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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Wik" data-source="post: 4996844" data-attributes="member: 40177">As a RACE, you are absolutely correct.  I even said so above.  But as individuals... not so much.  Once you decide to be a fighter, you're a fighter.  The mage, thief, and cleric choices are moot to you as an individual.  Whereas, the dwarven fighter (or the halfling fighter, or the elven fighter/mage) have more options open than just FIGHTING.  Your only edge over them is a higher max level and the fact that you're progressing quicker.  Yeah, you become more of a specialist in your role. But that increased specialization is coming from an ability that actually allows diversity.  So, yeah, you're more of a specialist, but you also have more options open (which is more generalist).  And I would put forward the argument that most races in 4e are specialists.  Few (besides human) have powers that make them suited for any class.  But I'm not looking at them.  But you can't say humans are generalists because of that fact, because once they choose their class, their powers mostly exist to make them better at their class.    What I was saying is that humans at least have racial options open to them to branch out from their role a bit. I can spend my extra feat, for example, to multi-class.  And a bonus to every defence is a generalist power, not a specialist one.  Again, as a species, you are absolutley right.  And that's always been the case in D&D.  But as individuals, not so much.  A human fighter in 1e compared to a dwarven fighter in 1e is more of a specialist - the dwarven fighter, after all, has darkvision and some construction abilities, powers that generally don't help him fight at all.  That carries on into 4e, with the change that the human fighter can choose to become more of a specialist than the dwarf (by spending his feats to make himself a better fighter) or more of a specialist (by spending his feats to learn other, non-defender-like things) - the dwarf, meanwhile, will always be able to heal and be hard to move, and so on.  Mechanically speaking, a human in WHFRP will have abilities ranging from, what, 21-40?  Something like that?  While elves will have a few that range from 11-30 and a few that range from 31-50.  Or something.  So, as a race, humans have an easier time going from place to place (your definition), but also, as an individual, in a system where changing class is common, it is also easier.  What's happening here is a difference in definitions.  You are looking at things as a species, whereas I'm looking at things from a mechanical, by the individual, perspective.  And they definitely change - in almost any system, by your definition, humans will be the generalists.  But if you go by individuals, the rules don't always support this.  D&D, for example, has always fostered the idea that as a species humans are generalists, but when it comes down to individuals, they are much better at one specific role.  4e is, in my experience, the only game that can really push that a bit, and even then, the human emphasizes a specialization in one specific role (the difference being, you're allowed to pick what role that is... most races kind of have it spelled out for them).</blockquote>

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