Request: More Pen & Paper Racial Abilities - 29/11/20 03:00 PM
Hi everyone, i'm posting this mostly because i recently decided to check some of the things Larian has put in Early-Access and one thing that caught my attention where the chosen racial abilities for certain races, or rather the lack of some of them when compared to the P&P 5th Edition, look i understand that when porting something from one form of media to another some things will simply need to be changed or outright cut and i do realize that this is just a very very early build of the game that's nowhere near finished, but i still feel that we as the customers (for a lack of a better word) should remind Larian about things like this if only so that they aren't forgotten among the lots of other work they are already focusing on (and yes i know Larian cannot possibly keep track about everything specially a small thing such as this but still please bear with me here).
Let me give an example; in P&P Half Elves have the racial called "Skill Versatility" which basically allows them to have proficiency with 2 skills of their choosing but its only available if you don't choose a sub-race, if you do choose one of the sub-races the P&P rules allow you to change "Skill Versatility" with some other benefit depending on the specific sub-race: for example lets say i make my Half Elf a Half-High Elf, by the P&P rules i could forgo "Skill Versatility" in exchange for either a "Cantrip" from the Wizard spell list (which scales with Intelligence) or the "Elf Weapon Training" passive (which gives proficiency in Longswords, Shortswords, Shortbows, and Longbows, just like the trait for full Elves).
The thing is that right now on Early-Access not only are we forced to take a sub-race whether we like it or not but also whichever skills they give us its already decided by default leaving no choice for players to exchange it for something else, lets go back to the High-Half Elf example; right now on Early-Access if you want to play as one you are getting the Wizard Cantrip as your racial trait with no choice for anything else, the problem with this is that since it is a Wizard Cantrip it scales with the Intelligence stat which may or may not be useful depending on your class and build, for example lets say you are playing a Half Elf Paladin (or any other class that doesn't really benefits much from intelligence) a Wizard Cantrip its not going to be much use to you since Intelligence is not one of your main stats and since your class is already MAD (Multiple Ability (score) Dependent) its not like you could afford to spread your stats more than they already are, as such the extra Cantrip is not really a useful trait for you and in fact you would benefit more from things like "Skill Versatility" (since everyone benefits from having skills) or "Elf Weapon Training" (since its a martial skill which is more fitting for a martial class, granted for Paladins specifically it may not be as useful since they like Fighters get proficiency with these kind of weapons as a default from their class, but you get what i mean).
The point is because of the current way the race/sub-race system works and how limited the options they give players you may end up with the case of people simply choosing a race/sub-race just because mechanically its the best for that role and completely ignoring others, and while people are in their right to min/max as much as they want, i believe that in a roleplaying game players should have the option to customize their playstyle to their own preference while still choosing to play a character because they like the concept not because its what's best for the role (again i do realize that Larian is nowhere near finished with Baldur's Gate 3 but i also firmly believe that we the customers should remind them of these things just so that they do not forget about it, also feel free to share which racial skills from P&P not currently in Early-Access would you like to see in the full game or post your reasons of why you disagree with me if you wish so, i would like to read your thoughts on this).
Let me give an example; in P&P Half Elves have the racial called "Skill Versatility" which basically allows them to have proficiency with 2 skills of their choosing but its only available if you don't choose a sub-race, if you do choose one of the sub-races the P&P rules allow you to change "Skill Versatility" with some other benefit depending on the specific sub-race: for example lets say i make my Half Elf a Half-High Elf, by the P&P rules i could forgo "Skill Versatility" in exchange for either a "Cantrip" from the Wizard spell list (which scales with Intelligence) or the "Elf Weapon Training" passive (which gives proficiency in Longswords, Shortswords, Shortbows, and Longbows, just like the trait for full Elves).
The thing is that right now on Early-Access not only are we forced to take a sub-race whether we like it or not but also whichever skills they give us its already decided by default leaving no choice for players to exchange it for something else, lets go back to the High-Half Elf example; right now on Early-Access if you want to play as one you are getting the Wizard Cantrip as your racial trait with no choice for anything else, the problem with this is that since it is a Wizard Cantrip it scales with the Intelligence stat which may or may not be useful depending on your class and build, for example lets say you are playing a Half Elf Paladin (or any other class that doesn't really benefits much from intelligence) a Wizard Cantrip its not going to be much use to you since Intelligence is not one of your main stats and since your class is already MAD (Multiple Ability (score) Dependent) its not like you could afford to spread your stats more than they already are, as such the extra Cantrip is not really a useful trait for you and in fact you would benefit more from things like "Skill Versatility" (since everyone benefits from having skills) or "Elf Weapon Training" (since its a martial skill which is more fitting for a martial class, granted for Paladins specifically it may not be as useful since they like Fighters get proficiency with these kind of weapons as a default from their class, but you get what i mean).
The point is because of the current way the race/sub-race system works and how limited the options they give players you may end up with the case of people simply choosing a race/sub-race just because mechanically its the best for that role and completely ignoring others, and while people are in their right to min/max as much as they want, i believe that in a roleplaying game players should have the option to customize their playstyle to their own preference while still choosing to play a character because they like the concept not because its what's best for the role (again i do realize that Larian is nowhere near finished with Baldur's Gate 3 but i also firmly believe that we the customers should remind them of these things just so that they do not forget about it, also feel free to share which racial skills from P&P not currently in Early-Access would you like to see in the full game or post your reasons of why you disagree with me if you wish so, i would like to read your thoughts on this).