Humans as the most common race?

[Gargoyle]

I wonder if humans will be the most common race in 4e. In my 3e games, they seemed to be most common because of three reasons:

1. The additional feat at first level made them attractive for all sorts of concepts.
2. My players just seem to like human characters more, perhaps because they could identify with them better, or because they seem to like the variety of different human cultures in our campaigns.
3. No penalties to stats.

In contrast, some races seemed to made weaker in 3e in order to make them less common choices, such as the half-elf and half-orc. There were a few half-orc barbarians, but no others. Not sure I care for the concept of making a race weaker just to make PC's less common, but with talk of drow and other races that are typically less common as PC's, it makes me wonder if that will happen in 4e.

 

[el-remmen]

I hope so, as I have always preferred a "humanocentric" view of the typical setting. Non-human races are best kept as the occasional salt to taste.

 

[Pygon]

I don't know, gnomes make excellent wizards (nice hp), half-orcs make great fighter/barbarians, elves make great rangers.

If you focus on the abilities you want and ignore the ones you don't need for a build, other races are better suited for a purpose.

 

[Cadfan]

I don't think this is something the game rules can dictate to you.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

I've played a gnome wizard, but to be blunt I did it only for the +Con and small size benefits. They may be statistically powerful, but they're also uncool.

Elves are statistically weaker (probably) but I still saw more of them as elves are much cooler than gnomes.

 

[Davelozzi]

I prefer a world in which humans are dominant. I like them to represent at least 50% of the average PC party, if not more. 3e got it right in this regard, I hope 4e does too.

 

[Kahuna Burger]

I prefer a setting where humans are but one race among many. Depending on the setting they may or may not be the most common in my games.

 

[Gloombunny]

I like humans as the most common race, but I also hope that the other races don't wind up being suboptimal for all but one or two "favored" classes. Pigeonholed races are bad.

 

[psionotic]

Hehe, in our 2e games, no one played humies ('cept the occasional Paladin). In our 3.x games, almost everyone plays humans.

That bonus feat is just too sweet, especially for those trying to quallie for PrCs.

 

[Zamkaizer]

Humans generally compose between a quarter to a third of my settings' civilized population. Other races split the remaining portion evenly amongst themselves, the exception being exotic races, like tieflings or elan. That way, humans are the most populous race, but don't crowd everyone else out.