Backend Research, Racial Stat Adjusts II

First off, Dean was curious about the totals of all the stat adjusts in the game, so he added them all together. I think it's super interesting, but I can't really tell you what it means. I just thought it was neat. It makes the game's love affair with DEX a little more obvious.

While I don't think the game's races being so whack-ass out of proportion is a huge problem, really he should have gotten values a lot closer than this. Within say ten or twelve of each other. Certainly, nothing should be negative, since that implies a lack of bonuses to that stat, an overuse of penalties to that stat, or(the actual answer) both.





I know why this is, in part. In earlier editions, (1e and 2e in particular) STR was the damage stat. Period. Things like Weapon Finesse, Finesse Training, or Slashing Grace didn't exist. 18 STR even had a percentile to it for no fucking reason other than to differentiate between people with 18s, since it was the most likely stat for a human fighter to have in STR. The game valued STR higher and was right to.

And I know why CON is overvalued. First off, they lean on the "thin but fast" stereotype by giving a DEX bonus and a CON penalty pretty often. Six out of the nine CON penalty races have a DEX bonus. The remaining ones, Samsaran, Astomoi and Changeling, all have double mental bonuses. Yet another stereotype. CON is also near universally valued in the game, with even the classes who don't need it as much(Ranged or caster types except for Kineticist) still benefit from it nicely. So while I can see their reasoning a bit, I don't agree with the outcome.

A lack of INT bonuses is because of wizards and the idea that they're powerful casters. Probably. Even though what individual stats are worth has proliferated thanks to all these base classes.  Really, that idea is why I'm irked by all this. Stats mean so much more now than even 3.5, and certainly more than 2e. Charisma is the caster stat for more than one class, it's not worthless like it was in 1e and 2e. Wisdom is more than clerics, and STR isn't necessarily more valuable than DEX thanks to Swashbuckler, Unchained Rogue, or Slashing Grace. It's more than past time for things to be closer.

I mean, I'm probably overthinking this. Races were probably put together by like two dozen people and they gave them a decent amount of creative control. It probably just worked out like this. Sephiroth and his max DEX build is the coolest and everyone wants a 20ft long Katana and bishie hair. Fine.

But I thought I'd do a little bit more research. I like putting races together. There's rigorous enough rules for it. I could patch some holes in the system's races. I could turn the few races I intended to make into a homebrew supplement. Those are still cringey and awful most of the time but mine will totally be different for reasons I can't think of right now.

Anyway here's the part where I put together what bonus combinations exist in the world and which don't. I'm not going through penalties just yet, since that's a bit too many combinations.  I'm also not counting Merfolk since they're extremely problematic, as opposed to races like Astomoi, Gillman and Deep One Hybrid being regular problematic.

STR/DEX: No.
STR/CON: No.
STR/INT: No.
STR/WIS: Yes. Oread, and Orang-Pendak
STR/CHA: Yes. Nagaji, Suli and Reptoid

DEX/CON: Yes. Caligni and Hobgoblin
DEX/INT: Yes. Elf, Ratfolk, Sylph, Tiefling, Wayang, Android
DEX/WIS: Yes. Tengu, Grippli, Svirfneblin, Vanara
DEX/CHA: Yes. a fuckton

CON/INT: No.
CON/WIS: Yes, Dwarf, Duregar, Deep One Hybrid
CON/CHA:  Yes, Gnome, Gillman, Ghoran, Shabti

INT/WIS: Yes, Samsaran, Astomoi
INT/CHA: No.

WIS/CHA: Yes, Changeling, Aasimar

So this was kind of interesting. Most of our holes are in STR, which is to be expected. We already know there's a huge lack of STR bonus races. I didn't expect there to be zero INT/CHA races, though, and I didn't expect so many combinations to just be two or three races. Really, this means that so long as you're not creating a DEX bonus race, anything added to the system is going to be welcome. Hell, even doing a DEX/CON race wouldn't be so bad.

Next I'm going over a few more vague concepts that I think bear mentioning.

no-penalty races: Hobgoblin, Aasimar, Shabti

+4 Races: Orc, Goblin, Monkey Goblin

Small Races: Gnome, Halfling, Goblin, Kobold, Ratfolk, Grippli, Wayang, Orang-Pendak, Monkey Goblin.

I didn't include it, since I already knew, but we also have no races who just have nice stats and that's basically all they get. Usually, when someone wants this style of character, they end up playing a monster. I think something should be available for them at base. Moving on, it should be noted that while all three "+4" races pay for their bonus in some way, the trade-off is somewhat disproportionate...and none of the no-penalty races significantly "pay" for their lack of a stat penalty, even though they have pretty high stat efficiency. They end up with more total stat points. Hell, Orc is a net -2. Keep in mind I'm talking about how they're designed and not their point values in terms of the race builder. For some reason the game sees it fit to put severely substandard(and low point value) races like Kobold or Halfling right next to very(and obviously) superior races like Aasimar, Goblin, or Skinwalker. Que Sera Sera, I guess.

And for the record, while I'm (nearly always) going to try to keep between 12 and 15 points, point value isn't everything. I don't think anyone would argue that Human is one of the game's better races, and their total value is just 9...identical to Halfling, which I've repeatedly called an under-performing race. Point value can be a good metric...but it ain't everything, I guess.

I'm pretty cavalier about stat spread, for a good reason. Like I said before, getting a +2 in your class's most important stat is really all you need, and getting a +2 in both of them is icing. Some classes need two stats(in addition to CON), and those classes are frequently behind anyway, doubly so in Poverty games which love low stat values. Pretty much nobody "needs" three or more classes unless they're putting together a weird multiclass. If they're putting together an oddball multiclass, chances are it's for flavor and giving them a leg up is not only not the end of the world, but maybe even something they could use. The days of exploiting via multiclassing aren't entirely over, but neither are they something you need to worry that much about.

So what does this mean? Well again since this was just all research and thought collecting, I'm absolved of my requirement to make an actual point anywhere in this post. It does mean some guidance in what I'm going to adapt or create in the future, though. Some races with interesting ideas or less conformity are definitely in order. Some monstrous humanoids(though, the race guide does give some classic non-monsters), some races more focused on stats, definitely some beefy bois with STR or CON bonuses. Some races who are focused toward stat boosts...or hell, maybe a race or two that's the opposite. The game sort of already does that with Strix, who lack a second stat bonus, but get the game's best flight speed ever given to a base race: 60ft(Average). Strix isn't a bad race, and frankly more of this would be welcome too.

I guess I'm gonna be writing a race supplement. I wonder how many other people started a homebrew supplement like this.

Backend Research: Racial Stat Adjusts

This isn't really a post. I just figured that, if I was going to do research and make lists of things, I might as well share it with everyone. I was making this list regardless. I'm making a list of Pathfinder's races and their stat adjusts. I'm doing this mostly out of curiosity, but also because I don't really like the list on PFSRD.COM. It's got everything that's ever been added lumped onto it, and the formatting stinks.

For clarity's sake, this lists playable races with no CR from the Advanced Race Guide as well as Bestiary 5 and 6. I feel these are the races 90% of players are going to use.  I haven't included the "example" races from the back of ARG, or the racial variants of Tiefling and Aasimar from whatever setting book those are in. I think they're neat, though.

Dwarf	+2 CON	+2 WIS	-2 CHA
Elf	+2 DEX	+2 INT	-2 CON
Gnome	+2 CON	+2 CHA	-2 STR	Small
Half-Elf	+2 CHOICE
Half-Orc	+2 CHOICE
Halfling	+2 DEX	+2 CHA	-2 STR	Small
Human	+2 CHOICE

Aasimar	+2 WIS	+2 CHA
Catfolk	+2 DEX	+2 CHA	-2 WIS
Dhampir	+2 DEX	+2 CHA	-2 CON
Drow	+2 DEX	+2 CHA	-2 CON
Fetchling	+2 DEX	+2 CHA	-2 WIS
Goblin	+4 DEX		-2 STR	-2 CHA	Small
Hobgoblin	+2 DEX	+2 CON
Ifrit	+2 DEX	+2 CHA	-2 WIS
Kobold	+2 DEX		-4 STR	-2 CON	Small
Orc	+4 STR		-2 INT	-2 WIS	-2 CHA
Oread	+2 STR	+2 WIS	-2 CHA
Ratfolk	+2 DEX	+2 INT	-2 STR	Small
Sylph	+2 DEX	+2 INT	-2 CON
Tengu	+2 DEX	+2 WIS	-2 CON
Tiefling	+2 DEX	+2 INT	-2 CHA
Undine	+2 DEX	+2 WIS	-2 STR

Changeling	+2 WIS	+2 CHA	-2 CON
Duergar	+2 CON	+2 WIS	-2 CHA
Gillman	+2 CON	+2 CHA	-2 WIS	Water Dependent
Grippli	+2 DEX	+2 WIS	-2 STR	Small
Kitsune	+2 DEX	+2 CHA	-2 STR
Merfolk	+2 DEX	+2 CON	+2 CHA	Legless
Nagaji	+2 STR	+2 CHA	-2 INT
Samsaran	+2 INT	+2 WIS	-2 CON
Strix	+2 DEX		-2 CHA
Suli	+2 STR	+2 CHA	-2 INT
Svirfneblin	+2 DEX	+2 WIS	-2 STR	-4 CHA	Small
Vanara	+2 DEX	+2 WIS	-2 CHA
Vishyanka	+2 DEX	+2 CHA	-2 WIS
Wayang	+2 DEX	+2 INT	-2 WIS	Small

Android	+2 DEX	+2 INT	-2 CHA
Astomoi	+2 INT	+2 WIS	-2 CON	Telepathic Senses
Caligni	+2 DEX	+2 CON	-2 INT
Deep One Hybrid	+2 CON	+2 WIS	-2 DEX	Sea Longing
Ghoran	+2 CON	+2 CHA	-2 INT	Plant
Orang-Pendak	+2 STR	+2 WIS	-2 INT	Small
Reptoid	+2 STR	+2 CHA	-2 DEX
Shabti	+2 CON	+2 CHA		Shattered Soul
Skinwalker	+2 PH. CHOICE	+2 WIS	-2 INT

Goblin, Monkey	+4 DEX	-2 WIS	-2 CHA	Small
Naiad	+2 DEX	+2 CHA	-2 STR
Rougarou	+2 STR	+2 WIS	-2 INT

Total: 49 Races

STR Races: Orc, Oread, Nagaji, Suli, Orang-Pendak, Reptoid, Rougarou

Total: 7

DEX Races: Elf, Halfling, Catfolk, Dhampir, Drow, Fetchling, Goblin, Hobgoblin, Ifrit, Kobold, Ratfolk, Sylph, Tengu, Tiefling, Undine, Grippli, Kitsune, Merfolk, Strix, Svirfneblin, Vanara, Vishyanka, Wayang, Android, Caligni, Monkey Goblin, Naiad

Total: 27

CON races: Dwarf, Gnome, Hobgoblin, Duergar, Gillman, Merfolk, Caligni, Deep One Hybrid, Choran, Shabti

Total: 10

INT races: Elf, Ratfolk, Sylph, Tiefling, Samsaran, Wayang, Android, Astomoi

Total: 8

WIS races: Dwarf, Aasimar, Oread, Tengu, Undine, Duregar, Grippli, Samsaran, Svirfneblin, Vanara, Astomoi, Deep One Hybrid, Orang-Pendak, Skinwalker, Rougarou

Total: 15

CHA Races: Gnome, Halfling, Aasimar, Catfolk, Dhampir, Drow, Fetchling, Ifrit, Changeling, Gillman, Kitsune, Merfolk, Nagaji, Suli, Vishyanka, Ghoran, Reptoid, Shabti

Total: 18

First section, distribution of bonuses. What did we learn? Well, we learned the Pathfinder race list is pretty unbalanced. This is honestly the biggest argument for letting people generate custom races that I've ever seen. Even allowing for the fact that some of the game's races aren't on this list, being printed in a splat or something, there's some staggering facts. Around 56% of the game's races have a bonus to DEX. There are ten DEX/CHA races. That's more than the number of races that get STR, INT, and almost CON. 

There are a load of different combinations that go completely unrepresented, but that's to be expected. Pathfinder has a soft "rule" that they don't often double up on mental or physical bonuses. In fact, Hobgoblin, Samsaran, Caligni, and Merfolk are the only ones that do that. 

Playing a race with a bonus to only one of your class's prime requisites isn't the end of the world. The game has enough wiggle room that it's okay you're not a hundred percent optimized. Even taking a funky combination with no bonus to your prime requisite isn't so bad. However, if we're purely talking about optimization, some classes fare better than others here. Kineticist wants DEX and CON, so it only has two racial choices: Caligni and Hobgoblin. Monk has Oread or Undine, depending on how you're building. Paladin, who wants STR and CHA, gets to choose from Nagaji, Suli or...yikes. Reptoid. Listen, there's nothing wrong with playing a Reptoid paladin. Not technically, anyway. It's gonna be some doing before that makes sense, though. But hey, look on the bright side: Swashbuckler wants DEX and CHA. Go fuckin' wild. 

It also means STR and DEX classes have a slight leg up over others due to Orc and Goblin and their +4s. At least it's a total classic to see Orc Barbarians and Goblin Rogues. They pay for their +4s as well, so. If your favorite thing to do is specialize, earmark those two races. 

No Penalty Races: Half-Elf, Half-Orc, Human, Aasimar, Hobgoblin, Shabti

Total: 6

Races with serious drawbacks: Gillman, Merfolk, Astomoi, Deep One Hybrid, Shabti
Total: 5

STR Penalty Races: Gnome, Halfling, Goblin, Kobold, Ratfolk, Undine, Grippli, Kitsune, Svirfneblin, Naiad

Total: 10

DEX Penalty Races: Deep One Hybrid, Reptoid

Total: 2

CON Penalty Races: Elf, Dhampir, Drow, Kobold, Sylph, Tengu, Changeling, Samsaran, Astomoi

Total: 9

INT Penalty Races: Orc, Nagaji, Suli, Caligni, Ghoran, Skinwalker, Rougarou

Total: 7

WIS Penalty Races: Catfolk, Fetchling, Ifrit, Orc, Gillman, Vishyanka, Wayang
Total: 7

CHA Penalty Races: Dwarf, Goblin, Orc, Oread, Tiefling, Strix, Svirfneblin, Vanara, Android, Monkey Goblin
Total: 10

Something you want to tell us about DEX, Pathfinder? Twenty Seven races with a DEX bonus and only two with a penalty? Otherwise, this is somewhat fairly distributed. Small races tend to get a STR penalty, though Monkey Goblin and Orang-Pendak escape it. The obsession with CON and CHA penalties I perceived Paizo to have is mitigated a little by realizing they're only slightly ahead of INT and WIS.

Eleven races deserve special mention, though. We'll go with the nice ones first. Six races have no stat penalty. Half-Elf, Half-Orc, and Human are also the three "+2 to any stat" races. It's important to note that they're exactly as efficient in terms of total stat points as the basic "+2, +2, -2" races and all three are gonna be a good choice for nearly any class. Such is the power of Human blood.

Three are ahead in terms of total stat points: Aasimar, Hobgoblin, and Shabti. Hobgoblin and Shabti's bonuses are extremely easy to apply to a character since everyone can use CON, but Aasimar lags a slight bit behind due to not a whole lot of classes wanting both WIS and CHA. Shabti also kind of pays for its efficiency with a drawback(see below). This technically means Hobgoblin is one of the better races in the game, but I wouldn't worry about it too much. Ranged characters(the sort that like DEX a lot) often have less of a need for CON since they're taking melee strikes less often. This means Hobgoblin, while still pretty good, looks its best on paper.

There's also five races that have problems. I hate saying this, but how playable they are really depends on your GM. That's not an insult: I've had excellent GMs that were simply not very permissive, couldn't work around a potentially debilitating disadvantage, or even had too much of a problem with the social aspect of a race(more on that below).

Three of the races, Gillman, Merfolk, and the Deep One Hybrid are "Aquatic" races. This means they're in that age-old category of being either amazing or bordering on unplayable depending on your campaign. Seafaring games are bound to see half or more of the party playing these types or others that can reach water breathing like Undine. I've never run a seafaring game, so that sounds just...natural to me. Like, it's not a problem, it's just how those games go. In a land focused game, they range from problematic(Gillman can always make sure he casts create water) to unplayable. Some GMs would struggle to keep all of a game's action on or around the coast so the Deep One doesn't start taking Wisdom Drain, and the Merfolk? He ain't got no legs. I really, super want to play a merfolk people push around in a wheelchair some day, but I don't think anyone's going to go for that.

Astomoi can only see and hear within sixty feet. I see this as a serious drawback, and they don't get anything in exchange for it. If you're okay with this, then go right ahead, but to me, this puts them in a non-use category. Shabti depends pretty heavily on how your GM interprets a specific rule. Namely, when during the casting of a spell you pay your material components. I've discussed it with several GMs and none of us really had a consensus. If your GM feels you pay regardless of whether the spell fizzles or not, then Shabti probably isn't playable. Nobody is going to blow for even a raise dead several times, and even if they do, the lost gold for it is both irritating and problematic. Even if the GM is callous and thinks the group being "down" a huge amount of gold is a valid drawback for playing a Shabti, it will cause balance problems for him later...which may cause you to die more...which may cause even more gold sink problems. You seeing a pattern here?

If your GM interprets the rule as a spell only consuming its material component if it's successfully cast(this is how I feel) then Shabti are fairly playable. Shattered Soul will probably come up, but it won't be a massive sink: Only a few hundred gold if the group is paying for the cast, or a few days of downtime if they've got their own cleric.

And finally, some races are gonna be more or less playable depending on your GM, their setting, and how they interpret their setting. This just can't be helped. Some GMs see goblinoids as people, though frequently antagonistic people.Some see goblins as the human equivalent of vermin: Omnipresent and living off the backs of society, in their filth or through theft. Other GMs, or even other settings see them as dangerous monsters which are killed on sight regardless of circumstance. While I personally dislike the second interpretation pretty strongly, both of these are valid. There's nothing we can really do if your GM wants to run a game in Middle Earth. You...probably just can't play an Orc there. This is an unfortunate X-factor to choosing race.

Thanks for coming along with me for my research. I'm sorry this isn't as meaty a topic as we normally do, but it might help us in the future. If nothing else, it's something we can load up when we're building characters for a quick reference to all of the game's main book races.