D&D 4E Are humans balanced in 4e?

[thecasualoblivion]

I see the same, which is why I wish humans had a +2 to one skill of their choice as a default racial power.

Change the racial feature to the following:

Gain the Skill Training or Skill Focus feat for a skill on your class list. Best of both worlds.

 

[Eldorian]

Change the racial feature to the following:

Gain the Skill Training or Skill Focus feat for a skill on your class list. Best of both worlds.

Still can't match an Eladrin wizard at arcana. Just as a human gets to pick one stat to get +2, and other races get two fixed, a human should get to pick one skill to get +2, just as all others get two fixed. I like it because it has symmetry and it allows a human wizard to match an eladrin in knowledge of the arcana.

 

[thecasualoblivion]

Still can't match an Eladrin wizard at arcana. Just as a human gets to pick one stat to get +2, and other races get two fixed, a human should get to pick one skill to get +2, just as all others get two fixed. I like it because it has symmetry and it allows a human wizard to match an eladrin in knowledge of the arcana.

Getting the choice of either the Skill Training or Skill Focus feat lets you choose either to have an extra trained skill, or +3 to an already trained skill. Sure, an Eladrin could take Skill Focus Arcana as a feat, but on a basic level this generally works.

 

[Ahglock]

I think it was the fact that humans were overpowered in 3e. I always played a human, that feat was too good, and I didn't like penalties to my stats.

The new human is solid but not overpowering in any way.

Humans were not overpowered in 3e. They allowed people to hit character concepts more fully and quicker but a +2 to a stat was a very powerful thing. Especially when +spellcasting stat races started coming out. A feat just does not match up with a +2 to int, wis or chr. Humans made thenon magicals in the game IMO. They needed feats more than the spellcasters, a +2 in there prime stat was not as important, and the bonus skill points helped a lot as well.

As for 4e. They seem fairly balanced. Maybe they could use a +2 to one skill, but I don't think it is necessary. Its a small enough bonus that it would not unbalance things either.

 

[Eldorian]

Humans were not overpowered in 3e. They allowed people to hit character concepts more fully and quicker but a +2 to a stat was a very powerful thing. Especially when +spellcasting stat races started coming out. A feat just does not match up with a +2 to int, wis or chr. Humans made thenon magicals in the game IMO. They needed feats more than the spellcasters, a +2 in there prime stat was not as important, and the bonus skill points helped a lot as well.

As for 4e. They seem fairly balanced. Maybe they could use a +2 to one skill, but I don't think it is necessary. Its a small enough bonus that it would not unbalance things either.

Most games I played in forbid the use of any race with a + to a spell casting stat that did not have a LA. There is a reason the players handbook didn't have any. And it was a good reason.

 

[Starfox]

In 3E, human was the default race - unless you had a specific reason to play some other race, you would generally play a human.

In 4E, this is no longer so. Humans are now one race among many equal options - some builds work well with humans, but far from all.

Depending on the campaign, this might be a good or bad idea. if you want a human-dominated campaign, its probably a good idea to improve humans somewhat - like I did for my Greyhawk game.

 

[Knight Otu]

Most games I played in forbid the use of any race with a + to a spell casting stat that did not have a LA. There is a reason the players handbook didn't have any. And it was a good reason.

Not really. Rather, the designers have come to think of that as a mistake, the so-called elf problem.^{1 2} Since elves are supposed to be preeminent wizards, but don't have the mechanics to back that up, a race with an Int bonus would undermine the supposed niche of elves.

 

[thecasualoblivion]

Not really. Rather, the designers have come to think of that as a mistake, the so-called elf problem.^{1 2} Since elves are supposed to be preeminent wizards, but don't have the mechanics to back that up, a race with an Int bonus would undermine the supposed niche of elves.

Pluses to casting stats don't break the game in 4E like they did in 3E.

 

[DracoSuave]

Elves -aren't- the pre-eminant wizards in 4e. Elves are more the naturey woodsy types. More druid-types than wizard-types.

Eladrin are the arcane elfy dudes now.

 

[Knight Otu]

Elves -aren't- the pre-eminant wizards in 4e. Elves are more the naturey woodsy types. More druid-types than wizard-types.

Eladrin are the arcane elfy dudes now.

That side discussion was about 3.X, though, where elves should be preeminent wizards. 4E solved that "elf" problem.