D&D 5E (Tasha's) Decoupling racial abilities--cautionary tale

[Marandahir]

It's not like PCs aren't inherently exceptional. If your Gnome makes it to 20 STR, it doesn't mean EVERY gnome can do it or even that there are that many others with that scores out there. The PC is an outlier. Plus, they still can't use Heavy Weapons and the Goliath still has more carrying capacity and, I think, better jumping and stuff? So, even though they both have '20 STR', they can't apply that strength the same way.

THIS. I'd be surprised if Gnomes/Halflings/Goblins/Kobolds/etc could trade out their Small size too in this lineage system, though I guess you might be able to make a Half-Gnome that is Medium…

So, like a simplified 'Traveller' system? I could see a thing where you just answer a few questions we've discussed in the past: What specie were you born as? Where were you born? What sort of upbringing did you have? What did you do before being an adventurer?

And then at the end you have your character. Maybe even there's enough options that you could roll for it.

We had a system kinda like that in Xanathar's Guide to Everything (and in Explorer's Guide to Wildemount, and looking further back, in 4e's Heroes of the Feywild). Build-a-bear background system.

 

[DnD Warlord]

If we tried to do a fairly objective point-buy system on the existing races, where, say, a Wood Elf was like 50 points, then I daresay that we could probably value other races between about 55 and 20 points, maybe even lower. I don't see how they could really apply a "hidden" points-based system to that unless they're just going to massively re-jig every race.

oh man... imagine the outrage if we get a system where X race can’t be built without giving them an extra trait and Y race can’t be built because they have too many traits...

 

[DnD Warlord]

If you have the Wildemount book, you can give her the Hollow One Supernatural Gift. Your classified as Undead via type but you still keep your racial abilities and scores.

Yeah that book wasn’t out when we started the campaign

 

[Undrave]

oh man... imagine the outrage if we get a system where X race can’t be built without giving them an extra trait and Y race can’t be built because they have too many traits...

So much butthurts...

 

[Burnside]

I predict this will be a huge headache for the DNDBeyond devs.

 

[MarkB]

I predict this will be a huge headache for the DNDBeyond devs.

Shouldn't be too bad. They already have races which require choices when you select them (i.e. Dragonborn) and also multiple versions of races (i.e. orcs). Adding lineages as an alternative set of races with more choices built in will be a reasonable amount of work, but nothing about it is fundamentally incompatible with their current system.

 

[Li Shenron]

I hope everything isn't up for grabs when designing a lineage, but more along the lines of "culture" vs "ancestry", where cultural features are swappable/blank-fillable, but ancestry isn't. Similar to a couple of supplements on the DMs Guild.

I mean, only dragonborn should have dragon breath weapons. But a High Elf might not learn any elven weapons, or skip learning a cantrip, or not even learn Elvish, in favor of some other cultural features from another lineage. But they'd always have Darkvision and Fey Ancestry, as they're physically (or magically) inherent traits.

While Attribute Increases could fall under either, I'm almost certain they're just going to open that up to adding +2, +1 where you like. Which is fine. I think it opens up a lot of interesting choices, as players will no longer have to worry about selecting a "sub-optimal" race/class combination. They can play the character they envision without feeling they've shorted themselves somehow.

I think this is the most sensible option.

Although, when you mentioned "suboptimal" combinations, it made me think... If it feels unfair not to be able to play an Orc Wizard, maybe the problem is not the Orc and its Intelligence penalty... it's the Wizard.

 

[Sir Brennen]

I predict this will be a huge headache for the DNDBeyond devs.

I predict this is all going to be much simpler than people are making it out to be.

It most likely won't be a complete "build your own race", but rather just making certain elements of published races "swappable", while still keeping things things that make an elf and elf, for instance.

 

[Sir Brennen]

Although, when you mentioned "suboptimal" combinations, it made me think... If it feels unfair not to be able to play an Orc Wizard, maybe the problem is not the Orc and its Intelligence penalty... it's the Wizard.

I haven't played it, but I understand 13th Age makes it so that you choose a +1 bonus for your race (elves get +1 Dex or +1 Int, for instance), and then each class has a choice of a +2 bonus (fighter +2 Str or +2 Dex). You can't pick the same bonus for both race and class. Simple.

And it leans into the idea that if your character takes a certain class, then they already have an above attribute related to it anyway. Makes the most sense to me, and downplays the ASI's of races.

That said, outside of mechanics, there's other reasons an Int penalty is problematic for an entire race. I recommend reading both parts of this article:

Orcs, Britons, and the Martial Race Myth, Part I: A Species Built for Racial Terror — James Mendez Hodes

This is the first installment of a two-article series about the racist origins, nature, and ramifications of orcs, a malevolent humanoid species from English author John Ronald Reuel Tolkien’s Middle-earth fantasy setting. I started researching this article with the hypothesis that a collection of n

jamesmendezhodes.com

 

[Parmandur]

So, like a simplified 'Traveller' system? I could see a thing where you just answer a few questions we've discussed in the past: What specie were you born as? Where were you born? What sort of upbringing did you have? What did you do before being an adventurer?

And then at the end you have your character. Maybe even there's enough options that you could roll for it.

A little bit Traveller, a little bit Burning Wheel, maybe a bit of Fate? I'm genuinely intrigued and stoked for this, have to admit.