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

[Azzy]

They should exist, because the racial abilities support their existence. Elves ARE more dexterous than the baseline in D&D. This is fact. Halflings ARE more dexterous than the baseline in D&D. Half-orcs ARE stronger than the baseline in D&D. These are also facts. Those facts mean that the stat bonuses to reflect them should exist. Nothing in D&D is immutable, but not being immutable is not good cause to change them.

That's a bit of circular logic. Something having been presented as X isn't a good argument that it should always be presented as x in the future (especially if it can also still be presented as x).

The average elf being more dextrous than the baseline can be shown in their ability score arrays in the Monster Manual. However, there's no reason for PCs to be beholden to the average. Moreover, it's unnecessarily constraining new settings or homebrew settings with the standard archetypes instead of letting them explore Elves That Are Different without needing to create yet another elf race/subrace. Having floating ASI (or none at all) and cultural features being swappable allow for exploring different archetypes than those presented in Greyhawk and the Forgotten Realms. You'll still be able to have your traditional elves (and such), but others will be able choose a different direction for their characters or settings if they so desire.

 

[FarBeyondC]

However, there's no reason for PCs to be beholden to the average.

PC's absolutely aren't beholden to the average - that's why their base stats aren't simply the commoner average of 10/11 but instead the result of either chance (various random methods of stat generation) or deliberate selection (point buy or other means of stat selection).

 

[Krachek]

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

Indeed, the class can be restrict, or the class-race or subclass—race choice may be force by the DM. But race is usually a turning point for a setting identity.

 

[Helldritch]

PC's absolutely aren't beholden to the average - that's why their base stats aren't simply the commoner average of 10/11 but instead the result of either chance (various random methods 0q0of stat generation) or deliberate selection (point buy or other means of stat selection).

And that is what people in favor of flexible ASI are forgetting. You have to compare the commoners with the commoners. With your floating ASI elves are no longer dexterous as they will no longer have a dex that is always better. Like all other races they get +2/+1 where ever the DM will want. Or worse, where a die roll will assign it.
PCs are already exceptional individual with the standard array. Their racial ASI is just there to reinforce a trope, an ideal or simply what people expect the race to be. I have and see no problems in playing the underdog such as an halfling barbarian but an underdog should be an underdog. Yes, it means that you might start weaker than the half orc barbarian but if played right it will make up for great stories.

But when there are no underdog, what good is it to play what would have been an underdog under the previous system when it is no longer the case? In the long run, races will look the same. At that point, play only humans, choose a power that suits you and you're done.

 

[Alzrius]

So your argument is that Level caps meant a Cap on the importance of how Race was to the game?

My argument is that Tolkien's work had only a modest influence on D&D. The level caps on demihumans simply help to showcase that.

Being forced to retire your character, or the game having a Hard Cap to your power...is not just a modest impact. The fact that those level caps reinforce the very notions found in Tolkien is not a modest coincidence.

First, let's dispel the notion that you're "forced" to retire your character. Such a thing is completely untrue; you can keep playing a character that's hit their level cap. Likewise, that particular rule only serves to highlight the relative lack of impact that demihuman races have within the context of the game world. Gary flat-out says in the AD&D 1E DMG that AD&D is humanocentric, and those level caps express this in game rules. Having a rule that emphasizes the modesty of those races is not somehow making them major in scope.

D&D could have been designed using Fritz Leiber's Newhon Races...it wasnt...that is also not a modest coincidence.

I'm honestly not sure why you're focusing on "coincidence." D&D certainly has some Tolkien influence, just not very much in the overall context of the game. The idea that the demihuman PC races somehow constitute an ill-defined "major" impact is largely an illusion. It's been self-evident for a long time that PC race doesn't have much of an impact on how your character plays, compared to their class and level. A 6th-level fighter isn't going to be much different if they're a human or an elf.

 

[Maxperson]

That's a bit of circular logic. Something having been presented as X isn't a good argument that it should always be presented as x in the future (especially if it can also still be presented as x).

It's linear logic, not circular at all. Point A in the line: Elves are more dexterous than the baseline average. Point B in the line: As a result elves get +2 to dex. Since I'm not relying on Point B to go back and make Point A happen, there is no circle or anything even resembling a circle. It's completely linear.

The average elf being more dextrous than the baseline can be shown in their ability score arrays in the Monster Manual. However, there's no reason for PCs to be beholden to the average.

This is completely false. There is in fact a very good reason. That reason being because the entire race, which the PCs are a part of, has that advantage. That reason gives PC elves +2 to dex, but does not prevent them from having as low as a 5 dex(well below average).

Moreover, it's unnecessarily constraining new settings or homebrew settings with the standard archetypes instead of letting them explore Elves That Are Different without needing to create yet another elf race/subrace.

Literally the entire game is about constraint. You cannot be an Elf and Dwarf at the same time. You cannot be two classes without meeting minimum requirements. You cannot roll different dice for hit points than you class allows. You cannot pick spells from a list other than your own. And so on.

Having floating ASI (or none at all) and cultural features being swappable allow for exploring different archetypes than those presented in Greyhawk and the Forgotten Realms. You'll still be able to have your traditional elves (and such), but others will be able choose a different direction for their characters or settings if they so desire.

And I provided a way to have your cake and eat it, too. Keep racial bonuses and give a floating +1 or +2 instead of having subrace bonuses. Make whatever the hell you want with whatever race you want AND have the racial bonuses.

 

[MarkB]

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.

Legolas watched them for awhile with a smile upon his lips, and then he turned to the others. 'The strongest must seek a way, say you? But I say: let a ploughman plough, but choose an otter for swimming, and for running light over grass and leaf, or over snow--an Elf.'​

​

With that he sprang forth nimbly, and then Frodo noticed as if for the first time, though he had long known it, that the Elf had no boots, but wore only light shoes, as he always did, and his feet made little imprint in the snow.​

​

'Farewell!' he said to Gandalf. 'I go to find the Sun!' Then swift as a runner over firm sand he shot away, and quickly overtaking the toiling men, with a wave of his hand he passed them, and sped into the distance, and vanished round the rocky turn.​

-From The Fellowship of the Ring

 

[DEFCON 1]

When your own individual table can have an Elf start with a 10 Dexterity and a Dwarf with a 10 Strength, and a Halfork start with a 15 Dexterity and a Halfling start with a 15 Strength in the same exact party... the starting bonuses a race gets in their Player's Handbook write-up to "describe" what that race is meant to be is pretty much meaningless.

Everybody here seems wants to use the totality of every single D&D table across the globe to justify why Elves should average out to be more dexterous than dwarves and humans and dragonborn and such... but you know what? Nothing that happens at anyone else's table has any impact on what goes on at yours. If you honestly felt that all elves should be more dexterous than the other races, you probably have already instituted minimums and maximums on player stats to get there. Or adjusted point-buy or point-buy maximums or max ability scores to do so. Then your own table can represent how you want to see these races portrayed.

But if you are now complaining that other people have a book which "allows" them to deviate from your own personal feelings on how these races should be represented? Guess what? Tough crap. I don't give a rat's ass what you think elves should be or get mechanically, and neither do 99% of the other tables tables OR the D&D designers. And on top of that... we've ALREADY had our games look the way we wanted... we've never needed a book like Tasha's to "allow" us to do that. If you knew how many tables out there didn't have elves dexterous than the other races, your brains might've melted.

You go institute whatever house rule you want... that's the way the game was designed to allow for and the expectation you are supposed to have to make it your own. But if you think your opinion is going to have any weight on the rest of us, you are sorely mistaken.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

An easy way to have your cake and eat it:
Standard array 2:
16, 14, 13, 11, 10, 8
You can't increase your stat above 17 with your racial modifier.

 

[Maxperson]

When your own individual table can have an Elf start with a 10 Dexterity and a Dwarf with a 10 Strength, and a Halfork start with a 15 Dexterity and a Halfling start with a 15 Strength in the same exact party... the starting bonuses a race gets in their Player's Handbook write-up to "describe" what that race is meant to be is pretty much meaningless.

This is completely untrue. Without the +2 dex bonus that Elves get as a race, that Elf would have had an 8 dex and been penalized. That gives the racial bonus very significant meaning. Same with the Halfling. We know that since the Halfling did not get a racial str bonus, his strength is more significant than the Half-Orc. There are far fewer Halflings running around with a 15 strength than there are Half-Orcs.