I am trying to balance this race, feedback?

Attributes:

Brawn - 1

Agility - 3

Intellect - 2

Cunning - 1

Willpower - 3

Presence - 2

Wound Threshold - 10 + Brawn

Strain Threshold - 10 + Willpower

Starting XP - 90 XP

Special Abilities:

Excellent Eyesight:

Gain 1 Blue Die when making sight based Perception checks

Force Attunment:

Must purchase Force Exile on Character Creation

+1 Force Rating

Flight:

Felminians may ignore the effects of difficult terrain

Requiring Force Exile is a bit mean, especially if the players don't really want to play it or would rather play one of the other Force-based specs. Also starting at Force rating 2 seems risky. Why not replace that with some force-oriented spec talent instead?

I agree with GhostOfMan.

Also, I would not have agility and willpower start out at 3. These are two of the more potent characteristics of the game and a starting 90xp doesn't feel like enough of a penalty to start out at 3. Especially since both of those characteristics are so closely tied to force-use, which is clearly what this race is intended to be linked with.

We do see two 3 starting characteristics in Toydarians, but the 3 are in more support-centered characteristics, and the compensating 1s are in the more combat oriented characteristics, so the balance is quite nice, in this case I feel it's too good.

If you could post some fluff for this race, we might have a better chance of balancing the stats out, but currently it seems too good.

What's the race? Is there any relavent fluff to go along with?

What's the race? Is there any relavent fluff to go along with?

Felminian, presumably.

I'm going to highly critical, but in a way you will hopefully find constructive. The critical part comes first.

My initial reaction is that this is an attempt to min-max a race without suffering any of the drawbacks. Ace pilot, crack shot, brave, focused, and dedicated. Oh, and by the way, mandatory powerful Force-user? Specializations should NEVER be mandatory!

A low Brawn and Cunning for "balance", but no one will ever get to melee range since in addition to everything else they can fly , which also negates a poor Athletics, the most common Brawn-related non-combat Skill. Meanwhile their other racial ability bolsters Perception, which coincidentally is the most common Cunning-related Skill. Besides, they can just use their BASE FORCE RATING 2 to Force Sense or Force Influence anyone to check if they're lying, or even grant themselves additional Defense to offset their slightly lower Soak.

The only situation where they'd be less effective than any other species is if some kind of poison gas was used against them, since a failed Resilience check is the one thing they can't offset with Force Powers or other abilities. And how often does that show up?

*Sigh* I can't even say the race's fluff sounds cool. You barely even mentioned its name. But all is not lost.

I think you're coming at this from the wrong end. Don't start with the stats, start with the idea.

Imagine their entry in a galactic encyclopedia, what would it say? One sentence about their planet, one about their biology, one about their culture, one about their reputation.

Then figure out what the race looks like, where it comes from, how its society is organized. Draw a picture, or ask someone else to draw one for you. Flesh out the details. Think about what makes them tick, both physically and mentally. What cultural traditions do they have, what taboos? Name their most legendary heroes, and their most infamous villains. What does the galaxy think of them, and what do they think of the galaxy?

I'd HIGHLY recommend scratching that whole mandatory Force-Sensitive thing. For lots of reasons, both fluff-related and game mechanics. I'd explain more, but I'd soapbox, and this post is long enough. I'll clarify later if you want.

Then, and only then, do you figure out stats. Twi'leks don't have a Brawn of 1 just to balance a Presence of 3, for example. Their vital organs are extremely vulnerable and sensitive to pain (those lekku are extensions of their brain, you know).

So, yeah, tell me a story about them first. Then I'll talk stats.

This sounds good so far. Can we get some appearance details? Appearances can suggest their qualities which translates to characteristics. So far there's nothing in the fluff to suggest a 3 in agi.

From what I can tell just from your description. I would give them a 1 in intellect to reflect their primitive lifestyle brought on by seclusion. I would offset this by a 3 in Willpower. This goes hand-in-hand with their connection to the force, and with a long life span, this suggests patience and wisdom.

Beyond that I can't say off the top of my head. I am sure others will come up with some really good ideas.

Where are they from?

I had their original homeworld as the planet that is now Corellia. They lived there LONG before any other races, if you do archaeological digs you can find remains of their cities and race.

Appearance:

I raised Cunning back to 2 and dropped Intellect to 1. I think that's a good idea to help balance them..

Decent work. Biological information will help clear this up more, but here's some ideas just going off of the historical fluff:

Welp, you ninja'd me.

Felminian

Brawn 2

If they're intentionally foregoing technology, life is going to be very difficult, and given what you've said about their lifespan, a lower score wouldn't make much sense. Biology may change that though. That looks pretty muscly, unless it's wings are wrapped around it's arms. Go with 2 for sure.

This sounds good so far. Can we get some appearance details? Appearances can suggest their qualities which translates to characteristics. So far there's nothing in the fluff to suggest a 3 in agi.

From what I can tell just from your description. I would give them a 1 in intellect to reflect their primitive lifestyle brought on by seclusion. I would offset this by a 3 in Willpower. This goes hand-in-hand with their connection to the force, and with a long life span, this suggests patience and wisdom.

Beyond that I can't say off the top of my head. I am sure others will come up with some really good ideas.

Agility 2

Again, they're avoiding technology, which more than half of the Agility-related Skills are related to. The only race with a base of Agility of 3 currently are the Rodians, who have literally been hunting other sentients on land and in space with any means at their disposal for their entire history. And your people sound almost pacifistic. Yep, no change.

Intellect 1

Agree with kaosoe here, as reluctant as I am to give any sentient other than a Gamorrean a base 1 in this. Literally every Intellect Skill is either related to technology or galactic culture, both of which they seem bent on avoiding. You can't see smarts, but there's an obvious lack of technology. No change.

Cunning 2

I see no reason in the fluff so far for it to be anything other than average. And with it set at 2 instead of 1, there's no reason for a Boost from a racial ability. No Change.

Willpower 3

Long life to accumulate wisdom, although with "The Madness" I'm not entirely certain. That could probably be covered with a racial special ability, though, and of all the stats this one makes the most sense to have a bonus on. No Change.

Presence 2

Reclusive, but so are Bothans (although not as much), and we've got one up and one down, so average here. No Change.

For a racial ability:

The Madness: Whenever a Felminian voluntarily suffers Strain to trigger an ability, they suffer 1 additional Strain. No change.

or:

Mercy Killing: Desperate not to repeat the mistakes of their past, Felminians have no compunction about culling those who demonstrate instability of thought or deed. This callousness extends to those whose reliability they doubt, and so Felminians suffer a Setback on all Charm and Leadership tests. No change.

They'd have one more, positive, racial ability depending on what you write for biology. How about:

Glider: A Felminian's wing membranes are too frail for true flight, but they can perform a controlled descent from great heights. A Felminian may glide on planets with atmosphere, using Coordination in place of Piloting for any relevant checks. Varying atmospheres and gravities may apply one or more Setback or Boost , as appropriate. They cannot "take off" except by falling, but may use this ability to travel horizontally once they have accumulated speed through a dive.

100 XP (or maybe 90 XP on principle because it's a homebrew) is probably fine if there's no racial ability relating to the Force. I'd say 90 XP if you go with the Glider rule above.

Requiring something like that locks players into a box in a setting where exceptions are the rule. An additional Force Rating is frankly ridiculous, especially since only two are currently available. Plus, not even Toydarians ("mind tricks don't work on me") have anything specifically mentioning the Force in their racial abilities.

Those are their wings wrapped around their arms.

I LOVE glider and mercy killing!

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I'm pretty new to this system. I do really want to give them a "boost" to the force which is why I was thinking the +1, for those of you have GM'ed for a while, how "breaking" would that +1 really be?

I would be willing to drop their starting XP to 80 or even 70 to balance that out..

Those are their wings wrapped around their arms.

I LOVE glider and mercy killing!

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I'm pretty new to this system. I do really want to give them a "boost" to the force which is why I was thinking the +1, for those of you have GM'ed for a while, how "breaking" would that +1 really be?

I would be willing to drop their starting XP to 80 or even 70 to balance that out..

Perhaps instead of a static increase in Force Rating, why not a minimum of 1 white pip when Force Powers are used? That way there is no forced expenditure of XP on an unwanted specialization. It still has the issue of making them the pre-eminent force users due to their unique benefit.

I would suggest that you simply keep the force bonuses as fluff only.

This was going to be short, but it got long, again. My mind went into problem-solving mode.

Edits for clarity.

I'm pretty new to this system. I do really want to give them a "boost" to the force which is why I was thinking the +1, for those of you have GM'ed for a while, how "breaking" would that +1 really be?

I would be willing to drop their starting XP to 80 or even 70 to balance that out..

Right now the maximum possible Force Rating with Edge of the Empire content alone is 2, which your race would have started off as at creation, and could later increase to 3. I hope you can understand my initial reaction to that part of your suggestion.

For perspective, Luke Skywalker probably goes from Force Rating 1 to 2 over the course of Episode IV.

If you were to allow characters to take both Force-Sensitive Exile from Edge and Force-Sensitive Emergent from the upcoming Age of Rebellion (or from it's Beta), a character could have a total of 3, and your race would reach 4, since Force-Sensitive also has a Force Rating Talent.

Always generating a single Light Side pip would actually be even more powerful than +1 Force Rating, since what really balances Force Powers are their unreliability.

A Willpower of 3 will already be pretty helpful to Force users, as the powers that do involve Skill checks often require Discipline, and the higher Strain Threshhold would allow them to take more maneuvers and/or utilize Dark Side pips more freely, both of which are very useful.

Only one currently published race has any ability specifically relating to the Force in any way; Droids cannot either utilize it or be mentally affected by it. Even the Toydarians, who, as Qui-Gon and Watto's interaction in Episode 1 demonstrates, are highly resistant or immune to Force Influence (Jedi Mind Trick), mention this ability only in fluff. If you weren't aware, Toydarians are included in Enter the Unknown, the Explorer Sourcebook. They have a Willpower of 3, which would help them resist more complex uses of Force Influence, but have no specific Force-related mechanics.

Force ability is supposed to be a rare and unique thing. When various books describe societies of Force users (Dathomiri tribes, Fallanassi, the Lost Tribe of the Sith), they describe a specific concentration of individual Force users who have separated themselves from others or hold dominion over them. The Korunnai are the closest fluff ever comes to a society entirely of Force-Sensitives, but that is because their ancestors were Jedi who were stranded on Haruun Kal, and since Force-sensitivity can be inherited, their descendants had greater and greater proportions of Force users in each successive generation.

Also, they're genetically Human, and even then most of them have so little Force ability that the use of Destiny Points would reflect their capabilities far better than actually giving them a point of Force Rating. You can be inclined towards Force-sensitivity yet never manifest the powers, and so any race that automatically does so in every case is...unprecedented. Plus, from a game perspective, it unfairly limits the players.

If you are heart-set on a race of exclusively Force-users, well, the beauty of the system is it's your game to change (as much as my canon-sense might tingle because of it). The best way to go about it fluff-wise would be to have their gene-pool selected for Force-sensitivity. Perhaps their race actually was essentially exterminated by the Gatharians, and the surviving Felminians are the descendents of the crew of a single ship that escaped, and have been in hiding in long enough (and with a limited-enough gene pool) that Force-sensitivity has been brought to the fore in the same way as the Korunnai.

Alternately, if you want a more morally ambiguous history, they could have been intentionally self-selecting for Force-sensitivity. Although attempts to artificially induce Force-Sensitivity through genetic engineering usually fail spectacularly, there's no reason a particularly single-minded culture couldn't brute-force the situation, encouraging or even mandating reproduction between Force-sensitives while restricting, sterilizing, or even eliminating those without the ability. That'd have some...interesting side effects for the race's psyche and Force connection, but it's a good story, and not entirely without precedent.

If you're sure that's what you want, I have some ideas for game mechanics, but this post has gotten long enough.

Thank you for taking the time to look this over and respond. I really appreciate the feedback..

I agree that +1 white pip would be more powerful than +1 force die since that die could roll blank/light or dark. I did decide to drop the requirement to buy a force classification but I think for now I'm going to include the +1 die. If it does end up being unbalanced after some play I will remove it.

I understand what you guys said about Watto in Episode 1, the question is did Qui-Gon mean that all Toydarians are "force immune" or just Watto? Hard to tell when you only have one example of the race.. Unless there was something in the books (official cannon) I don't know about?

Because of the potential unbalance of the force die I am going to restrict them to 70XP on creation.

Based on everyone's feedback, here is what I think I'm going to go with:

Attributes:

Brawn - 1

Agility - 3

Intellect - 1

Cunning - 2

Willpower - 3

Presence - 2

Wound Threshold - 10 + Brawn

Strain Threshold - 10 + Willpower

Starting XP - 70 XP

Special Abilities:

Excellent Eyesight:

Gain a Boost when making sight based Perception checks

Force Attunement:

+1 Force Rating

Mercy Killing:

Desperate not to repeat the mistakes of their past, Felminians have no compunction about culling those who demonstrate instability of thought or deed. This callousness extends to those whose reliability they doubt, and so Felminians suffer a Setback on all Charm and Leadership tests.

Glider:

A Felminian's wing membranes are too frail for true flight, but they can perform a controlled descent from great heights. A Felminian may glide on planets with atmosphere, using Coordination in place of Piloting for any relevant checks. Varying atmospheres and gravities may apply one or more Setback or Boost, as appropriate. They cannot "take off" except by falling, but may use this ability to travel horizontally once they have accumulated speed through a dive.

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btw, there will be no stats for Gatharians yet. There are a GM only race and won't come into play for a while in the current campaign so I don't need to worry about them as of now. They will have the ability "fold" space and perform almost "Q" like effects..