Sell me on Half-Elves

[hong]

The resident powergamer in our group (and he's _good_ at it) is playing a half-elf paladin with the warlock's eyebite. I automatically disbelieve all claims that the half-elf is weak.

 

[CleverNickName]

The resident powergamer in our group (and he's _good_ at it) is playing a half-elf paladin with the warlock's eyebite. I automatically disbelieve all claims that the half-elf is weak.

Ah yes, powergamers. Forgot about those.

 

[hong]

Hey Clevernickname, how's your 4E game going?

 

[FalcWP]

Ok. Want to know why the 4E Half-Elf is awesome?

Take your 3.5 player coming in to 4E. The guy at your table who had to have a multiclass build with three or four different classes, minimum. Even though you were only level 5. The guy who mocked people for playing the weak and lowly half-elf.

He's gonna play a half-elf now, just so he can get that uber multiclassing feel back. And it'll be your turn to mock him.

Half Elves = Poetic Justice.

 

[Shroomy]

I actually quite like the half-elf since I like the versatility of a second or third class power. Also, while the half-elf kind of gets a bad rap, I think people will find them more attractive as more racial feats and at-will powers are released.

 

[mattdm]

The resident powergamer in our group (and he's _good_ at it) is playing a half-elf paladin with the warlock's eyebite. I automatically disbelieve all claims that the half-elf is weak.

This seems to me like the people claiming that the 3E Psychic Warrior class was uber-powerful. Really, it kinda sucked, but there's a few horribly broken combos that one can pull off with it.

I'm not sayin' the above combo is broken, but I'm not impressed by the ability to make one or two tricks that work. That's actually completely counter to the apparent race focus!

 

[theNater]

Selling points for the half-elf:

1. Racial bonus to con. Good for every character, particularly good for fighters, paladins, and warlocks.

2. Racial bonus to cha. Good for clerics, paladins, rogues, warlocks, and warlords. Note that a half-elf has an advantage over humans for paladins and warlocks.

3. Low-light vision. Better than the normal vision had by dragonborn, halflings, and humans.

4. Three starting languages. Every other race only has two.

5. Only race to get racial bonuses to diplomacy or insight. Very good for social characters.

6. The racial encounter power is custom chosen by the player. Humans racial power is a bonus at-will from their own class, which are not always highly useful(a human cleric focusing on str ends up with a wis-based power), while other race/class combinations may get a limited amount of value from their racial encounter power. A dragonborn wizard, for example.

7. More racial feats to choose from than any other race in the game.

8. The Group Diplomacy bonus is very handy for social skill challenges.

Overall, they've got a lot going for them. With the con bonus and the Dilettante power, they can be almost as good as a human at any class(no +2 in the primary stat or bonus at-will, but more hit points, healing surges, and a complementary racial power), and better than human in some classes. The only race that can compete with them for the title of best warlock is the tiefling, and the only race that can out-paladin them is the dragonborn.