Next we shall visit the epitome of the Western Nerd: Dungeons&Dragons. (If you don’t know what it is, go look it up. I’m not going to waste my time explaining it when there are already many better explanations available) As you might know, there are standard races which you can play (humans, elves, dwarves, halflings, etc) Each race has it’s own advantages and disadvantages. That’s great, but what if you want to be a not-listed race, like a goblin or an orc? That’s ok! There are ways to do this, and old man Gary Gygax (May he roll a better character in the next life) took the trouble of thinking of them for us. When you roll the dice to determine the stats of your character, it presumes that the character is human. If the character is not a human, it goes under modifications as seen here, here and here. The most important thing is not that the modifications not only work, or accurately capture the feeling of being that race, but that all the races are balanced. No race has any considerable advantage over another, at least one that is not balanced out by a defect. But how exactly does one balance a race such as, say, a giant? How can you ever balance out a race that stands around 10 feet tall, can easily haul a ton on its back, and wade through a mob of orcs no problem? Mind you, that’s only the hill giants. There’s also storm, stone, frost and fire giants to consider. It would have been easy to just not list those races. But that would not reflect the true nature of D&D. (trust me, you can pretty much do ANYTHING in D&D) So how did Gary balance it all out?
Every monster has a ‘CR’, or a challenge rating. The D&D wiki describes it as “the average level of a party of adventurers for which one creature would make an encounter of moderate difficulty” In other words, a creature with a CR of 5 such as a dire lion would be a challenge for 4 characters at level 5. This is important knowledge for the Dungeon Master (the one who decides what happens next in the game) because without it, he would often make the game too hard or too easy.
Powerful races that cannot be balanced with detriments receive a LA, or Level Adjustment. That simply means that their ‘effective level’ is higher. For example, a party consisting of my human barbarian, a Halfling rogue, a dwarf cleric, and a gnome bard will (if they are all Level 1) will consider each of the following a ‘challenging fight’: 4 Kobolds, 3 Goblins, 3 Human Warrior Skeletons, 2 Hobgoblins, a Hyena, a Wolf or a Large Monstrous Centipede. However, if my barbarian is in fact a Mountain Giant (a custom race I whipped up because I wanted to, don’t edit the article, it’s the sort of thing they encourage on that site) his effective level is going to be 6, because his LA is 5. That means his party’s effective level is 6+1+1+1/4=2.25. So, right off the bat, the party can now handle CR2 creatures such as hippogriffs, large monstrous spiders, boars, black bears and satyrs, provided its one at a time.
This is because being a mountain giant made my barbarian better at everything barbarians do in combat: take hits and deal massive melee damage. He’s also had his range doubled, his speed increased by 10 feet per round and is better at scaring the crap out of people. Because of his wisdom boost, he is better at healing (not magic, just the old fashioned way, with bandages and casts) sensing the motives of others, surviving in the wilderness, as well as seeing/hearing the enemy coming. The strength bonus, of course, provides huge benefits in jumping, grappling, swimming and climbing. However, there are some disadvantages. A size category of Large makes it very hard to hide. Also, I’m down 2 notches on intelligence, making searching, appraisal and crafting (the only intelligence skills I could’ve used with my class anyways) harder. Also, my charisma is way down, hurting my Bluff, Diplomacy, Disguise, Gather Information and Handle Animal skills, all of which I could use in my class.
Things like this change team dynamics and how the game is played. While the strategy in combat may not have changed much (although it has expanded to include ‘throw ally at enemy’), life in the wilderness just got a hell of a lot easier. I’m always going to be able to find food for myself and one other comrade with my survival skill, so we can save ourselves money by living off the land. Also, I’m far more likely to detect any enemies, so we’re all less likely to be surprised or flanked. I can handle any cliff that nature throws our way, and I can probably carry my pals across a swift river. In fact, I could probably carry them anywhere they needed to go. However, life for Ulf (that’s his name) gets hard in the city. Not only does his size become an incredible hindrance as he tries to enter a tavern, but his lack of social skills means that he can’t do well. He can’t lie (Bluff skill) negotiate (Diplomacy skill) or gather information (without raising suspicion). For those social skill checks, I can’t rely on the dwarf (they all have -2 Charisma as a race detriment) So I’m relying entirely on the bard and the rogue for these sort of things. As you can see, when you gain power in one area in turn for becoming weaker in another, you simultaneously rely more and less upon your allies.
Of course, I imagine there might be some differences that go beyond who does what skill checks. For example, since my character has double dimensions and my allies are a size smaller than humans, I could picture them all hiding behind me. And I don’t mean that just as using me as a meat shield: I mean genuinely HIDING from someone who looking for them. I also imagine, since a mountain giant is always over 10 feet tall, that I might need to take some strength checks to squeeze my way through the doors of the local tavern. The list goes on.
