Encounter-Minor-Personal
If the next attack you make with a weapon before the end of your next turn hits the target, it becomes an automatic critical hit.

That’s more or less the same as what I wrote for the Simian’s racial power. I’d suggest that if you have concerns with the wording I gave that you should use the (official/core) wording for Righteous Rage of Tempus in it’s place.

One suggestion I would make- rather than scaling it down- is to make it a pre-hit power. So the next attack, if it hits, is a critical hit. It would make it more useful, and lessen the chances of it being abused.

Does that make sense?

-Matt

I also find having all classes available to all races (eg. I’m a Gnome Barbarian RAWR!) is of questionable merit…

Since the stat bonuses of the Simian lend themselves very nicely to being a Rogue (Brutal Scoundrel) you can kind of abuse them a little bit.

Here’s an example of a basic Level 1 Simian:

Str: 16 Feats: – Rapier Proficiency
Con: 13
Dex: 18
Int: 10
Wis:11
Cha: 12

Start each encounter with the following Set of Maneuvers:

-Roll Initiative (you’re good at this with your Dex bonus/Allies Bonus)
-Move up to a target that hasn’t acted yet
-You get free combat advantage against them (Class Feature)
-Attack using Level 1 Encounter Power ‘Torturous Strike’
Attack Bonus = +9 (4 Ability, 3 Rapier, 2 Combat Advantage)
Damage (auto-crit racial power) = 38 Automatic Damage

2[W](Rapier d8), +4 Dex, + 3 Str, +3 Str (again due to Torturous Strike), + 2d6 Sneak attack Damage.

Just think about every fight starting with one of the equivalent level mobs dying first turn. Not to mention the fact that Crits scale almost unfairly with magical equipment and other bonuses as you level. Half-Orcs aren’t even close to this. It’s defintely not the most balanced race in the game.

I tried to keep the Half-Orc’s racial power to add an extra dice of damage in mind as a benchmark. Most of the time I’d pick 2d10 over a straight 10 points of damage, which makes the Half-Orc’s racial power better most of the time. It’s only in combination with using up one of a character’s other powers at the same time that makes the Simian’s racial power preferable to the Half-Orc’s. Although depending on the combat using up 2 powers at once also has it’s drawbacks.

I think it’s quite comparable to the Half-Orc, but distinctive enough that it gives the Simians a different feel.

Edit: My preference is certainly for lower-level and lower-magic campaigns. If the extra damage from magic weapons was too unwieldy then I’d think about making that a limitation of the racial power: it doesn’t trigger the critical hit benefits from magic weapons.

You may need to nerf the racial ability slightly* since magic weapons do extra dice of damage per +, so at higher levels this might be overpowered as DeadGod observes (automatic extra 6d10 damage with a Berserker Weapon +6). However, I can’t imagine Simians will be upsetting the worldwide balance of power, so it may as well stay as printed until proven ridiculous over a campaign.

* deals maximum weapon damage, for example, or triggers on a basic melee attack (that would be a sweet attack of opportunity)