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No More "Humans in Funny Hats": Racial Mechanics Should Determine Racial Cultures
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<blockquote data-quote="Thunderfoot" data-source="post: 8457439" data-attributes="member: 34175"><p>Part of the XP mechanic made that work but was often ignored by DMs and Players alike, and the fluff text rounded it out. Elves being the biggest gripe most players used for instance, didn't start their adventuring careers until the ripe old age of 150-175. Assuming that the character was a tri-class all XP would be divided by three with remainders dropped or applied to the Thief class since it had unlimited levels. According to the Elf entry amd several Dragon articles (which at the time were considered near canonical) elves had family duties that took them away from adventuring later in life so their adventuring careers were more in line of 160 - 600, a long time to be sure but while a 6th level human fighter would have 35,001 XP a similar elf tri-class would be (with point drops added) roughly 4/4/5 assuming both were advancing at max due to XP bonuses for abilities. It doesn't seem like much but that little difference made up a big difference when next level the human would be gaining multiple attacks per round and the elf would not.</p><p>Also, the dual class only was due to he humans short life spans, with only a fee years to devote, you either specialized or became a really poor-man's multi-class. Was it fair, no? Was it quasi-realistic? Yes. What made the difference between classes may have seemed arbitrary but it was built into the mechanics. You want options you play a demi-human, you want progression, you play a human. Players also ignored the racial suggestions of how to play the races. Elves were graceful, thoughtful and slow to act, the long age meant that brash and rushed decisions were never a good idea. I mean if you have the chance of living to 1500 years old taking up a profession that could significantly shorten your life span was already a big deal, making stupid decisions to shorten it even further was just stupid. Want an example, read the death of Haldir or better yet watch the section if the movie closely. That 'oh S*!+, I'm dying' moment when he realizes his life is literally sliding through his fingers.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Thunderfoot, post: 8457439, member: 34175"] Part of the XP mechanic made that work but was often ignored by DMs and Players alike, and the fluff text rounded it out. Elves being the biggest gripe most players used for instance, didn't start their adventuring careers until the ripe old age of 150-175. Assuming that the character was a tri-class all XP would be divided by three with remainders dropped or applied to the Thief class since it had unlimited levels. According to the Elf entry amd several Dragon articles (which at the time were considered near canonical) elves had family duties that took them away from adventuring later in life so their adventuring careers were more in line of 160 - 600, a long time to be sure but while a 6th level human fighter would have 35,001 XP a similar elf tri-class would be (with point drops added) roughly 4/4/5 assuming both were advancing at max due to XP bonuses for abilities. It doesn't seem like much but that little difference made up a big difference when next level the human would be gaining multiple attacks per round and the elf would not. Also, the dual class only was due to he humans short life spans, with only a fee years to devote, you either specialized or became a really poor-man's multi-class. Was it fair, no? Was it quasi-realistic? Yes. What made the difference between classes may have seemed arbitrary but it was built into the mechanics. You want options you play a demi-human, you want progression, you play a human. Players also ignored the racial suggestions of how to play the races. Elves were graceful, thoughtful and slow to act, the long age meant that brash and rushed decisions were never a good idea. I mean if you have the chance of living to 1500 years old taking up a profession that could significantly shorten your life span was already a big deal, making stupid decisions to shorten it even further was just stupid. Want an example, read the death of Haldir or better yet watch the section if the movie closely. That 'oh S*!+, I'm dying' moment when he realizes his life is literally sliding through his fingers. [/QUOTE]
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