The lack of a small evil race.

As we know FL has dedicated alignment races.

Faeries are good only.

Illithiad are evil only.

Gnomes are neutral only.

Werebeasts are neutral only.

Halflings cannot be Evil.

Ferals cannot be good.

But we are lacking balance or availability, on two subjects.

There is no neutral autosneak race. Something that I have no idea how to fix.

And we have no small or tinny race for evils.

In my view we should have an evil race which is smaller than humans and dedicated to magic/thievery.

I did some research of the D20 races, since it lists most of the fantasies races that would be prime candidate to such a thing.

http://www.d20srd.org/indexes/monsters.htm

I come up with some interesting candidates, by order of preference:

"Quasit"

They are a sort of flying demon/devil, to weak to stand up alone in battle. So they use subterfuge and magic to even the odds.

You can see one in the OOTS comics, here: http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0583.html and a bit more on page 625.

They would be great as tiny flying race with kick *** RP potential due to just how corrupt they are. Only con I see is FL placing demons as an exclusive thing to Qraces.

With 23 INT/DEX, a bonus to hide, and perhaps "vanish" as racial ability, they would be very interesting.

Classes: Thief,Ninja,BMG,INVK,Necro

"Goblin"

Everyone knows what a goblin is. Is a small smelly creature dedicated to evil. Not wise but evil smart.

But with 18 STR 21 INT 19 WIS 23 DEX and 20 CON they could be a very interesting Thieves race with moderate magic application.

Classes: Warrior,ZERK,BLM,Ranger,Thief,Ninja,BMG,INVK,Necro

Chaotic only.

"Kobold"

These are small reptilian like creatures of small stature. You can see a depiction on http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0063.html .

They are about as intelligent as humans, perhaps not as strong but more dextruous.

With 18 STR, 22 INT, 21 WIS, 23 DEX, 20 STR.

They are also not accustomed to bright light, so a Light vuln is in order.

They tend to be Orderly like, so Lawful/Neutral only.

Classes: Warrior,BLM,Ranger,Thief,Ninja,BMG,INVK,Necro (perhaps not necro).

So what you think?

Also can you think of other evil small races?

I've played two kobolds, a goblin, a gremlin, a svirfneblin. I love little evils.

You didn't mention Duergar in your original list. While not halfling size (though very few races are) they are smaller than humans and inherently evil. Not to mention between themselves and their dwarven cousins they have all aligns sewn up.

What's wrong with them?

L-A

They are medium sized and cannot be mages. But they make excellent thieves.

They are not on the list because Dwarves/Duergars, Elves/Drows, Storm/Stone/Fire giants are also not in the list.

Duergars are the same size as humans. I know they're not traditionally, but for balance they appear to be. I am however all for new races.

Duergars are the same size as humans. I know they're not traditionally' date=' but for balance they appear to be. I am however all for new races.[/quote']

You sure about that? I was under the impression they were slightly smaller. IIRC - 5 sizes:

5 - Titan (the Warlock, enlarged giant sized)

4 - Giant (giants, ogres, minotaurs)

3 - Normal (Humans, elves, drow, illithid, werebeast)

2 - Small (Dwarves, duergar, gnomes)

1 - Tiny - (Halflings, fae)

L-A

Dwarves/Duergar are the same size as humans/elves/drow etc.

Dey

I may be completely wrong (I have no resources here at work) but I'm fairly certain the only tiny race is faerie and that halflings are small.

Why the sad face? Doesn't that give you more of an incentive to dual wield some axes and go pillage, duergar style?

Dey

Why the sad face? Doesn't that give you more of an incentive to dual wield some axes and go pillage, duergar style?

Dey

Oh don't get me wrong, I love my duergar's. I just don't like them being compared with humans (size wise). Seriously, you think Gimli was the size of Aragorn? No. Thorin standing as high as Gandalf - maybe on a barstool.

Dwarves/duergar, to me, were always shorted than human but stronger. Hence the word 'doughy' often being applied.

L-A

Dwarves and Duergars are the same size as humans and elves because of both height and girth. It is size, not height, so how big you are is what matters. You are not going to have a dragon be smaller than a giant.

Seriously' date=' you think Gimli was the size of Aragorn?[/quote']

He probably weighed as much.

I'll try out a goblin sounds very interesting :-)

Out of curiosity, how hard is it to actually code a new race?

Very easy...

Dwarves and Duergars are the same size as humans and elves because of both height and girth. It is size' date=' not [b']height, so how big you are is what matters. You are not going to have a dragon be smaller than a giant.

There is nothing like putting it quite that way to make me feel like an A-grade idiot.

Thanks Ceph

L-A

Out of curiosity' date=' how hard is it to actually code a new race?[/quote']

The technical parts of it aren't difficult. However, there are other things we have to consider.

One being game balance in how a race would react with a certain class, vulns, etc.

Another being how it fits with the history and future of FL. We would plop one willy-nilly near abouts anywhere, but we want them them to become as living and breathing in the game world as any other race.

However I think the biggest deterrent few a new race is that the effort offers little in the realm of content, being only in essence a 'skin' for a class. The one's who'll get the most mileage out of a new race are those searching for the strongest combo - a practice I wouldn't want to encourage beyond its already systemic levels.

Also, we have racial restrings to cover most of the races we miss on the entry screen.

I think we'd get more reward out of a new playable class, but those are exceptionally difficult to design/code/balance.

Goblins, Imps and Kobolds seem the most viable to me, since we already have then existent in the realms.

'If size if the issue here, why not allow certain restrings to have a change in size? How hard is it to code a perm size change for one character? Could it cause too much imbalance? Like, does having a duegar restring to a goblin and going from medium size to small size have a large affect on the game?