Talk:Cheval (3.5e Race)

Ratings

	Leziad is neutral on this article and rated it 2 of 4.
	For the reasons I outlined below.

	The bluez in the dungeon favors this article and rated it 4 of 4!
	I'm a sucker for anthropomophic races, even though the idea isn't the most innovative thing ever. We lacked horse-people and I think the cheval are straightforward and essential, a nice addition and an effective one. They are not too OP but can fit a good number of builds. Love the lore.

Leziad's Rating

Firstly the name is just horse in french, given that french is my native language, I should know. Cheval-fier would be “proud horse”, while cheval-zahm makes no sense. In some cases the name of a race is important, like you don’t want to call a lesser medusa a “snaketilda”, sometime the name need to be recognizable. This is a minor nitpick, mostly because it is in a language I can understand. I have done similar things so I won’t subtract any points from it for that.

Minor nitpick, a bipedal horse would not be a good runner. Hooves are ideal for quadrupedal movement. Since that would apply to minotaur and such somewhat I will let that slide as fantasy make-believe stuff. So again, no point loss, it’s the point that are bipedal.

As far as the flavor, I am not impressed. Now there is nothing inherently wrong with somewhat generic lore. They are two kinds of horse anthros, one lawful and one chaotic, one peaceful and one warlike, one herbivore and one omnivore. It’s fine. However horses feature prominently in mythology, from Odin’s horse Sleipnir, Epona the gaulish goddess of horse and the various horses that pulled the chariots of the Gods. So definitely there is untouched depth that could have been explored, but has not.

Now I know that it is an anthro race and I am not really a fan of those. I don’t have a problem with them, especially when thoughts are put into their place in the world. I believe that anthro races can have really good fluff and flavor if they try. On the top of my head, a race of wolf-anthros based on the big bad wolf, with the ability to breath gusts of winds, smell good-aligned people better and disguise themselves magically. This is just a horse anthro, it has the traits you would expect from a horse. I see those as how I see the 101 flavors of elves. Some people love that there are sun elves, moon elves, wood elves, wild elves, meadow elves, mint elves, anime elves, and who knows what else. I do not. I think this would be best served with a generic ‘beastfolk’ race with lots of options. That is my vision, and I know it is not universal and shouldn't be forced on this article.

The article's completeness is on the low end. Most lore entries are only a single line, which at this point I typically just write a short paragraph. There are no racial feats, archetypes, or whatever. With Pathfinder we are starting to see things like favored class bonus, alternate racial features. So a race with nothing kinda stands out like an afterthought. While I understand that the article is relatively new, it is also marked as ‘Complete’.

The stats are inoffensive, but still quite strong. I am annoyed that they are amongst the best at their niche, and can hardly do anything else. Their stats make them great barbarians and fighters, passable monks, but mediocre anything else. On the flip side, I really like being able to wear horseshoes, there are some pretty fun ones around. On the other hand, other hooved races don’t gain that benefit.

There is nothing wrong with this race, but I feel there is not much right either. If you need to play a horse anthro with minimal questions asked, this is for you. --Leziad (talk) 19:49, 29 March 2023 (UTC)

I think calling them chéval could solve the cheval issue. On the other things I don't have much to say. I agree, as said, that the race it's pretty basic, but I think additional material could make them better without adding to the race (though I'd consider some kind of hoove/stampede attack, maybe something like what I did with my Nanduwary. --The bluez in the dungeon (talk) 22:23, 29 March 2023 (UTC)