D&D 5E (2014) The woes of the elf and his longsword

[The Crimson Binome]

Point buy is a variant rule; by the standard, which balance is based upon, an Elf is perfectly capable of rolling an 18 for strength.

No matter the stat generation method, an Elf is always likely to have a higher Dex than Strength. There may be some statistical outliers with higher Strength than Dex, but you'll always have more Elves with 16 Dex than with 16 Strength, or 14 Dex than 14 Strength.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Heaven forbid they have a non-optimal story based approach to the races. Not everything has to be mechanically advantageous. Elves and longswords have gone back at least as far as 1e. It's a DnD-ism.

Pretty much. I probably give more credence to who my PC is and what he or she wears based on what I think is cool over what I think will give me the highest bonus. I'm pretty sure I'm not alone. In fact, I don't think I'd enjoy a game where optimization was the primary driving factor. Seems very restrictive to me.

 

[Paraxis]

Point buy is a variant rule; by the standard, which balance is based upon, an Elf is perfectly capable of rolling an 18 for strength.

And with really good rolls, an Elf Wizard could have, say, 14 strength. This would make a long sword very attractive in comparison to a cantrip, and be cool flavor.

Point buy might be the variant but the standard is rolling and assigning the results as you wish or to assign the standard array. So no matter how you generate ability scores by the book you pick if your dexterity will be higher than your strength, and for elves they will 99% of the time never put a high number in strength.
If you pick Elf as your race you want a high dexterity, thats one of the major reasons to pick Elf.
Also a wizard has no use for a sword, the number of attacks of opportunity a wizard should ever make is very low, with at-will attack cantrips it's not like they will swing it as their action on their turn.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Point buy might be the variant but the standard is rolling and assigning the results as you wish or to assign the standard array. So no matter how you generate ability scores by the book you pick if your dexterity will be higher than your strength, and for elves they will 99% of the time never put a high number in strength.
If you pick Elf as your race you want a high dexterity, thats one of the major reasons to pick Elf.
Also a wizard has no use for a sword, the number of attacks of opportunity a wizard should ever make is very low, with at-will attack cantrips it's not like they will swing it as their action on their turn.

Maybe for you, but for me (and I'm sure lots of others), the major reason to play an elf is because I want to play an elf.

Seriously, you (general you) need to step outside of your preconceived biases and understand that lots of people don't choose class/race combos based on what does the most DPS. You play that way? Great. I'm glad it's an option for you to have fun. But please stop with this "99% of people" stuff.

 

[Rhenny]

They had this problem in older versions too. Then they introduced the "Elven Thinblade," which was basically a very light, finesse longsword. (I think this started back in 2e or 3e...can't remember off hand).

 

[Parmandur]

Actually, putting, say, a 14 in Dex and a 16 in str would be smart for an Elf fighter-type.

House-rule idea with serious balance pitfalls: class and racial Prof combine to make expertise. So, an Elf fighter would get double Prof bonus for long swords, and a wizard just Prof bonus. Would make Elves better at swords, and heavily discourage non-longsword usage.

 

[Minigiant]

Again

What sort of silly army arms its soldiers with rapiers?

In the MM, an elf veteran has

STR 16, DEX 15, CON 14, INT 10-11, WIS 11-12, CHA 10

Thug has higher STR than DEX.
Tribal Warrior has Higher STR
Gladiators and Berxerkers have higher STR

High Strength is the standard for non-archer warriors. Finesse weapons are for archers, roguish types, scouts, sometimes warriors (nobles and mages). and poor people.

Longsword (or the axe, pick, or hammer equivalent), shield, and the heaviest armor you can afford is the standard of a D&D warrior in all races before deities and culture are added.

 

[Parmandur]

Maybe for you, but for me (and I'm sure lots of others), the major reason to play an elf is because I want to play an elf.



Seriously, you (general you) need to step outside of your preconceived biases and understand that lots of people don't choose class/race combos based on what does the most DPS. You play that way? Great. I'm glad it's an option for you to have fun. But please stop with this "99% of people" stuff.

Considering the 20 hard cap, maxing one stat too quick isn't even optimal, to boot.

 

[Bayonet]

Pretty much. I probably give more credence to who my PC is and what he or she wears based on what I think is cool over what I think will give me the highest bonus. I'm pretty sure I'm not alone. In fact, I don't think I'd enjoy a game where optimization was the primary driving factor. Seems very restrictive to me.

Same here. I'd rather build a character idea and play him or her as I've imagined him, than build some sort of bland Min-Maxenstein.

Elves use longswords because they have always used longswords. Their culture fetishizes the weapon and they are tradition bound to master it. ( "The longsword isn't a suitable weapon for you, young one? Perhaps YOU aren't suitable enough for the weapon. Now, try again. Better.")


Besdes, if you start trying to logic out weapon abilities in D&D, you're going to drive yourself mad. (Ever try to draw a longbow? Have a pull at one and then tell me that DEX is the main stat! ;D)

 

[Remathilis]

At one point in the playtest, races using their racial weapons had a 1 dice higher advantage than others. An elf using a longsword did d10, a dwarf using an axe d10, a halfling with a sling d6, etc.

It was ditched because it forced all elves to use longswords, all dwarves to use axes, etc.

Some people are never satisfied.