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Message: <blockquote data-quote="James Gasik" data-source="post: 9622240" data-attributes="member: 6877472">Something I learned the hard way- if you make one race clearly better at a thing, all other choices vanish.  If there was one race that said "hey, I do more damage as a melee warrior than anyone else", then it becomes harder to justify other options.The reverse can be true as well- Halflings being bad at using Heavy weapons means you won't be seeing many, say, Halfling Barbarians*.*For anyone who wants to come in with "uh, actually, people in my games play Halfling Barbarians all the time- they can dual wield or use a shield"- you know what I'm getting at, so don't be That Guy, lol.Earthdawn was a great game in that you could play even a Windling as a melee warrior class and do all right (ok, well, Windling Cavalryman might not be a great choice, lol).  But if you had a small, agile, hard to hit, flying race in D&D with penalties for armed combat, you're just going to see a lot of Windling spellcasters, as this is all upside.If you've ever looked at 5e races and said to yourself "huh, you know, there aren't too many options that stand out head and shoulders above the rest"- that's kind of the point.  The system can't really support extremes of benefit and hindrance.  Everything has to be kind of bland so as not to break the curve too badly.Like look at your sample Obsidimen.  Great natural armor and always-on resistance to injury.  You'd expect these to be great melee characters.  But in 5e, you can get high AC with money a lot faster than you can high Constitution, and Heavy Armor Master is something an Alt Human could start with.But now imagine an Obsidiman Wizard or Rogue.  These advantages are incredible for those classes.  It's like how Mountain Dwarf was seen as a quick way to get great AC for Wizards in 2014 (or how about Tortles?)- and what's the downside?  You might have to start with a 15 Int instead of a 16 or 17?  You'll be able to catch up and the loss of performance is minor (I mean, yeah, there are those people who always have to have the best possible stats, but they may be focusing too much on short-term power as opposed to long-term sustainability).I don't mean to discourage, I love Earthdawn and how the game treats it's Namegivers, making sure almost any character concept is playable while simultaneously having options with extreme advantages (and disadvantages- like, sure, your Windling Thief is incredible, but uh, well, how do you actually carry your loot?).But 5e is a game with flatter math, where proud nails could easily warp the game out of shape in unexpected ways.  Even a simple option like "+1 AC" can be controversial and beg the question "well, why pick anything else?".</blockquote>

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