If a squad consists entirely of members of one race, the squad gains some very small racial benefit, like the following:

• Aslaran: A pride hunts more ferociously, giving members +1 DMP to damage per two members.
• Dracnari: If a squad uses their fire-breathing attack together on the same target, they can do more damage and might ignite the target.
• Dwarf: A squad of dwarven drinking buddies get damage resistance due to drunkenness is as if they were 1% per member drunker than they are.
• Elfen: Groups of elfen draw magical energies together in unseen patterns, reducing mana costs for skills by 1% per member.
• Faeling: A group of faeling protect each other from breezes, affording a 3% chance per member to resist wind while in flight.
• Furrikin: Fur everywhere! A pack of furrikin are in slippery constant motion, increasing their chances to dodge attacks 1% per member.
• Human: As aliens in Lusternia, humans cling together. A squad of humans loses less ego by 1% per member.
• Igasho: Rarely seen in groups, but when they are, igasho draw strength from one another. Any stun resistance is increased in duration 2% per squad member.
• Illithoid: In a squad, the ego boost from ILLDRAIN deteriorates a little slower as members strengthen each other's will.
• Kephera: If a squad is also a hive, the hive adds 55 instead of 50 to stats per member.
• Krokani: What one misses another might see. In a squad, krokani see through illusions even better than alone.
• Loboshigaru: A circling pack protects each other, giving everyone a +1 DMP per two members.
• Lucidian: Intellectual pursuits benefit from collaboration and peer review. While together in a squad, lucidians will know slightly more of their skills (similar to how divine favours work, but much smaller) proportional to their number.
• Merian: A school of merian move together effortlessly, increasing their dexterity 1 when in water.
• Mugwump: Clinging together offers protection against the dreaded fire. The susceptibility to fire is slightly reduced proportional to the number of mugwumps.
• Orclach: Orclachmar was a master of formation fighting, and hordes of orclach coordinate their movements unconsciously, reducing the chance for foes to dodge their coordinated attacks.
• Tae'dae: If a squad of tae'dae coordinate a group bearhug, the target takes more damage and might be knocked down.
• Taurian: When part of a race squad, taurians can stampede affecting only those within their squad, not enemy taurians also present.
• Trill: Birds of a feather flock together! When flying in a squad, trill can move farther before getting the "don't be hasty" message since they slipstream each other's movements like a flock of geese in a V.
• Viscanti: The only thing more intimidating than a demonic viscanti is five demonic viscanti. In groups, their advantage in intimidation influencing increases.

These race-powered boosts are very tiny, so this bonus would never outweigh the various loyalties we all have other than race, but it might still encourage loboshigaru to hunt in packs, trill to travel in flocks, etc. and thus encourage paying slightly more attention to race.

Even a single member not of that race would break the squad bonus.

If you don't like the specific boost ideas, suggest new ones. But try to keep seperate whether you like the overall idea but dislike the specific boosts, or if you don't like the whole idea. Problems with the boosts could be addressed by making up new ones; no need to throw out the whole idea.

This might seem like a big change to squads, but I bet if squads had existed since day one, a bunch of these would have already been done, and some of the existing racial abilities would always have been linked to squads. It just seems bigger because squads are a relatively late addition so things weren't designed to integrate with them.

Interesting idea, I must admit.

I think if something like this was implemented I would request that only those who are in the squad, but also in the same room as the other members see an impact, or else you could, say... recruit everyone that's a certain race in the organization into the squad and as long as they're sitting at the Nexus, they benefit your offensive/defensive.

Really? Giving Viscanti a influencing bonus? Forget that they have crap for charisma but how would you even influence in a squad in the first place?



edit: but other than that, it seems neat

Giving Viscanti a influence bonus is the only one that is glaringly useless. You don't influence in squads. What if they got extra protection from poison damage?

I'd say all the ones that don't have any hunting uses are useless because you'd never get a squad for combat together with just the one race.

Might also look at something like dual racial bonuses, like tae'dae/furrikin.

Interesting idea!

I think it'd be cool if everyone in a squad were allowed to bring their 'little something extra', even if the entire squad weren't of a uniform race. Admittedly, the abilities should be made a bit more unique for that to work out, but it's a great basic idea.

That's how I intended it, didn't think of saying so explicitly though.

Yeah, I didn't much like the viscanti one either.

The centuries of Viscanti heritage and pride shows through in large groups, boosting max ego relative to the number of Viscanti?

No, HELL NO. Not as if certain races aren't played enough as it is.

Certain races are underplayed because they're considered (or outright are) mechanically inferior to other races for the purposes of PvP combat and/or bashing/influencing. I support any device, mechanical or purely communal, that addresses that and seeks to either lessen the severity of, or bridge entirely the gap between such races. If nothing else, this IDEA is a step in the right direction.

No, no it's not. The race themselves need to be reworked not what happens when a lot of people of that race get together, especially since you may never get a lot of your race together. Also the list right now is completely unbalanced.

I think that you're adressing two separate issues here. You're saying that races need to be reworked, something that Lendren was not suggesting and can do nothing about, and that the list of benefits is unbalanced, something that Lendren was asking for feedback on and is an issue that he is quite willing and able to adjust. Personally, I think that the idea is very cool regardless of the state of the races.

I actually think these benefits are so small that no one would pay attention to them, and they would be quickly forgotten about.

If you're forming a bashing group, and you can only find one or two more Aslaran, are you going to stick with that because you get 5 DMP, or just bring in more people? More people would be more beneficial by far.

It's a neat idea, though, I think the perks are too negligible.

I think they could be safely buffed quite a bit without worrying about people grouping with enemies solely for the benefit.

Certainly something like this is entirely independent of a racial reworking, and we already know that such a reworking is on the long-term plan of stuff to do. So it's fair to say, imagine either a) that this happens after races have been rebalanced, or b) that this could be part of the rebalancing (unlikely but potentially cool).

maybe make them utility abilities?

for example, give loboshigaru in a squad of five or more the ability to scent, or illithoid in a group of five or more the ablility to stalk/infilitrate?

that way, you gain nominal combat advantage and slightly more roleplay advantage.

either way, though, I like the idea.

I actually like this idea better, though some of the other races (ie human) will take a bit of imagining... Maybe furrikin can group-shed and... something.