Playable races?

[DragynDance]

Looking at the title picture, that minataur and lizardfolk, are they playable races too?

[DavidBVal]

Besides humans, there are 4 nohuman playable races already implemented (Minotaur, Batrax, Goblin and Varannari), and 2 more planned (Rexadon, Quartzan). There's other intelligent races in Archaelund that might temporarily be found in your party as circumstantial companions.

[DragynDance]

Do any of those look like the lizards from the title screen?

[i_nive]

https://www.exiledkingdoms.com/wiki/index.php?title=Rexadon
https://www.exiledkingdoms.com/wiki/index.php?title=Batraxs

[AVNlover67]

What's a Batrax, Rexadon and a Quartzan?

[DavidBVal]

Originally posted by AVNlover67:

What's a Batrax, Rexadon and a Quartzan?

In the next days I'll try to make a post with information about the playable races, maybe also about careers and magic if time allows. The release version is ready and I am only polishing a few details, so finally I'll have a little time for sharing interesting details.

[DragynDance]

Still looking forward to this, even a year later! Pretty hyped, it looks neat, even showed my BF and he's interested.

[DavidBVal]

Here is the promised post:

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1082970/view/3907500209562252391

[DragynDance]

Hello! Minor request, certainly not anything in the realm of a dealbreaker for me--but I like to make characters of certain races just for roleplaying purposes, and this often means they are a race that is "bad" for their class. Barony had a toggle where you could make a race choice "cosmetic" and they counted as human, but just looked like the race you chose. Is there a possibility you could add something this? I don't mind handicapping myself, my playthrough of wizardry 6-8 was with an all lizardman party and that still worked even with the spellcasters suffering. Low magic age I play with an all kobold party even though the melee fighters suffered. But it would be a nice addition, if possible!

[dq_177]

Minotaurs seem like they have way too many downsides, they don't even have +4 total to stats but have -4 before all the other negative extras on top of that?

The greens have stats that make them good warriors THEN bonus skills on top of them, seems like a pretty ridiculous difference for 1 strength.

[DragynDance]

Yes, this is something I noticed too. Humans and greens just have vastly superior stats and traits that completely blow everything else out of the water entirely.

[DavidBVal]

Originally posted by DragynDance:

Yes, this is something I noticed too. Humans and greens just have vastly superior stats and traits that completely blow everything else out of the water entirely.

Sharing some playtesting observations here: specialized characters can do very good in their roles.

A Batrax is a potent spellcaster with better INT and PER, and if she never gets hurt because you keep her out of trouble, she doesn't suffer too badly from a -2 END, nor cares about a -1 STR. Similar argument for a mino that will go two-handed and will never be able to hit multiple times per round, so Action Points are not an issue and the huge STR bonus makes it devastating in battle. It's something you need to consider beyond pure trait point arithmetics.

Having said this, everything is open to be revised and rebalanced. That's why I am making an Early Access first and foremost.

[DragynDance]

Originally posted by DavidBVal:

Originally posted by DragynDance:

Yes, this is something I noticed too. Humans and greens just have vastly superior stats and traits that completely blow everything else out of the water entirely.

Sharing some playtesting observations here: specialized characters can do very good in their roles.

A Batrax is a potent spellcaster with better INT and PER, and if she never gets hurt because you keep her out of trouble, she doesn't suffer too badly from a -2 END, nor cares about a -1 STR. Similar argument for a mino that will go two-handed and will never be able to hit multiple times per round, so Action Points are not an issue and the huge STR bonus makes it devastating in battle. It's something you need to consider beyond pure trait point arithmetics.

Having said this, everything is open to be revised and rebalanced. That's why I am making an Early Access first and foremost.

But it seems like you added way too many penalties for these bonuses. In addition to adding stats to a race, you ahve to consider their baseline, human, so everyone who is not a human loses not having negatives and not having the exp bonus. And not having a boot slot is a fun RP gimmick, but if it's skewed too far towards min/max required territory, the RP gimmicks aren't as fun. Especially if you can get strength on boots. If I find a pair of boots with bonus strength on them, then I could of just played a human and had all the benefits of Minotaur with none of the downsides.

[DragynDance]

An afterthought, I think the main thing is just that the negatives are a bit too heavy handed. Especially considering it's mostly just stat bonuses that are the trade offs. A great example of extremely well done racials is Legend of Grimrock 2, imo. Every race has some minor stat increases and decreases that mostly only affect the early game, but they all have a unique mechanical gimmick that can really define a character for better or worse. For example, mintotaurs have the headhunter racial, collecting skulls gives them a damage bonus in melee. This is an extremely strong thing when specialized, and already comes with it's inherent negative--you have to collect and waste precious inventory space on skulls. Lizardmen have scales that resist all elemental damage and a slower metabolism for food. Ratlings mutate wildly when they level up, getting random attribute points. Insectoids can regrow damaged/removed limbs. The negatives here are that when you choose a race, you're not gaining the benefits of being a human or that another race would bring. It's just a funner way to do it, imo. You can specialize, but you're not forced to, because it doesn't make sense that an entire race is only good at one thing--how would they function as a closed society before meeting other races? They can have potential for specialization that leans towards one thing, but it shouldn't come with massive downsides that makes them worthless at everything else. The downsides of choosing a race for a character are already inherent that you are giving up the racials of the races you didn't pick. Don't get me wrong, I don't think there should be NO negatives. But they shouldn't be so high that it's "this character can only go in one direction."

[AVNlover67]

Originally posted by DragynDance:

An afterthought, I think the main thing is just that the negatives are a bit too heavy handed. Especially considering it's mostly just stat bonuses that are the trade offs. A great example of extremely well done racials is Legend of Grimrock 2, imo. Every race has some minor stat increases and decreases that mostly only affect the early game, but they all have a unique mechanical gimmick that can really define a character for better or worse. For example, mintotaurs have the headhunter racial, collecting skulls gives them a damage bonus in melee. This is an extremely strong thing when specialized, and already comes with it's inherent negative--you have to collect and waste precious inventory space on skulls. Lizardmen have scales that resist all elemental damage and a slower metabolism for food. Ratlings mutate wildly when they level up, getting random attribute points. Insectoids can regrow damaged/removed limbs. The negatives here are that when you choose a race, you're not gaining the benefits of being a human or that another race would bring. It's just a funner way to do it, imo. You can specialize, but you're not forced to, because it doesn't make sense that an entire race is only good at one thing--how would they function as a closed society before meeting other races? They can have potential for specialization that leans towards one thing, but it shouldn't come with massive downsides that makes them worthless at everything else. The downsides of choosing a race for a character are already inherent that you are giving up the racials of the races you didn't pick. Don't get me wrong, I don't think there should be NO negatives. But they shouldn't be so high that it's "this character can only go in one direction."

It does seem like the races are only good for one thing. Like the Batrax are only good for magic and minotaurs are only good for melee.

[dq_177]

Minotaurs don't even seem the best for close combat since due to their racial handicaps they are going to be under-equipped compared to other choices.