordmaarian, Ogre, Saifhum.

[Red_Rob]

If you are doing races by trading item slots for powers you need to be wary of the scaling problem. Item slots are effectively a scaling bonus, as at low levels you don't actually have any magic items, so the slot gives you nothing, whereas at high levels they are all filled with Greater magic items and give you rad abilities like At Will Teleportation or Vorpal attacks.

This means that at level 1 trading an item slot you weren't using anyway for a bonus to STR and some extra claw damage is all gravy, whereas at level 17 it bones you big time. This suggests that either monster powers should scale with your level, or that the slots should free up at certain levels as the powers they provide become less something you would want to spend character resources on.

[Chamomile]

That is particularly something I'm wrestling with for large size. It's a fairly hefty advantage at first level, but it becomes less and less so as time goes on. Wielding a large-size greatsword instead of a medium means that as a Barbarian you are always dealing 3.5 extra damage at first level, compared to a +1 greatsword which gives you +1 damage but also +1 to-hit (instead of -1 to-hit). However, by level 4 the shiny new +2 greatsword is giving you +2 damage and +2 to-hit, whereas your large size is still stuck granting +3.5 damage and -1 to-hit, and the magic weapon probably has a cool rider effect like being made of fire or something. By level 7, the magic weapon is at +3 and clearly superior, plus it will have an even cooler rider effect. And by level 10 not only is the problem even worse, but HP damage is going obsolete anyway, and the dude with large size is stuck with it while the dude with a magic greatsword can swap it out for something that boosts saves. Now, my preferred solution to this specific problem is just to make HP damage relevant at higher levels again, but it's still true that magic items are flexible in a way that inherent bonuses are not.

I like the solution of having certain inherent benefits stop taking up a slot after a certain level. It's easy to fluff as your magic item nodes growing more powerful as you do, which is why they can get higher bonuses out of magic items as you grow in level, and for the same reason bonuses that consumed one of those nodes at 1st level stop mattering at 4th or 7th or 16th or whenever it is that a particular ability ceases to be relevant.

[codeGlaze]

[...]or that the slots should free up at certain levels as the powers they provide become less something you would want to spend character resources on.

Yea, I was going to suggest that the slots start to consolidate downward as you run out of ideas to keep the scaling relevant, too.

Sounds pretty logical to me.

[Red_Rob]

In our group we talked about Large races missing their level 1 Feat - Large size giving benefits pretty similar to a Feat anyhow. We reckoned these races should get the feat back around level 10, as with Enlarge shenanigans it was pretty easy for most characters to be walking around Large at that point if they wanted to.

[AndreiChekov]

You could also have leveled slots. Like, your magic item slot available at low levels can only ever be a low level magic item.
Then the ones you get at higher levels are high level magic items.
So, your low level magic item slot becomes flavour, or +2 to will saves or some other piece of shit, and your higher level slots say you win or have the ability to wield 300 swords without touching them.

[Chamomile]

I was going to wait to necro this thread until I had finished all the LA 0 races, but while writing up the aquatics I noticed something odd. The underwater world is three times as large as the surface world, and yet there are only four aquatic races compared to over two dozen surface races (and I haven't even added the ones with level requirements yet). Obviously this is because you don't create three times as much content for a setting that is fictionally three times larger but will actually see maybe 10-20% as much use (and most of that from incidental visits to the submarine world by surface dwellers), but it still kind of bugs me. There should be a dizzying array of different creatures and civilizations down there. I doubt Wet Outside would make me feel any better about it, since Hot Outside, Cold Outside and Crowded Outside are all things that will expand the surface content by similar amounts.

Anyways, new content incoming. Get your cock barrels ready.

[RadiantPhoenix]

It's Wet Outside adds an 'amphibious' template, so you can "easily" convert all of your various and sundry surface creatures to sea creatures... who can still invade the land.

[OgreBattle]

The ocean is mostly desert though, only a few parts are regularly inhabited so think of it more like Australia than South America.

Aquatic races though, I like crab people because they have a carapace, and those are cool
Saltwater naga would also be neat
Octopus witches are popular for both magical hags and sexy temptresses
Shark people can be your beastial race
And at least one city on the back of a gigantic sea turtle

Sea Serpents and Kraken would be the big monster/warbeasts of their realm. Maybe a giant clam that shoots magic.

Then you have an underdark that's frigid cold with horrific blind glowing monsters. Maybe have deep trenches here and there in the center of the desert areas. Geothermal vents are like the equivalent of an oasis in an otherwise barren world.

Whalefalls are also cool, a leviathanfall could sustain a whole civilization if its big enough.

[darkmaster]

Every time I see this I think this.

[Prak]

This post turned out to be way huge, so tl;dr I am houseruling in lots of odd races, and if you want to help but not badly enough to read the whole thing, just read the first two paragraphs and then skim the rest for a specific race or two you'd like to comment on. It's not like you need to read my musings on playable Driders to give helpful advice on making playable Trolls.

@Tarkis: Sounds good to me. No one's brought anything up, so I'll assume there's no particular reason to believe short-lived races can't build empires with the best of them.

The average Roman life expectancy, once they reached age 10, was age 45 or so. They didn't seem to have much trouble building an empire. Goblins and other short-lived races are often at a larger disadvantage from resources and the force they can exert compared to other, longer lived races, than they are due to their life expectencies.

Now on to questions concerning what level it would be appropriate to play certain bizarre creatures. Using Frank's one post on monster races as a guide, I'm experimenting with trading magic item slots for powers. Since this list is extremely long, feel free to cherry pick just one or two of the races and respond specifically to them. Also maybe this should be a new thread?

In general, these look like good places for paragon classes, like Frank and K did with vampires and ghouls and sword wraiths. Sahuagin are a good example of a good place to use a paragon class. For the extra arms, you could probably use a "Initially cosmetic and only useful for holding stuff, more usable as you level up" type mechanic.

-Centaur. Is there any reason these guys can't just be a regular playable race? Sure, they have natural armor and +8 Strength for no damn reason at all, but if we tuned their stat bonuses down to +2 Strength, +2 Wisdom, -2 Intelligence and ripped out the natural armor and also tossed the racial hit dice/skills/feats, their only real trick of note becomes a 50 ft. movement rate and large size, and probably we should add in something about how climbing is no. Those tricks are neat, but are they significantly more neat than Gnome illusions, Halfling stealth, or the Orc's +4 to Strength? Also, concerning that statline: Which sounds more centaurian, +2 Strength or +2 Constitution?

@Centaurs: If the party ever has to leave behind their horses, they probably also have to leave behind the centaur PC. With that limitation in mind, it's not hard to make a level 1 appropriate centaur. They are defined by being fast and being buff.

As others have pointed out, there's no real reason you couldn't have the basic Centaur be something more like this:

More agile, not a different size category. It can follow the party into dungeons. Write up DCs for them navigating stairs by jumping rather than climbing each step. Or just say "Stairs are difficult for mammalian quadrupeds, centuars move at one quarter speed as they have to put both hooves of a pair on each step before moving up to the next. Climbing trees/cliff walls/etc is straight out."
For people who want to play this:
http://fc04.deviantart.net/fs28/f/2008/ ... wSkadi.jpg
Write up a short paragon class or a couple feats that let them be more buff, let them take Large size (just retag it "Monstrous") and honestly you're good. If people want to play a Buff-taur, they probably want to play a martial character, so a three level dip, or a feat or two, probably won't off track them too much, since the class can just have good fort, full bab, Inherent Enhancement strength, and Bow proficiency.

-Driders. If we assume their Sorcerer spellcasting is due to actual levels in Sorcerer, these guys have a climb speed (not quite trash, but close), spell resistance that player versions don't need to have, some poison that is in my rough estimation about a level 3 effect, and some spell-like abilities, most of which are trash, but levitate, dispel magic, and suggestion definitely aren't. Would a Drider feel like less of a Drider if these more powerful spell-likes were dropped? A Drider could probably be given Drow ability adjustments and offered at level 1 if the poison were adjusted to scale with level. With the spell-likes and the poison, I'd place it somewhere around level 4, maybe 5, but I'm not really certain about that.

@Driders: People who say they want to play a drider are probably telling you they want the spider parts, not the drow parts. Make sure you get them a climb speed and a poisonous bite, and drop all the "drow are magical" bullshit in order to make it a level 1 race.

The short list for "Being a spider person" traits is "Climb, Poison, Webs, have eight legs, scare the shit out of people." So long as that stuff is included, anything else is just extra. Again, good for a paragon class, something like the Vampire Paragon that gives sorcerer casting or +1 existing casting.

-Genies. Is there any way to make these guys playable without necessarily handing out free wishes to the entire party? A level ~6 genie buddy seems like a perfectly reasonable mid-level character for a planar adventure except for the fact that he is 100% guaranteed to immediately catapult the party into the wish economy.

@Genies: Someone made a Genie class. It gets the "grant 3 wishes a day" thing at level 11. It is kind of underwhelming - it doesn't get a lot of abilities, a lot of them are less about OOMPH and more about flavor, and it gets them fairly slowly to boot. I think someone made some level 1 genasi-ish races which were meant to serve as launchpads into it, but I would give class an overall polishing if you wanted PC's to pick them and not feel bad about it.

Look over the elemental stuff written for Tome on one of the wikis. It's not terrible, but it tends to be roughly on par with the fiends of ToF.

-Minotaurs. These guys are basically just "bigger Orcs," so I think the only thing they need to have slapped onto them is a level minimum that guarantees a certain amount of HP (minimum level 3 should be enough, maybe even level 2) and an inherent +1/3 level STR effect like you get from a Tome item, and then also copy the Orc's +4 to Strength on top of that. They also get to be large. But I can't escape the feeling that I'm missing something.

-With Ogres I have basically the same question as with Minotaurs. But Minotaurs are first alphabetically and I'm constructing this list by going through the Monster Manual's contents and looking for things players might reasonably want to play as. If Ogres are meaningfully different from Minotaurs (or, for that matter, from any variety of Giant) please let me know.

@Minotaurs: Slap a minimum level on them, give them an orc-like base, then fill in an item slot or two with minotaur-important things, like STR buffs, large size, and goring people to death.

@Ogres: This is pretty much the same problem as the minotaur.

Ogres are strong, Minotaurs are bestial and run mazes. The discrepancy isn't huge, but Ogres do have 2 strength over minotaurs at base. You could just make a "Big Guy" race, and then let it take a couple levels to have horns and scent, or be generally stronger. Or just make ogres be the Big Guy, and then minotaurs Big Guys who took a level or two to become Bull Guy.

-Satyrs. Getting towards the end of the alphabet here. Without pipes, a Satyr has DR, +10 ft. move speed, and low-light vision and that's it. If we tie DR to 1/3 level rather than giving a flat +5, this is a level 1 character, albeit one who is allowed one less magic item than his buddies. Ability adjustments are kinda crazy, though: +2 to everything but Strength. That's not really unbalanced because either you're MAD and need all the help you can get or you're SAD and don't care about anything but one your one stat, but it does make Satyr the do-anything race. It's not a huge deal, but I don't think Satyrs would be ruined by being reduced to a +2 DEX +2 CHA race. Of course, this is all without pipes, and pipes are a big part of being a Satyr, but I think that's something best covered by a Bard substitution level rather than being built directly into the race.

@Satyrs: I don't think people who want to play a satyr really care about the DR or whether or not the stat bonuses are big enough. They want to play a woodsy and musical goatdude. I would look at the Tome Feytouched, because they already make a really damn good satyr. Make the magic pipes a feat (see Tome persuasive for some inspiration) or a racial paragon class or whatever.

Yeah, pretty much, though you could also just make the pipes an item and say "Satyrs who do a great service (level 4 adventure) for their troop/god/a nymph/whatever are gifted a set of magical pipes" and then the DM just writes a fourth level adventure where the party does something for a nymph and the satyr's share of treasure is pipes if the game started below level 4, or the player writes a paragraph in his backstory about how he got his pipes if the game starts above level 4.

-How big a deal is the Troglodyte stench ability? Is this something that's worth losing a magic item slot for? Or is it something that can be handed out for free? I don't think Troglodytes need a level minimum if we scale their natural armor back a bit, and maybe drop the CON bonus to +2. I don't think CON is so useful that having a +4 bonus to it is immediately broken, but the average gamer might not think so.

@Troglodyte: It happens every fight, but it hits friends and foes and is a relatively mild debuff. It's hard to get worked up about. As for the +4 con bonus, I just want to make an aside: don't approach this as turning monster entries into playable races. Approach this as creating playable races which are thematically the same as what's inside those monster entries. Thinking about whether or not you should keep the +4 con bonus from the troglodyte entry is a bad approach. You should instead be thinking about what things in the troglodyte entry are thematically troglodyte, and then figuring out how to turn this into the lowest level race you can. This isn't to say +4 con is out of line, I'm just concerned that you're asking that question because the troglodyte in the SRD has +4 con. Who cares? I couldn't have even told you troglodytes had a racial bonus to con, because all I remember about them is that they're stinky and stealthy.

In D&D's Big Book Of Guys What Have Scales On, Trogs occupy a slot somewhere between Kobold and Lizardfolk. They're more physically capable than a kobold, but few people want to play a characters whose primary distinguishing characteristic is "People have plunged their heads into chamber pots rather than smell me." Make them scrawny lizard guys the size of elves who are hardy, and then either make the stench thing a feature of a paragon class, or give them a sort of directional stench spray that they can squirt at people to make them smell, and have their eyes water, rather than always smelling of it themselves. Or make the debuffing stench spray a feature of a paragon class.

-3.X Trolls don't have any kind of fast healing. This always struck me as odd. In any case, regeneration is not an amazingly large boost, so the only question here is 1) should Trolls have some kind of fast healing? And 2) How low a level can a Troll be while still having enough hit dice to reasonably be a Troll? Also: The Troll needs a STR and CON bonus significantly higher than recommended Tome items can actually grant. A Book of Gears ability bonus will be granting +2 even at level 4-6, but a Troll needs pretty significant bonuses on top of that. At the same time, STR and CON are not nearly as big of a deal for a creature with a level minimum of 4 as for one you can play at level 1. Would it be a big deal if playable Trolls just got to have like a +6 to STR and CON?

It kind of feels like Trolls are another monster who got written poorly. I've been thinking about it, and Regeneration is what werewolves and vampires should have (mundane wounds are superficial, and heal rapidly, but special materials can stop that healing), and while DR can be described that way, just give vamps and weres the ability they should have. I never got why trolls heal fast in D&D. That's not part of the troll "thing" anywhere by D&D. If we want to just say they heal fast, then give them the "shitty" version of regeneration that a number of player races have gotten instead of the awesome one where basically they regain hp as if they'd been resting every hour "and oh yeah, can regrow lost body parts, not that it happens a lot." Other than that, just make them generally big and tough, give them a propensity for living under bridges, and maybe a natural Bridgesong that allows them to create normal stone bridges with a concentration duration by singing.

[Josh_Kablack]

I never got why trolls heal fast in D&D. That's not part of the troll "thing" anywhere by D&D.

It's because Gygax lifted D&D trolls directly from Poul Anderson's Three Hearts and Three Lions and it was the most memorable tactical puzzle challenge for Trolls in early editions of D&D. Thus over 40 years and ~7 major editions it has remained, despite the other folklore and fiction trends for trolls to guard bridges, turn to stone in sunlight, be able to smell Christianity, or dance to Greig's music.

[RadiantPhoenix]

Satyr music could fit in a Tome scaling feat and still wind up weak, because all of the abilities are 1st level spells. So, you could probably just have the musical abilities come in over a few levels and say that's equivalent to a Human's bonus feat.

Like, say:

• L1: Cause Fear at will
• L3: Sleep 3/day
• L5: Charm Person 3/day

[Chamomile]

Yeah, I think I'm just going to add that on my to-do list for feats and make Satyrs pretty much just a regular race.

[Chamomile]

And here we go with the first batch of wacky races. Please tell me if the following are more or less balanced with Core options and/or the unusual races from Races of War:

Centaur
+2 Strength, +2 Wisdom, -2 Intelligence
-Monstrous Humanoid type
-Large Size
-50 ft. move speed
-Darkvision 60 ft.
-Strained node. The centaur’s large size strains his first node to its limit. Until level 10, the first node cannot be tapped. Once at level 10, the centaur’s inner power has grown to support his massive size without any trouble, and his first node can be tapped as normal.

Note: A "node" is a magic item slot. I am not sure if level 10 is too long for this. As was pointed out, level 10 is around when large size is freely available, but on the other hand an attack-based magic item surpasses large size several levels before then. But that doesn't make it balanced to let Centaurs be large and have all magic items. Honestly, though, large size is a small enough deal at level 7 that I'm not super worried about it.

Drider
+2 Dexterity, -2 Constitution
-Aberration
-Medium size
-30 ft. move speed
-15 ft. climb speed
-Darkvision 120’
-Light sensitivity: Driders are dazzled in bright sunlight or within the radius of the daylight spell.
-Driders with a Charisma of at least 10 may cast deeper darkness and fairie fire once per nexus as a spell-like ability with caster level equal to their character level.
-Poison: A Drider’s bite is poisonous. Driders gain a bite as a natural weapon dealing 1d3 damage, and which also deals 1d4 Dexterity damage as initial and secondary damage, which is negated with a successful Fortitude save by the target of DC equal to 10 plus half the Drider’s character level plus her CON modifier. At fifth level and every five levels thereafter, add 1d3 to the Drider’s primary and secondary damage. This ability strains the Drider’s 1st level node to its limit, so that it cannot be used to power magic items.
-Webbing: A Drider can produce webbing. This can be used to form ropes of up to 150 feet in length or cover up to 3 5x5 foot squares in webbing as though it were affected by the Web spell, including anyone who remains within that square while it is webbed. The webbing is produced at a rate of about one foot per second, or 8 rounds to web up one 5x5 square, which consumes 50 feet of the webbing. After all 150 feet of web has been expended, the Drider becomes fatigued and cannot produce anymore webbing until she rests. If the Drider uses up some, but not all, of her webbing, this is also restored after an eight hour rest, although the Drider is not fatigued.

I'm really not sure how to balance the poison on this one. Advice would be appreciated.

Deep Gnome
+2 Dexterity, +2 Wisdom, -2 Strength, -2 Charisma
-Small size
-Humanoid (Gnome)
-20 ft. move speed
-Low-Light Vision: A Gnome can see twice as far as a Human in starlight, torchlight, or other conditions of poor illumination.
-Weapon familiarity: All Gnomes treat the gnome hook hammer as a martial weapon instead of an exotic weapon.
-+2 racial bonus to saves against illusions
-+1 DC to all illusions cast by the Gnome
-+1 racial bonus to all attacks against Kobolds and goblinoids
-+4 dodge bonus to AC against all attacks made by giants
-+2 racial bonus to Perception, and to any Commerce check to do with alchemy
-Stonecutting: Deep Gnomes gain a +2 racial bonus to Investigation checks to notice unusual stonework, like secret doors, stonework traps, or unstable tunnels. This includes things disguised as stonework which aren’t. Whenever a Deep Gnome comes within 10 feet of unusual stonework, they automatically make an Investigation check to notice it.
-Darkvision 120’
-+4 racial bonus to Stealth when underground.
-Spell-like abilities: A Deep Gnome with a Charisma of at least 11 can cast disguise self once per nexus. With a Charisma of at least 12, he can cast blur once per nexus. Both spells are cast at caster level equal to the Deep Gnome’s character level.

Note: "Once per nexus" is essentially the same as "once per day" for balance purposes. The whole nexus thing is a tweak to make the system more about the run and less about the single encounter, and is not really the point of this thread, so assume it is basically the same as once per day.

Also, concerning Gnomes in general. Is it a big deal if their speak with animals thing becomes at-will rather than 1/day?

Are there any Half-Elves that don't suck? If not, advice for making one?

Satyrs
+2 Dexterity, +2 Charisma
-Medium size
-30 ft. move speed
-Fey
-Low-light vision: A Satyr can see twice as far as a Human in starlight, torchlight, or other conditions of poor illumination.

And the aquatics:

Tritons
-Medium size
-5 ft. move speed
-40 ft. swim speed
-Outsider (Native, Water)
-Darkvision 60’
-Freshwater Sensitivity: A Triton immersed in fresh water must succeed on a DC 15 Fortitude save or become fatigued. Even on a success, he must repeat the save every 10 minutes.
-Daylight Sensitivity: While in sunlight or the effects of a daylight spell, Tritons are dazzled.
-Water Dependent: Tritons can only survive out of water for 30 minutes per point of Constitution. After that they begin to suffocate.
-Bonus feat at 1st level
-Bonus skill at 1st level

Sahuagin
+2 Strength, +2 Intelligence, -2 Wisdom
-Medium Size
-30 ft. move speed
-40 ft. swim speed
-Monstrous Humanoid (Aquatic)
-Darkvision 60’
-Freshwater Sensitivity: A Sahuagin immersed in fresh water must succeed on a DC 15 Fortitude save or become fatigued. Even on a success, he must repeat the save every 10 minutes.
-Daylight Sensitivity: While in sunlight or the effects of a daylight spell, Sahuagin are dazzled.
-Speak With Sharks: A Sahuagin can communicate telepathically with any sharks within a 150-foot radius, though only basic concepts such as “food,” “danger,” and “enemy.”
-Water Dependent: Sahuagin can only survive out of water for 30 minutes per point of Constitution. After that they begin to suffocate.

Merfolk
+2 Charisma
-Medium Size
-5 ft. movement rate, 40 ft. swim speed
-Low-light vision: A Merfolk can see twice as far as a Human in starlight, torchlight, or other conditions of poor illumination.

And Aquatic Elves are already a thing.

[RadiantPhoenix]

Are there any Half-Elves that don't suck? If not, advice for making one?

Trade out the Human's bonus skill points for some other piddly bonuses, e.g.:

Half-Elf:

• +0 to all attributes (or whatever you decide Humans get)
• Medium size
• 30ft move speed
• Humanoid (Human, Elf)
• Bonus feat as per Human
• Low-light vision as per Elf
• +2 Listen, Search, Spot as per Elf