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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ilbranteloth" data-source="post: 7187415" data-attributes="member: 6778044">I don't agree it's poor design just because it is predisposed toward a particular class, or against another. In my campaigns, dwarves cannot be sorcerers at all, and they have mechanical disadvantages (actual and significant penalties) as a wizard or bard (who is still another arcane caster in my world). They have magic resistance, and they are just naturally not magical creatures. Why? Because that's how they are in my world. Sure, it's coming from the old AD&D stats, but that's fine. There are lots of people that make choices on what to do or who to be that are not as easy for them as other choices. Sometimes somebody chooses to do something because it is hard. Dwarven wizards are exceedingly rare, but that doesn't mean that there aren't any that aren't born that, for whatever reason, feel drawn toward the Art. It just doesn't come as easy to them as it does an elf.It's simply a design decision. I've decided that in my world, dwarves are not innate arcane spell casters. My goal in my design is not "make sure everybody can play every possible combination equally." So throwing a bone has no place in my design. The 5e design is based around giving bonuses instead of penalties. Fair enough. But that means that if they are granting a bonus geared toward a particular class or place in the world, then it just might not apply to every class. Moreover, I think that the Strength and Constitution bonuses for the half-orc just make sense. I'd much prefer they design the race around a concept for that race that makes sense, rather than trying to make every race equally good for every combination.As for the extra damage on a critical hit? I'd agree that it's not a great design choice. That would be difficult to explain away. They obviously wanted to add something that indicates they are brutes when it comes to combat. But it had to be something limited, so it wouldn't give them a constant advantage. There are a lot of rules like that. On the other hand, large cats in my campaign gain a choke hold on a critical hit. Why? Because that's how big cats attack - they go for the throat. It's instinctual and consistent, whether it was 500 years ago or today. The critical hit just means the succeeded on that attack. So the idea that there is some sort of instinctual combat ability isn't that farfetched to me. I don't have a particular explanation for the half-orc ability, but that's largely because I haven't bothered since I don't allow half-orc PCs in the campaign. If and when I need to, I'll tweak them just like I've tweaked the other races.And no. There aren't any elven barbarians in my campaign either. Sorry. That doesn't mean that there might not be some sort of elf with an anger issue and a rage ability. But it won't be the barbarian class.</blockquote>

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