Editing Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition (section)

====Races====
[[File:Steve Argyle D&D 4e PHB2 Races.jpg|300px|thumb|right|The races of PHB 2. People were upset that the [[Gnome]] and [[Half-Orc]] were not in the core book.]]

[[Level Adjustment]], [[Favored Class]] and the concept of negative ability scores are all out the window in 4th edition. 4e goes for a "accentuate the positive" design methodology, and embraced what [[TVTropes]] calls the "Square Race, Round Class" trope - now you could experiment with unconventional race/class combos and you wouldn't be crippling yourself in the process. Your racial traits would align better with some classes than others, but still, you would never be outright ''terrible'' at a given class unless you deliberately made yourself crippled. Even the [[Monster Manual]] races, whilst maybe not AS powerful as a [[Player's Handbook]] race, would still be competitive, they just wouldn't have the bounty of racial feats and [[Paragon Path]]s that PHB races did.

Races in 4e followed a simple but robust formula:
* +2 to two different Ability Scores. Certain races play with this mechanic, and from the 3rd PHB onwards, it was retconned that all PC races without unique Ability Score modifiers instead used the formula of +2 to one ability score, +2 to one of two ability scores" - [[Tiefling]]s, for example, started out with a mandatory +2s in [[Charisma]] and [[Intelligence]], and then were erratated so they could choose to boost either Intelligence or [[Constitution]] instead.
* A racial speed, measured in "squares" (which amount to 5 foot per square, so a "Speed 6 squares" character can move 30 feet per round).
* Size, which is pretty much identical to 3e, but with fewer bonuses/penalties inherent to specific sizes, so Small PCs were no longer quite as handicapped.
* Vision - distinct vision ranges were dropped in this edition, so you simply had normal vision, low-light vision, or darkvision, and they tried to reduce the presence of darkvision as much as possible.
* +2 to two different skills
* At least one, and usually more, racial features; these are "ribbons", a vast array of passive traits, such as a bonus to one of your [[Non Armor Defenses]] or an attack bonus against Bloodied creatures.
* A racial Encounter power, using the AEDU system - this trait was particularly malleable, with many races putting their own unique spins on it; humans, for example, get a bonus at-will for their class instead, whilst half-elves can select an at-will power from a separate class and use it 1/encounter.

The race selection was hugely controversial; responding to letters and forum posts indicating a general lack of a fanbase for [[gnome]]s and [[half-orc]]s, WotC chose to leave those races out of the 4e PHB, instead replacing them with a new race, the [[Dragonborn]], and the [[Tiefling]]s, one of the most popular "monstrous" races in 3rd edition. This added to the shit-storm from the PHB's release, even though both races were soon released afterwards in the 2nd PHB - and were usually begrudgingly acknowledged as having fixed a lot of their traditional problems.

By the end of 4th edition, the race list had grown as vast as any other edition before it. For the full array, see [[List_of_D%26D_PC_Races#4th_Edition|here]].