Analysis of the new stat pairs for elf, eladrin, dwarf, halfling

[Grydan]

I wouldn't be terribly surprised if Drow turned out to get Dex (Cha/Int). Then all three subspecies of elves would share the Dex + Int option.

 

[Goken100]

Wonder what the others are going to be?

* Dragonborn: STR and Cha/Con?
* Half-Elf: Cha and Con/Dex?
* Half-Orc: STR and Dex/Wis?
* Drow: CHA and Dex/Wis?
* Tiefling: Int and Cha/Con?

My predictions:

* Dragonborn: Str and Cha/Wis (or maybe Str/Int). Dragonborn may have sharp teeth, but they're not the brutes that Half-Orcs are, so Con doesn't feel right.
* Half-Elf: Cha and Con/Dex. How can you be a card carrying scion of elfishness and have nothing in common with that half of your family?
* Half-Orc: Str and Dex/Con. Half-Orc strong. Half-Orc not mind pesky arrow in eye.
* Drow: Cha and Dex/Wis. This is a tough one, as many have pointed out, but I think the designers will go for distinctness from other elfs rather than sameness (which is needed with the Half-Elf). So no Int bonus.
* Tiefling: Int and Cha/Con. Grabbing another Warlock stats seems like the obvious way to go, but I think it would be fun to get Dex instead, cause that tail must be handy for pick-pocketing!

 

[AndrewDB]

I was always drawn towards and split between the Evermeet Warlock and the Champion of Corellon paragon paths (flavor wise), but a natural racial choice for both of those paths (Eladrin) didn't have optimal racial stats for either path. Now an Eladrin can play a charisma based fey-lock for Evermeet Warlock or charisma based paladin for Champion of Corellon without taking a major hit for what seems a natural flavor choice. Charisma for Eladrin made my day for that reason alone.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

I do hope these changes make it into the Character builder and errata updates as part of the core rules. If they do, it will finally justify giving humans an extra +2, which I've argued for a long time is what they need.

I can´t follow your logic here...

 

[UngeheuerLich]

I was always drawn towards and split between the Evermeet Warlock and the Champion of Corellon paragon paths (flavor wise), but a natural racial choice for both of those paths (Eladrin) didn't have optimal racial stats for either path. Now an Eladrin can play a charisma based fey-lock for Evermeet Warlock or charisma based paladin for Champion of Corellon without taking a major hit for what seems a natural flavor choice. Charisma for Eladrin made my day for that reason alone.

That int bonus even comes in handy for the religion skill...

 

[Frankie1969]

Let's look at which builds benefit most from these changes.

A belated "domo arigato" to mkill for this useful thread. BTW, is there an equivalent thread for the races who got stat adjustments in HotFK?

I'd be interested to try giving humans two +1 modifiers that they can place where they want them, including being able to stack them onto the same stat.

FWIW, the only mathematical situations where two +1s come out ahead of one +2 are when you bump a pair of matched stats across a point-buy threshold (13 to 14, 16 to 17) making them tied for highest. The resulting arrays:

• 14 14 14 14 13 11 (and other 14 14 14 14 x x variants)
• 17 17 12 12 10 8 (and other 17 17 x x x x variants)

In other words, not very useful.