D&D (2024) Racial options without built in spells

[doctorbadwolf]

I really liked it! 4E blindsided me by not just giving me Forgotten Realms Saga.

You have to stop this. Otherwise, I’ll be forced to pause work on my original system and start working on a saga 5E hybrid.

 

[Parmandur]

You have to stop this. Otherwise, I’ll be forced to pause work on my original system and start working on a saga 5E hybrid.

To be fair, thst sounds super good.

 

[MarkB]

You have to stop this. Otherwise, I’ll be forced to pause work on my original system and start working on a saga 5E hybrid.

It is tempting.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

To be fair, thst sounds super good.

It is tempting.

Maaaan….

Ugh I’ll start a thread soon lol

 

[Eltab]

The following text is clunky but might get the idea across:

From your athletic training, you have gained a sprinting ability that matches the effect of the spell Expeditious Retreat. This is an innate ability, not a spell, for you. You must take a short rest afterwards or suffer +1 level of exhaustion.

So nobody can Counterspell you when you try to flee the scene, and in extremis you can push and push yourself until you faint (as the original Marathon runner did).

 

[cbwjm]

The following text is clunky but might get the idea across:

From your athletic training, you have gained a sprinting ability that matches the effect of the spell Expeditious Retreat. This is an innate ability, not a spell, for you. You must take a short rest afterwards or suffer +1 level of exhaustion.

So nobody can Counterspell you when you try to flee the scene, and in extremis you can push and push yourself until you faint (as the original Marathon runner did).

I'd probably remove any reference to the spell name it mimics and just enter in the relevant details from the spell's description. Makes it easier for the player as they don't have to look up the spell. So, it could probably look like the following.

Athletic Training: Sprinter. When you activate this ability, for the next 10 minutes you can Dash as a bonus action. You must take a short rest afterwards or suffer +1 level of exhaustion.

 

[NaturalZero]

Man, if I had my way, a ton of things that are just spells from the master spell list in 5e would be features of specific classes and races.

Instead of a Necromancer just being a Wizard with the same spells as the Evoker and the Oracle, half of it would be actually necromancy-based features. No races would have cantrips that literally every other character of every race have. I really think that over-reliance on the spell list really kills the class and race design of 5e.

 

[Greg K]

One problem 5e has is the oversaturation of magic, it makes playing in low magic settings difficult without a lot of house rules. Dark Sun or the Hollow World makes arcane magic difficult. Mystara has societal implications in the magiocracies like Glantri and Alphatia. But for races like elves and gnomes they start with spells and getting spells through feats isn't hard at all.

So why not a non-magical elf or similar as an option? It makes low magic settings playable without the dm rewriting the rules and makes for a race that's not just dark vision, spells and some proficiencies like most races have turned into

I find the racial designs in the playtest to be lazy and it just further adds to my dislike for the work of this design team when it comes to racial design. Whereas amonth ago, I had talked with a friend about my starting an online 5e game as soon as I am once again able to concentrate long enough to run a session, the direction of this design team has taken the sails out of my desire to continue gathering 3pp "fixes" and other house rules.

I am going to keep an eye on 5.5 discussions and the direction of the playtest to see if there are things to borrow should I, again, get the urge to house rule 5e, In the meantime, I am now looking at Fantasy Age , Fantasy Craft, and a few other fantasy rpgs.

 

[Arilyn]

Man, if I had my way, a ton of things that are just spells from the master spell list in 5e would be features of specific classes and races.

Instead of a Necromancer just being a Wizard with the same spells as the Evoker and the Oracle, half of it would be actually necromancy-based features. No races would have cantrips that literally every other character of every race have. I really think that over-reliance on the spell list really kills the class and race design of 5e.

I have this worrying suspicion that part of the reason that One D&D is taking a step even further in this direction is that'll be easier to program for the VTT. Rather than a collection of unique class abilities, there will slots filled by known spells that that have already been programmed in. Maybe I'm wrong. 5e has always relied too heavily on spells as features.

 

[NaturalZero]

I have this worrying suspicion that part of the reason that One D&D is taking a step even further in this direction is that'll be easier to program for the VTT. Rather than a collection of unique class abilities, there will slots filled by known spells that that have already been programmed in. Maybe I'm wrong. 5e has always relied too heavily on spells as features.

I mean, this is how 5e has always been. Right there in the PHB, the high elf just picks a cantrip and the tiefling's stuff is just spells from the the spell list. The Oracle and Evoker have the same spells and might even have the exact same loadout as the Dragon Bloodline Sorc, even though they're different classes! I don't necessarily see them moving farther in this direction, only taking no steps to fix the watering down of features.