D&D (2024) Half Race Appreciation Society: Half Elf most popular race choice in BG3

[fluffybunbunkittens]

I don't find it surprising. Half-Elves are humans+ - you still look like a human but get to feel special regardless.

Meanwhile, poor Half-Lings are at the bottom, when even the game's own camera is against them.

 

[Minigiant]

What kind of system do you think might make it through?

Something like the custom Heritage or Variant Human.

Like a hybrid gets a bonus 1st level feat by trading out features from a base race.

 

[Vaalingrade]

I mean we should finally get a good, strong interspecies feat system.

We will get a vague handwave toward reskinning without doing a very good job of explaining it.

 

[Minigiant]

I mean we should finally get a good, strong interspecies feat system.

We will get a vague handwave toward reskinning without doing a very good job of explaining it.

That's an option I thought of as well.

1) Create a level 1 species feat for each race
2) Choose 2 level 1 species feats to create a hybrid

 

[Charlaquin]

okay, I don't follow Wizards and D&D much, but I gather that half races (or ancestries or whatever they are calling it now) is going away?

ummm, why?

I'm half asian, half white. I don't see any issue.

Rumors of the death of mixed-species characters have been greatly exaggerated.

What’s happening is that, in one of the early playtest Unearthed Arcanas, WotC opened up the concept of mixed-species to no longer be human/elf and human/orc exclusive. Instead, they added a sidebar saying if you want to play a character with mixed ancestry, you can choose descriptive traits from both parent species, and choose one species or the other to receive the mechanical traits from. This UA did not include full species write-ups for half-elf or half-orc. However, orc and elf were both included as full species, and as per the sidebar, you could choose to play an orc or an elf with a human parent, or a human with an elf or orc parent, or any other combination you want. It’s also likely that half elf and half orc not having full species write ups is what opened up the page count for orcs and goliaths (which also appeared in the Unearthed Arcana) to be added to the player’s handbook.

 

[CleverNickName]

I hope they stay on the current trajectory, the one that was introduced with Tasha's Cauldron of Everything.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

okay, I don't follow Wizards and D&D much, but I gather that half races (or ancestries or whatever they are calling it now) is going away?

ummm, why?

I'm half asian, half white. I don't see any issue.

They think that “decide what you look like freely, but regardless of what you choose you are physiologically (ie mechanically) either one or the other. Completely.” will be acceptable and somehow non-problematic.

 

[Scribe]

It’s also likely that half elf and half orc not having full species write ups is what opened up the page count for orcs and goliaths (which also appeared in the Unearthed Arcana) to be added to the player’s handbook.

Objection your honour, speculation and leading the witness.

Having purchased Fizbans, Wizards could also simply learn how to template better and save dramatic amounts of page space.

 

[DEFCON 1]

I don't own BG3, so my question would be what are the mechanical bonuses you get with half-elves in the game?

We all know that Humans and Elves have always been the two most popular races in the game for decades... and more often than not the Half-Elf has been better mechanically than the Elf, which is why so many players often went in that direction. They wanted to be elves, but the H-E was just a better mechanical choice. I mean just take a look at the multiclassing options available in 2E-- Half-Elf could almost take every single option whereas the other races only could get a few. So we as players were trained to think of the Half-Elf as the most varied species option available. No matter the direction we wanted to go, the Half-Elf could take us there.

Even in 5E14, the Half-Elf gain +2 / +1 / +1 to their ability scores, which is one point better than almost every other species that gets +2 / +1 (and the H-E's two +1s can be in any ability score they want, making them even more varied)... they get the Darkvision and Fey Ancestry of the Elf (which keeps them in the Elf family of most popular species in the game)... and you get two free Skills (which many players again feel make them the species able to be the most varied of characters). It also doesn't hurt that their +2 in is CHA, which is the prime score for 3 different classes in the game.

Half-Elves mechanically were almost always top tier-- no matter what of kind of PC you were playing, it was always one of the strongest choices. And so if BG3 used the 5E14 rules for the Half-Elf, it wouldn't surprise me at all that they were popular in that game too.

Now does that mean they should remain in 5E24? To me that's debatable, because I happen to agree with a lot of the reasons why they might get removed... but I'm also completely okay if WotC decides to put a rules block for Multi-Species rules that allow players to mix and match some species features the same way they have Multi-Classing rules that do the same. It's a minor bone that I don't see any reason not to throw to people. That way the Half-Elf and Half-Orc stans can still have those options available to them... but all the other players who might want Dwarf/Gnomes, Halfling/Goblins, or Aasimar/Tieflings can have a mechanical system to generate them as well and go along with their narrative decisions.

But whether or not WotC makes it for the 5E24 book though I guess we will have to wait and see.

 

[Scribe]

Half-Elves mechanically were almost always top tier-- no matter what of kind of PC you were playing, it was always one of the strongest choices. And so if BG3 used the 5E14 rules for the Half-Elf, it wouldn't surprise me at all that they were popular in that game too.

All the ASI was made (boring) floating in BG3. My Half Elf (Wood) gets additional movement. I'll pause now for the gasps at how OP it is.

Half-Elf | Baldurs Gate 3 Wiki

Half-Elf is a Race in Baldur's Gate 3. Half-Elf guide with all features, traits, subraces and tips for BG3.

baldursgate3.wiki.fextralife.com