Quote Originally Posted by strangebloke View Post
First of all, I wasn't talking about your example, I was talking about a monk. A pre-tasha's half orc monk was terrible. 2 AC lower, 25% lower damage. Even with the other racial benefits you just end up being a clutzy weakling.

And that sucks, it makes little sense. Because while Half-orcs are (maybe) supposed to be dumber than humans, it seems really weird to argue that they're clumsier. Because that's the issue, isn't it? "Lack of an ASI" makes you bad at that ability forever. It's impossible to overcome, and its not even an interesting inhibition. It's just mathematically bad.

Meanwhile, you're acting as though the opportunity to play a nonstandard race while still having good stats is somehow ruining your roleplay. lol.


Yeah, precisely. Goliaths having +2 STR makes them feel strong-ish, but not really more strong than a human or half elf or mountain dwarf or Githzerai. Mathematically, they're all basically the same from that POV, while all races that can get a bonus to STR are mathematically WAY stronger than any race that gets no bonus.

But what makes goliaths feel strong, actually, is that they have resistance to cold, stone's endurance, and powerful build. In terms of raw math these features are not all that signficant compared to +2 STR, but from a fluff perspective they're way more unique and compelling.

Less pigeon holing good. More distinct fluff good.

Absolute win.
This really comes down to two opposing desires:
1) Play any race/species, any class, no difference.
2) Synergistic race/species and class combinations, with good choices and bad choices.

Neither is right or wrong objectively. 5e seems to be leaning towards the former more and more; is this the goal for WotC? Maybe, or maybe they are just bad at accomplishing what the goal is. If this is the goal, then their current approach is not 'broken' - although they could still improve by taking away any unique features that are race/species specific and fully realise that goal.

If this is not their goal, then threads like this may help them (unlikely, but who knows?).

On a side note, this is not a roleplay vs non-roleplay argument. Both paths encourage roleplay in different directions. The first encourages a 'nothing is holding you back' roleplay and if you want to be a Halfling Barbarian pushing back the strongest Half-Orc Barbarian in a contest of strength, then why not? The second encourages a 'working with your strengths and covering your weaknesses' roleplay, where you don't try to win a contest of strength as a Halfing Barbarian against the strongest Half-Orc Barbarian, instead you sneak to the side and stab them. Both paths have their own roleplay - neither is superior objectively. The only issue is that you kind of can't have both - either that Halfling can be as strong as the strongest Half-Orc, or they can't. Either they are forced to work with what they have, or they aren't.