As someone who started playing EA when it first came out, my first impression of the racial bonuses was "finally a game that does fantasy races right".
I know "right" is a subjective statement, but the classic racial ability score system was what got me interested in the DnD ruleset and it led to me exploring countless other (tabletop and digital) DnD products.

I can see that Larian is going for a design philosophy that removes the urge for players to restart their playthrough if they realize they've made a "mistake" in their build.
Personally, I am not a fan of the Tasha's changes, but can see how after you've played enough DnD it provides a breath of fresh air.
Part of me welcomes that and is excited about some of the freedom the floating +2/+1 offers, but really wish Shield Dwarves, Half Elves and Humans got to keep the little something that made them unique and enabled interesting build options.

I think that having one set of expectations for 3 years and then suddenly changing it a month before release (I know it could've happened at any point between Patch 9 and today, but we only found out this month, so that's how it's perceived) comes across as Larian pivoting away from its core "nerd" audience that has supported the game throughout EA in an attempt to cast a wider net on new uninitiated players.

I wouldn't mind if we got Tasha's ASI rules for most races, with +2/+2 for Shield Dwarves, +2/+1/+1 for Half Elves and just kept the +1 all stats for Humans, but instead we got a simplified generic +2/+1 that just makes Race feel like glorified Background choice.

Last edited by Aeliasson; 18/07/23 11:41 AM.