Diamore wrote:Firstly, removing anything from classes or races is always painful and often pointless. Adding to a race however opens up new options.
Secondly, saying that X race makes a great Y build ignores the point. Races that look good get used. Races that can get used in multiple types of builds equally well get used more.
Aasimir, Tieflings, humans and strongheart halflings are objectively better for the majority of builds that do not have a racial requirement. Dwarves and elves are equally good at a number of builds but with obvious preference to the better looking options.
Races that have only one or two "good" builds will simply not get chosen due to the limited number of options available. This is where the genasi get left behind. They have no internal synergy with their own abilities and statistic distribution, an ECL increase for seemingly no reason and limited build niches, notably for earth genasi. They also have very limited options for customisation and are difficult to make look good. also maybe their elemental resistance match their level. so earth genasi would be acid 1/- level 1 and acid 30/- level 30.
Genasi do need to be improved.
earth genasi are the best of the four. they make great fighter builds, which is their preferred class. ive also considered a monk earth genasi, fist of forest, with high DR. they get the elemental dr, which fits great, and you can then put them in darksteel armor to really make them resist acid. then i often fit them to other classes with energy resistances.
i love genasi. their rp is strange for me, as i almost always give them the foreigner background trait, and they never have good charisma.
the only one i havent done yet is fire. im still thinking about what i want to make with one. probably a dragon disciple.
and honestly, id hate to see genasi given a boost, and then see genasi running around everywhere. they are supposed to be rare, really rare, actually.
if they were given any boost, id like to see their special abilities scaled with their level. so stoneskin and water of the mists? would last longer, (and have more hp for the stoneskin), gust of wind gets stronger, and the fire genasis thing, (not sure what it is) also gets stronger as they level.