|
1 year ago ::
Feb 14, 2012 - 11:09AM
#11
|
Date Joined:
Nov 17, 2011
|
Male/Female PC stat caps or penalties are not returning.
WotC has stated many times that heroic PCs defy any norms of their race, and thus female PCs should be in no way hindered by the concept of a 'racial norm.'
|
|
|
|
1 year ago ::
Feb 14, 2012 - 11:18AM
#12
|
- Unconventional Mafia Pro
- Dark Lord
Date Joined:
Jun 25, 2001
|
Drow really are the single most politically incorrect thing to come out of D&D, aren't they?
"Enjoy your screams, Sarpadia - they will soon be muffled beneath snow and ice." THE COALITION WAR GAME-Phyrexian Praetor Round 1: (4-1-2, 1 kill) Round 2: (16-8-2, 4 kills) Round 3: (18-9-2, 1 kill) Round 4: (22-10-0, 2 kills) Round 5: (56-16-3, 9 kills) Round 6: (8-7-1) [current round] Last Edited by Ralph on blank, 1920
|
|
|
|
1 year ago ::
Feb 14, 2012 - 11:25AM
#13
|
Date Joined:
Aug 27, 2007
|
Drow really are the single most politically incorrect thing to come out of D&D, aren't they?
What, black-skinned man-eating bondage women with tentacle whips are un-PC? (to be fair, I think the tentacle whips preceded any familiarity with anime). Though it's somewhat mitigated by the fact that the drow are clearly superior (to either humans or elves), at least as they originally appeared, and thus you don't have the evil inferior black skinned people.
|
|
|
|
1 year ago ::
Feb 14, 2012 - 11:51AM
#14
|
Date Joined:
Jan 28, 2012
|
My issue with racial and other ability score bonuses is this: PCs are rare. By their very nature as adventurers, PCs exhibit exceptional attributes compared to the population at large.
However, tying ability score bonuses to specific races is saying that every member of Race A has a higher potential Strength than every member of Race B, and that overall, the average member of Race A has a higher Strength than the average member of Race B. Both statements are meaningless when it comes to crafting a character who's already positioned on an extreme end of their race's bell curve of ability scores.
I'd much rather see the flavor text suggest higher and lower ability scores rather than require it, and I'd rather see racial characteristics represented more in the form of optional skills and powers also. For example, if you're playing a Dragonborn in 4E, you can choose to take the feats and powers that boost your dragon-ness, or you can ignore those entirely to play, say, a cold-blooded, scaly Human.
Similarly, re: monsters - just like PCs have the ability scores their players want them to have, so too do monsters have the characteristics that the DM wants them to have. If it suits your story to have female Driders be large and spidery while males are smaller and humanoid, then the rules should let you make that be the case.
See my signature. I couldn't oppose you more.
In my games players have always been Exceptional individuals, not Exceptions to the internal logic of the game world.
|
|
|
|
1 year ago ::
Feb 14, 2012 - 12:11PM
#15
|
Date Joined:
Jun 14, 2006
|
I see no problem with giving the option that males can choose to get a +1 Strength for a -1 Dexterity (keep both physical) and females can choose to take a -1 Strength for a +1 Dexterity. You don't have to take it and maybe some powergamer/optimizers will roleplay genders they would not normaly.
If you are going to have gender modifiers make it an option.
As far as drow go they are nothing like surface elves, they are a different from mechanics, fluff, level adjustment (3e), ect... in all my years of gaming I have never heard of them thought as a slight to real world people with dark skin before. In fact one of my players loves them and she is a black female she always plays dark skined female characters and something about drow women being incharge of their society appeals to her.
So yeah leave drow alone, and if gender effects ability scores at all it should be an option and a balanced one.
|
|
|
|
1 year ago ::
Feb 14, 2012 - 12:13PM
#16
|
Date Joined:
Mar 18, 2009
|
See my signature. I couldn't oppose you more.
Okay. Why should every dwarf PC automatically have a higher possible starting Constitution than every human PC? Other than "because I say so" - which is every DM's option, but I don't think it should be the default rule.
|
|
|
|
1 year ago ::
Feb 14, 2012 - 12:20PM
#17
|
|
|
Sexual Dimorphism is an issue resolved in your game to perosnalize and flavor your campaign setting and not an issue that should be addressed as a sweeping game mechanic.
|
|
|
|
1 year ago ::
Feb 14, 2012 - 12:35PM
#18
|
Date Joined:
Jan 28, 2012
|
See my signature. I couldn't oppose you more.
Okay. Why should every dwarf PC automatically have a higher possible starting Constitution than every human PC? Other than "because I say so" - which is every DM's option, but I don't think it should be the default rule.
It helps make race a meaningful choice and maintains internal consistency within the game world. If dwarves are 10% tougher than humans then they should have a 10% higher minimum, median and maximum toughness. I am not a fan of race only be flavour text in a game where their are races with radically different biology. The Human / Dwarf example is weak in this case but should a Thri-Kreen PC and Human PC have almost no effective difference just in case a small handful of contrarians want to play against type? No, it is less work for you to house rule away the modifiers than it is for someone else to add them and keep the game balanced.
In my games players have always been Exceptional individuals, not Exceptions to the internal logic of the game world.
|
|
|
|
1 year ago ::
Feb 14, 2012 - 12:39PM
#19
|
Date Joined:
Jan 10, 2012
|
tiballagher, I totally agree with you. Im all for some prejudice in a game. Even based on the real world, I do find there are posative things to be achieved in doing so. What struck me as so horrid was that a comparison between white elf's vs "Dark" (not black & certainly not human) was being made vs a historical racail problem. Also a compleatly false picture was being presented of the culture of dark elves. The whole Idea is in bad taiste.
|
|
|
|
1 year ago ::
Feb 14, 2012 - 12:44PM
#20
|
Date Joined:
Mar 18, 2009
|
See my signature. I couldn't oppose you more.
Okay. Why should every dwarf PC automatically have a higher possible starting Constitution than every human PC? Other than "because I say so" - which is every DM's option, but I don't think it should be the default rule.
It helps make race a meaningful choice and maintains internal consistency within the game world. If dwarves are 10% tougher than humans then they should have a 10% higher minimum, median and maximum toughness. I am not a fan of race only be flavour text in a game where their are races with radically different biology. The Human / Dwarf example is weak in this case but should a Thri-Kreen PC and Human PC have almost no effective difference just in case a small handful of contrarians want to play against type? No, it is less work for you to house rule away the modifiers than it is for someone else to add them and keep the game balanced.
Well, as I mentioned previously there are plenty of non-ability ways to make different races feel different (such as feats, powers, etc.), and you haven't explained why the races must have different ability score ranges.
For example, 4E's dwarves. Dwarves are a very robust, hardy race, reflected both in the +2 Constitution and special abilities like using Second Wind as a minor action. All I'm saying is replace the ability score difference - and by the way, +2 Con was not unique to dwarves - with a truly unique characteristic.
tiballagher, I totally agree with you. Im all for some prejudice in a game. Even based on the real world, I do find there are posative things to be achieved in doing so. What struck me as so horrid was that a comparison between white elf's vs "Dark" (not black & certainly not human) was being made vs a historical racail problem. Also a compleatly false picture was being presented of the culture of dark elves. The whole Idea is in bad taiste.
Sorry, I think you misunderstand: I was being sarcastic. I think that fantasy, much like everything else in our culture, is rife with racism, sexism, and other troubling prejudices. Often including these things consciously in a D&D game can be a worthwhile learning experience, but more often it's unconscious and only serves to further prejudice.
|
|
|
