D&D 5E Tasha's and optimization

[Paul Smart]

How have the rules in Tasha's changed racial optimization? What are the best races for different classes under the new rules? For example, I would argue that Tortles are now the best race for wizards and warlocks?

I am interested in what the community thinks. Thanks.

 

[J-H]

Varies by table and DM. Some of us aren't using those optional rules.

 

[jgsugden]

Mountain Dwarf monks (to get those +2 to both wisdom and dexterity) are a thing.

Winged Tieflings, Winged Kobolds, Aaracokra, etc... become very useful to pretty much every type of PC for their flight.

A lot of spellcasting heritages are great for the non-spellcasters. Glasya Tieflings are really nice for a lot of PCs to give them some special 'stealth' capabilities.

 

[Unwise]

Tortles are the best for most classes really. Anybody who is not a Dex based class, but needs it for AC is better off as a Tortle. Even a Barbarian is better off not having to use a 14 in Dex to make their medium armour work properly. Same with Artificer, Valour Bards who use Strength, pretty much any druid. Most classes really.

 

[ECMO3]

How have the rules in Tasha's changed racial optimization? What are the best races for different classes under the new rules? For example, I would argue that Tortles are now the best race for wizards and warlocks?

I am interested in what the community thinks. Thanks.

It depends on what you mean by "best" if you are considering all 3 pillars there is a strong argument that Humans, Mountain Dwarves and PHB half-elves are the best races for all classes. Also shifters are strong for any class.

If you are talking about combat specifically and not including flying races here is how I see it (note this includes Fizban's and ability to swap weapon proficiencies too):
Artificer: Goblin
Barbarian: Bugbear, Goblin, Orc, Half Orc, Dwarf, Yuan-Ti, Human, Custom
Bard: Goblin
Cleric: Goblin
Druid: Goblin
Fighter: Bugbear, Kobold, Goblin, Yuan-Ti, Hexblood, Human, Custom
Monk: Tortle, Hexblood, Kobold
Paladin: Dragonborn, Goblin, Kobold, Bugbear, Yuan-Ti, Hexblood, Human, Custom
Ranger: Dragonborn, Goblin, Kobold
Rogue: Bugbear, Kobold, Lightfoot Halfling, Wood Elf
Sorcerer: Goblin, Human, Custom
Warlock: Dwarf, Gith, Goblin, Human, Custom
Wizard: Elf, Dwarf, Gith, Goblin, Human, Custom

 

[ECMO3]

Tortles are the best for most classes really. Anybody who is not a Dex based class, but needs it for AC is better off as a Tortle. Even a Barbarian is better off not having to use a 14 in Dex to make their medium armour work properly. Same with Artificer, Valour Bards who use Strength, pretty much any druid. Most classes really.

There are two counters to this argument:

1. Any class character except Barbarian is generally better investing in Dexterity instead of Strength. Even Paladins and Artificers are better with a high dexterity than with a high strength. In this respect Tortle is a "fix" that allows you to optimize in the wrong direction.

2. Even if you are strength based, heavy Armor can match or beat a tortles AC, while getting the abilities of the other race as well (which are generally better than the tortles).

IMO in general Goblins are the "best" or close to the best for most classes because bonus action disengage and bonus action hide will save you more hps than +1 to +3 in your AC will.

 

[Charlaquin]

How have the rules in Tasha's changed racial optimization? What are the best races for different classes under the new rules?

That’s the neat part, none of them.

 

[teitan]

I think the Tasha sidebar is a well intentioned, poorly implemented idea. It's not particularly well thought out, it brings back some of the metagamey elements of 3.x era. It seems like a band aid put on a paper cut that someone thought was a gushing wound and it's kind of half on, half off, like when part of the sticky part gets stuck to itself but you're frustrated and use the danged thing anyway even though you know you really don't need it.

Some of the comments on the future of race and some of the implementations since seem to be half patched versions of P2 concepts of Lineage and Heritage but P2 does it better. It's one of those things that should have been worked on more and saved for the revision as an optional rule when they ironed out the details a little better but the last couple years with the reprinting of races in campaign settings with tweaks to remove ability score penalties (I approve) and subtle changes that could be confusing to new players it has felt like 5e has moved into a 5.1 phase like the orange spine 1e era with the Survival Guides and Unearthed Arcana. That's definitely a run on sentence.

I'm kind of frustrated with 5e right now because of reprints and revisions. The new Multiverse book is especially annoying because it makes me feel like I wasted money buying Volo and Mordenkainen.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

That’s the neat part, none of them.

Yeah. There are some good synergies between racial abilities and class features (like how newer races with spellcasting can use spell slots to cast those spells additional times), but there's really not any "best race for each class" like there were before TCoE. Like, a Satyr Barbarian is just as viable as a Satyr Arcane Trickster or Satyr Paladin for a race-class combo, and no other race/lineage is really inherently better at that class's job than the Satyr is.

Again, there are some synergies, like a Dhampir Monk that's Vampiric Bite scales with their Martial Arts Die or a Kalashtar/Gem Dragonborn Bear-Totem Barbarian with resistance to all types of damage while raging, but besides these minor synergies and a few outliers due to how races were previously designed (cough, Mountain Dwarf and Half-Elf, cough), no race is really inherently better at any class than any other. And, IMHO, that's a good thing, especially for players that want to think outside the box for character creation.

 

[ccooke]

TCoE was clearly aimed at levelling the playing field, so to speak, for classes and races and I think it did a pretty good job of it. It's a lot harder to weaken something once it's out in print. They could have gone further with some of the changes, but that risks making options too OP. As it is... there are people who say it's clearly power creep, there are people who say it didn't go far enough, but most of the people I have seen say that it's mostly a good patch to bring options that weren't as playable up to par. Anecdotal, of course, but I definitely haven't seen as much talk of power creep as when XGtE was released, or some of the reactions to older products...