New Species: Matro

[Shtopit]

Matros are an ancient people distorted by powerful magic.

+1 INT every 3rd level
30% more MP than average
+4 MR per level

Powerful Conjurations: All conjuration spells cast by matros are cast as if they were wielding a staff of conjuration. It's an innate bonus that stacks with all enhancers.
Gourmand: Matros can eat chunks at any time.
MP Regeneration 1: Matros magic reserves replenish quickly.
Matros are kobold-sized.
Matros have a base Strength of 4, Intelligence of 15, and Dexterity of 5 (before Background modifiers).

Skill modifiers:

Fighting: -5
SB: -2
LB: -3
Axes: -3
Polearms: -3
M&F: -1
Staves: -2
UC: -4

Throwing: -2
Slings: -2
Bows: -2
Crossbows: -2

Armour: -1
Dodging: -1
Stealth: 0
Shields: -2

Spellcasting: -1
Conjurations: 0
Hexes: -2
Charms: -2
Summonings: -2
Necromancy: -2
Translocations: -2
Transmutation: -2
Fire: -2
Ice: -1
Air: -2
Earth: -2
Poison: -2

Invo: -1
Evo: -2

XP: -1

It's a magic troll! Well, it's the concept of troll applied to magic -- minmaxed main stat, ability to keep casting longer thanks to a larger reservoir with regeneration, powerful conj instead of claws, and bad skills all over, as long as it's not conj (I also gave 0 stealth to make partially up for the abysmal fighting aptitude).
So it's meant to be a straightforward blaster caster race that's only good at unrefined blaster casting.

It's not perfect, of course, because magic schools work with each other, which weapon schools don't. But would you play this?

[VeryAngryFelid]

Currently it would be rather far from melee Tr IMHO
Make it have +30% HP also because this is what makes Tr easy.
I would play the species for sure, I remember playing Ha from Circus Animals fork where the species started with Wild Magic 1 and then later received 2 more levels of wild magic at around XLs 9 and 18, max damage for conjuration spells was fun.

[Majang]

I'd certainly give it a try.

[TeshiAlair]

what if deep elf but smol

[Siegurt]

1. You skipped the spellcasting aptitude
2. The aptitudes for trolls for magic are mostly -3 or -4, with a -1 in earth, I think your weapon aptitudes are too good to make this a "inverted troll"

[Shtopit]

what if deep elf but smol

I wondered about that, too, but it's actually very different. The most striking differences are:
No HP penalty (which DE has)
Increased MP and improved MP regeneration (which DE lacks)
It is much costlier to use a buckler
Huge DEX difference

In general:
DE sacrifices everything else to be a great generalist mage. If you are a summoner and come across a good translocations manual, you can easily put it to use, because you learn all magic skills extremely fast.
Matro sacrifices a lot to be an excellent conjurer instead, and doesn't have other convenient options -- adding a couple of magic schools beyond the easiest spells would be too costly and leave you without sufficiently powerful killdudes. This is why it is aimed in the "troll" direction: it is simple, in that it has great ways to kill your opponents, but it also is monodirectional, which puts the accent more on tactics than strategy. I think that this kind of species would work better now than before, thanks to the presence of the noise indicator. It also would have a good teaching value, and in a different way from Orc, since Orc has awesome weapon and armour aptitudes.

Adding a HP bonus is an interesting idea. I think even just not having a HP penalty is quite good for a caster race, since they work a lot at range, but a +10% could be OK. I am worried that a +30% would lead to what I call "minotaur effect": minotaurs are too powerful AND too hard to kill, so I find them boring.

In theory, this could also be a radical halfling rework/substitute, since I occasionally saw people wondering why to play them, or finding them not very special.

[Shtopit]

1. You skipped the spellcasting aptitude
2. The aptitudes for trolls for magic are mostly -3 or -4, with a -1 in earth, I think your weapon aptitudes are too good to make this a "inverted troll"

Thank you for noticing the spellcasting thing, I set it on -1, but maybe -2 would also be OK.

The objective isn't exactly that of creating an inverted troll, more like creating a straightforward, simple caster blaster with enhanced blasting and clear limitations, with a simple gameplay. While it is inspired by troll, it is more of an attempt to port the troll gameplay over to magic. LB and polearms could get a -4, though. Polearms in particular invite summoning and necromancy, which is the opposite of specialization. Giving a -3 to SB would also be possible, it would likely mean that the 0 in stealth would have purely defensive purposes and would not be usable to superstab people.
I am thinking a lot about reposte and LB, and I wonder if I should make LB attractive by keeping the aptitude acceptable (-2 instead of -4).