The Most Powerful Core Race

[TRM]

The title says it all: which is the most powerful core race and why?

To me it seems that halflings, dwarves, elves and humans are head and shoulders above everything else, but after that I haven't compared them enough to establish a true "winner".

What are your thoughts?

(This time I checked that there were no other active threads on the same topic )

[Drider]

Gray elves(they're in monster manual...if you count that) and humans are the best wizards...(most of the time,+2 int or free feat is pretty good) in core.

[Gralamin]

In just the PHB? Dwarves, with Humans at a close second.
In the Core Books? Grey Elves.

[Sstoopidtallkid]

Gray Elves. Ultimate Batman class. Alternatively, any small race, reduced, spellcasting, riding the paladin. Or a dire boar. Either is badass when you are 1ft tall.

[BRC]

For fighters I'd say dwarves, that weapon familiarity rocks multiple socks.

[The Vorpal Tribble]

Yeah, definitely have to say dwarves.

If we can use open content however I'd say Elans.

[Talya]

For rogues: Whisper Gnomes.

[SurlySeraph]

Gray elves, followed by dwarves, yep.

[Gralamin]

For rogues: Whisper Gnomes.

Not Core.

Though Vorpal makes a good point, If you include XPH then Elan's are pretty amazing.

[blue_fenix]

Depends on how you look at it.
Largest number of abilities and benefits goes to Dwarf, which is generally the pick for anything not Cha dependent. Gnomes are very good for arcane casters, especially with reduce person tacked on. Human wins if your build is desperate for feats/skills, and Halflings make great rogues. Half-elf is great for diplomacy cheese, theoretically one of the best builds your DM is likely to let you get away with for one or two sessions, while Kobold is the only race that easily can become pun-pun.

In short, all races have their good and bad points. That said, my vote goes to Dwarf as the race that probably got too many benefits without enough drawbacks.

[Miles Invictus]

Dwarves are the strongest all-around race of the basic seven. They get excellent saves, several good situational bonuses to attack, AC, and skills, and trade a poor stat (Charisma) for a good one (Constitution).

[Admiral Squish]

Core? Gnomes, man. SLAs are tons o' fun, and speak with burrowing animal means druid + dire badger mount.

Actually, I hate the core races with a passion. They just seem so overdone, so... played out. They're written so they can only really work well with a specific few classes, or at least fluff-wise.

[SilentNight]

I like humans simply due to their immense versatility. For rouges or spellcasters thoug hI say halfling. Small size extremely useful for a spellcaster and racial bonuses are also good.

[#Raptor]

For rogues, Grey Elf & Tallfellow Halfling are pretty even.
Strenght-based melee combatants: Half-Orc, Dwarf.
Wizard: Grey Elf, hands down.

I wonder if there's any class where human is a inferior choice... but I don't think there's one.

[Ralfarius]

Half-Orc

Man, getting hit in two stats for one bonus to strength is sure worth that awesome orc-blooded trait.

[#Raptor]

You might want to note that I said Strenght-based melee-combatants. ...And by this I mean 2-Hand weapon fighting Barbarians and Fighters, Paladins and Knights... not so much (Tho I feel it would be ok to exclude the Knight here, since he's not core - also, I dunno about the TOB classes, don't got the book). Builds that need Combat Expertise for the one or other reason are a obvious exception.

If you do PB and have 16 Str before racial mods and 18 after, you'll basically gain 4 free pb points.
16 -> 18 = 6 pb points - 2 for int = 4 (You're not going to build a Strenght-based melee char with a int over 14, now aren't you?)
If you do PB and put 18 into Str and have plans to push it even more... well, being a half-orc is the only way.

Also: Darkvision is not too bad either. At low to mid levels, its a lvl 2 spell... and while a wizard will not exactly be happy to waste his spells on that, you better don't even expect a sorcerer to select it. Everburning torches only reach out to 40 ft, so enjoy getting sniped by all those little nasties who have darkvision and ranged weaponry that you can't even see.

Fortunately many dungeons seem to have contineous lighting and central heating.

[Thanatos 51-50]

Best Class? Rogue, hands down.
Best Race? It depends on the type of Rogue you want to play . Humans are great for skill-heavy, equipment-heavy Cat Burglers .
Half-elves for everything else .
/me runs away before the wholesale murder begins.

[JackMage666]

Half-Troll Goliath.

Duh.

[The_Snark]

Actually, wood elves are almost always better melee combatants than half-orcs. Their only disadvantage is a penalty to Constitution, but really, 1 hit point per level is usually not all that noticeable. And they're getting hit less often, due to higher Dexterity.

Dwarves have the aforementioned stat imbalance, and some good situational bonuses. A bonus against poison is decent, and a bonus on saves against spells is very, very good. Darkvision is also nice. In fact, their sole drawback is their slower speed—and that's often countered by their ability to wear heavy armor without slowing.

Grey elves make good wizards, although that Con penalty is irritating. So do gnomes and halflings, who also make good druids.

Humans, however, have to take the cake for overall versatility. An extra feat and skill is always, always a worthwhile bonus.

[North]

Huh, I never thought that Dwarfs were that great myself. Course I like having a good charisma even on a barbarian. And Im completely backwards and play halflings as barbarians...

[Freelance Henchman]

Alternatively, any small race, reduced, spellcasting, riding the paladin.

Master Blaster runs Bartertown!

[KIDS]

Dwarves, followed closely by Humans and then Gnomes/Halflings. The other three (Elf, Half-Elf, Half-Orc) are inferior and vastly beyond their power level...*

* =

Spoiler

Show

Which is of course over NINE THOUSAAAAAAAND!

[Illiterate Scribe]

Humans. That extra feat is just too good.

VT's right though - Elans are pretty amazing.

[an kobold]

Master Blaster runs Bartertown!

But wait! Tina Turner is summoning something with that ridiculous charisma of hers! It's a. . .a. . .DIRE MAD MAX!

[KoDT69]

Humans for the feat and skills, followed closely by Halflings, then Dwarves.

I like the Halflings especially in lower-level games because of the +1 to saves, +1 to AC, +1 attack possibly +2, and all those skill bonuses make one heck of a Rogue or Ranger.

Dwarves are also awesome because of their related skill bonuses and combat bonuses like Stability and the racial weapons are good too. CON bonus is never a bad thing either. Sure somebody mentioned an Elf with a -2 CON not being such a big deal, but say that in actual play with a d4 hit die! A 6th level wizard could roll max hp every level and still not be up to 20. Even Batman can take an arrow once in a while, but with < 20hp, it can be devastating.

Whisper Gnomes would be much cooler if they were a Halfling race instead of Gnomes. Nobody really likes Gnomes, and nobody wants to end up like Gimble!

[Indon]

Depends on the class.

Class-independent, I'd say Humans, because they have the most to offer to the most classes.

[Flawless]

Well, I have to say Dwarves. Even if they weren't as good as they are, I'd vote for them, simply because their awesome fluff.
Greyelves and Woodelves are great as well. Half-anythings suck. I mean, who really wants to be a half-elf/orc/dragon/celestial/fiend/moron, etc.

[Azaul]

Flat out best, I'd have to say Humans. With every new sourcebook released, each packed with new feats, the Human bonus feat became more powerful as the 3.5 got older. Sure, they have no ability bonuses, but after a few levels they can afford magic items to boost their stats without contending with ability penalties. But it's hard to gain the bonus of an extra feat.

[loves_to_laugh]

ok, seriously Gnomes rock.
They start out with spells (not really powerful ones but useful sometimes)
no matter what class you are. They have a bonus to con and a minus to str which unless you plan on being a warrior thats super strong, isn't that big of a deal. They also have bonuses to some skills.

It's that simple. They just win.

[Telonius]

Plus, you never know when you're going to need to talk to a badger.