Humanocentric games

[Trainz]

The wizard/race poll got me to think...

Almost invariably IMC and my DM's campaign, I and the others always pick a human.

Are we missing something obvious ?

Is there a core race/class combo that is much more efficient than a human ?

 

[eris404]

I don't think so. Our campaigns tend to be "humanocentric" as well. I'd like to say it's because of flavor, but I think it's just really hard to pass up the extra feat and skill points.

 

[MoogleEmpMog]

Unless you're playing a Cha-based character or a non-fighter who needs a lot of feats quickly (either to qualify for a PrC or to snag the end of a long feat tree), dwarf is generally better than human.

DWARF
Barbarian, Cleric, Fighter, Monk, Ranger, Rogue, Wizard

HUMAN
Bard, Sorcerer

DEBATABLE
Druid, Paladin

EDIT: I mean from a purely min-max standpoint. Obviously, dwarves are better than humans as bards, sorcerers, druids and paladins from a flavor perspective.

 

[el-remmen]

Well, in my campaign, playing a human is always "better" because humans rule most of the world - and going almost anywhere - a human is going to have a better chance to be accepted.

 

[Cor Azer]

I'm pretty sure it was a design decision for third edition to make humans appealing. Seriously, until third edition, I think I was the only one who ever played a human in a game, with rare exceptions (as when someone wanted to play a class that nobody but a human could be).

I certainly don't mind humanocentric games... they're adaptability makes it easier for me to use them for all sorts of different purposes (benevolent and nefarious) much easier than other races.

 

[TerraDave]

I can't say for your campaign, but I know from 1st and 2nd edition people would play humans even though the campaign would stay at low levels and there was a deffinate disadvantage. Some times you just don't want to have pointy ears, or a be ugly and short with a beard...

From a mechanics point of view, elf is good for rogue, and for any multiclass wizard if using RAW. armored dwarves (where they have no move penalty relative to humans) really are tanks, and there are some advantages to being small.

Come on, isn't the real reason that being an elf, dwarf, gnome or halfling make you feel a little funny (or little and funny)

 

[Henry]

In our recent Eberron Game, there were:

Warforged Fighter
Kalashtar Cleric
Half-Elf Monk
Halfling Rogue
Shifter Ranger
Changeling Artificer
and ONE Human Psion/Rogue.

Now, it was the first time we ever played Eberron, so it's skewed, but even in the Forgotten Realms game before that, there was maybe a human/nonhuman ratio of about 50%.

Of our last games, the wizards/sorcerers have been:


Human Wizard
Dwarf Wizard
Human Sorcerer
Human Wizard

so yeah, there is something to the whole "humans are preferred as wizards" thing.

 

[Janx]

My current campaign is restricted to Humans only for PCs. It's working out. It's more a flavor thing, as I'm presenting the other races as "new" and "alien" to the humans.

Janx

 

[BiggusGeekus]

My current campaign is restricted to Humans only for PCs. It's working out. It's more a flavor thing, as I'm presenting the other races as "new" and "alien" to the humans.

Cool. I think that's a good way to handle it.

One of the "problems" (as in, something I don't like that works just fine and everyone else is happy with) in some campaigns is that I see guys worry about what to do with the various races. Why bother? Why not make them all human? If the only difference between dwarves and humans is the game mechanics and weird accents, why use dwarves at all? I thought the Wheel of Time RPG did a great job with this. All the humans are essentially the same except for one culture feat, but the one fantasy races (Ogier, Trollocs) are really weird.

But most people have elves that are just humans with pointy ears and are incredibly happy with the situation. The low-down bastages!

 

[John Q. Mayhem]

My siblings campaign is very humanocentric; most people in the nations are human, half-Elf, half-Orc (free-Orc, like Niffts) or half-Dwarf (it bears mentioning that very very few of the half-X's are strictly half; most are more like the planetouched or whatever).

Elves are malicious creatures with a complete lack of empathy, and are minimum level 6 (NOT for ANY reason a PC race), Dwarves are mostly reclusive miners and creators of stuff, halflings are nomads, gnomes are stunted, evil, unearthly strong miners who live deep in the earth, Orcs are wild, warlike tribesmen that are mostly on other continents.