D&D 5E So,whats up with those half orcs?

[Dausuul]

Daasul I think it's more for the roleplaying than the roll playing - Drizztification possibly, but why shouldn't a wizard be hench? There's many a scholar I know that would make Fafhrd pause for thought. All that running and bench pressing must be good, repetitive opportunities for spell memorisation...

The OP was saying half-orcs were overpowered, with the presence of a half-orc wizard in the party being evidence of this. That's an optimization/mechanics question, not a roleplaying one.

 

[practicalm]

I've got
3 Humans
3 Wood Elves
2 Halflings
1 Half-Orc
1 Dragonborn
1 Tiefling
1 Dwarf
1 Goliath

Not all play every session but it's a mixed group.

 

[Mercule]

General thought: Is this a case of selective memory? I don't mean that in a negative way.

Over the years, I've seen a number of times at my table when something seemed awesome/suck, but that was because it was the outliers that stuck in people's minds. After it was pointed out (usually in frustration), we'd start to watch and the general result was that the build/rule wasn't really any better/worse than "average", the player just had a couple good/bad nights or their dice were swingy or the build was swingy. That isn't a universal statement, just a thought. It also doesn't apply to obvious cases like half-orc sorcerers or halfling GWF, etc.

 

[Sword of Spirit]

Now partly I'm willing to believe it's just my half crazed group. These guys are nuts!

Given that the game has been out since August and I've never heard anyone else claim that half-orcs are overpowered/the best race, I'd tend to say it's just your half-crazed group.

 

[Alkavian]

Given that the game has been out since August and I've never heard anyone else claim that half-orcs are overpowered/the best race, I'd tend to say it's just your half-crazed group.

^ Ditto. Seems to be just group dynamic combined with player optimizations.

 

[Bupp]

Running two groups right now, and both are pretty mixed.

Drow elf rouge
Human fighter
Human wizard
Half orc ranger
Half elf cleric
Human Druid

This group also has a couple of NPC's that are available to be swapped out for a PC:
Human wizard
Dwarf barbarian

My second (smaller) group I like to call "Half a Party"
Half elf wizard
Half orc barbarian
Halfling rouge
Halfling cleric

 

[Sunseeker]

Running two groups right now, and both are pretty mixed.

Drow elf rouge

Query: how do you deal with the Drow sunlight sensitivity?

 

[GameOgre]

Well good to know it's just my crazy group!

 

[Cyan Wisp]

I run 3 school groups (7-10 year olds). All players choose a race from the PHB by browsing. None really know about feats and they only slightly acknowledge racial features like dragon breath, so choices tend to be based on perceived coolness and the pictures. Note the dragonborn outbreak!

Group 1 (All boys): var. human shadow monk, var. human wild sorcerer, dragonborn conjurer, dragonborn moon druid, var. human transmuter

Group 2 (All girls): rock gnome necromancer (pirate!), wood elf ranger, forest gnome elemental monk, half-elf moon druid, half-elf transmuter, dragonborn conjurer.

Group 3 (mixed gender): Boys: half-orc moon druid, half-orc light cleric, half-orc warlock, dragonborn warlock. Girls: hill dwarf arcane trickster, dragonborn moon druid.

The half-orc heavy group has made frequent use of their "not quite dead" feature as they tend to "almost die" a lot. The savage attack feature has never even surfaced! What is really funny is they are still coming to grips with how naturally intimidating their group is. Luckily the cleric has some diplomatic tendencies.

 

[Henry]

As long as I have one table telling me that half-orcs are overpowered, and another table telling me it's humans, and yet another swearing by dwarves/elves/halflings/whatever, then the balance seems fine to me.