Current Events > What is the point of half-elves as a playable race?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Like... what do they provide that others can't? And why JUST half-elves, why not half anything else?
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there are also half-orcs

and what they provide is a mixture of human versatility, elvish resistances, and +2 to charisma
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Someone that everyone can be racist to.

Filthy fucking half-elves.
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stupidly broken magic resistance for bretons
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Darkman124 posted...

there are also half-orcs

Did not know that.

Darkman124 posted...

and what they provide is a mixture of human versatility, elvish resistances, and +2 to charisma

Then reverse the question; why would anyone ever pick a human or an elf if a half-elf has both strengths and renders them obsolete?
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DK9292 posted...

Like... what do they provide that others can't? And why JUST half-elves, why not half anything else?

In most editions of dnd they have a bunch of benefits and zero drawbacks (a full elf, for example, cannot be raised from death in first or second edition)
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ChromaticAngel posted...

DK9292 posted...

Like... what do they provide that others can't? And why JUST half-elves, why not half anything else?

In most editions of dnd they have a bunch of benefits and zero drawbacks (a full elf, for example, cannot be raised from death in first or second edition)

DK9292 posted...

Then reverse the question; why would anyone ever pick a human or an elf if a half-elf has both strengths and renders them obsolete?

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DK9292 posted...

Then reverse the question; why would anyone ever pick a human or an elf if a half-elf has both strengths and renders them obsolete?

because half elves dont get all of the strengths of humans and elves

and sometimes those individual race strengths are more important

humans get a free feat, which is really huge
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Political Intrigue

A tortured backstory

Those fixated on game mechanics get to take a middle road between the stat bonuses humans and elves get.
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D&D confuses the hell out of me, man.
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skyrim belongs to the nords
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DK9292 posted...

Then reverse the question; why would anyone ever pick a human or an elf if a half-elf has both strengths and renders them obsolete?

Because the strengths that half-elves get are often much more mild than the strengths of a full elf.

In older editions of D&D, humans had no strength except for "versatility" which turned out to be kind of a shitty strength so most other races had their class options restricted such as lower maximum levels in classes as well as certain class options not being available to certain races (for example, only humans could be paladins in 1st or 2nd), while humans could "be any class and advance any class to the 20th level"

The original goal was to encourage people to play humans because Gygax was worried no one would play humans when you could play an elf or dwarf instead.

In later editions it was changed so that Humans do have actual bonuses, such as better stats, more feats, and some other things.

Now the reason you'd play a half-elf over an elf or a human or vice versa is because that race's stats help you minmax your class better.
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it is pc sjw propaganda to make you want to bang an elf
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ChromaticAngel posted...

DK9292 posted...

Then reverse the question; why would anyone ever pick a human or an elf if a half-elf has both strengths and renders them obsolete?

Because the strengths that half-elves get are often much more mild than the strengths of a full elf.

In older editions of D&D, humans had no strength except for "versatility" which turned out to be kind of a shitty strength so most other races had their class options restricted such as lower maximum levels in classes as well as certain class options not being available to certain races (for example, only humans could be paladins in 1st or 2nd), while humans could "be any class and advance any class to the 20th level"

The original goal was to encourage people to play humans because Gygax was worried no one would play humans when you could play an elf or dwarf instead.

In later editions it was changed so that Humans do have actual bonuses, such as better stats, more feats, and some other things.

Now the reason you'd play a half-elf over an elf or a human or vice versa is because that race's stats help you minmax your class better.

I feel like this SHOULD be easy to understand, but my brain just isn't working for some reason.
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ChromaticAngel posted...

DK9292 posted...

Then reverse the question; why would anyone ever pick a human or an elf if a half-elf has both strengths and renders them obsolete?

Because the strengths that half-elves get are often much more mild than the strengths of a full elf.

In older editions of D&D, humans had no strength except for "versatility" which turned out to be kind of a shitty strength so most other races had their class options restricted such as lower maximum levels in classes as well as certain class options not being available to certain races (for example, only humans could be paladins in 1st or 2nd), while humans could "be any class and advance any class to the 20th level"

The original goal was to encourage people to play humans because Gygax was worried no one would play humans when you could play an elf or dwarf instead.

In later editions it was changed so that Humans do have actual bonuses, such as better stats, more feats, and some other things.

Now the reason you'd play a half-elf over an elf or a human or vice versa is because that race's stats help you minmax your class better.

of course 5e kinda went too far with it

almost every class is better if it's a variant human. that extra feat is insanely powerful
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darkphoenix181 posted...

it is pc sjw propaganda to make you want to bang an elf

You mean to make elves bang you, because elves in D&D tend to be supernaturally attractive and smarter than everyone, and they don't usually fuck with lesser people of their own volition because they don't have to settle. Also, most campaigns cast elves as being very isolated and fixated on the betterment of their own communities/forests to exclusion of everything else.

Even the dark elves are seldom seen outside their communities, and they still all dress like supermodels and spend their days back-stabbing each other to filth like the real housewives. They don't have time for schlubby human adventurers who smell like they've been hiking non-stop for the past month.
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Darkman124 posted...

of course 5e kinda went too far with it

almost every class is better if it's a variant human. that extra feat is insanely powerful

the variant human is technically an optional rule, as are feats. I get that it's presented in such a way that it doesn't look optional, but it is.

And yeah while every class is almost better, in some cases it's not, especially if you're going for a specific racial trait, such as Darkvision. It's also pretty hard to out minmax some specific race/class combos such as a Tiefling Warlock.
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i actually think vuman works better for lock. you can have something better than darkvision at level 2.
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I never liked half elves or half orcs tbh. never bothered playing one

I hated gnomes too
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Well, full orcs aren't usually fully playable races in a lot of systems. That's why there's half-orcs.
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I'll make it simpler

Depending on the version of the game, humans tend to have the most versatility. You can customize them to be good at virtually anything, including good at things no other class has the option to be good at.

Elves have very specialized bonuses, typically sword and bow stuff, stealth stuff, and resistance to mind effecting magic.

Half elves usually get a little bit of human versatility, sword OR bow stuff, a little buff to stealth, and a small buff to mind effect resistance.

You pick human if you want to customize your character, you pick elf if you want to be specifically good at their bonuses, you pick half elf if you want customization but also some elf bonuses.

Aside from that, as someone said some people pick their race for role playing story reasons. Not everything is about stats.
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fire_bolt posted...

I'll make it simpler

Depending on the version of the game, humans tend to have the most versatility. You can customize them to be good at virtually anything, including good at things no other class has the option to be good at.

Elves have very specialized bonuses, typically sword and bow stuff, stealth stuff, and resistance to mind effecting magic.

Half elves usually get a little bit of human versatility, sword OR bow stuff, a little buff to stealth, and a small buff to mind effect resistance.

You pick human if you want to customize your character, you pick elf if you want to be specifically good at their bonuses, you pick half elf if you want customization but also some elf bonuses.

Aside from that, as someone said some people pick their race for role playing story reasons. Not everything is about stats.

Okay, I think I get it.

It still seems a bit odd to me, but I'll accept this explanation.
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Darkman124 posted...

i actually think vuman works better for lock. you can have something better than darkvision at level 2.

yes and no. vuman's stats aren't as good for lock, so if you're attempting to go for a stat optimized build, these usually come down to the wire across levels and you might find that a Tiefling gets you some modifiers that a vuman wouldn't be able to get, or the vuman ends up wasting their bonus feat on one of the ones that gets +1 to an ability so you basically trade up the main strength for the ability point build and then don't have any of the tiefling's other bonuses.
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It's honestly just about roleplaying
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ChromaticAngel posted...

Darkman124 posted...

i actually think vuman works better for lock. you can have something better than darkvision at level 2.

yes and no. vuman's stats aren't as good for lock, so if you're attempting to go for a stat optimized build, these usually come down to the wire across levels and you might find that a Tiefling gets you some modifiers that a vuman wouldn't be able to get, or the vuman ends up wasting their bonus feat on one of the ones that gets +1 to an ability so you basically trade up the main strength for the ability point build and then don't have any of the tiefling's other bonuses.

lock has only one prime stat, charisma, and secondary stat(s) depends on what he's doing.

a tiefling can never be as good a bladelock as a human, since he does not get +1 to either str or dex for using a weapon

in general humans can start the game with a 16 in two stats that a warlock woudl care about. no warlocks care about intelligence, so the +1 INT is wasted. tieflings can only get 14s in secondary stats, and with point buy a vuman warlock could be 16/16/14/10/8/8 and dump str+int if not sword-bladelocking. best a tiefling is gonna do is 16/14/14/12/8/8 i think.

if you are talking winged tiefling from the SCAG, sure that is the best race for any charisma caster because flight is op as shit

the big thing tiefling has on humans is fire resistance.
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Darkman124 posted...

best a tiefling is gonna do is 16/14/14/12/8/8 i think.

Tieflings are +2 charisma, +1 intelligence.

And +1 intelligence isn't wasted, it can be used to bump a 15 to a 16.
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ChromaticAngel posted...

Darkman124 posted...

best a tiefling is gonna do is 16/14/14/12/8/8 i think.

Tieflings are +2 charisma, +1 intelligence.

And +1 intelligence isn't wasted, it can be used to bump a 15 to a 16.

which is great, except intelligence is only useful to a warlock for skill checks.
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