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

[Sylrae]

Honestly, I think a (small) racial stat difference is reasonable. say for instance (for humans) men get +1 str, women +1 con. Apply other plusses/minuses to other races as desired.

I understand and agree with the original poster though. The idea of some non-human races with a greater division between males and females would make things very interesting. One of the reasons I have enjoyed playing drow campaigns actually. I enjoyed playing two very different sides of the same race.

The way the Drow are described in the novels though, the female drow should have different mods than males, as they are supposedly much larger and physically superior to males.

and although i would offend some people by so doing, transgendered people (people who get sex changes, not people born as ambiguous) in my opinion, merit either male or female, and which I call them would likely depend entirely on whether I knew them before the surgery or not. I would call a man who got a sex change to being a woman a man when around him. He was born with a penis, and assuming he didn't grow boobs at puberty, the penis wasn't a mistake. if he wants to cut it off and have surgery thats his business, just like how its my business if I want plastic surgery on my face, or that I really do want to have two teeth yanked and replaced with screwed in porcelain replacements. He can have as many surgeries as he wants, thats his right. but I still think he is a he. Additionally, I too am a student in a university, following an academic career, in academia. just in case anyone was wondering.

however sociology is not an interesting enough subject for me to make a major out of it, so its just in my timetable because I had a blank spot and its all I could fit in.

 

[Plane Sailing]

The last time this subject came up, tempers got heated, people got banned and the thread got locked.

OK at the moment, but I'm just saying, OK?

 

[Lurks-no-More]

I'm opposed to encoding sexual dimorphism in stats, because it leads to pointless fights and reinforces the perception that D&D as a hobby is misogynistic. Could we drop the whole "gender, sex and their implications" argument now, please? It's not simple and is liable to insult transgendered and/or -sexual posters on these boards (and I know there is at least one, most likely more.)

 

[Wyrmshadows]

The fact is that women need to take male hormones to achieve physically what men can achieve naturally. I work out 5x a week at a gym frequented by both men and women and the actual difference between men and women in regards to strength is huge.

A female athelete would have to take male hormones for quite a long time as well as train for quite a long time to equal the strength of a moderately conditioned male. The women that are as strong as men take on the androgenic traits of males including a deepened voice, facial hair and the development of an "Adam's Apple" due to the use of male hormones. I won't even get into what male hormones do to female genitals.....not good. I have not yet met a woman who was capable, without steroids, of matching the strength of a healthy, moderately athletic man.

If we are going to be so PC about this, then lets at least be honest with ourselves. Men and women are very different in regards to physical characteristics. And the whole +1 to Con for women thing for balance is bollocks...the fact is that only in cases of very high athletic conditioning does the female estrogen benefit in women have any impact. If women get a +1 Con then men get a +4 to Strength.

I don't care if a DM allows women to have 17+ Str but I'd like to see him describe her accurately as the hulking brute that she is. ESPN has had from time to time specials on female bodybuilding and IMO very, very few players want their sexy yet deadly female warrior to look like these women. In fact IME most players have female characters who have rather lovely female characters in no way lacking in feminine characteristics. The women who have the stregth of well-conditioned men look like men and take on the characteristics of males.

The women are huge, as would any woman be who had 17+ Strength. If a player wants to play a genetic freak ( as there are no steroids in D&D) then they can look like one of the lovelies above in regards to musculature.

I am all about female equality and loathe mysoginism (sp?) but let's call a spade a spade. We, men and women, are not the same and any claim to the contrary is nonsensical and pandering to PC sensibilities at the expense of reality or as we in gaming like to say versimilitude.

At most D&D's female heroes would IMO look like excellently conditioned Miss Fitness USA competitors. Strong, lithe, dextrous and supple but not hulking brutes. I think that the best way to simulate some reality in regards to female warriors would be to have them rely more on finesse than brute strength. Here are some examples:

None of the above women have anything approaching even 16 Strength let alone the Strength stats desired by the players of most fighter type characters. In my campaigns I due tend to cap female NPC Strength at 14 to maintain a semblance of versimilitude while at the same time allowing such characters to be finesse fighters and add their Dex bonus to attacks and/or damage.



Wyrmshadows

 

[Goken100]

Sadly, Not Gonna Happen

Some nerds out there like myself like to have realistic rules. Thus I implemented this house rule:
Female characters get:
+1 to Dex OR Cha
-1 to Str OR Con

Thus it would make females tend to be not quite as strong and bulky, but a bit slipperier and better with human interaction. It would do so while giving female characters lots of flexibility when creating characters, without actually making any classes off-limits to play. Seemed like a win-win to me!

This rule was unanimously shot down by my players (both male and female) as lame, bad, un-fun. Sigh.

 

[jasin]

It is sometimes very important to talk about being masculine (in the eyes of a certain culture) versus having a penis.

On a D&D messageboard?

 

[jasin]

Are any of your players got a Triplewart seadevil PC?

No, but come 4E, I hope to play a fighter with Triplewart Seadevil Strike.

 

[Plane Sailing]

Actually, I think this thread has run its course now (several elements have been reported, and from past experience it is only likely to go downhill)

Ka-chunk