Deciding your PC race.

[Oryan77]

When you make a PC, do you choose his/her race based off of a character concept, or do you choose it based on optimization towards the class it will be?

I don't know if it was any different back in 1e and 2e, but for me in 2e, I always chose a race and class based on what I thought would be a cool character. I wasn't worried about whether or not I earn or lose any sort of bonuses towards the class because of my racial choice.

Since 3e, I find myself caring too much about what I lose out on if the race doesn't benefit the class. So often I choose a race that will improve the class that I want to play. I kind of regret doing this, but when the moment comes around, I still seem to do it most of the time.

From what I've seen since 3e, pretty much all 30 or so people I've played D&D with choose a race based on whether or not it improves the class. The only exception is when they choose Human because they don't want to play an "odd" race. The other people that choose Human seem to only choose it because, "I get an extra feat which I need to optimize this class."

When 3e introduced Level Adjustments, I thought it was a good way to balance things. Unfortunately, what it actually did was just give players another reason not to play a certain race. I allow 30+ races in my Planescape game, and most of them are never chosen mostly because of LA, or because it won't provide a stat bonus that improves their class. I just introduced the LA variant rule from Unearthed Arcana that allows players to buy off LAs. It seems to help a bit.

 

[Traveon Wyvernspur]

Good thread topic [MENTION=18701]Oryan77[/MENTION] I think that I suffer from doing the optimization (min/max) thing as well when I create characters.

An example: I was planning on doing a half-orc barbarian for a pathfinder game that I just joined, then the thought hit me to change it up and do a halfling barbarian instead and after looking at their racial stuff I switched back to the half-orc. I eventually (because the party needed it more) went a different direction all together and made a dwarf cleric. The point is that I think that the halfling barbarian would have been a lot more fun to role-play than a half-orc, but I decided against it while rolling up that character just because of the racial stat implications.

I'm not going to do that the next time I roll up a character, I think what I need to do is go with what I think would be the most fun to play instead of the most optimized.

 

[Stormonu]

Partial optimization, though I generally care more about what would be fun or interesting. Sometimes, certain combinations just sound like they won't be fun because of the mechanical blisters.

For example, I'd be hesitant to play a half-orc sorcerer or a halfling fighter, but I've had great fun with a halfling ranger and played a drider once for the hell of it (I joined in on the middle of the City of the Spider Queen adventure).

 

[Crothian]

I go with character concept. Any character concept can be optimized if one wants to do that. So, no need starting at that point.

 

[Traveon Wyvernspur]

I go with character concept. Any character concept can be optimized if one wants to do that. So, no need starting at that point.

True, but some specific race/class combos aren't as "optimized" as they could be when paired with the "best" races for particular classes, like in my example of a PF halfling barbarian as compared to a half-orc barbarian. The half-orc is better suited to that class due to his inherent bonuses to stats and racial perks, whereas the halfling would suffer penalties to the class required stats for his damage (strength in this case).

Too many people tend to start at class and pick a race to maximize effectiveness (mostly in combat) as opposed to the more fun role-playing factor (not saying you can't have a ton of fun role playing a different race/class combo, but this was my concept that I think would have been more fun). In my case I think that a halfling that is frothing at the mouth and a bully would have been great fun to role play, but he wouldn't have been as good in combat as the half-orc.

 

[Crothian]

True, but some specific race/class combos aren't as "optimized" as they could be when paired with the "best" races for particular classes, like in my example of a PF halfling barbarian as compared to a half-orc barbarian.

It depends if you are optimizing just a class or a class race combination. Sometimes because of concepot or campaign information or just because a player might not want to play a fighter, but more specifically a halfing fighter. So, if the concept is halfing fighter one can still optimize that concept. It's not always about the best race class combination. When I make a character I always pick a class race combination that I want to play and then use the rules to make the best and what I feel will be a fun version of it. I don't start with just a class and then shoehorn a race just because it has the best bonuses.

 

[Traveon Wyvernspur]

It depends if you are optimizing just a class or a class race combination. Sometimes because of concepot or campaign information or just because a player might not want to play a fighter, but more specifically a halfing fighter. So, if the concept is halfing fighter one can still optimize that concept. It's not always about the best race class combination. When I make a character I always pick a class race combination that I want to play and then use the rules to make the best and what I feel will be a fun version of it. I don't start with just a class and then shoehorn a race just because it has the best bonuses.

I think that's a great way to do it, I just need to do that myself Crothian. I just feel the temptation is always there for most of us to try to min/max the characters with race/class combos that have more (combat) synergy to them.

 

[Mark CMG]

I've done both depending on the type of game or campaign for which I was creating the character. Some one-shots really do require some optimization, there's no way around it. It's nice to set up a character that can have lots of RPing value, but if the GM is running a hardcore combat one-shot or campaign, not optimizing not only leaves you with fewer options but drags down the group, which isn't fair to other players. In a more sandboxy, freeform campaign with lots of RPing, I focus on concept first and allow any optimization to be coincidental.

 

[delericho]

IME, it's basically always been about optimising for the class.

I consider that a significant weakness of both 3e and 4e (Essentials to a lesser extent, due to the 'floating bonuses') - that stat bonuses are so overwhelmingly powerful that you can really hurt your character by playing against type. IMO, races in the new editions are too mechanically significant right out of the box.

 

[DragonLancer]

When you make a PC, do you choose his/her race based off of a character concept, or do you choose it based on optimization towards the class it will be?

Bit of both. Sometimes I want to play the archetype so I take a race that fits, and sometimes I want to play the odd concept (Dwarf wizard, for example) because it sounds fun.