Last week I had my players making up their characters for our Rise of the Runelords campaign, and according to how we are doing this, they are making up a primary and a back up character.
I have four players, and this was the feedback (so far) on why they picked the races and ability scores that they did.
First, we used the 20 point purchase method. This isn't so much due to players "cheating" or anything like that, but due to two general factors:
1. For a playtest, we didn't really want to see someone that rolled above average making a given race/class combination looking too powerful or competent.
2. I have seen one player have a "super character" while others have had substandard ones, and the "super character" usually ends up getting the chance to do everything important that involves any kind of statistical bonus.
To avoid this, I'd rather have the players start off on an even keel.
The races that were picked were as follows:
Player One
Half-orc Fighter (Primary Character)
Human cleric of Saranrae (Secondary Character)
Essentially the player liked having a race that was built for being a "tank," but didn't want to pigeonhole him into being a barbarian, and wanted some rationale for making him more "tactical." He also took the orc shotput because he wanted to see what all he could use due to the weapon being an "orc" racial weapon.
The second character was made more out of utility, given that humans are more customizable, overall.
Player Two
Human Paladin (Primary Character)
Elf Ranger (Secondary Character)
This player wanted to run a non-standard paladin, and chose to make the paladin a Shoanti, and the human bonues to skills and feats allowed him a little more flexibility in creating a "different" paladin.
The elf ranger was made in part because elves are well suited to archery and ranger as an option for favored class made it attractive to the character.
Player Three
Half-elf Wizard (Primary Character)
Human rogue (Secondary Character)
The primary character was made up to try out a half-elf under the new rules, and the floating +2 and variable favored class made it more attractive.
The human rogue is meant to be a flexible multi classing character if the character needs to shift into the campaign.
Player Four
Halfling Bard (Primary Character)
Human Sorcerer (Secondary Character)
This player liked bard for tying into the flavor of halflings as social chameleons and the guy that gets along with everyone, and since it was a favored class, he took it.
Again, the secondary character is human to allow for more flexibility as the campaign develops if this character is needed due to the halfling's demise or incapacitation.
I'll be asking all of them some more follow up questions on their choices and how its working out for them, and posting the comments here. So far after the first session, the half-elf's and halflings abilities didn't come into play near as much as the half-orc's orc ferocity did (which he used twice in the session).
Just revisiting this to point out that, for my Rise of the Runelords game, I had to turn away a half-orc since I already had two in the party, and when I told people I was going to run an 11th level campaign to test higher level characters, I got another half-orc, this time a cleric.
So I've gotten a half-orc fighter, a half-orc rogue, I had someone that wanted to play a half-orc cleric, and another half-orc cleric for the other campaign.
Maybe its just my group, but for anything outside of a wizard, half-orc seems to be a pretty solid choice right now. I'm not sure if its balanced or overbalanced, or if its just the natural overcompensation for people not wanting to take the race before, but I thought I'd note it.