D&D 3E/3.5 3.5 Dwarves Best Race?

[Clefton Twain]

Does anyone else see the 3.5 dwarf being the most powerful core player race? I used to think elves had the most advantages but it seems like dwarves might surpass them.

They'll get everything they get now plus a base speed of 30, weapon familiarity and the stability bonus. There really won't be a downside to playing them anymore since the base speed of 20 will be gone. And if you play with the variant dwarf races there's almost always going to be one that fits your needs.

I'm not saying it's unbalanced, I'm just wondering why WotC decided to give the already sturdy dwarf race more advantages.

[Edited] My bad...dwarves still have base 20 speed in 3.5.

--CT

 

[Numion]

They'll get everything they get now plus a base speed of 30

Wrong. Dwarves will have 20 base speed in 3.5e.

 

[Li Shenron]

I have to say in fact that I thought races were less balanced than classes. Neverthless, WotCs are changing classes to more balance and races to more imbalance.

OTOH, I don't think the choice of race have the greatest impact on the game, except at lower levels. I also think many non-core races have too high ECL for the given benefits. Anyway I agree that it would look much better if the players would feel motivated by any core race.

Note: I have played in 3 groups already and never seen a single Dwarf PC, with many players saying that "Dwarves look ugly" and Half-Elf is the most wanted race, "because they're cool"

 

[Clefton Twain]

Oopsie

Whoops, my bad. I thought I had read that dwarves were getting 30 base speed in 3.5. Okay, that helps but they still seem like they're getting a whole lot.

Our group thinks half-elves are totally worthless. Might as well be a full elf and work around the multiclassing restrictions. But we all agree that dwarves are very good. I play one now and, despite the 20' base speed, I've got a lot going for me.

--CT

 

[Darklone]

I had A LOT of dwarf PCs in every group. People here seem to like them. Actually the typical geek gamers love the dwarven machoism while drinking beer and burping during gametime... the more women are around, the more the party tends to elves.

 

[Bauglir]

Dwarves are getting 20ft move regardless of heavy armour I think.

I remember reading that they were getting 20ft move in heavy armour; it didn't mention what they were getting outside HA.

 

[Otterscrubber]

My group has recently started using dwarves and I have to admit they do have a lot going for them. Being able to detect stone traps comes in handy when exploring dungeons, not to mention that nice +2 saves bonus vs. spells and such. The movement thing is a big downer, but my particular dwarf is a pally with a mount so it is not such a bad thing.

 

[Angcuru]

If you play a race for it's bonuses, you aren't really role-playing, IMO. I believe that you should think up a character concept, and then apply the racial penalties/bonuses to your char. You know why there's never been a Dwarven Sorcerer? Because they have a charisma penalty. Now if half-elves had a charisma bonus, all the sorcerers you'd see would be half-elves.

Because of the overwhelming tendency for players to create character with races that give bonuses specifically benficial to their class, we never see Halfling Barbarians or Half-Orc Bards.

I admit, I tend to play Elven Rangers a whole lot, but that's because I like that character concept.

Actually, I'm going to have a lot of fun playing non-standard race-class combos in the three Mini Campaign-Within-a-Campaign Adventure's that we're going to run in Blackshirt5's game. See, the party is going to split up for a few years following a seige in which we're the defenders, and then we're going to branch off into individual mini-campaigns centered around each character. So we're going to have games centered around the Elven Ranger(my char), the Human Psychic Thief, the Dwarven Cleric/Fighter, and the Human Fighter/Holy Warrior. So I have to roll up seperate characters for those last three.

Here's what I'm playing:
For the game centered around the Human P.Thief - A Half-Elven Rogue/Fighter, char-concept = Jigan of Lupin the 3rd. Emphasis on gunfighting.

For the game centered around the Dwarven C/F - A paranoid dwarven Sorcerer who wears +2 Wizard's Dwarven Plate. Emphasis on protection and evocation spells.

For the game centered around the Human F/HW - A Gnomish Swashbuckler/Duelist/Bard on a quest to find the perfect cup of tea.

 

[Darklone]

Actually we had a dwarven ftr/spellsinger (sorcerer variant).

He rocked. With or without Cha -2.

 

[Bauglir]

And I played a goblin sorcerer in a recent game (the race boiled down to +2 dex -2 cha iirc)

However making weak choices is not automatically good roleplaying and vice versa. If I'm a young halfling looking to a future adventuring career am I going to choose to don full plate and carry the largest sword I can manage (ie a longsword) and spend my career as a fighter, forever overshadowed by the big people who are stronger, faster and can carry better weapons?

Or am I going to take advantage of my natural agility and learn to skilfully evade danger, and to use precise attacks (ie sneak attacks) to make the most of the smaller weapons I will be carrying?

Sure, playing a half-orc that decided to become a wizard just to prove that people who called him stupid were wrong is a fine character concept, but playing a half-orc who picked up a greatsword and decided he liked it is also good.