D&D 5E Balance in Races

[I'm A Banana]

2d6 damage is fairly potent...for those levels where you and your allies are one-hit-wonders that can straight-up die to a bugbear's crit. But 4d6 damage at level 11, when Fighters are getting three attacks (3d8+Str/Dex is substantially higher than 4d6, and that's before counting crits), Paladins get improved smiting, etc.? Kinda weak [edit: by comparison], actually.

Apples : Oranges. A racial feature doesn't need to be equal in power to a class feature (especially one at a higher level). A player doesn't need to pick between a dragonborn and a fighter and a paladin. A character can be a dragonborn AND a fighter or a paladin. Or, heck, a dragonborn fighter/paladin for all that.

But if you are going to compare them, 4d6 in an area is actually pretty comparable to 3d8+str/dex, if not a little better in places where you can snag multiple wee beasties at once.

Where's the fluffy stuff, the bonuses to history or intimidate or a minor healing benefit?

"I'm a frickin' dragon-person" isn't enough?

It probably wouldn't break the game to give 'em something like Advantage on Charisma checks when interacting with dragons or somesuch. It's niche enough.

 

[bganon]

Fighters and paladins don't hit everything in a 15' cone (or 30' line) or deal half damage on a "miss".

That said, I actually agree that dragonborn are on the low end of the power curve, and dwarves on the high end. I'd give dragonborn something like +1 hp healed when spending hit die - this matches a similar ability from 4E.

 

[Paraxis]

It's not just a list of individual abilities but the sum of all of them working together, that being said there are clear top tier races and clear bottom tier ones, but I still see people picking the "weak" races because they like the fluff of them.

The best races IMO (in order):
Human (variant): bonus feat is huge and the most flexibility
Halfling: Lucky is amazing (more so if you DM uses fumble rules), stealth using your party members is also crazy good.
Half-Elf: If you are a charisma primary class this is most likely your best race, the number of minor bonuses is great.
Elf: Dex is king stat (applies to halflings as well), darkvision, wilderness stealth or cantrip shenanigans
Dwarf: Great warriors, +2str/+2con wonderful, darkvision, both poison resistance and advantage is near immunity

Everyone else for the most part at this level.

Dragonborn: no darkvision, breath weapon is action not bonus action, breath weapon is once per short rest, blehhh. They took a great race from 4e and mechanically made it the worst race in the game. Still have players picking it because they love being dragon men but would always choose half-elf over this for any str/cha build.

 

[Sunseeker]

I think lack of darkvision is the biggest insult to dragonborn, but I also feel that darkvision is WAY too common in 5th edition.

 

[The Grand User]

Throw me into the camp that thinks the Dragonborn is rather weak, and really disappointed. I'd have liked to see their breath weapon be a recharge 5-6 ability, as well as give them a couple minor but flavorful benefits.

Even if the breath weapon & resistance currently is as good or even better than the other races abilities in the long run (which I doubt ) it's still shallow on the spotlight time for being a dragon person, which is the real big draw for playing the race, more so than for playing the other races imho. Once you've used it for the fight, and I'll admit it's a nice flashy use for that one moment, you're now just a strong and charismatic fighter/paladin/rogue/whatever with some energy resistance that may or may not apply.

The other races still get to have their less-flashy but more constant racialness throughout the fight and generally have other minor mechanical things for outside the fight too.

 

[phantomK9]

The only race that feels unbalanced is the "variant" human, which is strictly superior to the basic human in every way that matters.

That's interesting.
Every conversation I've seen has usually stated that the variant human was just not worth it because they were getting short changed, mathematically speaking. The premise is that a variant human only got +2 worth of ability bonuses and one feat. One feat generally being equal to +2 to abilities. So the "normal" human gets +6 worth of bonuses while the "variant" gets only +4 worth. Again, this would bring in "thing of your choice is equal to two things of our choice".

But in truth I have to agree with your assessment that "variant" human is FAR better than "basic" human simply because +1 to each stat is boring as hell. And the feats are just too fun and flavorful to pass up. In my 5e games (should I ever get the chance to run them) there will be no such thing as "variant" human and all human with have +1 to two abilities, one skill and one feat.

 

[BigVanVader]

They should have given them cool roleplaying or survival abilities. Like, the ability to eat raw meat without any side effects. They are dragons, after all.

 

[Kikuras]

Perhaps the fact that the villagers don't show up with pitchforks and torches when a dragonborn walks into town is a racial bonus?

 

[The Grand User]

No, racial relations is highly campaign dependent. Some campaigns might do that, others the Dragonborn are the one's people like to see in town and the creepy little halflings and ominous elves are the ones who draw the torches and pitchforks.

Torches and pitchforks really shouldn't be an assumption of the core rules one way or the other for the races

 

[BigVanVader]

I'm pretty sure Kakarot was joking, dude.