And then they rewrote and changed the race... s... Oh wait. They didn't.
Those PHB edits are rather deceitful.
Turning to a random race
"Tieflings
share certain racial traits as a result of their
infernal descent"
And then they list those things including:
- Ability scores
- Age
- Alignment
- Size
- Speed
- Darkvision
- Fire Resistance
- Infernal Legacy spells
- Languages
Now, some of that stuff is racial and clearly a result of their lineage. Age, size, darkvision, land speed. Some of that is not like Language and Alignment.
And this is true of every single race you listed. You took the first sentence, then posted only the ASIs and ignored everything else underneath that sentence. So, unless you want to say that Half-elves Biologically know a random language from any race, or that Halflings are biologically pre-disposed to Law, then you need to recognize that not everything under that sentence is meant to be true of the race as a biological fact.
As I said, some will read that and gleam what they want. It does list those other things. We all know this. But the language clearly implies they biological, like age, size, speed, and special abilities. Of course language and alignment are learned. Common sense should tell you that. Just like it should tell you the biological features.
I have watched you argue with many on here. About how it only applies to PC's. Yet clearly the language in here states it is not just the PC's, but the entire race.
Lastly, you accuse me of cherry picking or not placing everything on the board. I listed the entire statements from all the races. All of the statements. To not list the other stuff is not to mislead, and you know that. We all know the PHB. It is to point out the language the writers used, and how that language clearly demonstrates exactly the opposite of what you have said. Here it is again:
"Your dwarf character has an assortment of
inborn abilities, part and parcel of
Dwarven nature - +2 con."
"Your elf character has a variety of
natural abilities, the result of thousands of years of elven refinement - +2 dex."
"You halfling character has a number of traits
in common with all other halflings - +2 dex."
"It's hard to make generalizations about humans, but your human character has these traits - +1 for all abilities."
"Your draconic
heritage manifests in a variety of
traits you share with other dragonborn - +2 str."
"Your gnome character has certain
characteristics in common with all other gnomes - +2 int."
"Your half-elf character has some qualities in
common with elves and some that are
unique to half-elves - +2 cha."
"Your half-orc character has certain
traits deriving from your orc ancestry - +2 str."
"Tieflings
share certain racial traits as a result of their
infernal descent - +2 cha."
I will do what you did. Turning to one at random, the halfling states their traits are in common with
all other halflings. Notice it doesn't say in common with all other halfling characters. It says halflings. Here is another random one: half-orc character has certain traits deriving from your orc
ancestry. Read the passages and take what you want from them. But I said it earlier, it is disingenuous to play devil's advocate or argue for the sake of arguing without at least stating that is what you are doing. You are clearly wrong on this. Clearly. To say, "Huh, I didn't look at like that, but it is apparent that's what they meant," would be a mature step.
If you want to debate its effects or even how the cap institutes the irrelevance of solidified versus floating ASI's or how the lore will not change. That's cool. I'm all ears.
