D&D 5E Balance in Races

[EzekielRaiden]

There's always room for badassery... even from gnomes.

Hear hear! (And I don't even like gnomes--don't dislike 'em either, they're just not my cup of tea.)

Would that more people thought as you did, Kikuras. It would be a...merrier world.

 

[The Grand User]

And gnomes are good...

Particularly with ketchup

 

[MechaPilot]

They shouldn't have done away with level limits. That is the problem.

Maybe they should have made level limits a variant rule, but I think that removing them as the default setting was the right move.

 

[MechaPilot]

A conversation recently came up at my table about the imbalance in the races in 5e. My immediate response was, "there has always been imbalance in characters in D&D. Elves are the golden child of the system." They spoke about the imbalance amongst all the races. Why do half-orcs get so many perks, and dragonborn don't even get darkvision from their ancestors? Tieflings get all these cool spells, and hellish resistance, but gnomes only get gnome cunning.
It turned into this counting game as they tried to make direct comparisons between race abilities. Surely there must be more finesse behind these decisions than this character gets three benefits, this character gets two?
Do you feel as though the races are balanced? Do you feel that they should be?
I don't think that I am playing with a bunch of min-maxers, so we have a good mix of races in the group, and people aren't always the "most compatible" race with their class. But, it's an interesting question.

The elf thing caught my eye because of the cantrip feature. While you didn't specifically mention the cantrip feature, it was the racial feature that I recall others saying was the most overpowered (before we got the variant human). It also caught my eye because a cantrip is a largely neutral feature in my eyes: it doesn't grant a benefit beyond what you would get from using that same action to make one round's worth of weapon attacks, and you can do them both all day long.

I maintain that you could run a single race single class party, give only one character a bonus cantrip in addition to the usual features, and see no difference in power between that character and the ones.

 

[SirAntoine]

Maybe they should have made level limits a variant rule, but I think that removing them as the default setting was the right move.

I remember. It's nice to hear from you across the pond, MechaPilot.

 

[MechaPilot]

I remember. It's nice to hear from you across the pond, MechaPilot.

It's good to be heard. I've been a little too busy with school and a new job (just an internship, technically) to post much these days.

 

[Blue]

The only race that feels unbalanced is the "variant" human, which is strictly superior to the basic human in every way that matters.

Variant humans are a bit like moon druids - they get some powerful abilities early but it's strongest at the lower levels and more on-par at the higher levels. But when you are crating a character at 1st and who knows how high you'll get, that feat is MIGHTY tempting.

I think the problem with them is that there is NO other way to get an early feat, and feat customization is nice. If everyone got a feat at 1st and variant humans got an extra I think they would seem nice but not on the pedestal they are put now.

That said, standard humans have their place, especially if you might be a bit MAD. I've created standard human characters.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

They should have given them cool roleplaying or survival abilities. Like, the ability to eat raw meat without any side effects. They are dragons, after all.

Consider this idea stolen. I mean, I've been letting my dragonborn get away with this anyway but you're right, I should make it explicit.

He eats defeated enemies and is a bit of a psychopath...

 

[JackOfAllTirades]

When I get cranky or have low blood-sugar, yeah, I get that way, but that's just cranky-old-fart talking. D&D is about creating heroes, of whatever race, and having fun in a fantasy setting, where very little is impossible. I may feel deep in my bones that one race or another is silly, but I would never tell a player they couldn't play one, even in a world of my creation. There's always room for badassery... even from gnomes.

My badass gnome assassin character - Silent G - would agree with you.