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

[Azzy]

I don't think that humans are underpowered, I think it's just half-elves have always been popular. (Funny enough, though, I've only seen one half-elf since I started playing 5e.)

 

[Xeviat]

I just wanted to echo the opinion that your math is a little off. The variant human’s ASI will always be applied to a character’s two most important abilities, making the half-elf’s ASI only slightly more valuable. I’d value the difference at 2/3 of a bump to an ability score of moderate importance or two bumps that can be applied to one or two abilities of low importance.

This sums up a lot of what a lot of people are saying, that more ASIs hit a point of diminished returns, that getting a +1 to your tertiary ability is less important than a +1 to your prime ability. We're specifically talking about the half-elf being more powerful than the human for charisma classes (though I think they might even be competative without it). So, what are the primary, secondary, and tertiary scores for each of the Charisma classes?

Bard, Sorcerer, and Warlock all* want Cha, Con, Dex. Their +1's will be beneficial all around. They can do really well with their 15, 14, 13 jump up to 16, 16, 14. (*All is hyperbolic, I'm sure there's some builds that would want maybe a higher Str or something).

Paladins will likely want Str, Cha, Con, so that same 16, 16, 14 set up is great for them. Even my finesse Paladin is happy with Dex 16, Con 14, Cha 16 (or maybe switch the Con and Cha).

It's almost as if people also forget that Dex and Con are a little OP and nearly all of the Charisma classes are going to be wanting them to some degree.

Now, the base human's +1 to all 6 stats definitely gets into the territory of that 4th, 5th, and 6th +1 not being worth that much, and that's why I haven't really seen it picked. That first level feat is nice.

 

[Hriston]

This sums up a lot of what a lot of people are saying, that more ASIs hit a point of diminished returns, that getting a +1 to your tertiary ability is less important than a +1 to your prime ability. We're specifically talking about the half-elf being more powerful than the human for charisma classes (though I think they might even be competative without it). So, what are the primary, secondary, and tertiary scores for each of the Charisma classes?

Bard, Sorcerer, and Warlock all* want Cha, Con, Dex. Their +1's will be beneficial all around. They can do really well with their 15, 14, 13 jump up to 16, 16, 14. (*All is hyperbolic, I'm sure there's some builds that would want maybe a higher Str or something).

Paladins will likely want Str, Cha, Con, so that same 16, 16, 14 set up is great for them. Even my finesse Paladin is happy with Dex 16, Con 14, Cha 16 (or maybe switch the Con and Cha).

It's almost as if people also forget that Dex and Con are a little OP and nearly all of the Charisma classes are going to be wanting them to some degree.

Now, the base human's +1 to all 6 stats definitely gets into the territory of that 4th, 5th, and 6th +1 not being worth that much, and that's why I haven't really seen it picked. That first level feat is nice.

If you limit your comparison to classes for which Charisma is important, then you miss out on the variant human’s versatility. I’d say that’s worth a lot.

 

[Benjamin Olson]

Half-elves are strong. Charisma is key to a third of the classes. With the floating ability increases it is hard to compete, especially in Standard Array where they can even out both the 15 and the 13 wherever you want to invest them. Paladins, who need Strength, Con, and Charisma have particular incentive to go Half-Elf. They are a traditional race for bards, a class for which they are particularly appealing since it means having a full 5 skills with complete free choice, which if you are playing a Bard is probably something that appeals to you. Overall they are flexible for many purposes compared to most races.

For those using Eberron content the Changeling can be pretty competitive with Half-Elf. They lose one of the floating score improvements (but the one they do get can be used to make Charisma +3!), their two skills come from a limited set (but strong ones), and they don't get the Darkvision and extra Elfy abilities, but having unlimited, concentration-free, unbreakable shapeshifting is really powerful in the right campaign and they still have a lot of the half-elf style flexibility.

Variant Human's strength is in being the most flexible of all, rather than necessarily the strongest of all. Many of the feats power-gamers gravitate towards as ultra-powerful aren't really that strong at 1st level since sharpshooter or great-weapon master are a mixed blessing until you can hit something and one of Crossbow Expert's features is irrelevant until you get an extra attack. Probably none are as theoretically powerful as what they would get as a Half-Elf. But being able to choose the one you want to compliment your character build is the ultimate in flexibility.

 

[Benjamin Olson]

Now, the base human's +1 to all 6 stats definitely gets into the territory of that 4th, 5th, and 6th +1 not being worth that much, and that's why I haven't really seen it picked. That first level feat is nice.

Standard Humans appear most often if you roll stats and everyone isn't building off of what they read in some character guide they read online that assumed standard array. When you happen to roll four to six odd stats +1 to everything quickly gets tasty, especially if the odds are the high ones and if you have a MAD build in mind.

But if you go Standard Array it basically never makes sense, and with point buy it only really pays off as a sacrifice for a MAD build.

 

[Horwath]

for homebrew;

Remove ability boosts from race.

Rework point buy to:

32pts in total;
8: 0 pts
10: 2 pts
12: 4 pts
14: 6 pts
16: 10 pts


They just balance racial features a little.

I.E. make options for racial weapons/armor be exchanged for tools/skill if a starting class has those proficiency.

I.E. dwarf armor proficiency: instead of starting medium armor proficiency, you get improvement in armor training category from your starting class: none->light, light->medium, medium->heavy, heavy->extra class skill.

Elves could get extra proficiency in woodcrafting or herbalism tools instead of weapon proficiency or getting Sylvan language.

Also intelligence need to add extra tool and extra language proficiency per point of bonus.

And if you want some racial stereotypes be present in case of abilities, you can add minimum and maximum scores for some races.

I.E: elves, minimum dex 12, max con 14 at 1st level
dwarves: min con 12, max cha 14,
halfelves: min dex 10
halforcs: min str 12, max int 14
halflings: min cha 12, max str 14
gnomes: min int 12, max str 14
orcs: min str 14, max int 14
aasimar: min cha 12

then as a option you can have min scores for some classes.

The paladin as most iconic for that:
min str 14, min con 12, min wis 12, min cha 14

full casters would have min stat of 14 in their casting stat and halfcasters min 12.

 

[Shadowdweller]

Half-elves are literally the single LEAST played race at my table. Why? I've no idea - maybe because without the power counterbalance of the feat they're just not different enough from humans to be interesting to my players.

 

[ChaosOS]

Grazilaxx's Guide to Ancestry - Dungeon Masters Guild | Dungeon Masters Guild

Grazilaxx's Guide to Ancestry - As Featured On D&D News with Greg Tito. Discover RPG Twitch Stream (9/4/2019) Comicbook.com Geektyrant.com Grazilax

www.dmsguild.com

Another take on dmsguild I liked that did a similar no-ASI thing.

In my experience the plague of half elves is primarily because of the prevalance of charisma casters

 

[Theo R Cwithin]

People like half-elves because they want to play a race with pointy ears, but not with the ridiculously pointy rabbit ears that full-blooded elves have evolved in the last 20 years or so.

 

[ChaosOS]

Also, question for people here - what settings are you guys? Mostly homebrew? Published? Somewhere in between? I run Eberron, where half elves have a distinct culture, which creates different incentives from the classic "caught between two worlds".