D&D 5e Race/Class

[TADHG]

Originally Posted by Rinninian

I had an Elf Barbarian a while back, made a Hyborian Elf from another world, not much mod to the sub race really, like +2 dex, +1 Con, Stealth and Survival from a Wasteland background

She fought with a metal inlaid club, so basically a baseball bat = Tetsubo = Maul Stats

I'm currently running a Hafling Paladin. Partially for comic relief.

[Rinninian]

I do joke a lot. This char was more "normal" humor wise. She was based some some Conan characters in tone from the old TSR Conan RPG

[girlplay]

The rarest combination has to be the Gnome... with any class that the Gnome is most ill-suited for. So, that has to be classes that need strength, wisdom, and charisma. So... Gnome Paladin.

[Rinninian]

picking a race with +2 to a key stat IS a no brainer, but picking an "off race" isn't a massive drawback, it's just a difference of +1 to, well, yeah, to a handful of things, not likely to be the difference between life and death

[TADHG]

Originally Posted by SnakeOilCharmer

Ah. Most people prefer builds with defined strengths, and weaknesses covered by the rest of the party. A character with 12-14 in each stat will always have another party member who's better at anything they want to do. Hence the concept of the "Dump stat." And Monks need to be more high-low than almost anyone. They have no need for INT, CHA, or STR.

I'd agree trying to redeem the feeling of being touched by evil is an interesting RP arc. But for mechanical play, not having boosts to Dex or Wis makes your character underpowered compared to anyone else's. I think you're less concerned about having an effective character and more focused on pure RP than most people are.

Dragonborn Sorc's problem is that the strength boost is a waste for a class that doesn't want to be anywhere near the frontline, and can't get extra attack.

Well, I'm not a minmaxer or power gamer. And I come from a first edition background, where there weren't many opprtumities to increase stats. We didn't use a dump stat per se, because we rolled in order. The order they use now is not the order we used. Ours was Str, Int, Wis, Dex, Con, Cha.

[Bhelogan]

WoTC is making a change that will open up a lot of character options, even for those min/maxers. Check out Appendix I in Adventure League season 10 Rules. It is making available to all characters, in official play an option that will be included in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything for how Ability Scores are increased by race. Basically, WoTC is trying to switch to the model that your bonus to stats for any race are floating, rather than assigned to a specific stat (e.g. strength). So, you could play a Dwarf, and put your 2+2s into Int, and Con, then make a wizard to rival any other. Personally, I like these rules a lot.

[Spoonybard]

Yes! I'm very excited for Tasha's Cauldron of Everything - particularly the option to modify races.

[Chrystrom]

Yeah I think it's a great change to the rules. Instead of limiting an entire race of beings to - you are dumb but strong. Even if that is a generalization of most half-orcs, for example, it allows us to create characters that are exceptional. D&D has always said that adventurers are exceptional when compared to the average members of society. Now we can finally create those characters. Half-orc wizard for the win.

+

[Imveros]

It seems to be a popular change even outside of D&D.

One of the biggest shakeups for Shadowrun 6e was the way they completely re did meta type selection. In ever previous eddition, trolls and orcs had body and strength for days, but those stats had an oportunity cost. This caused most people to make them bruisers if you even saw them at all.

Normalazing the stat points while still maintating metatype identity now lets anyone make a talky troll, a beefy elf, an orc technomancer, etc. Not that those were impossible before, but now they're a much a easier thing to make happen and, in my opinion, one of the few things 6e did right.

[Menzo]

It seems to me that 5e is set up so that the advantages and disadvantages you get from any race are not so overwhelming that you couldn't play any race/class combo, and play it seriously. But I imagine Gnome Barbarians, Goliath Rogues, Warforged Druids and Goblin Monks are still pretty rare.

The one non-standard combo I'd be keen to play myself would probably be the Wood Elf Barbarian, where the Wood Elves in question were wild and unwashed forest guardians. Wild hair, wild stares, and dirt under their nails. Really in touch with nature. So, more like Green Man stereotypes than Tolkien elves.

[SnakeOilCharmer]

Originally Posted by Menzo

It seems to me that 5e is set up so that the advantages and disadvantages you get from any race are not so overwhelming that you couldn't play any race/class combo, and play it seriously. But I imagine Gnome Barbarians, Goliath Rogues, Warforged Druids and Goblin Monks are still pretty rare.

The one non-standard combo I'd be keen to play myself would probably be the Wood Elf Barbarian, where the Wood Elves in question were wild and unwashed forest guardians. Wild hair, wild stares, and dirt under their nails. Really in touch with nature. So, more like Green Man stereotypes than Tolkien elves.

Warforged Druid actually sounds like incredible fun.

[Astra]

Originally Posted by Spoonybard

Yes! I'm very excited for Tasha's Cauldron of Everything - particularly the option to modify races.

Me too. It always feels limiting to want to build a CHA-based class and then have Half Elf or Aasimar staring at you from the page, knowing that you're going to be purposely mechanically disadvantaged if you pick a more RP-appropriate choice compared to someone who's got a totally optimized build.

I look forward to being able to pick whatever species I want without worrying about how that'll look on the sheet when I'm 27-point-buying.