[RPG] Is the homebrew Awakened Bear race balanced

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I wanted to play an awakened bear, and decided to create my own race. I used JamesMusicus' Basic Race Feature Analysis sheet to create it, but I'd like to know how it would stack up in game. Is the unarmed strike a bit much?

Awakened Bear

Ability Score Increase. Your Strength score increases by 2 and your Constitution score increases by 1.

Age. Awakened bears, while intelligent, only live about 30 years. They tend to mature at about a year old.

Alignment. Awakened bears tend towards neutrality, though they can be fiercely loyal if they do choose a side.

Size. Awakened bears are 5-7 feet tall, and weigh 600-1000 lbs. Your size is Medium.

Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet. You have a swimming speed of 30 feet.

Bear Paws. You have proficiency with your claws and teeth. Your claws deal 2d6+Str slashing damage and your teeth deal 1d8+Str piercing damage. Due to your clumsy paws, you can’t use any artisan's tools, musical instruments, or weapons with the light or finesse properties.

Darkvision. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can’t discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.

Thick Fur. You have resistance to cold damage.

Brave. You have advantage on saving throws against being frightened.

Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common.

Best Answer

Overall, Looks Good!

Almost all of these abilities have a precedent. Damage resistance is shared by dragonborn. Proficiency in what is essentially a two handed weapon does not currently exist RAW -Dwarves and Elves are only proficient in 1 handed weapons- but I don't think this is a big deal. Any class that isn't proficient in a two handed weapon probably doesn't want to use one anyway.

Rebalancing of Bear Paws

Bear Paws. You have proficiency with your claws and teeth. Your claws deal 2d6+Str slashing damage and your teeth deal 1d8+Str piercing damage. Due to your clumsy paws, you can’t use any artisan's tools, musical instruments, light weapons or finnese weapons.

I agree with Dan B that it would be helpful to parse these out for the sake of readability. I also agree that it's important to prevent the claws from being used as monk weapons. That said, you don't want to remove all flavor: if you bump the bite damage down to 1d6+Str, it will be the same as the Lizardfolk's Bite ability, which is a natural weapon that can be used for monk abilities.

It might also be good to note that these are both "natural weapons" in order to better ground them in the system.

I don't think there's any need to state how many attacks you can make with these weapons per round. None of the natural weapon abilities of RAW classes do this. No weapon description does this. Your claws are weapons, natural weapons - the rules already provide ample guidance on how weapons can be used.

Finally, it is vitally important that you specify that a claw attack requires use of both paws - otherwise, your class could use a shield in one hand and a 2d6 weapon in the other.

Smaller Concerns

The swim speed is perhaps too high, not just from a narrative perspective (a bear that can swim as fast as it can run?) but also because it is the same as the Triton swim speed, and it's probably preferable to not steal the aquatic stage from the fish people race.

From a narrative perspective, I'm curious how the bear can use any weapons at all, but that might be too strong a debuff.

In line with other spellcaster-created creatures from the MM, you might change language from "Common" to "One language known by its creator". Also, maybe "You can speak, read, and with great difficulty write in one language of your creator." would be more appropriate given the trouble using tools?

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