So I'm working on a new race, probably the most original creation to flow from my hands into Oblivion (pun intended). I call 'em the Rock Folk. The visual part is complete; here's some screenshots:

Female:
http://obss.us/d/3023-1/RockFolkF01.jpg http://obss.us/d/3025-1/RockFolkF02.jpg http://obss.us/d/3027-1/RockFolkF03.jpg http://obss.us/d/3029-1/RockFolkF04.jpg
Male:
http://obss.us/d/3031-1/RockFolkM01.jpg http://obss.us/d/3033-1/RockFolkM02.jpg http://obss.us/d/3035-1/RockFolkM03.jpg http://obss.us/d/3037-1/RockFolkM04.jpg
Not visible in the screenshots: the ears are rounded, human-type ears.

I've also got one non-cosmetic part of them finished. Being made, essentially, of stone, I gave them 85% Shield - negating the need to use armor for protection since there wouldn't be any benefit from Armor. Some of you may say that's overpowered, and it might be; I'd respectfully request that you keep that sentiment to yourself, aside from where it's necessary to comment on it.

What I'm looking for, actually, is ways to balance that major strength with a major weakness, or a number of small weaknesses. I've got lots of potential ideas but nothing concrete (yes, another pun). Such ideas include a powerful weakness to magicka in general, or to frost and fire specifically (the fire and frost weakness would be coupled with an immunity to Shock and/or Poison, thereby somewhat negating the weakness); I've also thought of perhaps using reduced stats, that is, most races have 320 starting stat points, I was thinking of perhaps reducing that to 270 for this race. With the high Endurance and Strength (60 each, so allocating 170 for Endurance, Strength, and Luck and only 100 to spread among the rest) I intend to give the class, it leaves very little for anything else - though I had already planned for very low Personality. Perhaps you guys have other ideas I can use? I'm open to suggestions at this point.

Also, is there any penalty to having extremely low Personality, such as normally non-hostile NPCs attacking you (Ontus Vanin excepted, love making him mad but I don't want any unexpected attacks from Mythic Dawn agents before they normally would, as one example)? I want to avoid that trap if it exists.

So they don't like country? or Rap?

They like all music, they think it's marble-ous!

O...

M...

G...

:rofl:

You win, Kristoffer. That just made my night!

Maybe as a counter-balance, make them have ridiculously low magicka abilities? Or make it so they can't swim (if that's even possible)? Something like that. Or find a way to make 'em move like snot dripping from a snail's nose when he's moving through tar in the winter. Which is slow.

Not sure about the no-swimming thing - if anything they would have water-breathing since they're made of stone and wouldn't technically need to breathe at all - but perhaps low INT and/or Speed would work for the others. Willpower could go either way (up to about 40 or so). Maybe I'll combine low INT and Speed with an overall stat penalty of 50 points.

The math works out for that, actually:
Str: 60
Int: 10
Wil: 40
Agi: 30
Spd: 10
End: 60
Luck: 50
Per: 10
Total: 270

Or I could adjust it a bit, taking 15 points from Agi and distributing them evenly between Int, Spd, and Per:
Int: 15
Agi: 15
Spd: 15
Per: 15

But keep the ideas coming!

They look like bloated dead-folk to me, sorry I must say!

Hmmm Tough one actually...

What I think that you should do is take the points from agility. The other option would create almost a super melee fighting race but the stats are way to lopsided and wouldn't be very nice to the players in the begging of the game.

just my opinion anyway...

dbug

After reading the description the pictures were a bit of a shock - I started imagining something like the rock biters from neverending story (not quite that big), that would potentially take you by surprise in caves when you were in their vicinity they woke up and came out of the walls... clobber time! (albeit in slow motion, still dangerous if they are triggered to wake at close range and not seen, giving them a high chance of getting the first punch in).

Edit: Would it be possible for sense life spells not to work on these?

I think, no matter what I do it'll be a race that's balanced heavily in favor of melee combat. Better to play to that strength than to try and balance it a bit and end up with a nearly indestructible character race that can be anything.

How about a constant, weak Damage Magicka ability to make it even more difficult for them to cast spells? I'm just worried that even 1/sec would be too hefty a penalty.

I don't want to pull a Blizzard here and go overboard balancing stuff so that the end result is weak.

Very interesting. Two suggestions:

First, you could make them weak to frost damage, like gargoyles from MMM.

Second, and more realistic IMO: just give them a permanent burden (dis)ability. It's an in-game magical element, so you could make it a permanent effect and something the player couldn't fix by just leveling up (like weakness to magic for Altmers).

If you gave the an 85% shield, give them a similar burden. Of course, they might then move like rocks do ...

~ Dani ~

Edit: IMO this is the better than a weakness to magic. The player can compensate easily by getting some feather spells, but it will have a real effect in all fight situations.

Burden might work, actually. I'll post again later with at least one complete set of stats, skill bonuses, and racial abilities/spells for comment; possibly more than one.

I say this only as a suggestion (and my personal opinion), because I in no way want it to sound like criticism or nitpicking. IF it were me doing it, I'd try to incorporate aspects of the frost elemental into the meshes (if possible, which I don't think it is without affecting all races at this point), or at the very least would give them a much rockier appearance on the textures. Actually I have several failed body textures that came out in-game looking like a crusty granite or marble, which is why I considered them failed at the time. If you want screenshots of any of them or want to use them, you're welcome to have them. LOL I rarely throw anything out - you never know when you might need it. Unfortunately, this is the only example I have a screenshot of at the moment. http://mods.omegacron.com/images/skintest1.jpg had seams on the arms, and I lightened up the screenshot since it appeared mostly black in the original. Anyway, just me know if you're interested, and I'll see if I still have them around somewhere.

Thanks for your input. I'm satisfied with the texture as-is.

Final stats:
Str: 60
Int: 10
Wil: 40
Agi: 30
Spd: 10
End: 60
Luck: 50
Per: 10

Skill bonuses:
Armorer 10
Blade 5
Block 10
Blunt 10
Hand to Hand 10

Racials:
Rock Skin: Shield 85%, Weakness to Frost 100%