Talk:Glitch (5e Race)

okay first off: the concept of a Glitch race is honestly kinda cool, and I like the idea. I also am in full support of the use of zalgo-text on this page (it's not too obtrusive or hard to look at, IMHO) but:

  • Their racial traits don't follow 5e conventions: including flat AC, speed dependent on character height, and turn counting. Esoteric racial traits that are dissimilar to existing ones are okay in my opinion, but they can't stray from the core pillars of D&D 5e design.
  • There's no link to the Glitched disease on the page. It sounds like it'd be a very situational ability, anyways.
  • The choice of dice for determining height is odd: it will cause the vast majority of Glitched to be under 4 feet tall, with their average height being 3'8". I don't think this is what you were going for. I recommend using the site "Anydice" to calculate odds of various potential race heights.
  • The fluff is a little lacking. I'd like to know more about The Rift, and its properties, and the culture of the people surrounding it.
  • Some advised reading: check out the 5e Race Design Guide, the Help:Balance page, and the unofficial Musicus Meter and its expansion for advice.

Hopefully this stuff sets you in the right direction. If the race is at risk of being deleted, and you don't make any changes, I think I might want to try my hand at writing it just to preserve the concept.

But, here's an idea that might strike you as interesting. Considering what you were going for; having the Glitched be members of other races distorted from reality, gaining supernatural abilities in the process... consider making this concept a class instead. Doing so will be a much greater ordeal, so I recommend saving the idea for when you're more familiar with 5e homebrewing, but when you're ready you should check out the 5e Class Design Guide. Varkarrus 142.55.0.18 19:25, 6 December 2018 (MST)

The "natural armor class" infringes on the role of class. For example, it is a wasted trait if the character picks a barbarian. Racial features should be useful no matter what class you pick.
I don't know what the game effect of "glitched perspective" is, since it only seems relevant if you use the optional facing rule. I don't know what the game effect of "your vision is blurry and similar to a field of static" is.
Confusion is a 4th level spell, so a race should not be imparting this effect.
Channel 2 doesn't have a range or action. The glitched disease is a very powerful effect to impart on an enemy. A glitched monk could use stunning strike, followed by channel 2, to severely hamper an enemy.
"per long rest"
"roll 1d10 with disadvantage"
"10% resistance to any damage "
Unclear how Rift Speech is useful as there's no guide on what other creatures might speak it.
Marasmusine (talk) 16:45, 12 December 2018 (MST)
  • What would have to the glitch when it dies ?? VampDio (talk)
  • So, I'm not exactly sure how else to balance the Glitch without losing the desired effect. How else do you guys think it could be kept in the realm of breaking reality, but not breaking the game. -Polaton

Balance ideas:

Okay so, you want to balance this while keeping the breaking reality theme in yeah? Here's some problems and some solutions.

  • So first off, seriously dial back the number of traits they have. I believe the most any vanilla race has is 7; dwarves and elves both have this many traits, split between their race and subrace. Glitches have 7, but their Glitch Anomaly "subrace" adds 5 more.
  • The more traits they have, the simpler they should be. With dwarves and elves both having 7 traits, they are all very simple; just stuff like proficiencies, poison resistance (dwarven resilience), reduced need for sleep (elves' trancing). Each and every trait the Glitch has comes with a lot of rules; even if they were fully balanced and not situational, it'd just straight up be a headache for the DM at that point.
  • Keep in mind too that on the musicus meter, Dwarves have a fairly high point value too at 7.5-8 (depending on subrace)
  • Reducing their max hit points in half is just too extreme. Even if you provided them with lots of power in other places, it'll be broken simply because other classes aren't designed with the potential to have so much of their power shifted away from their hit point total. Proper game balance is more complex and nuanced than just "shift power from aspect X to aspect Y"
  • "Once per Long Rest" is generally considered a no-no on this wiki. I feel getting uppity about it is somewhat unnecessary, but since people do care about it, the proper wording should instead be something "you can only use this feature once, regaining its usage after a long rest"

So, possible thoughts.

  • I would think, for the Glitch, it'd be better to give them a smaller number of traits with more power and versatility, versus multiple simple traits. Here's some ideas:
  • If you want them to have reduced hit points as a negative feat, a compromise solution could be a "reversed" version of the toughness racial feature. Wording could be like "Your hit point maximum decreases by 1, and you gain 1 less hit point every time you gain a level (to a minimum of 1)." This would effectively be a -1 on the musicus meter.
  • A way to give them a variety of simple glitch-based effects could be to make and give them a "Glitchcraft" cantrip, or similar. Use druidcraft, thaumaturgy, or prestidigitation for inspiration. Those cantrips may seem weak, but all have potential to be used creatively in campaigns, and shouldn't be underestimated. I did something similar myself, recently: made a clown race with a coulromancy cantrip.
  • Try to make any other racial features they have not specifically combat related.
  • If you want to give the Glitch "wilder" glitch powers, here's an idea: make a sorcerer subclass that a Glitch player can optionally choose. Call it "Glitch Channeler" or something like that. Here's my advice for that:
    • You can write the fluff for the Glitch Channeler as something like "a member of the glitch race that focuses specifically on training their reality breaking powers. However, it shouldn't be made difficult for someone to reflavor the glitch channeler subclass so they can play as one while using a different race.
    • Use existing Sorcerer subclasses as a bit of a "design guideline." There's no specific pattern for what sort of ability should be provided at each of the four levels, it seems, but still; the glitch channeler's level 1 subclass feature should only be as strong as all the other level sorcerer 1 subclass features etc.
  • The most radical option, of course, is to make Glitches a class instead of a race. Thematically, it makes sense; you even mention in their lore that they can be elves / humans / etc. Thus, they can be a class; like. Human Glitch, or Elf Glitch, etc. Remember: most of a character's "gameplay" is determined by their class / subclass. Race has much less of an impact on that.
  • As a final note, consider joining the official D&D wiki discord. You can bounce ideas off of users there and get feedback from a wider variety of people, at a much faster rate.

Varkarrus (talk) 13:36, 15 December 2018 (MST)

- What is the link to the Discord? It sounds like that'd be the best option as to get rapid feedback rather than fearing what changes I make or additions, etc. Many thanks! -Polaton -Side Note: I've moved the race over to the work in progress category as to make it easier to locate and allow others to help make it even better than I could ever make them! :) -Polaton

The link to the official Discord server is over on the nav bar on the left! Quick word of warning though, the WIP template is more used to say "hey, someone is currently working on this page, please don't edit it" so basically the opposite of your intention! Varkarrus (talk) 21:19, 17 December 2018 (MST)

Thank you, Varkarrus. I wanted to make some sort of class based on a glitch, but I didn't know how to do it until now. Flamestarter (talk) 13:06, 28 March 2020 (MDT)

WIP?

Is this a work in progress if "Another large point worth mentioning, is that this concept may not even stay as a race, but may be converted over as a class/subclass. Nothing here is final and or set in stone other than the concept." is on the front page? ~ BigShotFancyMan (talk) 11:04, 18 December 2018 (MST)

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