I feel the play race ability score bonuses are somewhat unblanced and very over rated, as it stands the races that get the strongest starts because of it are mountain dwarfs with +2 in both str and con with no negatives, human variants with a feat and +1 to any two and half elfs with +2 to cha and then another +1 to any two and then a bunch of race options so how do you change this and inspire players to pick tons of different races and class combos? well we need to change things a bit so I would give players one of three options 1. first off ignore race ability scores, give the player one feat (also remove human variant as a option) and let them pick witch scores they want boosted in a standard +2 to one and +1 to another, no race gets a negative and everything gets one buff and a feat (because many races are cool but don't really have good features or scores) 2. pick to get +2 in TWO scores and -2 in another score, this one is interesting as it lets the player get in a bit more variety while adding weakness, you got to suck at something, for instance a someone who wants to play a fighter may pick +2 to con and str but -2 to dex or int (who needs to be fast or smart lol) 3. if your looking to add a bit more power while keeping the "this race is naturally _____" use option one but also give them proficiency in a saving throw that matches one of that races natural ability scores, like a tabaxi rogue could take cha proficiency, a sun/moon elf could pick intelligence and so on ans so forth.
any of these are good for spicing things up or for that player that has been wanting to play that dragon hunting kobold paladin but I strongly recommend forcing the player to take a -1 or -2 in a score to force something they are not good at, if you have a bunch of players that rolled really well and they just become good at everything it sucks the fun out of the game, but also having to pick and choose the best race/class combos suck, with standard point buy/array encourage picking a race with complementing ability scores for the class they want to play.
Also, you realize if you remove human variant, you will never have another human PC ever again.
Yep but what would you rather have? The typical, a elf, dwarf and human combo or a diverse combination of exotic races? Also losing humans is no big deal because that dont have any fun features or darkvision lol
Also, you realize if you remove human variant, you will never have another human PC ever again.
Yep but what would you rather have? The typical, a elf, dwarf and human combo or a diverse combination of exotic races? Also losing humans is no big deal because that dont have any fun features or darkvision lol
Not having darkvision isn't really a problem, and besides the free feat makes up for lack of traits (still better off than dragonborn).
In the AL games I've been in, there are all kinds of races: tiefling, aasimar, halfling, half elf, high elf, human, dwarf, probably more, it is hard to remember them all.
Racial Ability Scores are also like, weirdly racist if you take more than a cursory look.
DnDBeyond did an article a while back about alternatives to them and other games go about it inversely. You take the traits you want and then declare you are something because of it.
If we did away with racial traits entirely I think DnD would be worse for it, but a slightly deeper think about what to do instead of the current system probably wouldn't hurt anybody.
Racial Ability Scores are also like, weirdly racist if you take more than a cursory look.
DnDBeyond did an article a while back about alternatives to them and other games go about it inversely. You take the traits you want and then declare you are something because of it.
If we did away with racial traits entirely I think DnD would be worse for it, but a slightly deeper think about what to do instead of the current system probably wouldn't hurt anybody.
You could recast racial traits and class abilities into archetypes. Then players pick an archetype and declare what race they are. Race then has no mechanical characteristics, just in-game setting importance.
However, this is kind of what Basic D&D had with race-as-class and it lacks the diversity of player choice that AD&D had with being able to mix racial abilities with class abilities.
I'll also point out that if you think racial traits are weirdly racist, then you have to also notice that genocidal species war is the norm in fantasy settings.
Racial Ability Scores are also like, weirdly racist if you take more than a cursory look.
DnDBeyond did an article a while back about alternatives to them and other games go about it inversely. You take the traits you want and then declare you are something because of it.
If we did away with racial traits entirely I think DnD would be worse for it, but a slightly deeper think about what to do instead of the current system probably wouldn't hurt anybody.
You could recast racial traits and class abilities into archetypes. Then players pick an archetype and declare what race they are. Race then has no mechanical characteristics, just in-game setting importance.
However, this is kind of what Basic D&D had with race-as-class and it lacks the diversity of player choice that AD&D had with being able to mix racial abilities with class abilities.
I'll also point out that if you think racial traits are weirdly racist, then you have to also notice that genocidal species war is the norm in fantasy settings.
That archetypes idea has merits. Maybe do a background/race reverse. That'd be a lot less problematic.
Also yeah, genocidal species wars in fantasy settings have a lot of basis in real world racism too, that's not really new info.
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I feel the play race ability score bonuses are somewhat unblanced and very over rated, as it stands the races that get the strongest starts because of it are mountain dwarfs with +2 in both str and con with no negatives, human variants with a feat and +1 to any two and half elfs with +2 to cha and then another +1 to any two and then a bunch of race options so how do you change this and inspire players to pick tons of different races and class combos? well we need to change things a bit so I would give players one of three options
1. first off ignore race ability scores, give the player one feat (also remove human variant as a option) and let them pick witch scores they want boosted in a standard +2 to one and +1 to another, no race gets a negative and everything gets one buff and a feat (because many races are cool but don't really have good features or scores)
2. pick to get +2 in TWO scores and -2 in another score, this one is interesting as it lets the player get in a bit more variety while adding weakness, you got to suck at something, for instance a someone who wants to play a fighter may pick +2 to con and str but -2 to dex or int (who needs to be fast or smart lol)
3. if your looking to add a bit more power while keeping the "this race is naturally _____" use option one but also give them proficiency in a saving throw that matches one of that races natural ability scores, like a tabaxi rogue could take cha proficiency, a sun/moon elf could pick intelligence and so on ans so forth.
any of these are good for spicing things up or for that player that has been wanting to play that dragon hunting kobold paladin but I strongly recommend forcing the player to take a -1 or -2 in a score to force something they are not good at, if you have a bunch of players that rolled really well and they just become good at everything it sucks the fun out of the game, but also having to pick and choose the best race/class combos suck, with standard point buy/array encourage picking a race with complementing ability scores for the class they want to play.
I don't have a problem picking different races. My only problem is there are too many races and too little time.
I don't really disagree with doing away with racial ability mods though.
Also, you realize if you remove human variant, you will never have another human PC ever again.
Yep but what would you rather have? The typical, a elf, dwarf and human combo or a diverse combination of exotic races? Also losing humans is no big deal because that dont have any fun features or darkvision lol
Not having darkvision isn't really a problem, and besides the free feat makes up for lack of traits (still better off than dragonborn).
In the AL games I've been in, there are all kinds of races: tiefling, aasimar, halfling, half elf, high elf, human, dwarf, probably more, it is hard to remember them all.
Racial Ability Scores are also like, weirdly racist if you take more than a cursory look.
DnDBeyond did an article a while back about alternatives to them and other games go about it inversely. You take the traits you want and then declare you are something because of it.
If we did away with racial traits entirely I think DnD would be worse for it, but a slightly deeper think about what to do instead of the current system probably wouldn't hurt anybody.
You could recast racial traits and class abilities into archetypes. Then players pick an archetype and declare what race they are. Race then has no mechanical characteristics, just in-game setting importance.
However, this is kind of what Basic D&D had with race-as-class and it lacks the diversity of player choice that AD&D had with being able to mix racial abilities with class abilities.
I'll also point out that if you think racial traits are weirdly racist, then you have to also notice that genocidal species war is the norm in fantasy settings.
That archetypes idea has merits. Maybe do a background/race reverse. That'd be a lot less problematic.
Also yeah, genocidal species wars in fantasy settings have a lot of basis in real world racism too, that's not really new info.