D&D 5E Race Class Combos, Design, Roleplaying and the fear of the new

[guachi]

I hate the idea that each race and subrace has to be designed around being good in one stat or another. We'll end up with elven subraces specifically designed around having +1 in every stat aside from dexterity.

The primary difference between races and subraces is where you get your stat bonuses. High elves are the intelligent elves and wood elves are the wise elves. And, bizarrely, in a world where humans are the majority or plurality, they have no subraces whatsoever. We all know why there aren't human subraces and that makes the existence of non-human subraces more frustrating.

So this is what I did. IIRC, all nonhuman races get a +2 in at least one stat. I allow players to take one plus from that +2 stat and put it in any other stat with the caveat that no stat can be more than +2. This means that anyone can have a +1 anywhere and that's all you really need at level 1 as that gets you your 16 with point buy/array. Humans can take one plus from a stat and add it to any other stat so humans can have +2 to any one stat. So they end up with four +1s, one +2 and one +0.

I think this reduces race shopping. I also thought it would increase people wanting to be humans in my campaign, but it didn't (no variant humans allowed).

Currently in my campaign I have:
A Wood Elf Eldritch Knight who outright swapped the +1 Wisdom bonus for the +1 Intelligence bonus from high elf. (because I didn't care. concept over rigid book mechanics)
A Human Sorcerer who gave himself +2 Charisma and dropped Intelligence.
A Forest Gnome Arcane Trickster who didn't change anything but probably will if she switches to Assassin.
A High Elf Wizard who swapped a +1 from Dexterity to Intelligence and then took linguist at level 4 so has an 18 Intelligence.
A Stout Halfling Paladin who took a +1 from Dexterity and added it to Strength. She's now the strongest character in the party.

Previously I had a Stout Halfling Monk, Wood Elf Ranger, and a Mountain Dwarf Barbarian who changed nothing and a Hill Dwarf Druid who took a point of Constitution and added it to Wisdom.

 

[Sacrosanct]

I think if you changes stat bonuses to saving throw bonuses, you'd still be able to mechanically involve the flavor of the race without pushing races to one or two specific classes.

 

[TwoSix]

It's not always about the destination. Unless that destination has fewer paladins.

Wherever you go, there you are. Especially if where you go is a place with thri-kreen paladins.

 

[Staccat0]

I never played it, but on the surface I think the racial powers in 4e went some way to balling with this.

Like, Tieflings could make a solid fighter with a fire weapon. An Eladrin being able to teleport made for good backstabbing.

I’ve often envisioned a system where you could choose either a power or a stat bump.

Maybe you make a Dwarf who forgoes a minor bump in Wis in exchange for the ability to “Stone Step” or something thematic.

 

[Satyrn]

Wherever you go, there you are. Especially if where you go is a place with thri-kreen paladins.

Thri-kreen paladins dual-wielding gnome paladins dual-wielding rapiers!

Gnome-tossing!

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[TwoSix]

2. Humor is difficult. Again, when someone says that they disagree with me because, "I think Paladins add a lot to the game. I agree with you about Gnomes, but not with your solution[,]" I am not entirely sure what to say. But for those who are unclear on the concept- I do not, in fact, believe that Gary Gygax created the Katana class as the most awesomest class ever and all other classes are reflections on Plato's cave. I am not currently shopping for a bathtub to drown all the Paladins. I do not own a spit upon which to roast gnomes. I do not believe the d12 should replace every other die in D&D. I do not think that the rapier should be renamed the canolier. I am not currently working on 6e using a system to replace charisma with Not-Paladin-ness. I understand that misunderstandings can occur when people do things in a humorous manner, but I am not sure how much more clear things like this can be.

Everything I believed is a lie!

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[Satyrn]

Everything I believed is a lie!

Don't worry. You can tell everything he says in that quote is the lie right from the very start: He says humour is difficult, but he's #1 in laughs.


For now.

 

[TwoSix]

Don't worry. You can tell everything he says in that quote is the lie right from the very start: He says humour is difficult, but he's #1 in laughs.


For now.

If you check the stats, you'll notice I'm aware of it.