The Zeidian is a new race of grey-skinned and dark-haired travellers, devoted to guarding people or places against the evil in the world. With stats that makes them born to be rangers, this is a perfect fit.The fluff is intriguing and helps create Zeidians with interesting and distinct personalities. The race is balanced and has an interesting feature (save against being surprised)and the racial paragon path is spot on, amplifying the feel of the race. The racial feats further enhance the particularities of the race, without ever falling into the (seemingly common) 50' deep pit of brokenness. The crunch is solid (although you can't take immediate actions on your own turn, so Backhand Slash should be a free (or minor) action) but unfortunately holds no innovative ideas.
Overall the Zeidian is a well-made race which can easily fit into any campaign, either as is, or it should be very simple to file off a few serial numbers and make it a elven (sub-)race. Or you could change the +DEX into +STR, and the rest of the crunch/fluff could fit just as well for the Dragonborn in your campaign. This is a PDF, that I am definitely going to be using.
Rating:* * * * *
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I have to admit I'm not exactly drawn by this race, although I love that they're balanced. You've been fairly harsh on 3PPs on this issue. So if you say this is actually balanced, I think its safe to assume you're right ;)
ReplyDeleteFirst is their appearance as pale-skinned humans. Second, is having a race that are "Guardians of civilization" truly enough to hang a class on? Is there more depth to differentiate them? Because at the moment a Human Warden, Ranger, Druid or even Paladin seems indistinguishable from a Zeidian.
It is true that they do look a lot like humans, but they do have some traits that while human, still sets them apart from the average human. Coupled with being a race that has no cities and no society, I think it sets them apart enough to warrant being their own race, or at least an interesting, playable sub-race. Of course, when it comes to races, I don't like cat-people or bug-men, I much rather have "humans, but with a (interesting) twist", so I am probably a tad biased and easier to please, when it comes to such races.
ReplyDeleteCheers
Yeah I was hoping for a bit more info on what sets them apart (aside from being guardians against monsters) ;)
ReplyDeleteGoliaths can be said to be pretty much tall humans, although I find the fact they live in scattered communities in mountain ranges AND they're extremely competitive interesting enough hooks to set them apart :)