I know I'm guilty of it. Given the choice, I'll play a dwarf every time, hands down. If the rules allow multiclassing, he'll be a fighter / cleric or fighter / thief. That's how I roll these days, even tho back in my early days of gaming, just about every PC I had was a human. Racial restrictions were tough to stomach when campaigns often hit their higher teens in level.
I'm not hugely keen on elves. No idea why. Maybe it's the bad taste Bladesingers left in my mouth as a 2e DM.
I have players that will always play an elf (magic user or m-u / something) or some other favorite. Others seem to have no such racial (or class) predispositions.
Do you find yourself predisposed (or prejudiced against) certain races or race / class combos when creating your PCs?
I seldom play anything other than a human and I tend to prefer straight fighters, although if the game allows for cavaliers or knights I will sometimes play those.
ReplyDeleteIf pressed, I'd say dwarf is a very distant second.
I hate elves and would prefer they not exist in my game, but they do. My dislike of elves started in the 80s when a DM I had let them be the bestest at everything including two handed fighting with no penalties, no need for sleep (meditative rest was fine), no level limits, etc. and reached its peak when my players began slobbering over movie Legolas's abilities as acrobat, fighter, mystic, master archer, master swordsman, fortuneteller.
I've got a weird predilection towards Gnomes. Love 'em. Illusionists and Fighters mostly. Some thieves. Mostly illusionists.
ReplyDeleteI like elves actually, and as I recall I had no problem with Bladesingers... They were kinda powerful, until you took thier choosen weapon away.
If I'm playing a human, it's pretty much fighters and bards.
Some halflings.
Occasional emo half elf.
Almost no dwarves though. Don't know why... I like dwarves just never really used 'em on the player side of the screen.
How could I forget?! Tieflings! Awesome 2e Planescape punkrock outcast tieflings!
DeleteHumans, with dwarves running second. It depends on edition. Older games, I like dwarves, with some humans. Third edition, I like humans with their extra feat and skill points, though would go dwarf if I wanted to play a fighter or a paladin. Fourth edition, I like playing Bejeweled on my iPad.
ReplyDeleteOh, and for the Complete Book of Elves, it wasn't the kits that bothered me; I barely looked at them. It was the constant drum of elven superiority that got me. I felt like I was reading something that was an "after" scenario for a eugenics program.
I've been digging the elven magic-user/thief quite a bit...In the old days I think the half-elf fighter/magic-user was one I went to. I preferred the single class humans best, but once in a while I preferred to get my freak on.
ReplyDeleteORCS
ReplyDeleteOr Half-orcs that favor the orcish parent. Though I did run a full orc through The World's Largest Dungeon.
DeleteAs for class, pre-3E Fighter, post-3E Barbarian.
I used to almost always play a Human, partly because everyone else wasn't playing a human in our group. Lately, I've been playing Elves which is kind of strange because I used hate Elves
ReplyDeleteI don't particularly like to play any kind of non-human, but elves in the Tolkienesque mold are especially awful as playable characters (and kind of suck as NPCs too). I've always been much more apt to conceptualize them along the lines of Moorcock's Melniboneans and Vadagh and or better yet use the Hyperboreans from AS&SH as the elder race in my campaign world.
ReplyDeleteColin McComb should have to pay for the CBoE though; what an abomination that thing was - and I don't mean that half-assed apology he gave during the Torment: Numenara kickstarter either.
I like playing halfling fighters or gnome illusionists. They are my favorites. :)
ReplyDeleteGnomes are my preferred race during the rare times when I play.
ReplyDeleteHaven't played an elf since 1981. Usually human, but half-orcs are cool too (not the 3e kind though). Halfling once in a blue moon. Not into dwarves, either. So basically half-orc in 1e or 2e when I can (multi-classed assassins or fighters), otherwise human.
ReplyDeleteHumans. Not very fond of running into level limits at such a low level. The level limits on Druids, Assassins, and Monks (and Bards) are alright.
ReplyDeleteDwarves ROCK!!! My first player character was a dwarf fighter. My second player character was a dwarf fighter, the son of the first. I created him after my first got killed by a half-burned orc in Quasqueton.
ReplyDeleteHumans almost always. If pressed to go demi-human, I'll go with elf, which seems to me the most human of all of them (basically I want my characters to be able to see over the parapet).
ReplyDeleteAlways humans and always either a basic fighter, m-u or cleric.
ReplyDeleteMostly humans, but I also have a fondness for dwarf fighters and elven thieves.
ReplyDeleteI am not a fan of elven magic users, not as a player. Not sure why and I don't have a problem with elves using magic in race-as-class games.
Usually humans, but recently I have been playing some halflings and quite enjoying them, But really, I tend to play what is needed by the group class wise and humans fit into most roles.
ReplyDeleteHave a half elf right now. Not normally though. Human usually. The fantasy I play now is Pathfinder. Not my favorite but always can find an organized play session. Intrigued by the idea of a half orc paladin.
ReplyDeleteGnomes or humans. I don't go for silly characters, but they've all got quirks. (My most recent character, for a quick one-off session with Gorgonmilk, was an amnesiac human fighter who encountered the party in the dungeon. His memory only went back an hour or two, when he climbed out of a giant cauldron. The only word he could remember was cauldron. So everything was cauldron.)
ReplyDeleteHalf-elf cleric is my go-to, but classic elf ranger or longbow fighter is also a favorite.
ReplyDelete