Remarkable Races Revamped

In the interim between my shpiel and the remarkable sounds of nobody caring about what I say (except Jonathan Jacobs who might still be laughing), Alluria Publishing has been hard at work actually revising all the remarkable races series 1. They were so upset by my cutting review that they gave me a free copy of all the revised races (…which is a rather strange reaction, I’d have expected litigation, or a goatse linkroll). In my view, both these accomplishments clearly distinguish them as a company that does indeed give a shit, so whether or not the changes are terrible, at least we know they’re trying. So that puts Alluria out of my list of “money-grubbing 2-dollar PDF hawkers” which is good because I needed to make room for the thousand other money-grubbing 2-dollar PDF hawkers who show up every fucking second of the day. Thanks Alluria!

Looking at the Obitu, some clear changes have been made for the better. Rather than +4 to a stat, it has +2 to two stats, which is way more balanced. The healing touch thing from the last revision is now an encounter power that scales across levels, much improved. The mechanics behind the power are also very flavorful and distinctly 4e. However, plagueborn still says “fortitude saves”. At best it should be “fortitude defense” and this should probably have an ability score prerequisite. The heart slot still exist, but I don’t have that much of a problem with it EXCEPT for the stone heart item. +10 item bonus to HP just seems wrong somehow. But overall, the Obitu is much improved, and could definitely be played now without creating a hideous mess. It seems like it’d make a good Fighter, what with its racial power being about opportunity attacks.

The Mogogol, unfortunately, is not yet ready for prime time, so the revised one is coming February 21. No motherfucking battletoads for you guys this time.

The Oakling, back then, wasn’t bad, just underpowered in my view. The Oakling still has some of the old, faulty language on it. Such as “making a saving throw” to avoid a prone effect, and having a feat that treats it as “two size categories larger” for resisting push, pull and slide. That feat should just give them the dwarven ability to reduce the movement, and the first one should probably just give them a defense bonus against being knocked prone rather than rolling a saving throw from out of nowhere. Besides that, the rest of its features seem okay.

I don’t entirely remember the Boggle from last time around because it seemed mundane compared to the rest, but this version is rather playable. None of the feats seem wrong, and though I am leery of that 6 square shifting power that interrupts blasts and bursts and lets you run away, it still seems okay. I do remember clearly how Boggle Madness used to be integrated into the racial block, now it seems more an aside. It also happens when your boggle is 35 years old. So it’s avoidable, as it should be.

The Entobian has some awkward language, but nothing that hinders how its stuff is actually meant to work. It’s metamorphosis mechanic is clean to read and takes about as much as it gives, though the flight could use a cap of some sort. (Such as being overland flight, rather than sustainable-for-basically-ever flight.) But it’s at least a paragon tier feat along with an unretrainable heroic tier feat. It offers some very interesting abilities, like the ability to spray silk that can be used as rope, and getting a proficiency bonus to unarmed strikes.

While problems do still exist, they cleaned the more egregious things, having only minor awkwardness behind that they probably just forgot in the rush to change the incredibly more prominent mistakes. It was good of them to notice and to learn from their mistakes. Whether you allow the remarkable races into your game is still up to you (they’re still too goofy for me) but if the flavor interests you, the stats are now much more in line with the rest of the game, and offer some actually interesting abilities to match the races. I can gladly take back what I said about Alluria and now shift my ire to some other publisher of cheap PDFs.

Like all those people selling like two monsters for a dollar. That’s what the DMG is for, fuckers.