Racial Attribute Bonii

I’m having some issues of late with the ‘forced’ racial/class pairings that arise from pairings. Â  Heroes are supposed to be different, not the norm.  But if you want to be the best wizard you can be you take a race with a +2 intelligence.  Want to be all you can be as a strong Fighter?  You’ve got two options only, Dragonborn or human.  And if you take Human you’re giving up one of the bonus stats. Of course there’s the ‘monster’ races like Bugbear, Minotaur, etc but let’s stick with core rather than made up or unreleased or whatever.

The biggest issue I guess I have is if you choose to be a dwarf wizard then you can never ever be as good as a Eladrin wizard.  While as a general rule that might be fine.  But as a specific rule I think a player’s dwarf wizard should have every bit as much potential.

Pigeon holes are a bad thing and just lead to restrictions and twinking/min-maxing.  I’d rather players choose to play a Eladrin or a Tiefling because they want to, not because it makes the best numeric choice for the wizard they also want to play.

And to be honest I’d like to reduce the emphasis on stats.  Anyone remember 1st edition where stats were kind of pointless unless you had them really high or low?

Racial Bonii:

• Dragonborne – +2 Str, +2 Cha
• Dwarf – +2 Con, +2 Wis
• Eladrin – +2 Dex, +2 Int
• Elf – +2 Dex, +2 Wis
• Gnoll – +2 Con, +2 Dex (non core)
• Half Elf – +2 Con, +2 Cha
• Halfling – +2 Dex, +2 Cha
• Human – +2 any
• Minotaur – +2 Str, +2 Con (non core)
• Tiefling – +2 Int, +2 Cha

• CHA bonuses – 4  (Can we say dump stat?)
• Str bonuses – 1(2)  (only one race with a bonus to strength?)
• Int bonuses – 2
• Wis bonuses – 2
• Dex bonuses – 3(4)
• Con bonuses – 2(4)

Well what to do about it you ask?  Good question to which I only have thoughts. The most obvious is turn all the races into +2 any x 2. Â  So you pick the race primarily to be that race and secondarily because of the racial power(s). Â  Or if you’re a munchkin then the opposite.  But you don’t pick it to get that +2 Wis.

But letting the players add +2 to any two stats is a bit powergamey, perhaps more than a bit.  Honestly though they get to add +2 to any stat of their choice right now just by picking race so it’s really that second stat bonus that’s causing some issues for me.

So I think perhaps as a test I might go with as an option,+2 to any one stat and a +1 to any stat that the race is genetically inclined toward. Â  So you could be a Dwarf with a +2 str and a +1 con. Â  Or a halfling with a +2 int and a +1 cha.

I’m sure my players would go for it, hell they almost always play humans anyway, but this would make the choices a little less attractive in the ‘this is the best race for the class” and more attractive to play simply because you want to be a half-orc.

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