I was reading this thread at EN World, and there was some mention of “flavor/optimization mismatch”. In particular, they were talking about how the deva was optimally suited for orb wizard, which didn’t match the flavor of the race at all.
I also thought about this some when I was creating my new witch doctor character. I was trying to find an optimal race for a Mask of the Elements doc. Unfortunately, a few of the obvious choices were verboten for campaign purposes: dwarf, half-elf, and human. Fortunately, I stumbled across the gnome possibliity, which I was pretty stoked about, but I would have really been at a loss if I hadn’t.
So I did some more thinking … which is usually when I get into trouble.
This whole phenomenon seems to me to be an issue, not of mechanics, but of mindset–a holdover from 3e. You will recall that, in 3e, not all abilities were created equal. The physical stats were supreme, of course. Wisdom, modestly iimportant due to its impact on the Will save. Intelligence and Charisma were third-class citizens. Consequently, you could not simply swap out one ability score for another; the varying importance of them was used as a balancing factor. Nowhere was this more true than with the character races. This mechanical impact is compounded by the presence of aiblity score penalties. Half-orces received a +2 bonus to Strength and a -2 penalty to Intelligence and Charisma.
Enter Fourth Edition, which has an entirely different design paradigm. Every ability score is designed to be of relatively equal importance. (See, for example, how defenses are calculated; sub-optimal defenses issues–such as classes that require two abilities that impact the same defense–are handled through class features.) One race is not stronger or better than another simply on the force of which ability scores it grants a bonus to. Consequently, there is no mechanical impact to swapping one ability bonus for another. I do recognize that thematically this steps on the toes of the human. That consideration might not be trivial depending on your particular game and campaign.
Proposition: You can freely swap a character race’s ability score bonsues for any two abilities without damaging mechanical balance. Discuss.
N.B. – This discussion is particularly interesting and relevant in light of Hard-Boiled Cultures. HBC touched on this issue, but not in this context. A halfling with a bonus in Constitution and Charisma? Hmmm….
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