Unpopular opinions go here

[FitzTheRuke]

Gnomes are the worst race, utterly pointless except for their stupid hats.

Hey! This thread is for UNpopular opinions! Not well-established facts!

 

[Scribe]

1. 4e ruined Tieflings.

2. Alignment should be more important.

 

[not-so-newguy]

There should only be 3 Alignments

 

[MGibster]

Yes but totally artificial systems imposed on populations because they are more logical tend to fail if they conflict with how people live their lives on a practical level. (How much of the calendar reforms did post-Revolutionary France keep?)

Were those logical reforms or simply ideological?

Gnomes are the worst race, utterly pointless except for their stupid hats.

I agree. I don't see any reason for the Gnome to exist when we have other perfectly good short races, er, species.

Gygax real value was as the guy able to get the thing in print. As an editor, he sucked. As a creative on the rules side, well, many better games than his still have fanbases, while his non-D&D games tend to be almost unknown.

Cyborg Commando has been seared into my brain forever.

But at the same time, in 40 years of play witnessing dozens and dozens of players, I'd guess 80% of all players can only play themselves. And, I've yet to see a player whose play really made me feel that his character was inhuman and that the race really was so different than human that it was something more than human with bumps on their forehead or funny ears.

All D&D races are just humans (with the possible exception of the Thri-Kreen). It barely matters whether your character is a Halfling, Gnome, Bugbear, or Human, or Elf as the adventure will pretty much play exactly the same no matter your character's species.

 

[overgeeked]

There should only be 3 Alignments

Hell yeah. Law, neutral, and chaos. And they’re factions, not personality types.

 

[Voadam]

It barely matters whether your character is a Halfling, Gnome, Bugbear, or Human, or Elf as the adventure will pretty much play exactly the same no matter your character's species.

I expect Bugbear makes things play differently in most social interaction situations outside of a dungeon crawl. I can see orcs and goblins from a lot of settings in a lot of urban situations (particularly Eberron or Golarion style ones) but bugbears are still mostly monsters who can fit in some monstrous societies but not most setting social situations.

 

[overgeeked]

If you’re going to have non-human options for players, you should go whole hog and include all sentient species as options. Limiting things to the classics is just lazy. Only doing a handful of “non-standard” fantasy races is equally lazy.

It’s only the weird need to have each race be mechanically distinct from the start that makes the idea of letting players pick any sentient race a problem. Setting like Planescape really shine a spotlight on how silly this false limit really is.

 

[Reynard]

Hell yeah. Law, neutral, and chaos. And they’re factions, not personality types.

It's in the name: who/what are you Aligned with?

 

[Reynard]

D&D settings are worse when they include humans.

On the one hand, my preference would be humans only. On the other, worlds like, say, The Dark Crystal absolutely do not need humans.

 

[Jd Smith1]

Anyone who knows me will tell you that I am never funny.

Not being funny does not rule out the possibility that you are trying to be.