Of the original races in the 3.5 Edition of D&D, which would you eliminate and why?

Question

Basically you are looking at seven races (human, dwarf, elf, half-elf, half-orc, halfling, and gnome) listed as the most prolific in a generic D&D world. Most are nice, but some should be eliminated . . . .

Answer 1

This question may be prompted by the 4e announcement that they will be eliminating one and replacing it with tiefling.

Get rid of gnomes. They've been trying to find a place in this game as something other than annoyances since 1st ed.

Others have mentioned half-elf. It may not be an character-optimizer's class, but it has a lot of roots. I think it's hard to justify killing off half-elf without killing off half-orc.

Answer 2

I think the Halflings and Gnomes should be relegated to source books. They are really only any good as one or two classes and they don't offer enough benefit for their deficiencies.

Personally, I don't think I have seen either race played by anyone in a 3e or 3.5e campaign.

Answer 3

Our least played race has probably been Dwarves. Short, fat people with beards and no real interesting differences from humans? Count us out.

But Dwarves are pretty iconic. I'm guessing halflings or gnomes will go; probably gnomes as they've never had a real defined place.

Answer 4

I'd eliminate the half-orc. Everything else is pretty standard, but the half-orc is harder to justify. As an inherently evil race, it's harder to imagine and Orc running off and having a family somewhere with a human.

But really, I don't know why they feel they have to remove one at all.

Answer 5

Why eliminate one? I think they all have their place. Half-elf is probably the least interesting of them, but even they have their advantages.

Answer 6

half elf.