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Message: <blockquote data-quote="DammitVictor" data-source="post: 9097065" data-attributes="member: 6750908">What do you think the hills are made of?Only two. The hard part is getting them in there. Or getting them back out again, depending on your perspective.[hr][/hr]Racial ASIs (even penalties and mental bonuses/penalties) for fantasy races make sense; the one defining characteristic that all "fantasy races" have in common is that they're not human. But what makes logical sense for the game universe isn't always what's best for the game. Gnomes should not be as muscular as goliaths, and goliaths should not be as intellectual as gnomes, but gnome barbarians and goliath wizards should be as viable/capable at their respective levels as their counterparts and the D&D rules roll all of that into ability scores.[hr][/hr]The biggest problem with Racial ASIs isn't that they lock fantasy races into stereotypical class combinations, it's that they lock fantasy races into the wrong stereotypical class combinations. ±1 hit point per level is a much more substantial bonus/penalty for a class with d4 Hit Dice than a class with d12 Hit Dice, which had more to do with the proliferation of dwarf wizards in 3.X than AD&D players secretly wishing they could play them.Charisma penalties for "ugly" races in 3.X meant very few tiefling or half-orc warlocks.Part of the problem was that "player freedom" was used to justify removing all of the structure and definition of these nonhuman fantasy races. Racial level limits were rightfully discarded, but the limitations on what classes they could pursue was one of the biggest/only differentiating mechanics between them in AD&D. (Wasted by making 90% of races near identical to dwarf and/or halfling.)The ideal solution is to nuke racial ability modifiers, and go back to either race-as-class or a much more varied list of legal class/multiclass options for each race.</blockquote>

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