D&D 4E Race Matters more in 4e?

[Dyne]

I'm really not sure why the designers would want to do this. In 3e, your choice of race made a HUGE difference, both mechanically and RP-wise.

The part about "Little bonuses not mattering at higher levels" particularly worries me; I always saw every tiny plus or minus making a difference no matter what level you are (a +1 always increases your chances by 5%, simply because you're always rolling a 20-sided die). The designers' comments just scream powercreep to me, but I suppose we won't really know until May next year.

 

[howandwhy99]

I am hoping they stop treating half races as full races, but rather something more akin to templates. An elf with the human template or a human with the elf template would determine the basic social and cultural abilities on top of the standardized biological ones. This is what I've homebrewed for my 3.5 game.

Half races treated as unique full races means every combination of two (or more) races can only be accounted for with an entirely new race just as the half-orc and half-elf are treated in 3E.

 

[mhacdebhandia]

The designers' comments just scream powercreep to me, but I suppose we won't really know until May next year.

"Powercreep" between editions is absolutely, wholly meaningless. It doesn't matter if a 1st-level Fourth Edition fighter does 10d8+20 damage with a longsword, 10 times as much as a 1st-level Third Edition fighter, because they'll build the orc barbarians he's fighting to have 10 times as many hitpoints as their Third Edition counterparts.

It was the same when they moved from Second Edition to Third Edition. The numbers increased, but relative power level didn't change much - everyone got higher numbers, more options, and so on.

 

[pawsplay]

I like the idea what an Elven Fighter will be slightly different than a Dwarven Fighter which will also be slightly different than a Human Fighter etc.

1. That's already the case.
2. What if you want an elven fighter that is different from other elven fighters?

 

[Nefrast]

2. What if you want an elven fighter that is different from other elven
fighters?

Racial feats?

 

[pawsplay]

Racial feats?

So, if I decide to play an axe-wielding, steel-clad elven fighter, am I going to penalized compared to someone who picks a dwarf?

 

[Remathilis]

Did anyone else think

Racial Talent Tree?

Get this... A fighter gets a "class feature/talent/whatever" at first level. This COULD be selected from his class list, OR he could take an improved racial trait "elven evasion" instead. So he's still a fighter, but he has a second, smaller list of options a dwarven fighter does not. However the dwarven fighter has options the elven one does not.

(the idea is borrowed from SAGA's force-talent tree idea)

 

[Imaro]

IMHO...this just doesn't sound like streamlining at all. In fact it seems to put alot more emphasis on a choice you make at 1st lvl and cant be changed. It also seems to stress rules mastery by a new player to an even higher extent.

 

[Nefrast]

So, if I decide to play an axe-wielding, steel-clad elven fighter, am I going to penalized compared to someone who picks a dwarf?

Racial feats may enable different elves to develop different racial abilities. They should not penalize but enable more racial variance.

 

[pawsplay]

Racial feats may enable different elves to develop different racial abilities. They should not penalize but enable more racial variance.

A character that has more meanginful options is more powerful than one who doesn't. To put it simply, if the elf has a Really Good at Longswords trait, and dwarves have a Really Good with Axes trait, then an elven axe-fighter is going to, relatively, suck in every comparable way.