D&D 5E Race/Class combinations that were cool but you avoided due to mechanics?

[Charlaquin]

what do you think is?

I don’t think there’s any one thing doing it. It’s a staple of the genre. It’s an ingrained part of the pop culture concept of elfy-ness.

 

[Helldritch]

At least the rule will be optional. This means that for the first time ever as a DM there won't be a vote to try it or not. I will simply not allow it. Here is why.

Playing the underdog is cool as hell! But playing the underdog also means that the odds are stacked against you. A halflings should have a harder time being a barbarian than a half orc. But the surprise factor should also be roleplayed accordingly. People seeing a halfling should not expect the little bugger to be such a power house of strength and destruction. We had such a halfling and it was a terror. The surprise factor was there and quite a few enemies were fleeing at the swirling little tornadoes or were underestimating the halfling so much that they were making tactical mistakes ( well, I was the DM. So I was making these voluntary mistakes...).

When everyone can do anything without true costs or "penalties" then there is no underdogs. There is no element of surprise because there is no reason to be any to begin with. This is to keep this element that I will not allow such an option.

 

[Marandahir]

At least the rule will be optional. This means that for the first time ever as a DM there won't be a vote to try it or not. I will simply not allow it. Here is why.

Playing the underdog is cool as hell! But playing the underdog also means that the odds are stacked against you. A halflings should have a harder time being a barbarian than a half orc. But the surprise factor should also be roleplayed accordingly. People seeing a halfling should not expect the little bugger to be such a power house of strength and destruction. We had such a halfling and it was a terror. The surprise factor was there and quite a few enemies were fleeing at the swirling little tornadoes or were underestimating the halfling so much that they were making tactical mistakes ( well, I was the DM. So I was making these voluntary mistakes...).

When everyone can do anything without true costs or "penalties" then there is no underdogs. There is no element of surprise because there is no reason to be any to begin with. This is to keep this element that I will not allow such an option.

You don't even know what the options and penalties are yet!

 

[Charlaquin]

And yet, if posts in this thread are indicative, if elves didn't have a bonus to a stat that makes them nimble or better archers, people wouldn't have been playing them as such.

And if the rest of the posts in this thread are indicative, people haven’t been playing them as such anyway

 

[Helldritch]

You don't even know what the options and penalties are yet!

No need. It will look like the damnable PO of 2ed or simply a cherry picking of abilities. There are things that I will try without a second thought but not this one. The easy button for the win is not in my games.

 

[Eltab]

No mechanical synergy but lots of fluff: Trickery Cleric + Arcane Trickster Rogue.
I finally picked Gnome for his race because it most nearly covered the weak spots.
Never do the same thing twice in a row! But I had a lot of '14' stats at Level 10, so my Save DCs were rather feeble.

 

[Eltab]

For an Avernus campaign, how about a Tiefling Monk with one of the Mordenkainen "who's your daddy" options?

 

[Undrave]

In 4e, I played an Eladrin Storm Sorcerer. Originally, the 4e Storm Sorcerer favored Cha-Dex, so I planned to make a Drow Storm Sorcerer. When the D&D group asked me, Why a Drow?, I explained. So the other members of the group convinced both me and the DM, for me to play an Eladrin that switched the abilities to Cha-Dex. (Normally, the 4e Eladrin was Int-Cha or else Int-Dex.) It turned out to be one of my favorite characters. I built it into a very powerful "kiter", that consistently avoided getting hit by various means. The rest of the group loved the character, because I would help focus fire on their deadliest hostiles. The DM was never sure if I was just good at opting for this style, or if there was something "broken" in allowing an Eladrin to have both Cha and Dex at the same time. Official rules are important to both me and this DM. Even so, I am glad I experimented, at least this time for this character. Heh, it is the first time ever I actually wanted an Elf with Dex, and it was because of a class that favored Dex.

I miss how in 4e you didn't have outright SAD classes. You always had a secondary stat pushed by your class features. You had DEX/CHA rogues, but also DEX/STR rogues, for exemple. in 5e, the fact that the Monk and Ranger needs WIS for their 'castery' parts or that the Barbarian needs CON for his unarmored defense stick out like a sore thumb. The Eldtrich Knight and Arcane Tricksters are also outliers, but as MC-style subclasses they at least make some sense.

Every Sorcerer goes CHA first, DEX for AC and CON for HP because DEX and CON are just that useful. there's no incentives to invest in other attributes.

A halfling absolutely can use GWM and a Heavy Weapon. Reckless Attack can be used to cancel Disadvantage from a Heavy Weapon. Advantage can be had from the effects of actions from your friends, or in the case of a Totem Barbarian, from the Help Action from the beast you woo'd with Speak with Animals and Animal Handling.

Are you saying that you can cancel the Disadvnatage with Reckless Attack and THEN get advantage from the Help Action?? Because that's not how Advantage and Disadvantage work, you can't stack 'em like that. Any source of Advantage will cancel any source of disadvantage, even if there is multiple of one.

I never really bothered with optimizing my race with my class. Dragonborn cleric, half-orc wizard, dwarf rogue? Sign me up! Stereotypes are lame, and optimization is for other people to fuss with.

I had a Dragonborn Cleric in 4e. STR/CHA (which were the rarest powers...), took the Paladin MC feat and a marking Encounter Power, flavored him as a grizzled Drill Sargeant from an order of Paladin... fun times.

agree, the nimble elf archers are a trope that is over a 1000 years old. It has much going for it.

It is?!

No need. It will look like the damnable PO of 2ed or simply a cherry picking of abilities. There are things that I will try without a second thought but not this one. The easy button for the win is not in my games.

You don't even know that yet. You're just chaffing because you think its unfair that players today have an easier game than you did in the past. What if it's nothing like 2e PO?

 

[Warpiglet-7]

I miss how in 4e you didn't have outright SAD classes. You always had a secondary stat pushed by your class features. You had DEX/CHA rogues, but also DEX/STR rogues, for exemple. in 5e, the fact that the Monk and Ranger needs WIS for their 'castery' parts or that the Barbarian needs CON for his unarmored defense stick out like a sore thumb. The Eldtrich Knight and Arcane Tricksters are also outliers, but as MC-style subclasses they at least make some sense.

Every Sorcerer goes CHA first, DEX for AC and CON for HP because DEX and CON are just that useful. there's no incentives to invest in other attributes.



Are you saying that you can cancel the Disadvnatage with Reckless Attack and THEN get advantage from the Help Action?? Because that's not how Advantage and Disadvantage work, you can't stack 'em like that. Any source of Advantage will cancel any source of disadvantage, even if there is multiple of one.



I had a Dragonborn Cleric in 4e. STR/CHA (which were the rarest powers...), took the Paladin MC feat and a marking Encounter Power, flavored him as a grizzled Drill Sargeant from an order of Paladin... fun times.



It is?!



You don't even know that yet. You're just chaffing because you think its unfair that players today have an easier game than you did in the past. What if it's nothing like 2e PO?

I don’t want to speak for others but for me it’s not that I am upset that the game was harder and I am jealous or envious (I play 5e now so had my cake with 1e and am eating another slice)—-it’s that I like what differentiation brings and want some semblance of tough choices and roads less travelled to survive in the game.

I think it brings some novelty and challenge as well as the rarity to some race class combinations which make them fun.

A halfling barbarian, a half orc Paladin, a high elf cleric are all potentially fun things precisely because they are not so optimal and hence common. They are less vanilla no doubt due to being less optimal.

I Recently looked hard at a high elf arcana cleric of Corellon, a firbolg Paladin and a tiefling Eldritch knight...they may be more memorable than another variant human which is my most common choice.

it’s hard to have unorthodox when unorthodox is the norm.

 

[FrogReaver]

And if the rest of the posts in this thread are indicative, people haven’t been playing them as such anyway

Most of my characters are played to type (not all though). I typically play dextrous wood elves, strong half-orcs, hardy dwarves, charismatic tieflings etc. If the stat bonus didn't exist I wouldn't be playing those characters to type nearly as often. At that point the uniqueness of playing them anti-type is also diminished.