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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Faolyn" data-source="post: 8204045" data-attributes="member: 6915329">I wasn't aware that fluff and ASIs were the same thing.And this proves you haven't been paying attention in the slightest. Or that you have your strawman stuck in your head and are refusing to let anything dislodge it. You are basically stating "your fun is wrong" here.No. This is about giving players the ability to put their floating ASI wherever they want, rather than in some attribute that the racial write-ups demand even if it makes no sense to their character.Edit: Since you still insist on it being able to start with a 16, consider that there are people who may want to turn the 12 or 13 into a 14 or 15--especially people who are playing a MAD class--or who want to turn the 8 into a 10--especially people who don't imagine their character being that much below average. Stop assuming it's always going to be starting out with a single maxed out stat.This is a really poorly thought-out slippery slope here. If anything, multiple editions of D&D have shown that racial traits have become more important over the editions. For instance, take the half-orc.In both 1e and 2e (using The Complete Book of Humanoids for 2e), half-orcs got +1 Strength, +1 Constitution, -2 Charisma (but only with humans and demi-humans; they use their full Charisma bonus with other half-orcs), and 60-foot infravision. In 1e, they could apparently be assassins to unlimited levels, while they were limited to being 10th-level fighters. In 2e, they could be 10th-level fighters but 11th-level thieves, as there was no assassin class in that edition. Interesting how they weren't supposed to be powerful fighters, but instead were supposed to be stealthy fighters.I'll also point out, as an unrelated aside, that in 2e, full orcs didn't get the Constitution bonus (instead getting a dwarf-like ability to detect new construction and sloping corridors), so the weird bit where 5e half-orcs are stronger than full orcs isn't new to 5e. Possibly because PC half-orcs are, as 1e put it, are assumed to be one of the "superior 10% of half-orcs" that could "pass for human." (Yikes.)In 3e, they got +2 Strength, -2 Intelligence, -2 Charisma, and 60-foot darkvision. Their only trait is Orc Blood, which treats them as full orcs for the purposes of spells, magic items, etc. Those poor orcs. A definitely sub-par race.In 4e, they got... well, I have no idea how 4e did attributes bonuses, but according to this <a href="https://dnd4.fandom.com/wiki/Half-Orc" target="_blank">wiki</a>, when introduced in PH2, they had Dexterity and either Strength or Constitution. They also got Furious Assault, Half-Orc Resilience, and Swift Charge, low-light vision, and skill bonuses to Endurance and Intimidation. This is very similar to how they're portrayed in 5e, although curiously it suggests that they are not all physically strong powerhouses, but they are all quite dexterous. A callback to them being the assassin class in AD&D?And now look at them in 5e, where they get Strength +2, Con +1, Darkvision, Menacing, Relentless Endurance, and Savage Attacks.In 1e and 2e, if you take away their ASIs, half-orcs get infravision. In order to be distinguished from the other races, AD&D half-orcs need their ASIs.In 3e, if you take away their ASIs, half-orcs get darkvision and can use or be affected by certain items, spells, and other things that had the Orc tag. In order to be distinguished from the other races, D&D3.x half-orcs need their ASIs.In 4e and 5e, if you take away their ASIs, half-orcs get to inflict extra damage, can shrug off death, can move charge their enemies, are very intimidating, and can see in the dark. They are quite distinguished from other races even without their ASIs.So tell me, what on earth makes you think that they're going to remove any traits, or at least, remove any traits and not replace them with something else, in this edition or in the next? Because right now, you're just clutching at pearls and saying "won't someone think of the children!?"</blockquote>

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