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<blockquote data-quote="jmartkdr2" data-source="post: 9355267" data-attributes="member: 7017304">That's always been the human's thing in DnD: they're the baseline, so they either don't get anything or what they get isn't really race-based (extra feat usually means they lean into their class identity more.) Nothing wrong with that, but:If you take away the half-elf's special stat mods, they're mechanically effectively the same as humans. If that's true, why have two stat blocks to do the same thing? Why not just have a human with some background of being connected to elves? Or generally forced-cosmopolitan because they're not fully accepted in either parent's culture? (Or in Eberron, they're a whole other culture) You could even invert it and have elves who swap out a cantrip for extra skills and/or a feat. I'm not saying that it is true, I'm just trying to understand the argument. The counterpoint, as I understand it, is that by removing half-elves you remove some very treasured representation of mixed-race people in the world's most popular fantasy game. That's deeply, personally upsetting to some folks, and that's a totally valid response. Yeah that was a weird choice.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="jmartkdr2, post: 9355267, member: 7017304"] That's always been the human's thing in DnD: they're the baseline, so they either don't get anything or what they get isn't really race-based (extra feat usually means they lean into their class identity more.) Nothing wrong with that, but: If you take away the half-elf's special stat mods, they're mechanically effectively the same as humans. If that's true, why have two stat blocks to do the same thing? Why not just have a human with some background of being connected to elves? Or generally forced-cosmopolitan because they're not fully accepted in either parent's culture? (Or in Eberron, they're a whole other culture) You could even invert it and have elves who swap out a cantrip for extra skills and/or a feat. I'm not saying that it [I]is[/I] true, I'm just trying to understand the argument. The counterpoint, as I understand it, is that by removing half-elves you remove some very treasured representation of mixed-race people in the world's most popular fantasy game. That's deeply, personally upsetting to some folks, and that's a totally valid response. Yeah that was a weird choice. [/QUOTE]

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