Half-Elves: Underpowered
- Thread starter Rae ArdGaoth
- Start date
Lasher Dragon
First Post
Personally I can sum up why I would play a half-elf in one word: Tanis
Shin Okada
Explorer
Cleric is widely recognized as one of the strongest core-class. And half-elves make good clerics.
Human clerics are also good. I think those two races are the best for clerics. Both of them have no significant weakness. Human has +1 feat and +1 skill/level. HE's low-light vision helps much when they cast offensive spells. Also, bonus to will saves against Enchantments augments the advantage of cleric. Bonuses to social skills synergy well with the selection of cleric class skills.
Elves, while not bad, has low con. And their high Dex does not help much as most clerics wear heavy armor. And again, low con sucks for everyone.
Dwarfs and Half-Orcs are not bad. But they have low CHA. Turn undead is a very important ability by itself. Also, various divine feats favor high CHA cleric.
Gnomes and Halflings. Small size and slow speed are simply no good. Typical clerics wear heavy armor. So their speed is now 15 ft. Too slow. Also, small size is really bad when cleric is meant to do some melee combat.
Those stealth ability is only useful for rogues or ranger types. But in dungeon, dark forest, dark street array and such, the lack or low-light or dark vision makes them less useful reckon/tracker/assassin/whatever.
They are also slower than other races. That is bad when they scout or track something. Also, in melee, slow speed slow speed means that halflings are not good at taking flanking position.
And their small size. In 3.0/3.5e, size category affects on most of the special melee attack options. Halfling rogues who try to fight in melee are often grappled, disarmed or tripped. I know at least 2 halfling rogues died simply because they were small sized (one is swallowed by a large sized monster).
What I am trying to say is, while most of the racial bonuses are good only for Rogue or Ranger types, halflings only make very inefficient rogues or rangers.
Human clerics are also good. I think those two races are the best for clerics. Both of them have no significant weakness. Human has +1 feat and +1 skill/level. HE's low-light vision helps much when they cast offensive spells. Also, bonus to will saves against Enchantments augments the advantage of cleric. Bonuses to social skills synergy well with the selection of cleric class skills.
Elves, while not bad, has low con. And their high Dex does not help much as most clerics wear heavy armor. And again, low con sucks for everyone.
Dwarfs and Half-Orcs are not bad. But they have low CHA. Turn undead is a very important ability by itself. Also, various divine feats favor high CHA cleric.
Gnomes and Halflings. Small size and slow speed are simply no good. Typical clerics wear heavy armor. So their speed is now 15 ft. Too slow. Also, small size is really bad when cleric is meant to do some melee combat.
Saeviomagy said:
Those stealth ability is only useful for rogues or ranger types. But in dungeon, dark forest, dark street array and such, the lack or low-light or dark vision makes them less useful reckon/tracker/assassin/whatever.
They are also slower than other races. That is bad when they scout or track something. Also, in melee, slow speed slow speed means that halflings are not good at taking flanking position.
And their small size. In 3.0/3.5e, size category affects on most of the special melee attack options. Halfling rogues who try to fight in melee are often grappled, disarmed or tripped. I know at least 2 halfling rogues died simply because they were small sized (one is swallowed by a large sized monster).
What I am trying to say is, while most of the racial bonuses are good only for Rogue or Ranger types, halflings only make very inefficient rogues or rangers.
Li Shenron
Legend
Crothian said:
Saying this in the D&D Rules forum may sound like a heresy...
Nonetheless I agree so much that I have recently found out I still enjoy playing 3.0 more, with all its "broken stuff" so many gamers would never miss.
Half-Elves suck mechanically. I am of the opinion almost none of the races, barring perhaps dwarves, gets close to the benefits of a human, at LA 0. In fact, I would argue some LA +1 races are much worse off than human. Half-Elves, Elves, Halflings, GNomes, all these races are awful, imo, mechanically. Feat: Low-light vision? Are you kidding me? I wouldnt waste a 5th level spell slot casting permanency for that, let alone a feat.
Gnome
First Post
In 3.0, Half-Elves had no special abilities that were strictly their own; they only had watered-down elf abilities, and the most minor ability from their human side (favored class: Any). In 3.5, they at least get the +2 to diplomacy and gather info, which would be handy for a bard character, for sure. Except that I'd probably still perfer the extra skill points and the bonus feat if I wanted to play a bard.
IMC, Half-elves lose the +2 to diplomacy and gather info, and instead get a unique ability:
Hybrid Grace: Half-elves combine much of the beauty and magnetism of their parent races. Because of this, a half-elf character is treated as having a charisma of two points higher than his actual score for all purposes other than spellcasting. This includes skill checks, ability checks, opposed rolls, etc. If the half-elf is a spellcaster who uses charisma as his spellcasting stat, use his real charisma score to determine bonus spells, save DC, and maximum level of spells that he may cast. If the half-elf's unadjusted charisma score drops to 0 due to ability damage or other effect, then this ability no longer applies until such time that his charisma score is raised to at least 1.
IMC, Half-elves lose the +2 to diplomacy and gather info, and instead get a unique ability:
Hybrid Grace: Half-elves combine much of the beauty and magnetism of their parent races. Because of this, a half-elf character is treated as having a charisma of two points higher than his actual score for all purposes other than spellcasting. This includes skill checks, ability checks, opposed rolls, etc. If the half-elf is a spellcaster who uses charisma as his spellcasting stat, use his real charisma score to determine bonus spells, save DC, and maximum level of spells that he may cast. If the half-elf's unadjusted charisma score drops to 0 due to ability damage or other effect, then this ability no longer applies until such time that his charisma score is raised to at least 1.
