D&D 5E DMG Excerpt: Creating a New Race

[steeldragons]

(durp, i didn't quote this in my last response.)

What if you were to raise the max STR of a race that's supposed to be really strong, at the expense of another ability, say DEX?

Are you asking my permission? lol.

If you want to do that in your games and see that as a suitable "balancing" factor, that's cool. Enjoy it in your game/your table.

Maybe the pages we haven't seen yet about the rest of this section suggests doing that, in which case you have not only something you want to do, but the book sanctioning it. So, ya know, bully.

But if it doesn't, I'm not the guy who says whether something is good, bad, ugly, balanced, over-powered, underpowered or just plain boring in your games at your table. So if that's something you want to do to make it a playable race, for you, go for it.
Enjoy 'em.

 

[Minigiant]

I like the preview.

Personally I would have previewed with 3 races.

1) Subrace of an PHB race (eladrin, duergar, swiminghim... svirferthem...swiferwetjet... deep gnomes)
2) New Race that is a similar to another race but too different to be a subrace (aasimar, half-giant, draconian, half dragon)
3) A whole new race which is too different than PHB ones (orcs, gobliniods, githblahblahs, satyrs)

How many pages are assigned to custom races and classes?
There could be room for "THINGS TO WATCH OUT FOR!!!"

 

[Mr0wlington]

Are you asking my permission? lol.

If you want to do that in your games and see that as a suitable "balancing" factor, that's cool. Enjoy it in your game/your table.

Maybe the pages we haven't seen yet about the rest of this section suggests doing that, in which case you have not only something you want to do, but the book sanctioning it. So, ya know, bully.

But if it doesn't, I'm not the guy who says whether something is good, bad, ugly, balanced, over-powered, underpowered or just plain boring in your games at your table. So if that's something you want to do to make it a playable race, for you, go for it.
Enjoy 'em.

Oh, no. Not asking permission. Just trying to start a conversation about the pro's and con's of doing such a thing.

 

[steeldragons]

Sounds like a reasonable measure to me.

 

[Fion]

Interesting. But their example of creating a new race makes it feel a lot like "wing it" is the official procedure.

'Wing it'... i.e. 'up to the DM' might as well be the official moniker of this edition. Savage Worlds race creation rules take up as much space and is dramatically better mechanically.

 

[Wrathamon]

'Wing it'... i.e. 'up to the DM' might as well be the official moniker of this edition. Savage Worlds race creation rules take up as much space and is dramatically better mechanically.

Glad you like Savage Worlds. Thanks for posting!

 

[Elderbrain]

There seems to be some confusion. Eladrin in 4e don't have at-will teleport. And 4e is an RPG, not a tactical miniatures game.

Does it have to be an either/or? I think 4e is both a RPG and a tactical miniatures game... or at any rate, an RPG that makes heavy use of tactical miniature - style rules. Which is fine and doesn't make it a bad game (I bought every book up til Essentials came out!), but some people just don't like that style of rules. And of course, Eladrin can't teleport at will, in either 4th or 5th edition. Anyway, they said the Eladrin would be in the DMG quite some time back, so they did have an obligation ('course, we still didn't get War forged or kender... but I'm happy with my Aasimar.)

 

[Remathilis]

Yay! Aasimar and Eladrin, put in the DMG where DMs can allow them or not.

I disliked Blink Elves, but only being to teleport every hour (vs. 5 minutes) helps. I'll keep them as feywild elves. And everyone who wanted Aasimar, here you go. Both will be rare, but its nice to have options.

 

[pemerton]

They never forced it no. Unless you used Eberron or the Realms, in which case you were asked to accept a major retcon.

I still don't see any forcing. Why couldn't someone who liked an earlier version of those campaign worlds just use those books. When I run games in Greywawk I mix and match pretty liberally from my various editions, as the fancy takes me.

I like eladrin and the addition of a high fey race to D&D but the reason they did so was rather insulting to our intelligence.

I didn't feel insulted, in respect of my intelligence or in any other respect. I'm not a really big elf guy, but I thought the eladrin were interesting. I used some in my conversion of G2, in lieu of the giant emissaries in the rift caverns; and also in a conversion of Robin Laws' HeroWars scenario "Demon of the Red Grove".

 

[Shemeska]

A 4e eladrin. Huh. The recycling of the 2e/3e eladrin name for the 4e blink elf continues to be problematic, and now its back. That's a genuine shame.

It will be nice to eventually get actual 2e/3e tieflings rather than the very different 4e creature, which is all 5e has shown, inexplicably so far.