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Message: <blockquote data-quote="empireofchaos" data-source="post: 6763423" data-attributes="member: 6800918">Well, OK. But it happens a lot less frequently than with class, because players' underlying assumptions about the two typically differ.But "half-elves" and "half-orcs" have been labeled as 'races' since AD&D. And in 5e, half-orcs have the "Relentless Endurance" and "Savage Attacks" features that neither humans nor orcs have.Height =/= race. Masai are tall, and pygmies are short. They are both human, and according to most common racial classifications, they belong to the same racial group. So the fact that height is a heritable trait doesn't make it a racial trait. Horns and longevity aren't necessarily different from height. Tieflings can still be regarded as humans whose ancestors spent a little too much time hanging with Asmodeus. Elves - humans with preternaturally long lilfespans extended through magic (e.g. the sorcerer Dallben in Lloyd Alexander's Chronicles of Prydain; he's 300 years old, but is nowhere identified as a member of a different race. Not clear what would happen to his children). If you look at Tolkien, who inspired the in-game conceptualization of elves, being an elf or a human is, to an extent, a choice (Elrond, Elros, Arwen). And those part-elves who choose to be human have very long lifespans for generations (Numenorians, Arwen, even Aragorn, who is a descendant of the Numenorians, lives far into his second century, but is regarded as human. You can identify race on the basis of visible characteristics, or you can not. IRL, many people define distinct races within the human species, and there is no reason why the same kinds of definition cannot occur in D&D worlds. In fact, as I've shown above, half-elves, half-orcs, and tieflings are arguably essentially humans who are defined as distinct races. Dragonborn sorcerers, who are descended from dragons, are not defined as a distinct race. The reasons for these divergent definitions are sociocultural. As for the mechanics are just mechanics, you put whatever flavor you want - I'm just saying that if you are so inclined, you can say that about race no less than class (a lot of people here are making the latter claim, but rejecting the former). Personally, I'm relatively OK with races as they work in-game. I'm just making the comparison to show that if you're being consistent, you should accept both propositions equally.EDIT: I meant  Draconic bloodline sorcerers, obviously, no Dragonborn.</blockquote>

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