D&D 5E Jeremy Crawford Discusses Details on Custom Origins

[Xeviat]

The biggest mechanical improvement to the game that I see from being able to move ability score bonuses around is that more race/class concepts will feel mechanically optimal. If someone wants to play a tiefling rogue because playing a sneaky boarder line evil devil blooded chaotic neutral assassin in training sounds fun to them, but then they don't get a dex bonus so they figure they'll roll up yet another half-elf just to be safe ...

The social impacts of inclusivity are an entirely different thing and I can't believe we're having to keep explaining it.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

I iterate what I said in a different thread:
Giving a +2 stat bonus to dexterity is the easiest way of statistically tell you that elves tend to be more dextrous than the average human.
It just plain works.
With 20 as maximum stat, the designers already told us, that no matter how those tendencies are, everyone can reach the same potential.
Probably the designers should have gone further and also made a level 1 maximum score of 16 for everone and give everyone a 16 to play with in the standard array.
That way everone can start with the same potential, but still, species who get +2 can afford to put the 16 on a different stat and still be extremely dextrous.
What I like about that approach is that your stat bonus does not help you with your main stat, but your secondary.

With Tasha's optional rule, we just have: Either start with 16,16,13,12,10, 8 or 16,15,14,12,10,8

 

[Maxperson]

A strength bonus doesn’t tell me your character is a half orc.
The fact that you took a battle axe... TO THE FACE.. and then pressed on, that’s what tells me you’re a half orc.

At this point this is a pretty major Strawman. We aren't at all saying that it's only the +2 bonus that informs you that you that the character is a half-orc. We're saying that given that half-orcs are stronger as a race than average, the +2 along with all of the other features are what makes up a half-orc. It would be pretty nonsensical for a race that is stronger than average to not have a strength bonus.

They should have just given races their base +2 racial bonus, and then give a floating +1 or +2 to PCs to allow them the versatility people want.

 

[Maxperson]

So, their tendencies did not differentiate them from humans, it made them a subset of human tendencies. The real differentiation came in their racial features, not their +2/+1 spread.

This is a False Dichotomy. The differentiation includes both, not one or the other.

 

[Helldritch]

This is a False Dichotomy. The differentiation includes both, not one or the other.

At this point this is a pretty major Strawman. We aren't at all saying that it's only the +2 bonus that informs you that you that the character is a half-orc. We're saying that given that half-orcs are stronger as a race than average, the +2 along with all of the other features are what makes up a half-orc. It would be pretty nonsensical for a race that is stronger than average to not have a strength bonus.

They should have just given races their base +2 racial bonus, and then give a floating +1 or +2 to PCs to allow them the versatility people want.

Both of these stands mark my own position. If D&D had an other system to begin with, it would not have mattered to have +2/+1. But with the system 5ed worked with from the beginning. It is the fact that both the Racial ASI and Racial skill/power that make a race stand out as not human.

Having the +1 as a floating ASI would have been better and would have respected both lore and the system's background that have been D&D from the beginning. That book is full of crap...

 

[UngeheuerLich]

What I don't really like in point buy is that if you got +2 to your lowest stat you only get 2 points, while you get 4 points if it increases your higher stat. So you are punished twice, if your stats don't allign.
Maybe something like a "refund" would also have been nice, like if your species bonus increases a stat to less than 14, you may increase your highest stat by 1.

 

[Krachek]

phb should be setting neutral, and race is a setting decision.
So I’m ok to let more space to adapt racial bonus and other racial feature.

 

[Cadence]

phb should be setting neutral, and race is a setting decision.
So I’m ok to let more space to adapt racial bonus and other racial feature.

Why is race particularly more setting than class, archetype, weapon, or domains?

 

[Azzy]

So is saying Tolkien’s work was derived from sources a decade or two old.

he pulled from myth a millennia or more old. Why apologize for recapitulating myth from one’s culture?

Where in the Eddas are elves described as more agile than humans or dwarves described as more hardy? And how much did Tolkien actually describe them that way? Elves were superior to human in most ways, not just agility.

ancient European folklore and myth is as valid (not more) than any other; you dip into others too much and it’s “appropriation.”

that Gygax pulled from that is...dunno....totally fine?

 

[Warpiglet-7]

Where in the Eddas are elves described as more agile than humans or dwarves described as more hardy? And how much did Tolkien actually describe them that way? Elves were superior to human in most ways, not just agility.

So Tolkien had to be in lock step
On every detail to be considered influenced by or to draw from the Eddas?