D&D (2024) Half Race Appreciation Society: Half Elf most popular race choice in BG3

[Yaarel]

Again, no it isnt. Hopefully BG3 shows WotC the error of their current path.

Any mention of the Human-Elf as an example of a multispecies in the Players Handbook, being a core option, will keep the tradition alive.


It is difficult to extrapolate from BG3. It is possible the players prefer to the BG3 Half Elf Charisma bonus rather than the "Half Elf" concept. If the Human and the Elf can choose whichever abilities the player wants, it might be the Half Elf gets chosen less often.

Relatedly, the BG3 "Half Orc" does better than all of the "small races" sotospeak. It is possible, if the Orc appeared as the option instead of the Half Orc, perhaps it would get chosen just as often.


Speaking more generally, D&D fantasy settings normally include various multispecies characters. There is a demand for them, and it makes sense for core to supply a way to create them.

I am confident the 2024 Human-Elf will continue to thrive. Where the Elf is full-on magic, the Human-Elf is a hint of magic, which suits the taste of many players.

The success of the Human-Elf multispecies demonstrates the value of having multispecies rules for all player species.

 

[mamba]

Not without a dedicated entry in the PHB, without that dedicated entry in the phb no Human-Elf NPCs ever again.

Why, how does that follow from this? Because they are changing one in LMoP? Because the name would be Human-Elf instead of Half-Elf?

 

[Yaarel]

@Scribe

I notice in the BG3 wiki, it says:

"BG3 Full Game Note: In the full launch of Baldur's Gate 3, Ability Score Points for Races that were present in Early Access are removed. And instead, Ability Score Points in the full game correspond with the Class players will choose."

Is it possible that the status of most-popular for the BG3 "Half-Elf" was only true when "races" assigned the ability score points, and now that the classes do instead, the Half-Elf is no longer as popular?

 

[MoonSong]

Why, how does that follow from this? Because they are changing one in LMoP? Because the name would be Human-Elf instead of Half-Elf?

Because it will no longer have a full write up? No associated lore nor even a picture? Only a sidebar at best?

 

[Scribe]

@Scribe

I notice in the BG3 wiki, it says:

"BG3 Full Game Note: In the full launch of Baldur's Gate 3, Ability Score Points for Races that were present in Early Access are removed. And instead, Ability Score Points in the full game correspond with the Class players will choose."

Is it possible that the status of most-popular for the BG3 "Half-Elf" was only true when "races" assigned the ability score points, and now that the classes do instead, the Half-Elf is no longer as popular?

No, its not possible, as the game released with fully floating ASI.

 

[MGibster]

She had a blast. Here's her character sheet.

If she needs a miniature...

 

[doctorbadwolf]

And we have lost something else. Even if they made it possible to still have half elf with a weird mix and match system, by atomizing mixed people, we have a defacto erasure. [Close to] no adventure writer is going to bother messing with a new subsystem in order to populate the world with NPCs. So no more mixed people representation.

While I agree about erasure, the idea that not having a half-elf writeup means there can’t be half-elf NPCs becaus adventure writers won’t want to bother with a subsystem…it’s an NPC. It doesn’t need to use PC chargen rules.

 

[Yaarel]

No, its not possible, as the game released with fully floating ASI.

Cool. I wasnt sure where the stats came from. I found this article, where Ash Martinez reports on the stats released by Larian Studio. The stats represent the amazing amount of gamers playing Baldurs Gate 3 since its release.

Since the ability score improvements depend on the class choice, not the "race", it suggests players like the Human-Elf concept − the flavor − rather than the mechanics. This also bodes well for multispecies characters generally, not just the Human-Elf.

Interestingly, 93% of the BG3 players chose to create their own custom characters rather than play a pregenerated NPC. This bodes well for customization generally.


Here is the class popularity as well as the species popularity:

I find unsurprising the Cleric is the least popular class. They are few who want to "serve gods".

Meanwhile, the new five-member band is now: Paladin, Sorcerer, Warlock, Rogue, and Bard. The Bard is the preferred healer class.

 

[Frozen_Heart]

Ok, that's Phandelver off the buy list. Thanks for the warning.

Still need a confirmation if that's the case in the actual book. So far it's just mentioned in a DnD Beyond blog post.

 

[Frozen_Heart]

I know technically the half-elf from 2014 is compatible with 2024 dnd, but surely people can see why that's not a good answer for us.

If adventures league suddenly requires 2024 books, the 2014 books are no longer easily available unless you already have them, and half-elves/half-orcs are scrubbed from the lore going forwards, then that's going a huge way towards removing half-elves as an option.

And then when 6e comes around and half-elves/half-orcs are just outright gone, with no mechanical option at all and no backwards compatibility to 2014, while also not existing in lore anymore, are those of us wanting mechanically represented half-elves going to be happy?