Mind of tempest
(he/him)advocate for 5e psionics
it most likely has to do with agility.
D&D General The Tyranny of Rarity
- Thread starter Stormonu
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Presumably.
The fact that elves and halflings are redundant because of it is just ... odd to me. There's more to a race than ability score adjustments, and even that isn't really an issue if you use Tasha's.
Agility. Some RPGs use Agility
Now that I think of it. Klingons taking the Big Strong Guy slot makesit tough for Comics.
Book:
Cartoons: Smurf
Comics:
Humans: Humans
Legends:
Mythology:
Star Trek/SciFi1: Klingons
Star Wars/SciFi2: Twi'lek
Tradition:
It feels like anyone claiming they're redundant is on the side.of races being rubber masks that grant ASIs, and vice versa.
Well If you take away the race adjustment, halflings are redundant with humans and elves with humans. Since overall the rest of the elf and halfling racial features are minor, swappable, or easily replicated.
This makes sense if you go by the theory that the LOTR races were all supposed to represent different culture/societies/classes/styles of humans.
If you take away everything from a race that makes it unique, then yes, they are the same as every other race. I don't think of halfings and elves as being the same other than one ability score adjustment in common, everything else about them is quite distinct.
As far as races in D&D, or in the vast majority of fantasy and sci-fi, being representative of different aspects of humanity of course they are. Even if we met a truly alien species, we'd still humanize them somehow just like we do animals. It's the way we make sense of the world.
Mind of tempest
(he/him)advocate for 5e psionics
aside from stats and size what else really separate the two in your opinion?
Where they live, attitudes, lore, gods, niche, special abilities. Some of it is going to be campaign world specific of course. But a quick high level?
Elves come across as stand-offish people who live in the woods or at least in harmony with nature while being somewhat different from other mortals. Often suspicious of other races to the point of being xenophobic. While most are not as driven as humans, they are often associated with magic and the ethereal beauty of their dwellings.
Halflings are the literal little people and common folk, friendly to a fault and can appear to be naive. Generally homebodies that prefer creature comforts and avoiding direct confrontation, they may appear to be lazy because they enjoy simple pleasures. They live either in pastoral communities or happily alongside other races, be they elves, dwarves or human.
If you define racial uniqueness by what ability score they are granted a +2 in, we only need 6 races total.
If your ability score adjustment and cultural weapons/item is all that makes a race, then the race is basically an alternate human.
But not all races are like this. A D&D dwarf or Elf is closer to a human than a D&D dragonborn or tabaxi. And mythological dwarves and elves are farther still.
That's why traditional D&D races tend to be redundant. They aren't that far from the base human and rely on lore and rare happenings to make them look different.
I think that's another reason why many choose some of the non-humany races and ask to have them in settings. To roleplay something that constantly feels not like a human and having a constant reminder of fantasy.
Jacob Lewis
Ye Olde GM
And yet, a lot of players can't portray anything deeper than a human wearing a costume. Go figure.
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