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Put initial stat bonus in class not background
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<blockquote data-quote="DEFCON 1" data-source="post: 8751569" data-attributes="member: 7006"><p>And as we've talked about before... a bonus +1 to a racial PC stat in <em>no way</em> denotes what kind of a person you are. You can't say "All dwarves are tough!" and then create a dwarf PC with a CON 9 (stat buy 8 + the bonus +1 from a supposed racial bonus). That mechanical +1 in no way accomplishes the narrative ideal the statement "All dwarves are tough" was going for. So there's no point in even giving in to the illusion that it does. Which is why WotC has removed racial bonuses to races.</p><p></p><p>If a person wants the idea that 7' goliaths should be stronger than 3' halflings just by their size if nothing else... they ONLY way to accomplish that mechanically would be to like set Goliath STR minimums at like 14 and Halfling STR maximums at like 8, so there's never any Halfling that is stronger than a Goliath. But how many people would actually go for that kind of rule if THAT was put in the game?</p><p></p><p>And you know what's even stupider about a rule like that? Even if the game DID put in a rule that that said Goliaths <strong>must</strong> have a minimum STR of 14 and Halflings a maximum STR of 8... that's only 3 modifier points of difference! Which means you're STILL going to have contested STR checks where the Halfling in going to best the Goliath in strength more than a third of the time! And thus your whole narrative ideal of "all goliaths are stronger than halflings based on sheer size alone!" gets completely stomped in the mud AGAIN. So attempting to use game mechanics to reflect a narrative ideal fails miserably once more.</p><p></p><p>This is another one of those times where attempts at modeling any sort of "reality" in D&D are ignored in the rules in order to make the <em>game</em> fun. The game wants and needs the mechanics to be more equitable for the most amount of players. And that means yes, we can and will have clumsy elves, brilliant orcs, sickly dwarves, and strapping halflings. So be it. And if an individual DM doesn't want that for their campaign world... they can set up their own rules for their players to make it happen, rather than demand WotC to do it for them.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="DEFCON 1, post: 8751569, member: 7006"] And as we've talked about before... a bonus +1 to a racial PC stat in [I]no way[/I] denotes what kind of a person you are. You can't say "All dwarves are tough!" and then create a dwarf PC with a CON 9 (stat buy 8 + the bonus +1 from a supposed racial bonus). That mechanical +1 in no way accomplishes the narrative ideal the statement "All dwarves are tough" was going for. So there's no point in even giving in to the illusion that it does. Which is why WotC has removed racial bonuses to races. If a person wants the idea that 7' goliaths should be stronger than 3' halflings just by their size if nothing else... they ONLY way to accomplish that mechanically would be to like set Goliath STR minimums at like 14 and Halfling STR maximums at like 8, so there's never any Halfling that is stronger than a Goliath. But how many people would actually go for that kind of rule if THAT was put in the game? And you know what's even stupider about a rule like that? Even if the game DID put in a rule that that said Goliaths [B]must[/B] have a minimum STR of 14 and Halflings a maximum STR of 8... that's only 3 modifier points of difference! Which means you're STILL going to have contested STR checks where the Halfling in going to best the Goliath in strength more than a third of the time! And thus your whole narrative ideal of "all goliaths are stronger than halflings based on sheer size alone!" gets completely stomped in the mud AGAIN. So attempting to use game mechanics to reflect a narrative ideal fails miserably once more. This is another one of those times where attempts at modeling any sort of "reality" in D&D are ignored in the rules in order to make the [I]game[/I] fun. The game wants and needs the mechanics to be more equitable for the most amount of players. And that means yes, we can and will have clumsy elves, brilliant orcs, sickly dwarves, and strapping halflings. So be it. And if an individual DM doesn't want that for their campaign world... they can set up their own rules for their players to make it happen, rather than demand WotC to do it for them. [/QUOTE]
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