D&D 5E Half-Elves are taking over my game! (Or are Humans underpowered?)

[Xeviat]

Also, question for people here - what settings are you guys? Mostly homebrew? Published? Somewhere in between? I run Eberron, where half elves have a distinct culture, which creates different incentives from the classic "caught between two worlds".

Homebrew. In my setting's perspective, all elves are "half-elves". Elves are powerful fey, like old school 3E and earlier Eladrin. No one's picked a gnome in my games ever, but I've been looking into reworking them to be elf children. The PHB elves are more like "spirit folk", and "Half-Elves" are those with a closer association with mortals and civilization rather than areas of the natural world.

But, my setting's story is in constant flux as we play with it. Often I just run "generic D&D".

 

[Todd Roybark]

In my little pocket of the universe, no one in 1e or 2e played a Human, unless to be a Cavalier, Paladin, or Barbarian.

A party full of 1/2 elves was not uncommon. It made the group special, and provided inspiration role playwise...as we asked what would drive people to pursue a dangerous life of adventuring.

It is ok if the PC races are a bit different than the Fantasy Kingdom norm.

 

[Helldritch]

Half elves are relatively rare in my campaigns. For some reasons, most players prefer to play humans (for the feat) or .... Dwarves! A mountain dwarf paladin is something to behold, but a dwarven mage with breast plate is a sight to behold. The third most played race is the halfling. We see the occasional elf, half elf and dragon born. Gnomes, Tieflings and half orc are rare to the extreme. I play in Grey hawk, Tieflings are closely associated with Iuz and its ilk so they get a lot of racism toward them. Half orcs get the same association (especially near the Pomarj).

 

[generic]

People like half-elves because they want to play a race with pointy ears, but not with the ridiculously pointy rabbit ears that full-blooded elves have evolved in the last 20 years or so.

Now, I'm getting an idea for rabbit Elves, and I can't let go of it.

Furry rabbit elves with rabbit ears. Jeez, this sounds like half of the animes I watch already.

 

[Esker]

Let's assume point buy, because forcing standard array is dumb -- I guess some people use it because they think it reins in power-gaming, but IME it just pigeonholes optimizers into more samey race/class combinations even more than fixed racial ability bonuses already do -- and if you're rolling stats you've thrown balance out the window already.

Both variant human and half-elf will probably most often start with a 15,15,14,10,8,8 spread before racials. (Other combinations are obviously reasonable too, particularly for those wanting to take a half-feat, but this is the one that I think gives half-elves the biggest advantage, unless you think that +1 in your fourth and fifth stats is worth more than +1 in your second, which I don't)

For a class that wants 16 CHA to start, half-elf gets two possible stat advantages over variant human: they can either start with 17 CHA in order to get Actor at 4th without falling behind in CHA boosts, or they can start with 16 instead of 14 in their third most important stat (probably CON).

They also get darkvision, one extra skill, charm resistance, and one extra language (in decreasing order of value, IMO, though in some campaigns maybe the skill is worth more than darkvision).

So, then, the question is, is +2 CON, darkvision, one skill, charm resistance, and one language equal in value to a feat? Clearly if you would consider putting an ASI into CON, then this is better, but most people playing CHA classes aren't going to do that. If I think about the CHA characters that I've played, I don't think that package would rise to the level of the top few feats that I'd want.

And obviously for a non-CHA class, half-elf gets even less, since instead of +2 CON, they're just getting the +2 CHA, which is probably a dump stat.

So, it seems to me, from a purely mechanical perspective, variant human is still better in most cases, except for those who really want Actor. Half-elf gets a bit better if you're forced to use standard array, since then their stat boost can be in your second or co-prime stat instead of your third, which is especially good for paladins and weapon-using bards. And if you have rolled stats with a 16 or 18, then you really want a race with +2 to your primary.

 

[Anoth]

I love my half-elf barbarian with a 16 charisma

str 16
Dex 12
Con 14
Int 8
Wis 10
Cha 16

And you can bet he has proficiency in persuasion and intimidation. At first level he is the face of the party for social interaction.

 

[Anoth]

I love my half-elf barbarian with a 16 charisma

str 16
Dex 12
Con 14
Int 8
Wis 10
Cha 16

And you can bet he has proficiency in persuasion and intimidation. At first level he is the face of the party for social interaction.

We call his raging a pretty boy having a temper tantrum

 

[Helldritch]

I love my half-elf barbarian with a 16 charisma

str 16
Dex 12
Con 14
Int 8
Wis 10
Cha 16

And you can bet he has proficiency in persuasion and intimidation. At first level he is the face of the party for social interaction.

That is a good character for Acquisition inc... He must work in the complaint department.

Yes good costumer, I understand your complain, but stay polite or you'll get my two handed battle axe in your face! DO I MAKE MY SELF CLEAR!

 

[Esker]

Actually, you know what, I even understated the case for variant human over half-elf with point buy. Variant human can buy 15,15,15,8,8,8 and take Resilient CON to start with 16s in all three of their main stats, same as the half-elf. So they they have proficiency in CON saves (which all CHA classes value quite a bit, since they're all casters), whereas the half-elf has +2 in their fourth stat, and the darkvision, skill, etc.

 

[Weiley31]

That's why you set your game in that one DnD 3rd edition city where if it ain't human, then it's kill all Demi-Humans on site.