D&D 5E A First Look at Tasha’s Lineage System In AL Player’s Guide - Customizing Your Origin In D&D

The new player’s guide for the D&D Adventurers League has been released. Appendix 1 includes the new info from Tasha’s Cauldron on customizing your origin. It‘s a one-page appendix.

The D&D Adventurers League now uses this variant system from Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything since it allows for a greater degree of customization. For ease of reference, the relevant information is included as an appendix to this document and doesn’t count against the PH + 1 rule.

You can do any of the following (obviously the full document has more detail):

1. Move your race ability score increases wherever your want to. “...take any ability score increase you gain in your race or subrace and apply it to an ability score of your choice.”​

2. Replace each language from your race with any language from a set list.​

3. Swap each proficiency for another of the same type.​

4. Alter behaviour/personality race-based descriptions.​

Its not clear if that’s the whole Lineage system or just part of it. You can download the player’s guide here.

 

[Kurotowa]

There's no "harm" of course, except these ASIs aren't really racial anymore. Everyone (with two exceptions) get a +2 and a +1--- it now no longer has anything to do with your race.

As I've said before, feature not a bug. A lot of people are taking a step back and really looking at fixed racial ASIs and saying, "This is just racial essentialism. And that's way too close to what real world racists say about real world people for me to be comfortable with it. Not to mention it's pretty close to the gender essentialism that said female PCs had lower Str caps, back in the early days of the hobby, and no one's looking back on that with pride. Maybe we ought to do something about this."

Tradition has its place, but it's not a universal defense. Some traditions deserve to be changed.

 

[Morrus]

What's the point of even having races (or lineages or heritages or species or whatever) anymore? They are now all basically humans that just look a little different. They might as well just say that it's just for flavour to pick a "race". Choose a race for aesthetics, then you choose two ability scores to get bonus, then choose your proficiency etc.

The only difference between races to you was the ability scores? Nothing else? Honestly? Races were literally just a couple of numbers to you?

 

[Jeff Carpenter]

You know that darkvision in 5e is heavily nerfed from 3.x and 4e. Relying on 60ft bad vision asks for trouble more often than not. Your passive perception relying on vision is at -5 penalty which negates a 20 in wisdom or proficiency of a 15th level character...

Yeah and 1e and 2e. The issue is if you carry a light source everyone outside the light source can attack you with advantage because you cant see them but you are bathed in light. The human fighter navigating the dark with a torch will get pin cushioned by the goblins because they can see him coming hundreds of feet away. The party navigating with only dark vision doesnt get engaged by the goblins until 60 feet.

Add into the dark vision issue that halflings become the worst burglars because almost everyone else gets dark vision and they have to stumble around.

 

[TheSword]

Some of the hysteria really needs toning down. The suggestion that dwarves will now become the master race of wizards because they can buckle on half plate both completely fails to understand what most people want from a wizard.

A sensible wizard doesn’t want to get within 25ft of needing to wear armour. That’s what fighters and Paladins are for.

The suggestion that +2 AC (assuming that you’re happy with lower speed and you wouldn’t take Dex 16+ eventually) is enough to make me give up an extra feat, or a bonus cantrip/trance/perception/fey ancestry is a bit batty. Character choices will still be informed by art, film, TV, literature and CRPG for dwarves have a lot of catching up before they to take over the mantle of go-to-for-wizards.

For the other 8 classes for which the proficiency is pointless/redundant it makes even less change!

 

[MGibster]

If you sign up to DM for Adventurer's League, you're surrendering your freedom as a DM to run the game however you want. If you don't like losing your DM agency, don't do Adventurer's League.

Back in the day when I ran Living Greyhawk games I accepted the limitations imposed on me. I would agree that this is a reasonable stance to take.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

If the decisions made during character creation are so extreme, they can hamper the party's overall effectiveness. These can be based on roleplaying quirks or mechanics. Most of the times I've personally seen these come up at my table are from players deliberately wanting to break the social contact of the game.
And I think the contract of the game includes an element of working together to reach a common goal. "Bad" players are out for themselves. Making an intentionally ineffective character is selfish to the rest of the players.

I actually know where you are coming from... but there is much more than black and white here. There are all shades of grey in between. Of course, playng with players who are deliberately annoying other players is no fun. And if you do point buy, you could at least expect everyone to bring something functional to the table. With rolled stats, you sometimes need to be a bit more creative if you had some bad luck.
But bringing a dwarf wizard with mediocre int is not totally bad. You can easily make an abjurer wizard that has int as a dump stat (with booming blade very easily) that is still a very useful member of the party. Even doing wizardly things.
I always told my players: "don´t blame me if you make a character that is just left behind and not invited to the party. I won´t spend DM time to have your solo adventure. So you probably need to make a new character within the first session."

 

[UngeheuerLich]

Yeah and 1e and 2e. The issue is if you carry a light source everyone outside the light source can attack you with advantage because you cant see them but you are bathed in light. The human fighter navigating the dark with a torch will get pin cushioned by the goblins because they can see him coming hundreds of feet away. The party navigating with only dark vision doesnt get engaged by the goblins until 60 feet.

Add into the dark vision issue that halflings become the worst burglars because almost everyone else gets dark vision and they have to stumble around.

No. They don´t. Even in total darkness moespeed is not reduced and rightly so. In most circumstances, in the open you have enough light to navigate (and in interior settings either you have artificial light or very short distances. I have heard, that humans even in a non fictional setting can become adequate burglars. Also, no one said, that halfling are best burglars. Probably they excell more by blending in the crowd than crawling around in the darkness...

 

[MGibster]

The only difference between races to you was the ability scores? Nothing else? Honestly? Races were literally just a couple of numbers to you?

In my experience, this is essentially how different races are played in D&D. Most people do not play elves or half-orcs in a manner that is fundamentally different from how they would play a human. I'm not arguing it's right or wrong, but it's what I've observed.

 

[Morrus]

In my experience, this is essentially how different races are played in D&D. Most people do not play elves or half-orcs in a manner that is fundamentally different from how they would play a human. I'm not arguing it's right or wrong, but it's what I've observed.

They don't use the race's abilities? Literally just the ability score increases? That may be your experience, but it isn't mine.

 

[CubicsRube]

I am always baffled by the viewpoint that removing ASIs make races a blank slate. Do people really not see the other racial features as defining?

I've had a half-orc wizard, and I cam tell you that relentless endurance saved his butt more times than I can remember!