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Well, they will make great Avengers (Wis and Int/Dex). That, combined with their elven accuracy-like racial ability, is enough to make me consider rolling up a deva avenger...
I'm a little confused as to why the deva flavor and optimization 'doesn't match?'
Because its not enough for people that a race with a shtick be good at their shtick. The race also has to be bad at things that are not its shtick. Unfortunately, with only six ability scores and with all races but one receiving +2 to two of them, there are only 15 possible combinations. There are already more than 15 classes, and each class uses at least two possible combinations of primary and secondary ability score. So overlap is inevitable.
To be honest, flavor/optimisation mismatch is all over the place.
Hmm. Going through the PHB races:
Dragonborn: Excellent paladins, perfect inspiring warlords, solid fighters. Good match. Dwarf: Good clerics, tolerable fighters and paladins, good... infernal warlocks? Mediocre match. Eladrin: Perfect wand wizards, very solid non-wand wizards, good rogues and archer rangers, decent tactical warlords. Good match. Elf: Perfect archer rangers, solid clerics and rogues. Good match. Half-Elf: Very good... warlocks. Solid paladins? Sucky match. Sucky race, for that matter. Halfling: Perfect trickster rogues, good archer rangers, good feylocks, good... paladins? Good match, except for the paladin bit. Human: Reasonably good at everything. Excellent match. Tiefling: Very good wizards, decent warlords, good at every kind of warlock except infernal. Wizards and warlords make sense, but that last bit kind of ruins it.
So, out of eight races, there are three with serious optimization/flavor mismatches (dwarf, half-elf, and tiefling). Not too bad, but definite room for improvement.
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Dragonborn: Excellent paladins, perfect inspiring warlords, solid fighters. Good match. Dwarf: Good clerics, tolerable fighters and paladins, good... infernal warlocks? Mediocre match. Eladrin: Perfect wand wizards, very solid non-wand wizards, good rogues and archer rangers, decent tactical warlords. Good match. Elf: Perfect archer rangers, solid clerics and rogues. Good match. Half-Elf: Very good... warlocks. Solid paladins? Sucky match. Sucky race, for that matter. Halfling: Perfect trickster rogues, good archer rangers, good feylocks, good... paladins? Good match, except for the paladin bit. Human: Reasonably good at everything. Excellent match. Tiefling: Very good wizards, decent warlords, good at every kind of warlock except infernal. Wizards and warlords make sense, but that last bit kind of ruins it.
So, out of eight races, there are three with serious optimization/flavor mismatches (dwarf, half-elf, and tiefling). Not too bad, but definite room for improvement.
I'd beg to differ on the tiefling infernal warlock. Thanks to hellfire blood, tieflings make good infernal and star warlocks. There are a lot of fire and fear powers between those two pacts, and so with hellfire blood a starting Con 16/Int 16/Cha 16 is fine.
As for half-elves, they also make good bards and decent inspiring and bravura warlords, which is somewhat appropriate flavor-wise.
Finally, dwarves make very good defensive fighters focusing on Str/Con or Str/Wis. Dwarven pit fighters are very durable, and dwarven iron vanguards (ideally with craghammers and heavy shields) can be quite effective.
^ Is it more important to you that races match classes, rather than that races and classes individually make sense?
For example, dwarves are tough. Given. Infernal warlocks have to be tough. Maybe not a given, but it's fine with me. So...why should a dwarf be mechanically punished for playing against type and being a warlock? Maybe the dwarves have a cultural prohibition against being infernal warlocks because they are scarily good at it. (This, of course, overlooks the fact that Wisdom is useless for a warlock and so it's hardly a perfect fit anyway.)
BTW, the picture of the paladin in the PHB is a half-elf. They make at least as much "sense" as paladins as a dragonborn does. And what's wrong with halfing paladins?
I always felt Tieflings were a good match for Bards (and they are in 4e, as cunning bards) as they were one of the only races that could become bards back in 2e.
I'm a little confused as to why the deva flavor and optimization 'doesn't match?' They 'defend and inspire?' Alright, so with INT and WIS you've got the Swordmage as a Defender and either the Tactical or Resourceful Warlord as Leader. They're also the two most common rider stats, so they shore up secondary effects for the Fighter (especially the Pit Fighter), and to some extent the Ranger and Cleric as long as you're willing to have a clear dump stat somewhere else.
It's more like: devas get more benefit from their ability score bonuses by being orb wizards (who benefit from both high Intelligence and high Wisdom) instead of being swordmages and warlords (who don't benefit much from a high Wisdom), or being clerics and fighters (who don't benefit much from a high Intelligence). Of course, ability scores aren't the entire story. Racial feats can make the race excel at the specific classes they are associated with, flavor-wise, even if their racial modifiers to ability scores aren't a perfect match. This is what I'm hoping to see for the deva and the defender and leader classes.
I'm with RickVigorous. Tieflings make great infernalocks due to hellfire blood. There's more to what race makes a great class than matching stat boost to attack/support stat.
See also dwarves make great fighters due to 2nd wind being a minor action, and taking no speed penalty for heavy armor. As for the infernalock synergy, duergar anyone?
Halflings make... questionable paladins due to their speed being only 4 in heavy armor.
As for the deva (sorry - back on topic now), int/wis does seem an odd choice at first glance as neither of those stats seem to relate to protecting or inspiring, but they're perfect matches for both invoker and avenger and a good match for cleric.
I would have thought that wis/cha would have suited better, but considering their fluff, it fits better that they'd be invokers more than any other divine class (see the awesome rockband roadie analogy above), and at least this way there'll be less deva rogues & warlocks running around.
Halflings make... questionable paladins due to their speed being only 4 in heavy armor.
Just a little correction here - halfling base speed is 6, so halflings in heavy armor have speed 5, just like most people. So halflings do make reasonable paladins.
Every time someone says Avenger, I either picture Captain America saying, "America still needs your help!" or I remember that in the Companion set, Avengers were evil counterparts to the Paladin and to the Knight, i.e. they were blackguards.
Just a little correction here - halfling base speed is 6, so halflings in heavy armor have speed 5, just like most people. So halflings do make reasonable paladins.
This is true. However they must wield versatile weapons two-handed (including the longsword, bastard sword, warhammer) and can't wield two-handed weapons at all. That rather limits their weapon choice/damage potential. Still, they make great tanks, what with "lost in the crowd," and the second chance ability.
Every time someone says Avenger, I either picture Captain America saying, "America still needs your help!" or I remember that in the Companion set, Avengers were evil counterparts to the Paladin and to the Knight, i.e. they were blackguards.
And then he says, "Thank you quicksilver!," followed by, "OK, GO!!"
This is true. However they must wield versatile weapons two-handed (including the longsword, bastard sword, warhammer) and can't wield two-handed weapons at all. That rather limits their weapon choice/damage potential. Still, they make great tanks, what with "lost in the crowd," and the second chance ability.
That's true, though I don't think it makes as huge a difference as most people would think. The defender in my campaign is a halfling fighter, and he's one of the more effective characters, especially when Lost in the Crowd comes into effect. In case you're curious, he wields a "brutal axe" with two hands - same stats as a craghammer, but it's an axe (because he wanted an axe, but liked brutal, and he's a halfling, so I obliged).
I have to say he's one of the more entertaining characters I've had so far - the little hobbit (the player insists he's a hobbit, not a halfling ) thinks he's actually a dwarf. Calls every dwarf he meets his brother, is in love with armor and axes and ale, etc etc...
Every time someone says Avenger, I either picture Captain America saying, "America still needs your help!" or I remember that in the Companion set, Avengers were evil counterparts to the Paladin and to the Knight, i.e. they were blackguards.
Blackguard? Avengers weren't anti-paladins in the evil sense, they were anti-paladins in the chaotic sense. The 4e avenger is very much a non-evil opposite of the paladin, if not quite the same way as the BD&D version.
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The INT/WIS seems to best match the idea of it constantly reincarnating and thus being an old soul that retains some echoes of it's previous life.
In the PHBII they have one holding an orb in the picture next to the race write up. They also mention that they favor: avenger, cleric, invoker and wizard. They would work well as a swordmage, especially with the paragon path built around wisdom. [The laser cleric with good int could wear hide armor, and have a great religion skill].
I think when D&D 4.5 comes out next year, they will increase the number of abilities 50%.
With Strength, Constitution, Agility, Quickness, Intelligence, Learning, Charisma, Wisdom and Appearance; and how all races get one more +2 to a floating ability (so Humans get two, both floating), this should allow the game to support lots more races with individual "shticks" (i.e unique subsets of favored classes)!
Regrettably, we need to buy a new set of PHBs to get the new class write-ups (whose powers are keyed off the nine abilities) but I still think this is better for the game, and so well worth waiting for!
) thinks he's actually a dwarf. Calls every dwarf he meets his brother, is in love with armor and axes and ale, etc etc... 
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