D&D 4E Racial Intolerance Chart in 4E.

[Wisdom Penalty]

Any chance we see a return to dare-I-say-it realistic modifiers based upon a race's gender?

Any chance we see sexual dimorphism within a race?

Any chance we see a racial tolerance chart ala the 1E PHB?

I know: No, no, and no.

But I'm asking anyway.

W.P.

 

[Masquerade]

I think you mean "sex," not "gender."

 

[Wisdom Penalty]

I think you mean "sex," not "gender."

I think I meant gender. But I could be wrong. In fact, I thought 'sex' would be incorrect here. Do tell?

 

[Kintara]

Never gonna happen, at least not for humans. Non-humans have some wiggle room, though even they will probably stay far away from it.

It's just too big of a mess to deal with. If you want a woman with less strength, then give her less strength in chargen. I don't mind that the system allows women to be as strong as men. In fact, I want the system to support me if I decided to make such a character.

Edit: "Sex" refers to physiological differences. "Gender" is more social. At least that's the convention. People on the internet tend to take that difference more seriously than I think is warranted, though. I knew what you meant.

 

[mmadsen]

Any chance we see a return to dare-I-say-it realistic modifiers based upon a race's gender?

I think you mean character's sex...

But the more serious game-design point is that even if human females have a different strength distribution than human males, that does not mean that the game should penalize a player for the choice to play a female character.

The rules for creating balanced characters provide choices with costs and benefits. They are not rules for simulating random people in the population given that they belong to a specific race and sex.

 

[Wisdom Penalty]

Fair enough. What about a racial intolerance chart?

In 3E, every core race seemed to - more or less - get along. I'm sure this provides the social lubrication needed so a party of PCs can be of any race and not have to delve into bickering based on "accurate" roleplaying. That being said, I think some decent racial antagonism could add to RP aspects, and not detract from them. It seems the table has been set to allow such a chart (eladrin vs. elves, dragonborn vs. all, etc.)...but will anyone dine upon it?

I don't see the developers taking the next step and providing a context wherein everyone is not everyone else's friend. And that's a shame, I think, because some of the best fiction you can find uses such racial norms as a compelling springboard toward an interesting social dynamic and - more often than not - a "realization" somewhere down the road that everyone should, afterall, get along.

But I think that point of harmony is best reached after characters spend some time on the road saving one another's lives.

W.P.

 

[pawsplay]

Str, as defined by D&D, has little relation to sex. Probably the most realistic thing would be to give male humans a higher carrying capacity. Women might earn a nebulous +1 to Fort saves or something. Honestly, the differences are small and specific enough it's not worth worrying about. Men have a large edge in pretty much one thing: throwing small objects a great distance. I seriously doubt the difference in any ability score is as different as the difference in Dex between a human and a halfling, for instance.

 

[mmadsen]

Str, as defined by D&D, has little relation to sex.

How hard you can swing a club or a fist -- the main point of Str in D&D -- is extremely strongly correlated to sex in real-life humans. We're a sexually dimorphic species.

That doesn't mean that players, who are already playing highly exceptional heroes, shouldn't be able to play dangerous Amazons.

 

[pawsplay]

How hard you can swing a club or a fist -- the main point of Str in D&D -- is extremely strongly correlated to sex in real-life humans. We're a sexually dimorphic species.

It's slightly correlated. And we're not that sexually dimorphic.

 

[mmadsen]

It's slightly correlated. And we're not that sexually dimorphic.

There is virtually no overlap in upper-body strength between men and women. For example, being able to bench-press 105 lbs puts a woman in the 95th percentile of women. That's the 10th percentile for men.

We're not nearly as sexually dimorphic as gorillas, but we have clear physical differences between the sexes.