D&D 5E Half-Elves are taking over my game! (Or are Humans underpowered?)

[ccs]

I'd rather rebalance the half elf and human. Maybe the half-elf needs a little nerf. I really feel the human could use a little buff too. We do play with feats and humans are extremely uncommon.

Suit yourself, do more work than's necessary.

 

[Lanefan]

I find these things tend to come and go in long-term waves.

Right now you're seeing a bunch of Half-Elves go through; but in two years when your crew have had their fill of Half-Elves you'll see a wave of Dwarves or Half Orcs or Hobbitlings roll in, and so it goes...

 

[Vael]

Half-Elf has always been one of my favourite races to play. Played a few in 4e, now in 5e. Didn't play enough 3.5 to try Half-Elf.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I do think half elves are overpowered in 5e. I operate a soft-rule that only allows no more than one of each "obscure" race in the party. (Obscure being anything other than human, dwarf, elf or halfing).

 

[ignu]

I know a lot of people are going to hate this, but I love this option:

Reimagining Racial Ability Scores

How do you improve D&D’s races? Here’s one way for you to try at home: cut out the restrictive ability score modifiers and put them some...

www.dndbeyond.com

If you play and/or watch a lot of DND, there's only so many Firbolg druids and Dragonborn barbarians you can take before it gets old. I really want to incentivize players to play something like a Goblin artificer or a Drow Swarmkeeper Druid and not have every roll be 1 worse because of their racial choice.

 

[Don Durito]

Steal background from 13th age. Then drop races entirely. If someone wants to play a Dwarf they take a background that includes “Dwarf” eg. “Former bodyguard to the Dwarf king”. Any time they want to do something typically Dwarvish such as resisting poison they add that background.

 

[Shiroiken]

The Half Elf is one of the better races in 5E, but we still see more Humans in my game. Half Elves make great Bards, Sorcerers, and Warlocks, as well as descent Paladins, but not everyone wants to play those classes. In addition, since we use feats, getting a start on a your defining feat is the equivalent of +2 to your prime ability, since you don't need to get the feat at level 4. The base human does occasionally see play, since we roll ability scores, if someone gets 4+ odd ability scores (this personally drives me nuts, but whatever).

 

[Don Durito]

The Half Elf is one of the better races in 5E, but we still see more Humans in my game. Half Elves make great Bards, Sorcerers, and Warlocks, as well as descent Paladins, but not everyone wants to play those classes. In addition, since we use feats, getting a start on a your defining feat is the equivalent of +2 to your prime ability, since you don't need to get the feat at level 4. The base human does occasionally see play, since we roll ability scores, if someone gets 4+ odd ability scores (this personally drives me nuts, but whatever).

It goes a bit further than that though. My first 5E character was a helf-elf Fighter because I wanted to be good at social stuff outside combat. I also made a Rogue Half-elf because I wanted to be able to lie and swindle (this was probably a mistake; the extra skills don't really do much for the rogue and I probably would have been better being human).

 

[Ruin Explorer]

On the other hand, to paraphrase Tropic Thunder, never go full elf. Orlando Bloom went full elf and look what happened to his career.

Amusingly he is literally playing a half-elf in his latest TV role. Man can't stay away from those knife-ears.

Re Half-Elves in D&D in general I agree with the general sentiment that they're always popular, even when they have bad stats, and in 5E they also have good stats/mechanics, so there's no escaping them.

 

[jgsugden]

There is a problem with your math. Ability score bonuses are not equal to each other.

Imagine you're starving an penniless. You have nothing, and are close to death. Then you find 20 dollars. You get to buy food! You'll live a bit longer!

Then imagine you're one of the wealthiest people on Earth and you see a 20 on the ground. You won't even pause to pick it up.

Similarly, the attribute bonuses in your primary ability score for your class that raise you to an even score are the most valuable from an efficiency perspective. Then, based upon class, your constiution, dexterity or secondary ability score become important. However, and importantly, they have less value.

A sorcerer PC will relish getting a +1 or +2 to charisma. If they're a varant human they may really enjoy a higher dexterity or consttution to pair with it. If they're a half-elf, they may add to both of those ability scores ... but those additional bonuses are not as powerful.

A monk PC will find a +2 to charisma nice, but not terribly important. If they're a variant human, they'll put both of their +1 into wisdom and dexterity, usually. Same if they're a half-elf.

From a power gamer perspective, the human variant and their access to a feat at level one, without sacrificing an ASI, is incredibly strong. You have so many choices from which to select and tweak to give your PC the most power that you can. Great Weapon Master, Sharpshooter, Magic Initiate, Lucky, Polearm Master... these feats are incredibly strong and defining. Even Heavy Armor proficiency is overpowering at low levels.