How is the presentation of lineage in MOTM and other products going to affect the characters you build or are interested in playing? What new mechanical impacts and synergies have you noticed?
This is not meant to be a discussion of optimization, though there will be elements of that. And it's not about the meta of making goblinoids fey-decended, or whaterver (other threads are doing that). My questions are more general and mostly focused on build implications: how does the new presentation of lineages, with the free-floating ASI mods at character development, change how you might build specific characters?
Does choice of race still matter? I think it still does, and these posts are just me working through what I see in order to explore some implications.
1 Opening examples (Orc, Goliath, Firbolg, Shifter)
2 Goblinoids and other Fey (Bugbear, Goblin, Hobgoblin,Eladrin, Shadar-Kai)
3 Reptiles (Kobold, Lizardfolk, Tortle, Yuan-Ti)
4 Hit and Myths (Satyr, Haregon, Minotaur, Githzerai and Githyanki)
5 Size Matters (Aasimar, Changeling, Genasi, Firbolg, Kenku, Tabaxi).
6 Fliers and swimmers and under the earth (Aarakocra, Fairy, Triton, Sea Elf, Deep Gnome, and Duregar)
At the same time, races are offering much more flexibility and allow for a range of builds. If there's much less necessary synergies at work, there remain some very interesting combinations that are available.
*****
1 Opening examples (Goliath, Shifter, Firbolg, Orc [and Half-orc])
Shifter. The Shifter is a good race to begin thinking with, because the design is pretty clean, and characters get choice that will benefit a range of builds. Start with darkvision and a free skill proficiency in Atheletics, Acrobatics, Survival, or Intimidation. All of them are useful. Plus you can shift, allowing you to draw on a lycanthropic ancestor a number of times per long rest equal to your proficiency bonus. Each shift lasts for a minute, and so in most campaigns it will be for every combat, and for the rest it will be for most combats. Shifting gives you a pool of THP and an ability. So far, so good, and we see the design principles behind this framing of the race: everything is useful for anyone, and the association between a race and a class (dwarf cleric, elf wizard) is eroded. That's good.
The abilities you get while shifted are chosen by the player, and there are four options, each of which suggests some build combinations.
(a) Longtooth. Bonus action for and fang attack. This is pretty cool, and allows a player to both use a two-handed weapon and have the feel of a two-weapon fighter. Attack with a greatsword with your action, and then use your fangs with a bonus action; longtooth creates a terrifying image for a melee combatant. It doesn't let you divine smite if you are a paladin with the fang attack and doeesn't synergize with polearm master, but it is another opportunity to hit, even after you've rolled your d12. The Great Weapon master gives a similar benefit when you reduce a creature to 0 hp or score a crit; rather than seeing that as overlap, I see this as giving an opportunity for less damage on those occasions where the feat's benefit doesn't come into play. Not for rogues or monks, but good for any strength-based attacker.
(b) Swiftstride. +10' move, and a free disengage and 10' move on a reaction. Equally cool, but for the melee builds that have just been excluded from Longtooth, and those with a good use for their bonus action. Extra Mobility always helps, and it will stack with the Mobile feet and the increased speed from Monk or Barbarian. The use for your reaction to get away from someone who ends their turn next to you replicates the Skirmisher ability given the the Scout Rogue (which is arguably the defining ability of the subclass). Good for someone who wants to attack at range, even if they plan never to get up close to an opponent.
(c) Wildhunt. This one is harder to get a sense of how it plays in combat. Advantage on every wisdom check should be awesome in some circumstances: it is the best choice for a mounted combatant (handling animals), or if you are a non-magical healer and rolling medicine. You are not likely to be rolling survival or insight during combat, though, and while advantage on perception will help you always spot hidden oppoinents, that's a benefit that you are probably not building for. Arguably, who Wildhunt benefits most is someone without Darkvision, but you have darkvision. The other benefit is also really useful and really hard to anticipate its use: no one within 30' can attack you with advantage. This is perfect for a Bsrbsrian, taking the liability from Reckless Attack (h/t @Paul Farquhar ). As for others: You are less likely to be taken down by an enemy rogue, but who this benfits most is someone who is always falling prone in melee. Is that a thing?
(d) Beasthide. And, if none of these appeal to you, you can take +1 AC and more THP. Anyone in melee can want to be more tanky. So might anyone only proficient in light armor. Or a spellcaster.
The shifter is also a really fun choice for a wildshaping druid, especially for a Circle of the Moon, since in your animal form you would retain the ability to shift, enhancing your fighting ability further. All in all, a very satisfying design that can be made to work with almost any build.
Goliath. Less substantial is the Golaith, which feels much more niche. Cold resistance and the altitude training make this an ideal race for arctic adventures (no threat of exhaustion from cold is significant in some campaigns). Proficiency in Powerful build and Athletics both favour strength builds, but importantly also replace an investment in strength: even a character that has dumped strength is able to cover some of the benefits of a higher strength through these racial abilities. Athletics is, I think, amazingly under-rated, and Athletics checks are called on regularly, for all characters. As with Perception, it is a skill that helps everyone, not just one person specializing, and so etting it for free is useful. In addition, there's a chance to sluff off 1d12+CON damage roughly once per combat, which is another good perk.
Firbolg. The Firbolg occupies the same conceptual space as the Goliath, but it feels less integrated to me. You have powerful build (like the goliath and the orc). Hidden Step gives you six seconds of invisibility a couple of times per long rest. That will be useful in combat, but I find it hard to narrate how it works. For spells you get a single casting of Detect Magic or Disguise Self, both of which are useful, but they do not really suggest the kinship-to-giants gentle-wilderness-wanderer. More than ay race, this feels like a bunch of features cobbled together, useful for anyone but not (to me) inspiring.
Except for the ribbon ability, Speech of Beast and Leaf. You can speak to Beasts, Plants and vegetation, but cannot understand what they say. Tritons and Sea Elves get to speak to swimmers, but (a) Firbolgs get advantage on Charisma checks to influence them, and (b) it includes Vegetation (!!!). Players can attempt to persuade flowers to bloom, grass to stand up straight after they pass (replicating Pass without trace?), to give false trails ("Everybody lean to the left"), or whatever. The enemy casts Plant Growth and you can ask the vines to part for you like the Red Sea. There just seems to be so much that can happen with this. A high-charisma Firbolg (Bard, Sorcerer, even Warlock) should be able to do so much with this. Talking to Beasts is fun, but the implications for the entire world that emerge from the ability to speak with vegetation just see mindboggling, with players threatening palm trees with an axe if it doesn't drop a coconut.
Orc. With the changes to the Orc, it is now mechanically much closer to the Half-Orc in the PHB. In many ways, that’s good, and perhaps points to a future shift removing the Half-Orc completely. In my own games, I assume that what humans call half-orcs are a separate species, neither human nor orc, and that the label “Half-orc” is a (human) slur. In my head Half-orcs are Neanderthals, and so never have dogs, etc.
Both Orcs and Half-orcs have Darkvision and Relentless Endurance (allowing you to stand one more round in combat). The differences are minimal:
Half-orc:
Relentless Endurance is a nice ability, and in play it has payed off occasionally for me, so it’s nice to see it with the Orcs now too. Adrenaline Rush will be mostly redundant for rogues, and so curiously there will be more rogues among Half-orcs (that nasty human side coming through?) as well as more Champion Fighters (who benefit from the expanded crit range). The free choice of stats allows many more spellcasters than before, and a low-strength Orc caster can still carry his weight and withstand a potentially fatal blow in an emergency. For them Adrenaline Rush might be to help the caster flee, rather than rush towards its enemies.
This is not meant to be a discussion of optimization, though there will be elements of that. And it's not about the meta of making goblinoids fey-decended, or whaterver (other threads are doing that). My questions are more general and mostly focused on build implications: how does the new presentation of lineages, with the free-floating ASI mods at character development, change how you might build specific characters?
Does choice of race still matter? I think it still does, and these posts are just me working through what I see in order to explore some implications.
1 Opening examples (Orc, Goliath, Firbolg, Shifter)
2 Goblinoids and other Fey (Bugbear, Goblin, Hobgoblin,Eladrin, Shadar-Kai)
3 Reptiles (Kobold, Lizardfolk, Tortle, Yuan-Ti)
4 Hit and Myths (Satyr, Haregon, Minotaur, Githzerai and Githyanki)
5 Size Matters (Aasimar, Changeling, Genasi, Firbolg, Kenku, Tabaxi).
6 Fliers and swimmers and under the earth (Aarakocra, Fairy, Triton, Sea Elf, Deep Gnome, and Duregar)
At the same time, races are offering much more flexibility and allow for a range of builds. If there's much less necessary synergies at work, there remain some very interesting combinations that are available.
*****
1 Opening examples (Goliath, Shifter, Firbolg, Orc [and Half-orc])
Shifter. The Shifter is a good race to begin thinking with, because the design is pretty clean, and characters get choice that will benefit a range of builds. Start with darkvision and a free skill proficiency in Atheletics, Acrobatics, Survival, or Intimidation. All of them are useful. Plus you can shift, allowing you to draw on a lycanthropic ancestor a number of times per long rest equal to your proficiency bonus. Each shift lasts for a minute, and so in most campaigns it will be for every combat, and for the rest it will be for most combats. Shifting gives you a pool of THP and an ability. So far, so good, and we see the design principles behind this framing of the race: everything is useful for anyone, and the association between a race and a class (dwarf cleric, elf wizard) is eroded. That's good.
The abilities you get while shifted are chosen by the player, and there are four options, each of which suggests some build combinations.
(a) Longtooth. Bonus action for and fang attack. This is pretty cool, and allows a player to both use a two-handed weapon and have the feel of a two-weapon fighter. Attack with a greatsword with your action, and then use your fangs with a bonus action; longtooth creates a terrifying image for a melee combatant. It doesn't let you divine smite if you are a paladin with the fang attack and doeesn't synergize with polearm master, but it is another opportunity to hit, even after you've rolled your d12. The Great Weapon master gives a similar benefit when you reduce a creature to 0 hp or score a crit; rather than seeing that as overlap, I see this as giving an opportunity for less damage on those occasions where the feat's benefit doesn't come into play. Not for rogues or monks, but good for any strength-based attacker.
(b) Swiftstride. +10' move, and a free disengage and 10' move on a reaction. Equally cool, but for the melee builds that have just been excluded from Longtooth, and those with a good use for their bonus action. Extra Mobility always helps, and it will stack with the Mobile feet and the increased speed from Monk or Barbarian. The use for your reaction to get away from someone who ends their turn next to you replicates the Skirmisher ability given the the Scout Rogue (which is arguably the defining ability of the subclass). Good for someone who wants to attack at range, even if they plan never to get up close to an opponent.
(c) Wildhunt. This one is harder to get a sense of how it plays in combat. Advantage on every wisdom check should be awesome in some circumstances: it is the best choice for a mounted combatant (handling animals), or if you are a non-magical healer and rolling medicine. You are not likely to be rolling survival or insight during combat, though, and while advantage on perception will help you always spot hidden oppoinents, that's a benefit that you are probably not building for. Arguably, who Wildhunt benefits most is someone without Darkvision, but you have darkvision. The other benefit is also really useful and really hard to anticipate its use: no one within 30' can attack you with advantage. This is perfect for a Bsrbsrian, taking the liability from Reckless Attack (h/t @Paul Farquhar ). As for others: You are less likely to be taken down by an enemy rogue, but who this benfits most is someone who is always falling prone in melee. Is that a thing?
(d) Beasthide. And, if none of these appeal to you, you can take +1 AC and more THP. Anyone in melee can want to be more tanky. So might anyone only proficient in light armor. Or a spellcaster.
The shifter is also a really fun choice for a wildshaping druid, especially for a Circle of the Moon, since in your animal form you would retain the ability to shift, enhancing your fighting ability further. All in all, a very satisfying design that can be made to work with almost any build.
Goliath. Less substantial is the Golaith, which feels much more niche. Cold resistance and the altitude training make this an ideal race for arctic adventures (no threat of exhaustion from cold is significant in some campaigns). Proficiency in Powerful build and Athletics both favour strength builds, but importantly also replace an investment in strength: even a character that has dumped strength is able to cover some of the benefits of a higher strength through these racial abilities. Athletics is, I think, amazingly under-rated, and Athletics checks are called on regularly, for all characters. As with Perception, it is a skill that helps everyone, not just one person specializing, and so etting it for free is useful. In addition, there's a chance to sluff off 1d12+CON damage roughly once per combat, which is another good perk.
Firbolg. The Firbolg occupies the same conceptual space as the Goliath, but it feels less integrated to me. You have powerful build (like the goliath and the orc). Hidden Step gives you six seconds of invisibility a couple of times per long rest. That will be useful in combat, but I find it hard to narrate how it works. For spells you get a single casting of Detect Magic or Disguise Self, both of which are useful, but they do not really suggest the kinship-to-giants gentle-wilderness-wanderer. More than ay race, this feels like a bunch of features cobbled together, useful for anyone but not (to me) inspiring.
Except for the ribbon ability, Speech of Beast and Leaf. You can speak to Beasts, Plants and vegetation, but cannot understand what they say. Tritons and Sea Elves get to speak to swimmers, but (a) Firbolgs get advantage on Charisma checks to influence them, and (b) it includes Vegetation (!!!). Players can attempt to persuade flowers to bloom, grass to stand up straight after they pass (replicating Pass without trace?), to give false trails ("Everybody lean to the left"), or whatever. The enemy casts Plant Growth and you can ask the vines to part for you like the Red Sea. There just seems to be so much that can happen with this. A high-charisma Firbolg (Bard, Sorcerer, even Warlock) should be able to do so much with this. Talking to Beasts is fun, but the implications for the entire world that emerge from the ability to speak with vegetation just see mindboggling, with players threatening palm trees with an axe if it doesn't drop a coconut.
Orc. With the changes to the Orc, it is now mechanically much closer to the Half-Orc in the PHB. In many ways, that’s good, and perhaps points to a future shift removing the Half-Orc completely. In my own games, I assume that what humans call half-orcs are a separate species, neither human nor orc, and that the label “Half-orc” is a (human) slur. In my head Half-orcs are Neanderthals, and so never have dogs, etc.
Both Orcs and Half-orcs have Darkvision and Relentless Endurance (allowing you to stand one more round in combat). The differences are minimal:
Half-orc:
- Menacing (proficiency in Intimidation)
- Savage Attacks (+1 weapon die damage on a crit)
- Powerful Build (double carrying capacity)
- Adrenaline Rush (Bonus to Dash, plus a few (= proficiency bonus) THP, prof/long).
Relentless Endurance is a nice ability, and in play it has payed off occasionally for me, so it’s nice to see it with the Orcs now too. Adrenaline Rush will be mostly redundant for rogues, and so curiously there will be more rogues among Half-orcs (that nasty human side coming through?) as well as more Champion Fighters (who benefit from the expanded crit range). The free choice of stats allows many more spellcasters than before, and a low-strength Orc caster can still carry his weight and withstand a potentially fatal blow in an emergency. For them Adrenaline Rush might be to help the caster flee, rather than rush towards its enemies.
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