What core 3.5 race is the weakest?

[Taneel BrightBlade]

I stongly disagree with the statment that halflings and gnomes are awful fighters, give a halfling a pile of throughing axes some archery feats and watch him slaughter his enemies. The +1 to hit with thrown weapons and the +2 dex = lots of hits.

 

[Liquidsabre]

Not to mention the +2 Climb/Jump/Listen/Move Silently (+4 Hide for being small of course) bonuses that Halflings get, along with the +2 Dex and +1 Size bonus to AC, nets the halfling with an extra +2 to their AC. Great for wizards, not to mention aiding those ranged touch spells too.

The skill bonuses helps shore up the lackluster skill-using classes and helps break the ceiling for the skill-using classes. Halflings are great, and who needs a higher speed when you can cast expeditious retreat, haste, fly, dimension door, teleport...

 

[Barendd Nobeard]

I gotta go gnome, especially with the favored class of bard. I mean, really - let's saddle the dwarf-lite with a mediocre favored class and watch them squirm.

Bard doesn't even fit their archetype.

Plus:
Strength penalty. (ON TOP of the cut to carrying capacity for being small)
Speed penalty.
Didn't even get dark vision like thier cooler cousins, the dwarves.



Even in 3.0, they're saddled with illusionist, which also is pretty mediocre.



meh.
gnomes.


jtb

I totally agree. In "Living Greyhawk" my dwarf died and was re-incarnated as a gnome. He now TRULY sucks, since he was a fighter type. Add on the 40% xp penalty (since Fighter is no longer his favored class), and he'll progress about as fast as molasses in January. In Alaska.

Now, my gnome rogue (with STR of 5 and CHA of 7), that was fun to play. But not very effective in combat at all.

But as a fighter, gnomes really suck.