It is partly the dozens of attacks.
But keep in mind that dex also helps you act first in the round via initiative. And the number of things you save against through dex are probably at least 10x the number of things you save against through int (or str, or cha for that matter. Possibly int
and str
and cha).
Int affects 5 skills and around maybe 5 saving throws so far. Not types of saving throws, but literally 5(ish) individual saving throws against specific spells and abilities. Dex affects numerous broad categories that affect you all the time, and will come up, at the very least once every combat (initiative). If it is also factoring into your AC and attacks, obviously a lot more. Putting any sort of resources into Int if you are not a wizard is fucking crazy. The same is true for charisma and strength unless you are a class that uses those things. Dex, Con and Wis simply contribute more, so a race that contributes to those stats alongside the primary stat is simply better.* And when it comes to point buy, with such a low maximum, your points will have to spill over into other abilities, so you might as well make them abilities that matter.
*and also in the case of the tiefling, their other abilities are also shit. Compare the tiefling and the half elf:
same charisma bonus, but the half-elf can add one to any stat instead of just intelligence
both get dark vision
fire resistance vs advantage vs charm and immunity to sleep. None of these are outright winners, but sleep immunity is a fucking You Don't Lose at low levels.
thaumaturgy cantrip. Whatever. Hellish Rebuke- out of turn ability to damage someone for hitting you. Cute bonus, but 1/day is shitty. Same with darkness, except darkness can also screw you and your party.
Now, instead of some shitty spells, the half elf gets proficiency in perception (bonus vs getting banked) and one other skill, which is mildly dubious given how MTP most of the skills are. But it is a rising bonus against whatever random DCs you get afflicted with. The half-elf also gets to ignore multi classing requirements. Not always going to come up, but may make diving for some customization options easier.
Just on the floating stat bonus and perception alone, I'd take half-elf over tiefling any day of the week. Those bonuses affect shit that actually matters all the time, rather than a grab-bag of mildly useless crap, half of which has 1/day limits.
8d8 wrote:Are spells and magic items that improve numbers not in the game? Or are you assuming that using those at all times is a given?
Well, with spells, obviously not all the time, as limited resources, durations and concentration all come into play. But yes. I am assuming you're going to be using your magic items and spells. The wizard is going to have mage armor up, or find something that provides roughly the same benefit. People are going to use spells to boost their damage numbers and defenses when appropriate.
Is the "I'm 5% worse but I can freely do this cool thing" tremendously bad? How hard is it to reproduce the benefits a race gives you? If you spend something to get X, is what you spent more costly than that 5%?
Well, it depends. If it is actually a cool thing, then... maybe. But we've been talking about the tiefling. It legitimately has
no cool things. If you want to play up uber-cool-emo demonic ancestry, just make up some shit in your background and say so. The race is shit.
On the other hand, when I first looked at the standard human, the +1 stat to everything looked pretty awesome. Better numbers everywhere. But with the reality of how the point buy system works and how attributes work... it doesn't matter. The human often comes out slightly (2 or 3 points) ahead on a useless stat vs the basic rules' best race/class combos. And with some combinations (the mountain dwarf fighter) not even that. And in the face of the laundry list of actual racial abilities, those minor useless stat numbers don't matter.
The variant human (which gets a feat), is a whole other story, however, because they can dumpster dive into all sorts of crazy shit, including better armor, damage resistance, the ability to wreck face on low-AC enemies with two handed weapons, or even shit like
observant which can give a bonus to wisdom and gives a flat +5 to passive perception, which combined with proficiency in perception breaks the stealth RNG.
Alertness gives +5 init and immunity to surprise,
and no one gets advantage on you for being hidden, which is good vs ganking
and makes alpha-strike offense easy-peasy.
So yes, there are things you can trade raw numbers for. But they legitimately have to matter. By any measure Rawbeard's Tiefling never qualifies as mattering for anything. Just having a higher AC
is flatly better than anything the tiefling does. And dex doesn't just do that. And any other racial choice also has its own laundry list of
better stuff.
