There is definitely a hierarchy when it comes to race power-levels (variant human has sat at S tier for most of 5e Table Top's existence. Whereas in BG3, the highest tier race is probably the Half-Elf). But I don't think the balance has ever been so off that certain races are obsolete.

Originally Posted by Zenith
Poison resistance is actually pretty useful, because at least in the first act many enemies use poison, and poison carries the additional debuff of debuffing your attack rolls.

Fire resistance is mostly useless because other than halving the damage it does nothing else, and few creatures use fire attacks in Act 1. Even then, halved fire damage but no saving roll bonus against burning is pretty dumb.

I think you're underselling Fire Resistance a bit. Fire resistance tends to scale far better than Poison resistance into the late game.

1. Throughout a full campaign, fire damage is generally more common and deadly than poison damage.

Consider this - of all the spells available in the PHB and DMG, there are 22 spells that does fire damage, while only 6 of them do poison damage.

Also note the relatively lower deadliness of the poison spells. Only 3 of 6 of the poison spells are higher than level 1. 2 of the 6 entries for Poison damage are the Prismatic spells (meaning damage type is somewhat randomized / partial). The lvl 5 Cloudkill's is probably the most "deadly" common poison damage spell you'd face, and it's usually far more effective against a dumb AI than a human player that knows to move. Even then, it's only a whopping 5d8 (22.5 average) per round (a level 3 fireball is 6d8 @ 28 avg damage).

In terms of # of monster damage source, the general number is roughly the same 46 for fire vs. 43 for poison. In my experience, those sources of fire damage is usually deadlier (i.e high level fiends), but let's call it a draw in this regard because I only have anecdotal evidence.


2. It's simply easier to get/maintain the Dwarf's Poison resistance vs. a Tiefling's Fire Resistance.

Think of it this way. Mimicking a Dwarve's poison resistance (save + resistance) costs you a level 2 spell slot via Protection Against Poison. It's a non-concentration spell that lasts 1 hour in 5E RAW but until rest in BG3.

Gaining fire resistance like a Tiefling's requires a 3rd level spell called Protection from Energy. It's also 1 hour in RAW 5E, Duration TBD in BG3 - however, it requires concentration to maintain.

In general, it's simply harder to gain and maintain the fire resistance a Tiefling gets. The 4th level Fireshield spell can give you non-concentration fire resistance, but that only lasts 10 minutes (TBD in BG3).


In regards to overall Racial Balance:

The bog standard +1 int / +2 Cha Tiefling is definitely a weaker variant, because their stats do not line up with a single class's needs. However, the Zariel Tiefling (+1 STR / +2 CHA) is a pretty solid choice for Paladins.

Standard Human are definitely one of the weaker races too. Their spread out +1s mainly make them decent choices for multi-attribute dependent classes like Monks or Paladins, or some kind of stat demanding demanding multi-class.