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.

 

[Cadence]

Minutiae, such as racial ability score bonuses, are much more important at lower levels than high ones. At a later level, an enemy with a +13 to saving throws against your 18 vs a maximized 19 for spell save DC doesn't matter much, especially because most saving throws spells still deal significant damage on a success at that level. Also, level 1 characters are much squishier, and you need to get the best use out of your features as possible.

But are there some classes and that are a +1 bonus worse than others in the same niche at the lower levels? Is the ranger or bard (or whatever the bottom is) just not something people at an optimizing table should play in their present incarnations?

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

But are there some classes and that are a +1 bonus worse than others in the same niche at the lower levels? Is the ranger or bard (or whatever the bottom is) just not something people at an optimizing table should play in their present incarnations?

Bards are good, rangers are getting fixed in Tasha's, hopefully.

 

[Cadence]

Bards are good, rangers are getting fixed in Tasha's, hopefully.

It's great to hear that every class is that close to the same usefulness!

 

[Giltonio_Santos]

Nobody is saying that these rules ruin anything, but do you think WotC will manage to keep selling me those $50 hardcovers when they fail the most basic efforts to put out some good character mechanics?

Spoiler

Yes, they will. God, I hate those guys.

 

[Shardstone]

I could have said "astounding" instead of "judgemental". Trying to avoid "craziest" as being ableist (is "inane" a safe substitute for general usage). Avoiding poorly conceived ageist tropes is a thing too. (Wow, 35 is old now?). The 25-35 yo's I know who play seem to have just as much chance of steady long term groups as us fogeys. The older groups seem to have trouble finding people who can show up consistantly.

Anyway, hope your own group is going well! (Or that you find one if you don't have one).

A lot of assumptions in here, mate. Didn't say 35 was old, wasn't being ageist (especially since I was speaking to your experience), wasn't being ableist, etc. I admit I was being judgmental but trying to put words in my mouth and make strawmen is an ugly thing to do, too, which makes it a bit hypocritical that you call me out on being judgmental.

 

[Shardstone]

Nobody is saying that these rules ruin anything, but do you think WotC will manage to keep selling me those $50 hardcovers when they fail the most basic efforts to put out some good character mechanics?

Spoiler

Yes, they will. God, I hate those guys.

Yes. WotC could publish a book about dog turds becoming fighters and the book would sell.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Nobody is saying that these rules ruin anything, but do you think WotC will manage to keep selling me those $50 hardcovers when they fail the most basic efforts to put out some good character mechanics?

Spoiler

Yes, they will. God, I hate those guys.

There have been plenty of people throughout this thread that say this will ruin the game. Did you miss the comments about everyone only being Mountain Dwarves and Half-Elves, now?
(I disagree with those folks, because that's a slippery slope, but I do have concerns about this system as well.)

 

[Crimson Longinus]

There have been plenty of people throughout this thread that say this will ruin the game. Did you miss the comments about everyone only being Mountain Dwarves and Half-Elves, now?
(I disagree with those folks, because that's a slippery slope, but I do have concerns about this system as well.)

No one has said it ruins the game. It is just bizarre that the same people who have been whining about how the int bonus races making marginally better wizards than non-int bonus races is utterly terrible are now super cool with the mountain dwarfs being obviously much better for that class than most other races. Races being imbalanced=bad; races still being imbalanced but slightly differently=fine and dandy. Does not compute.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

No one has said it ruins the game. It is just bizarre that the same people who have been whining about how the int bonus races making marginally better wizards than non-int bonus races is utterly terrible are now super cool with the mountain dwarfs being obviously much better for that class than most other races. Races being imbalanced=bad; races still being imbalanced but slightly differently=fine and dandy. Does not compute.

You are misinterpreting my position. I am not okay with racial imbalance. I think Mountain Dwarves are inherently better, which is why I am changing that in my games. And, yes, people have told me this change will ruin D&D.

 

[Giltonio_Santos]

(I disagree with those folks, because that's a slippery slope, but I do have concerns about this system as well.)

So do I. But hardly because it will ruin anything.

I've been demanding a better rules grasp, innovation, and boldness from the mother-ship for some time now. Overall challenges in their modules have been uninspiring, to say the least. New mechanical options fail to create something new, and every time something appears in an UA that tastes like novelty, JC goes out of his way to kill it on sight. And those are the guys telling me that there's no balance change in letting a character with two +2 boosts apply them to any ability. Heck, they only received those two +2s because of the score for which they applied in the first place.

Nothing is ruined. But, once more, those are the people that should've known better...