I'm going to risk chiming in with an opinion before I've studied the system in depth, because I've been dying for an excuse to congratulate you. I don't normally like animal-people or shapeshifting heroes, but you've somehow managed, in the space of a very few words, to make them seem cool and interesting. Maybe I've been playing too much Fire Emblem.
I don't know how concerned you are with game balance, or what character classs you're primarily intending to support. I tend to start wiht the assumption that casters are strong, fighters weak, and that cleric, rogue, druid, and wizard is the iconic party, just to warn you of my perspective.
Anyway, I risk making a fool of myself having read only a couple of these Verold races, but... wow. Just wow. I'd keep a VERY close eye on these Ravens, as their power level looks poentially through the roof.
First, +4 to INT. This is a big deal, especially with no penalties you care about. That +2 to save DCs may look innocent at first, but gets progressively more dangerous the more optimized a character is. If this pushes your mobs from saving on 15s to saving on 17s, that's an enormous boost in effectiveness. Possibly the saves of typical Veroldan mooks are highger than in D&D, but otherwise this right here seems dangerous.
Second, they are godly at low level. Play a Wizard! you should easil have a 20 INT, giving you 7 first-level spells with which to blow away the opposition. Not much fares well against DC 16 color sprays or greases at that level, and any staying power issues are gone. Alternately, play a rogue! Shell out for an 18 INT (delicious skill points!) and get two sweet area spells per day, all of which set up your sneak attacks. This get less attractive at higher levels, but is still decent.
Third, flight. I'm not one who thinks low-level flight is absolutely broken, but coming for free at level one it's a very nice perk, especially or the rogues.
Who knows, maybe other tribes have simlarly ridiculous features, (Cranes don't) but these go to some of the game's best classes, so be careful.
PS-- the animal form's stat mods just bug me. A temporary INT bonus doesn't give skill points, and presumeably one can't cast spells. What's the point? The only actual use appears to be turning into a bird to get a bonus on Knowledge checks, which seems... bizzarre.
Yea... Most of these were written before I started doing CO stuff, and even now I'm
still bad at judging casters.
Most of these have also been
re-written at least 6 times because of random computer problems I was having, even after things were supposedly fixed causing my HD to have to be wiped once every few months.
I am very concerned with game balance, just not with attempting to balance this against the standard game. And I pretty much agree with your class evaluation.
Ravens are something I've been very concerned with, especially because they don't seem powerful unless you know what can be done with the things given to them. A new player will suck much ass as a Raven, but an experienced one will dominate. And I'm having a hard time bringing those ends together while still maintaining the flavor I wanted.
And you are correct, in animal forms they cannot cast spells, though taking the SS feat "Surrogate Spellcasting" would allow to do so. And the animal/hybrid form abilities are usually based off the actual animals. Changing the animal form stat boosts to purely physical stats is something I'm actually leaning towards, but I decided it was time to stop fiddling with these and get them out there for input.
After I get some input, then I'll fiddle some more, update, ask for more input, etc.
