... playing game. Javelin, some roguelike-ish thing that's attempting stuff like party based gameplay and city building and whatnot. Some neat stuff. WTF comes from the start, though. Your initial choice is just of race. Buncha' choices, standard fantasy fair, orcs, drow, elves, gnomes, etc., etc. And one thing that stands out. Not just in not being humanoid nor nominally sapient nor capable of talking under normal circumstances. But also being what is, as near as I can tell after a few goes, pretty much the hands-down absolute best starting choice, head and shoulders above anything else on the list. >Double the HP of the other races, two +3 attacks (about the best something else can manage is orcs with a single +3), generally capable of moving at least 2-3 spaces more than everything else. The only downside-ish is that they don't have a ranged attack, which... isn't really that big of a deal.
And so my newly optimized starting party now consists of Ponyup, Saytheeneigh, Haystack, and Cud. Four war ponies, somehow having gained control over a town*, now adventuring together. Because any one of them could probably kick the collective ass of any non-pony-included starting team I could construct.
... game, I kinda' like what you're trying to do. But. You may have some balance issues. Just one or two or fifty or so.
*I guess they had a nero and then the newly appointed consuls ate him, after which the town's population decided to roll with it instead of arguing with the small herd of man eating equines?