Balancing Biata

While I respect this, I think it conflicts with Mike V's copyright on the system documents, and sets a bad precedent if we are letting a player write their own custom race and have veto power over balance changes to it.
The player is Mike's wife Heidi.
 
I feel more races should be like Biata. We should have more hard restrictions on skills or schools that a race can purchase. It wouldmake the whole team work thing a bigger thing. Allowing everyone class/race potentially get every skill doesnt support that.

Versatility is a major thing that some folks bring to their teams to fill gaps. Read Magic means that someone can use a Lesser Investment scroll to Invest their late-arrival buddies into the Ward while the C-Caster is elsewhere. The fighter with Alchemy has a pocket of gasses for that moment they need to "borrow" a few enemies to Heal them. The Earth Caster with Blacksmithing will take care of your hurts, then put your armor back together so you can get back into the fight.

Versatility should be limited in how effective you can be with it, but it shouldn't be prohibited by any means. Of the two races I'd never play under the current system, Biata and Dryads rate near the top, because their restrictions are ridiculous. At least Dryads are getting partially fixed.
 
I feel more races should be like Biata. We should have more hard restrictions on skills or schools that a race can purchase. It wouldmake the whole team work thing a bigger thing. Allowing everyone class/race potentially get every skill doesnt support that.

I tend to disagree. The more we limit access to skills, the more we make certain class or race combos 'must have'. That ends up, when extended, as the MMO issue of excluding players from mods because the party 'already has one of those'. I'd much rather see a more flexible scaling on the part of plot to allow them to handle whatever players are present.

The player is Mike's wife Heidi.

I don't want to seem rude, but should that matter? A player is a player. One of the biggest fights I've seen over the years has been keeping from the issue that every RP system has wherein being in with the GM nets a player special perks like monster abilities or special templates.
 
Let me get this straight.

Biata specifically cannot be altered by the owners?

Is that correct?
 
Let me get this straight.

Biata specifically cannot be altered by the owners?

Is that correct?

It's not so much that. Instead, think of it as Biata being unique IP to Alliance (unlike Orcs and Goblins and Elves and Dwarves and Humans and so forth) and thus being something to treasure and care for a little more than the other races. Lots of people have a general idea of "what an Elf might be able to do" from D&D, other games, movies, books, etc. but there's only one view of what Biata might be able to do, and that's from this game. That means that the identity of that race, as being allergic to Celestial magic, having a specific way to behave around other races, and so on, is something that's much more firmly set and unlikely to change. It's a race to take a lot more care with, because it *is* so special to Alliance. And I daresay that its current identity is well understood and accepted by the Owners as a whole.

-Bryan
 
Yes, perhaps I've explained this poorly. My apologies.

Biata are the intellectual property of Mike V. They were designed by Heidi. The Celestial allergy is considered core to the race by both the designer and the IP owner. Because Biata are unique to Alliance, that IP has actual legal value in a way that many fantasy tropes do not. Remember when Underworld came out and White Wolf games got mad and threatened litigation? They never actually sued because vampires and werewolves are common domain concepts, nobody owns those. The Biata concept, on the other hand, is unique. That uniqueness is protected to a degree by keeping the race consistent.

Add to all that that Mike has no interest in changing the race and you have a pretty compelling case for leaving it as is, from my perspective.
 
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