Race bonus looks like its going to suck :P

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

In their talk about races for DDN they said that races are going to get a +2 to 2 different attributes and a -2 to a third. I hate this idea. We all know this means halflings lose STR. So bye-bye to all the halfing fighters and barbarians. These may not be practical but they are fun to play. all they are doing is telling us what we can and cannot play as far as race/class combos

It's possible to play a character without an 18 in their prime attribute. You can even have fun doing it.

 

[bloodtide]

To be fair, even in the non-optimized world, there's a significant difference between 7 and 15. But honestly if someone is building a halfling barbarian, then optimization shouldn't be their primary concern anyway.

Well, I've seen way too much of the insane optimization. Like where the player obsesses over the fact that they are a fighter with a strength of less then 18, say 17 and how ''useless they are to the game'' and ''how much fun the game is not''. Just as they have a character with one less point of strength. They hit a goblin and kill it with ten points of damage, but all they can do is whine ''that would have been 11 if my strength was 18''.

Or where a wizard, with an intelligence of 16, will refuse to cast any spells during the game as ''oh, my DC sucks and they will just make their saves anyway''. All because their save DC at 1st level is only 14, but not 15 as it would be if they had an 18 intelligence.

Races need to have strengths and weaknesses, if you bland all the races down to 'just humans'', then what is the point of each race anyway?

 

[Grimmjow]

It's possible to play a character without an 18 in their prime attribute. You can even have fun doing it.

oh i know i just mean you'll be worse off then the rest of the members of the party and my group HATES that

 

[Sunseeker]

Races need to have strengths and weaknesses, if you bland all the races down to 'just humans'', then what is the point of each race anyway?

Cool racial fluff powers?

 

[TimA]

I think every race should be as different as possible, including with penalties.

I think 4th and even 3rd in a lot of ways went too far to make all the demi-humans into humans in funny clothes.

Even 2 pts of ability score difference is an absolutely piffling nothing compared to all the various bonuses that feats/powers, spells, magic items, and the various etc all wind up adding to a character. So anyone whose too worked up about just frankly needs to learn to role play rather then obsessively roll playing.

 

[Grimmjow]

I think every race should be as different as possible, including with penalties.

I think 4th and even 3rd in a lot of ways went too far to make all the demi-humans into humans in funny clothes.

Even 2 pts of ability score difference is an absolutely piffling nothing compared to all the various bonuses that feats/powers, spells, magic items, and the various etc all wind up adding to a character. So anyone whose too worked up about just frankly needs to learn to role play rather then obsessively roll playing.

DnD is a roll playing game though

 

[Grazzt]

In their talk about races for DDN they said that races are going to get a +2 to 2 different attributes and a -2 to a third. I hate this idea. We all know this means halflings lose STR. So bye-bye to all the halfing fighters and barbarians. These may not be practical but they are fun to play. all they are doing is telling us what we can and cannot play as far as race/class combos

You can't play a halfling fighter or barbarian with a -2 racial penalty on Str? And they aren't telling you what you can/cannot play (I'd buy that more if they brought back class restrictions from 1e/2e.) You can still play a halfling fighter or barbarian. He just won't be as strong as some of the others.

 

[billd91]

DnD is a roll playing game though

If that's all you want out of the game, then play a different character race - one with the bonuses you want. The fluff of being halfling, half orc, half elf, or even half-assed won't matter anyway.

 

[BobTheNob]

More of a fan of no racial bonus's what-so-ever and races being defined by the other facets and aspects.

p.s. I dont think it "sucks" because a stat is penalized. Try not to make threads that conclude when they open

 

[Ranganathan]

According to the videos of the first set of seminars, they're going with +1/-1 from race, and a +1 from class. A good change if you ask me as this helps break people out of the 'must be x race and y class to be the best' also it opens up the possibility of non-stereotyped combos that don't suck.

With the standard ability score to modifier ratios though, a +1 is practically useless. Given some of the other math they've revealed, I'm really hoping they're smart enough to throw down with the ability score - 10 = ability modifier angle. Only way to fix the math of having ability scores as DCs.