Wood Elves

[watchwood]

I was just looking through the race lists in the documentation, trying to decide what race to use to make a build I've wanted to do for the longest time when I noticed something unusual regarding the Wood Elves and their attribute bonuses. Or penalties, really.

Wood Elves are one of 3 races that have attribute penalties totalling -6 or better, the other 2 being the Deep Gnomes, who get some nice AC, SR, and save bonuses, and the Half Ogres, who need no description.

Not that I want to tell the devs their jobs or anything, but it strikes me that the Wood Elves are among the worst off of the subraces on a bonus to penalty basis, as they have some hefty attribute hits but don't have the nice bonuses that accompany major hits in every other case.

Anyways, I would like to request either :
A)Boost to the wood elves
B)Reduce the penalties applied to them
C)Give them a negative ECL to make up for it

Thanks.

[Binkyuk]

+2 dex, -2 con are standard elf things, so they cancel out, so you're left with +2 str, -2 int, -2 cha.

This is far from unfair. Strength is overall the most prized stat in the game, while charisma is by far the least useful.

[MLoki]

For a fighter type Int and Cha are often dump stats anyways while Dex and ST are almost required. So for the right build these negatives don't hurt you any while the bonuses greatly increase your effectiveness. If you are looking for Int and Cha try a Drow. Otherwise I think the negatives are far from making the Wood Elf unfavorable.

MLoki

[VagaStorm]

I would like to point out that the other races you mentioned that dos have a bosst, have a not so nice ecl added to em. The Deep Gnomes I think has ecl 3 wich is OMFG nasty! (I stil play some of em O.o) I do also have some wood elfs as their stats are wery nice for some builds.

[Sparky]

In general, the formula used by WoTC to determine a races' penalties and bonuses is:

Each physical stat is worth twice as much as a mental stat as far as bonuses are concerned.

So, a Wood Elf, having the standard +2 Dex, -2 Con, is a plus and a minus to a physical stat, so those cancel out.

Then you have a +2 Str, -2 Int/-2 Cha. As per the formula, the Str is valued at +4 physical when compared to a respective mental stat. Therefore, the two equal out, and no ECL is required, of which the other races you mentioned have.

[JesterOI]

Any subraces got -2str/-2dex/+8int?

[watchwood]

Why would you value the physical attributes at so much more then the mental ones? I can see a slight overvalue, but 2X strikes me as a little much, given the utility of caster classes in this server.

EDIT: Though as Jester so lovingly put it, I (and most anyone else, I'm sure) would be more then happy to make that kind of a payment on the physical side of things for caster that much better, since it's all "balanced"

[Binkyuk]

ah, but you can't have more than +2 (usually, half-ogres are the exception but that's partly due to their Large size).