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

[Oofta]

Since there is no way to reliably measure this, I'll decline to wager anything of substance, but I'll live in the comfortable ignorance that half-elves haven't destroyed play of the other Charisma races, it won't overpower the rest of the races.

The hyperbole is strong with this post. I'm not saying they'll "destroy" anything, but being a charisma (or strength or intelligence) based race will be meaningless. Therefore optimizers, even casual ones, will gravitate to races that have the best numbers. It may not have any impact on your personal game or mine. I just expect to see a ton of half-elves in AL. Time will tell.

I'd say that we'll see a ton of mountain dwarf mages, but the prejudice against short is just as strong as the hyperbole in your post.

 

[Remathilis]

The hyperbole is strong with this post. I'm not saying they'll "destroy" anything, but being a charisma (or strength or intelligence) based race will be meaningless. Therefore optimizers, even casual ones, will gravitate to races that have the best numbers. It may not have any impact on your personal game or mine. I just expect to see a ton of half-elves in AL. Time will tell.

I'd say that we'll see a ton of mountain dwarf mages, but the prejudice against short is just as strong as the hyperbole in your post.

I see the opposite. Optimizers might gravitate towards them, but casuals will gravitate towards whatever "cool" race they like without regards of if they race has good asi for it. People who wanted to play a half-demon, a dragon-man, or a a bird person will override someones desire to have a net +4 ability mod. Especially if they get to put a 16 wherever they want now. People will still look at other racial abilities, appearance and outlook, and other factors.

I think your half-elf/mountain dwarf characters will be the same players who read color-coded guides for classes on the internet, not the players who wanted to play a goblin bard.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

I see the opposite. Optimizers might gravitate towards them, but casuals will gravitate towards whatever "cool" race they like without regards of if they race has good asi for it. People who wanted to play a half-demon, a dragon-man, or a a bird person will override someones desire to have a net +4 ability mod. Especially if they get to put a 16 wherever they want now. People will still look at other racial abilities, appearance and outlook, and other factors.

Sure, but those people would play those races before Tasha too.

 

[Remathilis]

Sure, but those people would play those races before Tasha too.

Probably. I don't necessarily believe it's either/or. Some might have done it regardless. Some might have done it now that they can get a 16. And some might go for the best possible option, damn the consequences. Some might do it but only because they wanted to be a half-elf it dwarf anyway. I just reject the notion that everyone will automatically gravitate towards the two races with +4s and all other races will stop being played.

 

[Oofta]

I see the opposite. Optimizers might gravitate towards them, but casuals will gravitate towards whatever "cool" race they like without regards of if they race has good asi for it. People who wanted to play a half-demon, a dragon-man, or a a bird person will override someones desire to have a net +4 ability mod. Especially if they get to put a 16 wherever they want now. People will still look at other racial abilities, appearance and outlook, and other factors.

I think your half-elf/mountain dwarf characters will be the same players who read color-coded guides for classes on the internet, not the players who wanted to play a goblin bard.

Unless you're willing to put money where your mouth is it's a pointless discussion. Well, pretty meaningless no matter what to be fair.

I think a lot of people only care about the end number and the race is meaningless. The change with Tasha's will just make race a label attached to the ability bonuses they want for a lot of people. But ... round and round it goes.

 

[Remathilis]

Unless you're willing to put money where your mouth is it's a pointless discussion. Well, pretty meaningless no matter what to be fair.

I think a lot of people only care about the end number and the race is meaningless. The change with Tasha's will just make race a label attached to the ability bonuses they want for a lot of people. But ... round and round it goes. [emoji99]

If it's pointless, quit replying. Unless you are going to follow up with how nobody plays sorcerers, monks and rangers due to their mechanically inferiority.

 

[ph0rk]

I still don't see how what is in the books affects one's home game. If they want races with set bonuses (or even minuses) they can do so. They can also say "This is a non-TCoE table". They can't do that in Adventure League, but you can't do lots of things in Adventure League.

 

[Oofta]

If it's pointless, quit replying. Unless you are going to follow up with how nobody plays sorcerers, monks and rangers due to their mechanically inferiority.

I just get tired of the reductio ad absurdum around here. It's not going to destroy the game. No one is saying the only race anyone will ever play is a half elf. I dislike the generification of races and I think we'll see a whole lot of half elves. That's all.

Stop making silly claims and taking people's posts to the extreme and I'll stop attempting to correct you.

 

[Oofta]

I still don't see how what is in the books affects one's home game. If they want races with set bonuses (or even minuses) they can do so. They can also say "This is a non-TCoE table". They can't do that in Adventure League, but you can't do lots of things in Adventure League.

Has anyone posted that this will affect their home game unless they want it to? Some people are concerned about pressure from players (I'm not personally, I'm quite comfortable with "no").

But you do realize that I can be concerned about changes that don't affect my home game, right? I mean I could be one of those people that only listen to music plays the edition that was released when they were in high school. That doesn't mean I agree with the direction.

So put the strawman away. Thanks!

 

[Helldritch]

Which is obviously why you see so many dwarven archers, because people don't pick the race that's optimal for the class. Oh ... wait ... they do. Every archer type PC I've ever seen has either been human (to get sharpshooter at 1st level) or an elf for the plus to dex. Virtually every wizard has been a high elf for the +2 to intelligence with the occasional gnome. Every barbarian is a half-orc and so on. It's not because of lore, it's because of the ability score adjustment.

Some people don't care. I know I don't always. But a lot of people? A lot of players wouldn't know the difference between a half-elf and a half-orc if they met one on the street. They'll figure out the best numerical option available and go with that because most people don't really care all that much about what race they are in the first place. What percentage of players that is will vary by campaign and sample population. I just predict that when I do finally get back to playing AL that I'll see a whole lot of half-elves.

Time will tell. Care to place any bets?

I'll bet that we'll see a lot of those. A winning position. I hate loosing.

I'll ask you my hypothesis: how many half-elves vs other Cha races (tiefling, aasimar, lightfoot, drow, etc) do you see playing the Cha caster classes. If you are correct, currently half elves should dominate all charisma classes and the other races should barely be touched.

Well, how many non half elf paladins, sorcerers, bards and warlocks do you see?

Excluding V-humans? Almost none. Half-elves rules charisma related classes. We did have a half-orc paladin, a halfling sorcerer and a gnome bard! So far all warlocks have been half-elves or humans.