While it does make a certain amount of sense, you have to realize that inventions spread. Because unless elves and dwarves have perfect memories they'll want to learn to write and read too, simply because people forget some things over time. This could mean that they invent their own systems... or just adapt the one humanity uses.
As for balancing: Unless other species get similar bonuses for other fields it will be completely op.
Life's too short for being hectic.
You mean the Vesels?
Im very sorry, but someone had to say it.
Wait, is this meant to be a game mechanic or something you're putting in a book you're writing? Because being dyslexic doesn't make you unable to read, it just means it's much harder. There's also levels of dyslexia; my brother has a pretty mild case of it which mostly means his writing as an adult is pretty shit but he can, in fact, read fairly competently.
Basically the question is confusing because you're not stating the purpose for it, and also assuming that dyslexia means you're doomed to illiteracy for all time.
Also, assuming these other guys do things like architecture and math and farming and all that other stuff, making it so they can't learn from books seems... like making them dumber than any race should be as a people and be able to function. That's not making humans op, that's nerfing the others to the point of stupidity for no reason.
Edited by AceofSpades on Aug 19th 2018 at 10:19:53 AM
Allow me to clarify.
Yes, Elves and Dwarves can read but they find it difficult.
The stated purpose is to put humans and elves on more or less equal grounds despite elves living several times the lifespan of a human and thus should have far more skills than a human can possibly acquire.
Books aren't necessarily essential, civilization got along fine with oral tradition for thousands of years before reading was widespread. They just make things more efficient.
You have to decide whether this inability is a result of culture or mental makeup ; if it's the former, great, they may be traditionalist societies very averse to adopting new and foreign customs - if it's the latter, however, then you've effectively given them IN Telligence penalties. Gnomes, halflings, and orcs don't live much longer than humans as far as I can recall off the top of my head, so why wouldn't they also develop written languages and use them as well as humans do? What about half-elves and half-orcs? Do they read and write better than elves and orcs but worse than humans? It's your thing, and you're gonna do what you want, obviously, but seemingly small changes like this can have massive implications in your verse.
Level 3 Social Justice Necromancer. Chaotic Good.
According to Dn D, both Gnomes and Halflings live longer than humans and Orcs are often a non-playable race. Halfings last maybe twice as long as humans with Gnomes lasting possibly 5 centuries.
But anyway
I don't use gnomes in my settings because they're in an odd niche that doesn't quite fit. Orcs are mostly the stereotypical barbarians and evolve their own version of the writing gene. All hybrids, half-orcs and half-elves, are sterile and thus tend to be marginal. They do tend to inherit humanity's gift for letters but they need a culture of writing to make use of it. Halflings are the common ancestor for Humans, Elves, and Dwarves and actually have a longer lifespan than all of them.
Edited by Belisaurius on Aug 26th 2018 at 7:35:33 AM
Kool. Seems like you've figured it all out. I like that halflings are the common ancestor of humans, elves, and dwarves.
Level 3 Social Justice Necromancer. Chaotic Good.
This is something of an observation of D&D than anything else.
So in a world with elves, dwarves, and humans the idea is that Humans were the ones to develop writing and are more adapted to it than any other race.
This is because humans are shorter lived than elves or dwarves. An elf or dwarf had centuries to learn skills while a human had decades at most. As a result, humans needed a means of preserving wisdom and developed writing so that the skills of their best and brightest wouldn\'t disappear.
What\'s more, because human generations are shorter, humans adapted to writing faster than any other mortal race. As a result, humans find reading far more intuitive than elves or dwarves. In more practical terms, humans can learn skills from books while other races can\'t even if they can read.
Anyhow, what\'s your two cents on the concept? Overpowered, underpowered? Too damn weird?