Poll of the Day > Which race is genetically superior?

(+) Yeah! (+)

What do you think? Why?

I hate elves. They're super cheesy. But to be fair, they can live forever and not age so there's that.

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Elves in most continuities are pretty much just humans+. They're either superior or equal to humans in every regard without any drawbacks. They have greater speed, agility, and a vastly increased lifespan. Supposedly their birthrate can be lower but that's the closet thing you'd get to an actual drawback.

By contrast, dwarfs have similar (or greater strength) to humans but lack a size advantage. In many regards they're similar to humans, although they sometimes have longer lives. Their intelligence might be comparable.

Humans are kinda the default way of measuring everything in fantasy settings. They tend to be jacks of all trades. They're the de facto average race.

Orcs are stronger than the others, but have reduced intelligence and a warlike nature. In some continuities, they have the advantage of maturing faster than other races (which is a massive benefit for any warlike race (the same is kinda true for goblins in Goblin Slayer where, rather than the traditional notion of goblins, they kinda feel more like orcs)).

Halflings/Hobbits are weaker than the other races and smaller. They're also not war-like or prone to build great civilizations. They basically live in hills and get high all the time.

However, humans tend to excel in most fantasy settings simply because they have a decent birthrate and are an enterprising race... and also because authors favor humans because readers are human.

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Elves orcs and dwarves all have some really good biological traits, but it depends on the metrics being used

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100m dash

What counts as genetically superior?

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Lokarin posted...

What counts as genetically superior?

That's the question people should be asking. Each race has their own advantages and disadvantages depending on situation and goals. How to qualify "superior"?

Depends on the metic as mead said. For the sake of argument lets say each 3d6 character creation rolls added up to 18 before character traits. Your breakdown is gonna run similar to this.

Orcs are gonna be the most fit physically, mentally powerful and able to use higer level magics ss well. Major limitation is in alignments as they would essentially be limited to any non good class in a few different pen and paper rpgs.

Elven- magical affinity combine with longer lifespan allows for more knowledge and better wizards as an elf would be hitting there prime when an elven wizard is dying from old age. No real downside othe than low population growth and slower adaption to enviroments as a result.

Gnomes- low size but also lower space needed for living. Would thrive in an urban enviroment such as shadow run as self protection is not needed as often. Down side is the orcish sport known as gnome tossing.

Dwarves- unruly drunkards that role similar to humans. Major downside is that alcoholic drink consumption has led them into problems. See leroy jenkins

Humans- high adaptability and can breed any and all sapient life and compatibile with several post human race transformations. Yeah humans probably beat every race in our decisions to see what we can role seduction against. Warning eject human bards from games before the gm is rolling way to many seduction checks

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Also the same logic applies to comic book and scifi universes as well.
I mean they had genetic purity before humans in startrek and heck by the end of tng we had human hybrids popping up everywhere heck didnt someone bang data for a while

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JigsawTDC posted...

That's the question people should be asking. Each race has their own advantages and disadvantages depending on situation and goals. How to qualify "superior"?

Not at all. You have elves who excel at pretty much everything, dwarfs and orc who excel at some things, humans who are all-around good at almost everything, and then hobbits whose only apparent benefit is that they're obscure enough not to be recognized by a dragon.

I mean, the only race more OP than elves in most fantasies is dragons.

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Hobbits are the best because they mostly get along and enjoy the finer things in life

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In Tolkien the Orcs were just corruptions of Elves by Morgoth. The Dwarves were created in secret by Aul, they were not part of the Music of the Ainur, and are not counted among the Children of Ilvatar. Hobbits are nothing more than an offshoot of Man.

Elves and Men were conceived of in the Music of the Ainur, but were created and given life by Ilvatar. Each race received different gifts from their maker. The Elves received great beauty, skill in arts and crafts, and near immortality. Men, on the other hand, were given the ability to operate beyond the Music of the Ainur and are not bound to Arda (the world) as the Elves are. The Elves, and even the Valar, are said to envy Man's mortality.

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Though Humans, Elves, and Gnomes/Halfings/Hobbits are my go-to in most RPGs, I wanna say Dwarves might be the most genetically superior overall. I cannot help but feel Elves and Dwarves are often stereotypically the least procreative race on purpose to explain why their civilizations are often fading.


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Well this goes against all my racial sensitivity training.