Race Elimination Round 1!

[lukelightning]

I would have preferred if it had been some sort of racial affinity with dimensional/transport rituals instead, maybe getting the casting of them free, but I've gotten great mileage out of a once per encounter teleport right from the beginning.

I, too, had an immediate dislike of the eladrin teleport, but now I like it and have no problem. A ritual ability would not be an appropriate racial ability, though. It would be useless until paragon level at least, and would not be useful in combat.

 

[Ryujin]

I, too, had an immediate dislike of the eladrin teleport, but now I like it and have no problem. A ritual ability would not be an appropriate racial ability, though. It would be useless until paragon level at least, and would not be useful in combat.

I used the wrong term; should have been 'exploration' rituals.

I was thinking in terms of the way that Bards get one free ritual a day, coupled with the ability to cast exploration rituals as if the character had the ritual caster feat. Maybe some bonus to casting those rituals if you have the feat too.

Imagine an Eladrin Warlord who waves his hands and an army of pixies builds a campsite for the party, or whistles and a herd of ghostly Elven horses run over the nearest rise, to carry the group on to its next adventure. Seems a bit more "mysterious and other-worldly" than blink-blink, doesn't it?

Most of the races on that list just make me say, "Meh." Minotaurs, bullywugs, and hobgoblins? Really?

 

[eamon]

I'm somewhat surprised about the votes the warforged is getting... I mean, unlike 95% of the other options, that one at least meaningfully and flavorfully differs.

Unlike, say, "Monstrous Humanoid race #37" and "Minor variant of other race #42".

'course, if human doesn't remain the last man standing, I'm curious what will.

These polls have a weird dynamic, what with you get to vote away races rather than vote to keep good ones ;-). Which is just fine, of course .

 

[Davachido]

For me its the Minotaur. Enter big, strong PC with huge muscles #32451. Also roleplaying reasons you can't exactly enter a simple village and not scare someone straight away.

I don't like many of the races in the MM anyway. Having PC races in the MM is something kept over from 3e but since a lot of these don't have feat support I find people don't play them often.

 

[fireinthedust]

Shifters for some reason connected with the Gypsies for me... the werewolf and curses and such really brings them together... so we get wanderers and witches and outcasts accused of thievery, but connected to nature in very basic ways... all the while reveling in joyous music and bright colorful clothing with duels being common but not normally deadly duels just like wolf prove yourself duels. Moonlight parties. More joy than angst.

I like this, tho I'd have them as the skulking quiet types of the band. Half-elves, gnomes and human bards would do well for the music part; sort of a symbiotic relationship.

I wonder if Shifters are treated as connected with the Primal power source as default for this, or if they're generally martial with a few examples who go primal.


Gnomes: I'm a huge 4e Gnome fan. The outcry from the PH1 has meant that extra work was put into them. Not just for the PH2, but also for Pathfinder trying to snap up people who wanted gnome love. Ironically, the 4e gnome is a lot like the Pathfinder gnome.

Halflings lost a lot of ground in 4e, tho. Maybe because the Rogue isn't the only option for that part of the party, or maybe because so many of the races are also Dex/Cha now, and don't have the limitations of Small size.

Drow: This is a huge surprise for me!
I think it's backlash from Drizzt, and also that the numbers don't do what they did in earlier editions. Charisma is good, but they should have the same option as Changelings: +2 Dex, +2 Cha *or* Int. Having an Elven race that was +2 to the last of the three mental stats is fine, and fits them; but so many builds for PC drow were mages! At least, I thought so. Mage, Rogue, Ranger with two swords, Cleric of Lloth... now they can't do the wizard as well, or the Cleric, or the two-blade ranger.

 

[Mengu]

On the topic of eliminations, I'd say eliminate 6 per poll. After 5 polls, you'll have 5 races left, then you can drop it to single elimination, and in 4 more tolls, you'll have results. At 3 days per poll, that would be a 27 day event.

 

[lukelightning]

Imagine an Eladrin Warlord who waves his hands and an army of pixies builds a campsite for the party, or whistles and a herd of ghostly Elven horses run over the nearest rise, to carry the group on to its next adventure. Seems a bit more "mysterious and other-worldly" than blink-blink, doesn't it?

Not to me. Sounds like its just dressing up mundane stuff that the party could do "by hand."

If a race had this power, with no useful racial encounter, then it would not be balanced with the other races.

 

[interwyrm]

On the topic of eliminations, I'd say eliminate 6 per poll. After 5 polls, you'll have 5 races left, then you can drop it to single elimination, and in 4 more tolls, you'll have results. At 3 days per poll, that would be a 27 day event.

It's a pretty trivial distinction, but I'd prefer it if it were something like 6 the first, 5 the second, 4 the third, etc.

 

[ZzarkLinux]

I want the non-PHB races gone.
I'll vote at them.

 

[fireinthedust]

Keep in mind for Eladrin, some of the races with two stats per one defence tend to have a powerful ability to compensate: Eladrin get teleport, Kalashtar get 5-square telepathy, Shadar-Kai get teleport and concealment and phasing and a big kick in the @$$ out of this poll for being emo (at this rate).
The Str-Con builds get high hp and bonuses to Atheletics, which is pretty big on its own, not to mention already high basic melee attacks; and the stats are useful for any martial class and many of the others.


I'm actually surprised to see Eladrin or Half-elves on the list, considering how juicy their mechanical benefits are. Half-elves can get more racial feats than anyone (action surge?), plus dilettante (warlord granting other players an attack?), plus they make good paladins, bards, warlocks, sorcerers, and reasonable other stuff.

6 per round isn't too bad. I would want to give later rounds more days, though, so people can really root for their faves.