First off, Dean was curious about the totals of all the stat adjusts in the game, so he added them all together. I think it's super interesting, but I can't really tell you what it means. I just thought it was neat. It makes the game's love affair with DEX a little more obvious.While I don't think the game's races being so whack-ass out of proportion is a huge problem, really he should have gotten values a lot closer than this. Within say ten or twelve of each other. Certainly, nothing should be negative, since that implies a lack of bonuses to that stat, an overuse of penalties to that stat, or(the actual answer) both.
I know why this is, in part. In earlier editions, (1e and 2e in particular) STR was the damage stat. Period. Things like Weapon Finesse, Finesse Training, or Slashing Grace didn't exist. 18 STR even had a percentile to it for no fucking reason other than to differentiate between people with 18s, since it was the most likely stat for a human fighter to have in STR. The game valued STR higher and was right to.
And I know why CON is overvalued. First off, they lean on the "thin but fast" stereotype by giving a DEX bonus and a CON penalty pretty often. Six out of the nine CON penalty races have a DEX bonus. The remaining ones, Samsaran, Astomoi and Changeling, all have double mental bonuses. Yet another stereotype. CON is also near universally valued in the game, with even the classes who don't need it as much(Ranged or caster types except for Kineticist) still benefit from it nicely. So while I can see their reasoning a bit, I don't agree with the outcome.
A lack of INT bonuses is because of wizards and the idea that they're powerful casters. Probably. Even though what individual stats are worth has proliferated thanks to all these base classes. Really, that idea is why I'm irked by all this. Stats mean so much more now than even 3.5, and certainly more than 2e. Charisma is the caster stat for more than one class, it's not worthless like it was in 1e and 2e. Wisdom is more than clerics, and STR isn't necessarily more valuable than DEX thanks to Swashbuckler, Unchained Rogue, or Slashing Grace. It's more than past time for things to be closer.
I mean, I'm probably overthinking this. Races were probably put together by like two dozen people and they gave them a decent amount of creative control. It probably just worked out like this. Sephiroth and his max DEX build is the coolest and everyone wants a 20ft long Katana and bishie hair. Fine.
But I thought I'd do a little bit more research. I like putting races together. There's rigorous enough rules for it. I could patch some holes in the system's races. I could turn the few races I intended to make into a homebrew supplement. Those are still cringey and awful most of the time but mine will totally be different for reasons I can't think of right now.
Anyway here's the part where I put together what bonus combinations exist in the world and which don't. I'm not going through penalties just yet, since that's a bit too many combinations. I'm also not counting Merfolk since they're extremely problematic, as opposed to races like Astomoi, Gillman and Deep One Hybrid being regular problematic.
STR/DEX: No.
STR/CON: No.
STR/INT: No.
STR/WIS: Yes. Oread, and Orang-Pendak
STR/CHA: Yes. Nagaji, Suli and Reptoid
DEX/CON: Yes. Caligni and Hobgoblin
DEX/INT: Yes. Elf, Ratfolk, Sylph, Tiefling, Wayang, Android
DEX/WIS: Yes. Tengu, Grippli, Svirfneblin, Vanara
DEX/CHA: Yes. a fuckton
CON/INT: No.
CON/WIS: Yes, Dwarf, Duregar, Deep One Hybrid
CON/CHA: Yes, Gnome, Gillman, Ghoran, Shabti
INT/WIS: Yes, Samsaran, Astomoi
INT/CHA: No.
WIS/CHA: Yes, Changeling, Aasimar
So this was kind of interesting. Most of our holes are in STR, which is to be expected. We already know there's a huge lack of STR bonus races. I didn't expect there to be zero INT/CHA races, though, and I didn't expect so many combinations to just be two or three races. Really, this means that so long as you're not creating a DEX bonus race, anything added to the system is going to be welcome. Hell, even doing a DEX/CON race wouldn't be so bad.
Next I'm going over a few more vague concepts that I think bear mentioning.
no-penalty races: Hobgoblin, Aasimar, Shabti
+4 Races: Orc, Goblin, Monkey Goblin
Small Races: Gnome, Halfling, Goblin, Kobold, Ratfolk, Grippli, Wayang, Orang-Pendak, Monkey Goblin.
I didn't include it, since I already knew, but we also have no races who just have nice stats and that's basically all they get. Usually, when someone wants this style of character, they end up playing a monster. I think something should be available for them at base. Moving on, it should be noted that while all three "+4" races pay for their bonus in some way, the trade-off is somewhat disproportionate...and none of the no-penalty races significantly "pay" for their lack of a stat penalty, even though they have pretty high stat efficiency. They end up with more total stat points. Hell, Orc is a net -2. Keep in mind I'm talking about how they're designed and not their point values in terms of the race builder. For some reason the game sees it fit to put severely substandard(and low point value) races like Kobold or Halfling right next to very(and obviously) superior races like Aasimar, Goblin, or Skinwalker. Que Sera Sera, I guess.
And for the record, while I'm (nearly always) going to try to keep between 12 and 15 points, point value isn't everything. I don't think anyone would argue that Human is one of the game's better races, and their total value is just 9...identical to Halfling, which I've repeatedly called an under-performing race. Point value can be a good metric...but it ain't everything, I guess.
I'm pretty cavalier about stat spread, for a good reason. Like I said before, getting a +2 in your class's most important stat is really all you need, and getting a +2 in both of them is icing. Some classes need two stats(in addition to CON), and those classes are frequently behind anyway, doubly so in Poverty games which love low stat values. Pretty much nobody "needs" three or more classes unless they're putting together a weird multiclass. If they're putting together an oddball multiclass, chances are it's for flavor and giving them a leg up is not only not the end of the world, but maybe even something they could use. The days of exploiting via multiclassing aren't entirely over, but neither are they something you need to worry that much about.
So what does this mean? Well again since this was just all research and thought collecting, I'm absolved of my requirement to make an actual point anywhere in this post. It does mean some guidance in what I'm going to adapt or create in the future, though. Some races with interesting ideas or less conformity are definitely in order. Some monstrous humanoids(though, the race guide does give some classic non-monsters), some races more focused on stats, definitely some beefy bois with STR or CON bonuses. Some races who are focused toward stat boosts...or hell, maybe a race or two that's the opposite. The game sort of already does that with Strix, who lack a second stat bonus, but get the game's best flight speed ever given to a base race: 60ft(Average). Strix isn't a bad race, and frankly more of this would be welcome too.
I guess I'm gonna be writing a race supplement. I wonder how many other people started a homebrew supplement like this.
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