What's With All The Half Elves?

[GrandMajora]

Okay, so ever since Larian removed the inherent racial bonuses from the game, I think the general consensus was that Half Elves are just objectively worse than full Elves. Which begs the question of why I continue to see so many people playing as one in multiplayer?

Is there some exploitable feature that Half Elves get which I have overlooked? Because from what I remember, full Elves get most, if not all the same benefits, plus they live about 6-7 times longer.

[DrZann]

Not everyone approaches the game with min-maxing in mind.

[lordmilier]

Originally posted by DrZann:

Not everyone approaches the game with min-maxing in mind.

This is why there are difficulty sliders in the game if you are looking to drool your way to the end you put it on the lowest if you are looking for a challenge you put it at the highest,

I got a friend 100+ hours almost finished the game he dose not know what a con save is or what any of the stats in the character sheet dose seems like this is working out greatly depending what sort of player you are.

Imo for highest difficulty they should re-add the racial stuff would add an extra layer to the game.

[Quillithe]

Originally posted by lordmilier:

Originally posted by DrZann:

Not everyone approaches the game with min-maxing in mind.

This is why there are difficulty sliders in the game if you are looking to drool your way to the end you put it on the lowest if you are looking for a challenge you put it at the highest,

I got a friend 100+ hours almost finished the game he dose not know what a con save is or what any of the stats in the character sheet dose seems like this is working out greatly depending what sort of player you are.

Imo for highest difficulty they should re-add the racial stuff would add an extra layer to the game.

The only extra layer would be making the optimal choice of race for each class more brainless.

Here min maxing for a class can depend on weapon proficiency or racial abilities from any race.

Give racial stats back and they make half of the races instantly irrelevant for min maxing.

[TheMasterBlaster]

Originally posted by GrandMajora:

Okay, so ever since Larian removed the inherent racial bonuses from the game, I think the general consensus was that Half Elves are just objectively worse than full Elves. Which begs the question of why I continue to see so many people playing as one in multiplayer?

Is there some exploitable feature that Half Elves get which I have overlooked? Because from what I remember, full Elves get most, if not all the same benefits, plus they live about 6-7 times longer.

Half-elves get the Civil Militia buff which grants them different weapon proficiencies than elves, AND they get light armor and shield proficiencies. They are certainly not objectively worse then elves.

[Hobocop]

Originally posted by Quillithe:

The only extra layer would be making the optimal choice of race for each class more brainless.

Here min maxing for a class can depend on weapon proficiency or racial abilities from any race.

Give racial stats back and they make half of the races instantly irrelevant for min maxing.

More accurately, it just replaces a set of optimal choices with a different set of optimal choices.

Better to let people play what they vibe with the most without worrying about baseline mathematical effectiveness.

[lordmilier]

Originally posted by Quillithe:

Originally posted by lordmilier:

This is why there are difficulty sliders in the game if you are looking to drool your way to the end you put it on the lowest if you are looking for a challenge you put it at the highest,

I got a friend 100+ hours almost finished the game he dose not know what a con save is or what any of the stats in the character sheet dose seems like this is working out greatly depending what sort of player you are.

Imo for highest difficulty they should re-add the racial stuff would add an extra layer to the game.

The only extra layer would be making the optimal choice of race for each class more brainless.

Here min maxing for a class can depend on weapon proficiency or racial abilities from any race.

Give racial stats back and they make half of the races instantly irrelevant for min maxing.

Yea but now you basically have the same 2-3 races being the pick for any class in the game instead. Having a race that has worse racial ability but is the only one that can really be a class would reduce how much you can actually min/max.

Right now if you gone be paladin you are half-orc you are might as well remove a piece of gear/remove a feat worth of benefit. That is how much better the race is for this one class in the current system.

It is also funny how bad humans are in this game Larian should have never added send to camp or have a storage chest that can carry infinite weight in the camp. Like humans are just flat out the worst race in the game. You would only ever pick it because you want to RP as a human.

[GrandMajora]

Originally posted by lordmilier:

It is also funny how bad humans are in this game Larian should have never added send to camp or have a storage chest that can carry infinite weight in the camp. Like humans are just flat out the worst race in the game. You would only ever pick it because you want to RP as a human.

That's why nobody ever plays basic humans and always opts for the Variant Human option. Except the Variant Human is not an available sub-race in BG3.

[Orion Invictus]

Originally posted by lordmilier:

Originally posted by Quillithe:

The only extra layer would be making the optimal choice of race for each class more brainless.

Here min maxing for a class can depend on weapon proficiency or racial abilities from any race.

Give racial stats back and they make half of the races instantly irrelevant for min maxing.

Yea but now you basically have the same 2-3 races being the pick for any class in the game instead. Having a race that has worse racial ability but is the only one that can really be a class would reduce how much you can actually min/max.

Right now if you gone be paladin you are half-orc you are might as well remove a piece of gear/remove a feat worth of benefit. That is how much better the race is for this one class in the current system.

It is also funny how bad humans are in this game Larian should have never added send to camp or have a storage chest that can carry infinite weight in the camp. Like humans are just flat out the worst race in the game. You would only ever pick it because you want to RP as a human.

Yeah, can you imagine picking an option in an RPG because you want to RP? Everyone knows RPGs are about min-maxing and spreadsheets.

If I don't have to have a spreadsheet open to calculate which option will benefit me the most, then is it even an RPG?

[Fluffykeith]

I’m still not actually clear why halflings shouldn’t be allowed to have paladins.
At least in 5e terms, a Paladin is a warrior who has sworn a sacred oath and who is empowered by it.
Why can’t halflings do that?

[GrandMajora]

Originally posted by TaKo:

And they do not, you're just being stubborn for no reason

exceptions always exist, and player characters, be it in tabletop adventures or video games, are always gonna be more likely to be exceptions

again you still have the freedom to make a more physically fit dwarf regardless of class/playstyle, you can if you so desire have a 12 STR dwarf wizard but others gets the freedom to do it differently as well

My reason is "lore consistency."

Now I get where you're coming from that playing a character who breaks the conventional stereotype can be fun, as I myself tend to do that from time to time.

But for me, I think having my character struggle to overcome their racial stereotypes makes for a more compelling story. Your Strongheart Halfling Fighter might not start out as physically strong as a Dwarf or a Half Orc, but throughout the course of their adventures, they gradually hone their bodies to a point where they are able to catch up to them.

Sure, you miss out on Feats if you go this route, but there's only a handful of Feats in 5th edition that I even remotely find interesting. Plus, the Fighter and Rogue get extra opportunities to improve their Ability Scores.

[Detective Costeau]

Originally posted by Fluffykeith:

I’m still not actually clear why halflings shouldn’t be allowed to have paladins.
At least in 5e terms, a Paladin is a warrior who has sworn a sacred oath and who is empowered by it.
Why can’t halflings do that?

That was someone talking about their own non-Forgotten Realms tabletop game.

[Quillithe]

Yeah it's kinda hard to say with Human in BG 3.

On the one hand their race bonuses are almost just strictly worse than Half-Elf, and are also obviously embarrassing compared to Gith (you get proficiency in one extra skill and they get proficiency in up to 5 skills they can change every long rest. And medium armor!)

On the other hand human tends to always be among most played races like it is here and nobody plays gith.

So I'm not sure that the racial power imbalance is actually a problem? Because it's certainly not stopping people from playing human

[GrandMajora]

Originally posted by Quillithe:

Yeah it's kinda hard to say with Human in BG 3.

On the one hand their race bonuses are almost just strictly worse than Half-Elf, and are also obviously embarrassing compared to Gith (you get proficiency in one extra skill and they get proficiency in up to 5 skills they can change every long rest. And medium armor!)

On the other hand human tends to always be among most played races like it is here and nobody plays gith.

So I'm not sure that the racial power imbalance is actually a problem? Because it's certainly not stopping people from playing human

Humans suck.

Humans know they suck.

That's why they tried to compensate for it by mixing their gene pool with every intelligent race they could find.

[Quillithe]

Originally posted by GrandMajora:

Originally posted by Quillithe:

Yeah it's kinda hard to say with Human in BG 3.

On the one hand their race bonuses are almost just strictly worse than Half-Elf, and are also obviously embarrassing compared to Gith (you get proficiency in one extra skill and they get proficiency in up to 5 skills they can change every long rest. And medium armor!)

On the other hand human tends to always be among most played races like it is here and nobody plays gith.

So I'm not sure that the racial power imbalance is actually a problem? Because it's certainly not stopping people from playing human

Humans suck.

Humans know they suck.

That's why they tried to compensate for it by mixing their gene pool with every intelligent race they could find.

Bears?

Seriously though they didn't do a good enough job if they didn't make Muls

[TaKo]

Originally posted by GrandMajora:

My reason is "lore consistency."

no? its just you being stubborn

again, for the last time: exceptions exist, player characters tend to break the mold more often and you retain the freedom to build your own character, or your own NPCs if you are a DM, whichever way you please

little bit more freedom wrt to ability scores doesnt break lore or anything

if you want to be more restrictive as a DM thats your prerogative but your players may not enjoy the limitations