Various suggestions for enhancing the 'Greater Reward'

[Vincent]

The greater reward is now particularly undesirable, with those of us lucky enough to get it receiving the rather bland options of:

Greater: -2 ECL applied to your character, OR one of the following:

Access to the Ogre race.
Access to the Deep Imaskari subrace.

The first issue is that both of the races unlocked are Underdark based, meaning for those of us who prefer the surface, we gain virtually nothing new should we earn this reward. The second issue is while I'm sure Deep Imaskari could be quite compelling to roleplay (if we ignore the fact most people will just mistake one for a typical human, lol), I wouldn't really consider roleplaying an ogre more thrilling than say, a hobgoblin or a brutish orog. I honestly think the normal reward is now far more appealing, with the the options to play a radically different imp, or the equally exciting 'good, innately evil race' choice. Naturally, the greater reward should live up to its name and be an upgrade from the normal reward, not a downgrade, and though receiving it grants one more options I know myself and many others are severely underwhelmed by its 'nerf'.

So, suggestions for improvement:

- My personal prefence: bring back the planetouched races. I realise this is the obvious thing to say, and not what you would consider 'constructive criticism', though I'm not sure what the reasoning for taking them away from the greater reward is to begin with. Is it felt that there are too many aasimar or tieflings running about? From my time playing I believe this isn't the case, it's simply that many players choose to dedicate themselves to their planetouched characters and so they seem more common. As an extremely unlucky person I have given up all hope of ever getting to play a planetouched character, which was something I was particularly eager to do before this disappointing change.

- Alternatively, you could introduce some new races that can mingle on the surface without too many problems. A few ideas for reasonable choices that don't necessarily warrant a major, but could be introduced with an altered greater:
• Satyr
• Pixie (I believe pixie is currently available, but only with 30 RPR - greaters could allow 10, 20 RPR players to enjoy the race)
• Goliath
• Githzerai
• Githyanki (both Underdark races I realise, but any improvement or expansion to the greater reward is welcome)
• Genasi (now a major reward too - though I feel they would be less popular than say, tieflings, so hopefully 'overpopulation' wouldn't be an issue)
• The Shadovar
• Various other races - the calibre of rewards is surely malleable, so why not give players who earn a greater some exciting options? I won't spend time listing off every possibility, but anything would be a welcome change in pace, from variants of devils to faerie dragons.

- My final suggestion is to expand the greater reward outside of racial choices. While I feel it is paramount more surface race choices are added to the reward to make it at all desirable for those of us who prefer daylight, I'm not resistant to any sort of addition made to the greater reward. A few fun, silly ideas:
• Diplomatic immunity: grants the player character immunity to being exiled, their property revoked etc by player leaders, meaning you can freely oppose the current regime dominating a settlement and not lose your quarter and belongings over it.
• Lesser requests: something traditionally reserved for major rewards, why not give players the ability to make a 'lesser request'? Essentially, the ability to make a more exotic character such as a planetouched, genasi etc with the stipulation that the player first explain their concept as you would an idea for a major. This way, I doubt you would face the issue of overpopulation as you can select to reward only those who will truly add something to the server with their idea.

- A suggestion unrelated to the greater reward, but pertaining to planetouched races: simply make them 30 RPR options again rather than major reward only.

I hope you enjoyed reading my suggestions and agree that utilised properly they could add significantly to the server. Arelith may be a low magic setting, but it isn't devoid of the exotic and the arcane and those occasional brushes with the unnatural are for me and many other players part of the server's strength, not a weakness. From anecdotal discussions with my friends, I know plenty of people are disappointed by this change, even those I know who have made planetouched characters in the past who feel the race simply is not worthy of a major reward. The greater reward could be a playground for 'mostly humanoid' races, with majors still holding the throne for the ability to make an exceptional request, and I can say with certainty that the entire server would surely appreciate more options for the greater reward whatever they may be, particularly for surface dwellers.