D&D 5E D&D Peoples/Species change ideas

[Crimson Longinus]

Which is already they case.

Both races max out at 20 STR, so they have the same upper limit. A halfling that puts a 15 in strength is stronger than an Orc that puts a 8 in strength and raises it to a 10.

If any halfling being as strong or stronger than any orc is a problem, it is one you already have to deal with. The real truth is, most players won't take an Orc and put an 8 in strength, or a halfling and put a 15 in strength, because they are far better served playing into the races bonuses than fighting against them.

Any Halfling being stronger than any Orc isn't necessarily a problem, I already explained this in length in another thread.

That Halfling Barbarian will get Str 20 at level 12, when most campaigns end and characters are becoming mythical heroes unfettered by realism. But for starting character that two point more matters. If one person makes a max Str orc and another max Str Halfling, the Orc will be stronger. The Orc's role as 'strong person' cannot be matched by a Halfling.

 

[Chaosmancer]

Any Halfling being stronger than any Orc isn't necessarily a problem, I already explained this in length in another thread.

That Halfling Barbarian will get Str 20 at level 12, when most campaigns end and characters are becoming mythical heroes unfettered by realism. But for starting character that two point more matters. If one person makes a max Str orc and another max Str Halfling, the Orc will be stronger. The Orc's role as 'strong person' cannot be matched by a Halfling.

See, that seems like it is very loose.

It isn't a problem that the Halfling is as strong as an Orc as long as they are higher than level 10? That seems relatively arbitrary. It isn't like the game rules shift or alter between level 10 or 11. So, why is this a cut-off point?

Especially since, if we really want to just talk about "possible" then it is possible to reach 20 str by level 4, they just needed to have rolled an 18 for stats.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

See, that seems like it is very loose.

It isn't a problem that the Halfling is as strong as an Orc as long as they are higher than level 10? That seems relatively arbitrary. It isn't like the game rules shift or alter between level 10 or 11. So, why is this a cut-off point?

I mean I wouldn't mind there being hard caps. And level ten isn't an exact cut-off point, but somewhere around there D&D characters start to become pretty superheroic.

Especially since, if we really want to just talk about "possible" then it is possible to reach 20 str by level 4, they just needed to have rolled an 18 for stats.

Rolled stats are nonsense and don't count.

 

[Chaosmancer]

I mean I wouldn't mind there being hard caps. And level ten isn't an exact cut-off point, but somewhere around there D&D characters start to become pretty superheroic.

Rolled stats are nonsense and don't count.

I agree they are nonsense, but again, if you want to talk about "what is possible in the system" you have to acknowledge that that is possible.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

I agree they are nonsense, but again, if you want to talk about "what is possible in the system" you have to acknowledge that that is possible.

I don't though. First of that would never be possible on my table, and secondly any sort of balancing attempts are dead anyway if random stats are introduced. Now some people may care what the situation with random stats is, but I genuinely don't any more than I would care what it would be with using some weird third party addon or something.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

Racial modifiers should only be for the player characters or important NPCs. An entire race should never automatically get some plus or minus. That goes down the road of racist comparisons. The average person in a human town or in an orc town or an elf town should always default to having the same average abilities, which in 5E is 10-11. If a member of one of these races has a stat or stats different from the average, there should be a story or explanation for it. Everyone in the local army has one more point in Str or Dex because they trained. Anyone below average in Con maybe was sickly as a child. The individuals born with special stats are the ones who become PCs or major NPCs and should not be default for an entire race/culture/people/etc.

 

[CubicsRube]

My personal opinion is that races are best served by their biological features and don't really need ability boosts tied to them to feel different. For example a wood elf that gains abilities to hide in the wild for example will still give plenty of rationale for many wood elves to graduate towards becoming rangers without needing a dex or wis boost. Dwarves who have poison resistance and are not slowed by heavy armour may well be more inclined towards being a fighter as a whole without needing a STR or CON boost.

 

[Micah Sweet]

My personal opinion is that races are best served by their biological features and don't really need ability boosts tied to them to feel different. For example a wood elf that gains abilities to hide in the wild for example will still give plenty of rationale for many wood elves to graduate towards becoming rangers without needing a dex or wis boost. Dwarves who have poison resistance and are not slowed by heavy armour may well be more inclined towards being a fighter as a whole without needing a STR or CON boost.

One obstacle is that many racial abilities are situational (bonus to hide in the wild, resistance to a certain type of damage, etc), while ASIs are useful pretty much all the time for your class. I would want to soup those up for all races before decoupling ASIs from race entirely.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

Racial modifiers should only be for the player characters or important NPCs. An entire race should never automatically get some plus or minus. That goes down the road of racist comparisons. The average person in a human town or in an orc town or an elf town should always default to having the same average abilities, which in 5E is 10-11. If a member of one of these races has a stat or stats different from the average, there should be a story or explanation for it. Everyone in the local army has one more point in Str or Dex because they trained. Anyone below average in Con maybe was sickly as a child. The individuals born with special stats are the ones who become PCs or major NPCs and should not be default for an entire race/culture/people/etc.

So you don't think that an average minotaur is stronger than an average gnome and if they are that is racist?

 

[Crimson Longinus]

Also, why we have two threads for the same topic? Can't these be combined?