I'm just curious, were there ever plans to give bards and monks org specs in Elfen, Faeling, Merian and Viscanti? It seems logical in a sense even if it would make bard and monk shadowfaelings disgusting, since the original 3 guilds specialise. It's easily justified either way, but the fact that monks and bards don't have spec races seems to defeat the point of having them in the first place.

I don't really care since I'm a changeling, but am wondering anyway.

You're a changeling? That's sick; I need 1k spare credits.

As for monk specs, I think most of the races could do pretty well if they got the same specs as warriors. Merians/Elfen would be pretty powerful. Imperial Merians have 16str/14dex/15con/13int/11cha/14size, Elfen Lords have 15str/16dex/14con/13int/13size. Shadowlordss may still not have enough str/con to make them very powerful, but the high dex/balance bonus/faster healing might make up for it - they have 10str/18dex/11con/12int/13cha/6size. Viscanti still aren't very good, even with specs. The warrior spec gives them +3str +2dex +1con and +2 size (total of 16str/12dex/15con/9int/9cha/15size). They would need at least +4 dex (for 14 total dex) to be on par with specced elfen and merians.

It would also be interesting to see kephera/illithoid bonuses. Nothing huge, but something like the warrior race benefits with native weapons, or maybe something like +1 str (unweighted) when choosing Seren/Celest specs for Kephera of Mag/Glom specs for Illithoid.

I am mostly ignorant on bards, so I will leave it to the people who know more to comment on them.

Hey, the native weapon benefit sounds like a good idea for Kephera/Illithoid. I forgot they existed. (the weapon benefits)

I'm curious about this too.

I would like to see them implemented, but I seriously doubt that's going to happen any time soon, given Estarra's reluctance to modify some races (but not all of them).

For the record, I would like to see viscanti upgraded regardless. It's sad that merian lords get +2dex, +4int, +2cha, and -2 size (which most people would argue is a good thing) over their viscanti counterparts. For a spec race, viscanti are sad.

Back on topic, does anyone have any ideas for bard specs? What would they need without being insanely OP?

Elfen Lord > Merian Lord.

There's no plans for bard and monk specialized races at this time. It's true that I am reluctant to modify races on a piecemeal basis. I'd prefer all races are examined and rebalanced (if needed) at the same time as we've done before. I have been saying that we are considering another racial balancing overview after monks have had several months to get settled in.

I think that's fair enough, both because you don't want to end up with the "only one race is good for each archetype" situation. You also don't want to jump in and make big changes for a new class that's not settled in yet.

All of that said, I think that most of the fighters would agree that the new rebalancing will definitely be needed. Some races (aslaran/faeling/elfen/merian/etc) are actually fine now, but there are others (viscanti, dwarves, etc) that definitely need work. It's fair to want to wait and do them all at once, but it will almost certainly be needed at some point in the foreseeable future.

I actually have to disagree with your listing a bit. Some of the races you put in as "fine" are probably a bit "too fine," while others are a bit more lacking (depending on archetype and specialization, of course).

Dwarves and Viscanti could use work, yes.

I believe the "what can use work" is a tad subjective, but I do feel that some races could use it. Roleplay is supposed to come before stats but we all know how pointlessly untrue that is in practice. There is a reason there are so few Dwarves and such in the Basin. I hope those that need it can get the changes so that we will see more of certain races about. *COUGH WHERE ARE YOU DRACNARI AT!? COUGH*

I'm sure Dracnari will get a racial spec when the cities come out.

Dracnari will get specs whenever Gaudiguch comes out.

Roleplay should not come before making a class viable in combat.

I didn't say anything about Drac spec. I was just wondering where all the Dracs are at, rwho is looking kind of slim lately...

And, according to what I was told when I started in Beta, "you should choose a race for roleplay, not for stats", though it usually doesn't happen that way. That was my point about roleplay vs. stats.

In Gaudiguch. I would bet a large amount of money that when the lost cities get released, the trill, dracnari and lucidan population will skyrocket.

Yea that is true

That happens with most races, actually. :/

I look forward to the day when every race is suitable for at least one class.

It's a little disappointing that there won't be any racial specializations in the monk and bard guilds.

Heretofore I had been thinking that they might specialize differently from the other guilds: for example, it seemed logical that kephera and illithoid would get a race specialization boost when they studied enough Harmony or whatever-illithoids-will-get, regardless of city or commune. That would be balancing, appropriate, and perhaps interestingly different, since it would be a different pattern. Bards might do the same with one or another race (humans, as wanderers? furrikin, tying into Lolly's affiliation with "show business"?), or they could specialize like the other guilds do (makes sense for elfen and faelings well enough; not as clear an association between merians or viscanti and music, but it could work).

I hate to sound critical, but this just feels like another affirmation that the fourth and fifth guilds are always going to feel like afterthoughts and second-class citizens. I'd feel a lot better if we had guards and nexus powers though.

I gave up on asking for those a long, long time ago.