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Message: <blockquote data-quote="MoogleEmpMog" data-source="post: 2452281" data-attributes="member: 22882"><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f615.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":confused:" title="Confused    :confused:"  data-smilie="5"data-shortname=":confused:" /> Do elves, dwarves, halflings and gnomes (and various hybrids thereof) in the party invalidate your assumption?  If not, why not?  What, aside from the fact it didn't appear in Tolkien, makes a kobold more exotic than a halfling?  For that matter, what makes an aasimar more exotic than an elf - an elf of Middle Earth or folklore is considerably farther from human than a D&D aasimar!If you objected to any non-human race being balanced with (and therefore better than at certain tasks) humans, I suppose I could understand it.  I certainly prefer a Sword & Sorcery "humans make up either the entire or almost the entire sentient population" model.Besides, even if the PCs are 100% exotic (however you happen to define exotic), the world around them may be 99.99% human.  The demographics of a group of nigh-cosmically powerful wandering adventurers do not generally correspond to the demographics of a typical village.If your human character is mechanically inferior, the rules aren't doing their job - any more than they are if a hill giant character of the same ECL is mechanically inferior.You're talking about a default setting.I'm talking about default rules.If Greyhawk wants to tell me than 99% of the population is human, I have no problem with that.  If Greyhawk wants to tell me that hobgoblins and hill giants are dangerous foes but mysteriously become pathetic losers when they go adventuring... I do have a problem with that.The best case scenario is that players always feel that choosing a race is a matter of preference (and perhaps campaign).  That ogre, human, elf, hobgoblin and troll PCs are equally viable.  That a monstrous character will overshadow a non-monstrous character exactly as often as two non-monstrous characters overshadow each other.  Obviously, that's never going to happen - perfect game balance is neither necessary nor possible.  It's also not a bad ideal to aspire to, certainly better than having the generic rules impacted by the specific setting.Some players have access to the MM and DMG.  Some don't.  Some don't even have PHBs!  If, out of a group of six players, one has all three books, one has a PHB and a MM, one has a PHB and a DMG, two have PHBs and one borrows from the DM at the table, at "worst" three have ready access to a Monster Manual.As for "power creep," fixing that is the responsibility of designers and developers on one end, and DMs on the other.  3.5 D&D has done a fine job of keeping it in check on the design and development end; as for the DM's end, that I can't say because it varies from group to group.</blockquote>

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