D&D (2024) No Dwarf, Halfling, and Orc suborgins, lineages, and legacies

[bedir than]

"Halfling Nimbleness: You can move through the space of any creature that is of a Size larger than yours, but you can’t stop there."

Move thru larger creature space seems like feat that anyone can take. Even a Fighting Style. It feels insufficient to define a "species" that occupies realestate in the Core Players Handbook.

Similarly, the Lucky background feat is better than the Halfling Luck.

The Halfling has always felt too Human.


But consolidating Halfling with Gnome, helps a concept that is distinct from every other species.

So for a human to be a halfling they would have to be small and take two Feats...which isn't possible.

And, when you say a single element isn't enough to define a species that phrase is meaningless. There is no single element that defines any species.

 

[Remathilis]

i've never played ebberon but i don't see any to them the reason WHY you can't consider them just some generic construct species? it's not like they're tied to some god or religion or whatever and even if they are it's not like that kind of lore doesn't get ignored in basically every other species,

i've listened to a podcast that used them as just that (the generic construct species) and yet there was absolutely no wrinkles from it not being ebberon, just they exist because a wizard discovered how to put souls into bodies of wood and metal, done deal, 'artificial person' is possibly one of the most common concepts you could come up with for a species.

Warforged were designed with a specific world assumption in mind. They were created en masse in a society that can make sentient golems on a production line. Their name speaks to their purpose as soldiers. They have no means of procreation due to all the official forges being shut down (and only a few illegal forges secretly in production) and the oldest of them are 30 years old with no idea how old they live. They have a single generic form that some have modified, no concept of gender, and no community of their own. All of that informs them from the most basic level.

Lots of DMs use them as generic PC golems (a role better served by autognomes and reborn) but that isn't being a warforged, that's just using their stats for a different concept. They aren't warforged the same way an elf is basically an elf. Those golem races lack the creation forges, the purpose as a soldier, their status as a recently freed people without a culture beyond soldiering. They may use the same stats as warforged, but they aren't warforged the same way a Faerun dwarf is the same as an Oerth dwarf.

In short, the story of warforged is tied to Eberron and to remove them from that is to make them something different. You could not put warforged in the PHB and expect them to function the same in Faerun, Krynn or Ravenloft. That is in sharp contrast to elf, dwarf or such where they fill the same general role in every world, but get mired down in minutia of the difference between a valley elf, a sun elf, or a Qualinesti (pop quiz, can anyone tell me the difference between these three elf cultures without looking it up?)

What I think would do D&S a lot of good is for it to focus on one of those types of elves as the default lore instead of trying to accommodate all of those and more. But D&D is a Multiverse and therefore the info on them is a mile wide and inch deep, so we're stuck with "magic elf" "tree elf" "water elf" "underground elf" as being as deep as the lore will go on them.

 

[Remathilis]

But warforged have become generic construct people. Players use warforged in any setting. The Eberron warforged background has been largely ignored. Outside of Eberron of course.

I’d say warforged are actually the opposite of what you are calling for. A very setting specific race that has become generic.

As I said above, you can ignore warforged lore and do what you want with their stats, but that is not a warforged anymore. That is refluffing the mechanics to make something else.

Part of the dragonborn's identity crisis is that they had great lore written for them in PoL-land, but that all got stripped out when they went to 5e and nothing was added to replace it. They became genetic dragon dudes without a home or culture. They have nothing but "dragon dude" to cling onto that's why they feel so one note.

 

[Hussar]

In short, the story of warforged is tied to Eberron and to remove them from that is to make them something different. You could not put warforged in the PHB and expect them to function the same in Faerun, Krynn or Ravenloft. That is in sharp contrast to elf, dwarf or such where they fill the same general role in every world, but get mired down in minutia of the difference between a valley elf, a sun elf, or a Qualinesti (pop quiz, can anyone tell me the difference between these three elf cultures without looking it up?)

I can see what you're getting at.

Although, to be fair, I'd rather they went generic to specific, rather than the other way around, in the PHB. There's no point in having really strong flavor in the PHB because everyone ignores it anyway. And, as soon as you try putting strong flavor in the PHB, people will absolutely freak out that you're telling them how to play the game. All one has to do is look at the reaction to 4e races to see that. 4e tried to put strong flavor into the races and got crucified for it.

Then 5e brought in dragonborn and tieflings, largely stripped of any flavor, put halflings back to their pre-4e forms and everyone quieted down and went away.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

The planetouched lineage "azerblood" appeared in Dragon magazine #350. (But it was a +1 level adjustement).

The golmoids were sentient constructs transformed into living humanoids thanks gnomes's deity, from Dragon magazine #317.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

i wasn't referencing the lore aspect, i was referencing the 'this doesn't deserve distinct mechanical representations' aspect

Then why quote the lore thing?

 

[CreamCloud0]

Then why quote the lore thing?

your post was two lines long, i'd just clicked reply to the post as a whole, i didn't think i needed to specifically exclude it as i thought it was clear enough i was responding to the latter point rather than the former, aparrently i was wrong.