Originally Posted by Scoonster49
DnD maybe cooperative but it is also local how my group plays doesn't affect yours in anyway. Same here with BG3, you can play it however you want and I can play it however I want and it doesn't affect either of our experiences. I do not understand the idea in a game like this that other people should have options denied to them that only affect their game because others do not like those options.

While you are talking about how usually orcs have inherently higher strength it is entirely possible that for some reason an orc is born with significantly less strength and I can play one who is weaker than the norm trying to find their place in the world. Being able to change the ASI greatly helps roleplay that scenario. Or it is possible a human or halfing or what ever has orc in their heritage and their genes just come about to give them a boost.

To me one of the wonders of DnD is the ability to craft worlds and narratives at will. Being able to take the set rules and adjust as needed is one of it's best features
Let's focus on the last line and sidestep our likely irreconcilable differences hopefully come to a compromise. D&D is not pure imagination; it has rules and world-logic and importantly restrictions. Restrictions enable roleplay and tabletop gaming, at the very least because they defined the world, keeps things consistent, and provides a certain amount of mechanical balance. And while you can of course homebrew anything, it's good for the officially published setting and rules to be expansive and detailed (otherwise why bother playing in that setting or using those rules?)

Removing restrictions (e.g., removing racial ASIs), strictly removes race characterization without replacing it with anything. Thus, the races---including PCs of those races---become more bland. (This is a commonly argued position regarding WotC: they are making everything--included but not limited to races---in D&D more homogeneous and boring). My main point is that I want to retain significant inherent differences between those races, as those differences are vital to distinguish the races and prevent Faerun from becoming "everyone is a slight variant on a human". These differences could be ASIs, or actually impactful & unique racial features, or something else. Can we agree on that at least?