D&D 5E Unearthed Arcana: Gothic Lineages & New Race/Culture Distinction

The latest Unearthed Arcana contains the Dhampir, Reborn, and Hexblood races. The Dhampir is a half-vampire; the Hexblood is a character which has made a pact with a hag; and the Reborn is somebody brought back to life.

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Perhaps the bigger news is this declaration on how race is to be handled in future D&D books as it joins other games by stating that:

"...the race options in this article and in future D&D books lack the Ability Score Increase trait, the Language trait, the Alignment trait, and any other trait that is purely cultural. Racial traits henceforth reflect only the physical or magical realities of being a player character who’s a member of a particular lineage. Such traits include things like darkvision, a breath weapon (as in the dragonborn), or innate magical ability (as in the forest gnome). Such traits don’t include cultural characteristics, like language or training with a weapon or a tool, and the traits also don’t include an alignment suggestion, since alignment is a choice for each individual, not a characteristic shared by a lineage."

 

[dave2008]

I've been on the fence about D&D for a few months now and I think this is the final nail in the coffin for me. While I have no desire to separate ability score increases from race, I could probably live with it if I was dealing with a system that had the same rules across the board. But they're tacking this on and I just don't want to deal with it. I always figured there'd come a time with 5th edition and I would part ways but it isn't acrimonious. The game is just moving in a direction I don't care for. But I continue to wish WotC success and am happy other people enjoy the changes.

You realize all the changes are optional? The PHB is still the same. There might be plenty of reasons to leave 5e, but this seems like a very odd one. An optional system in an optional book and an unofficial UA article. PHB only has been a thing in D&D for a long time, sounds like it might be your friend too.

 

[MGibster]

Sure. But what if I want to play a strong bodybuilding ungraceful elf, or a frail bespectacled orc scholar, or a dwarf with asthma? You say I'm not allowed to because it offends your sensibilities about what all elves or dwarves or orcs should be?

Nothing stopped you. Your bodybuilding elf just wouldn't be as strong as a bodybuilding goliath and I don't really see that as a problem. But mine is the unpopular opinion and the winds of change are sweeping the land.

 

[MGibster]

You realize all the changes are optional? The PHB is still the same. There might be plenty of reasons to leave 5e, but this seems like a very odd one. An optional system in an optional book and an unofficial UA article. PHB only has been a thing in D&D for a long time, sounds like it might be your friend too.

I said it was the final nail in the coffin not the sole cause. It doesn't really seem optional to me when future books aren't going to incorporate the races as presented in the PHB.

 

[Scribe]

Sure. But what if I want to play a strong bodybuilding ungraceful elf, or a frail bespectacled orc scholar, or a dwarf with asthma? You say I'm not allowed to because it offends your sensibilities about what all elves or dwarves or orcs should be?

The idea that I have to play my character according to what some rando on the other side of the word thinks an orc has to be is ridiculous. My orc is a ballet-dancer!

Not at all, feel free to work within a framework more fitting to your sensibilities.

Such as Tasha's (soon to be less) optional system.

I'm not begrudging you that choice, I simply don't want to lose the system that has been provided forever.

And we will. This UA makes it clear.

 

[Weiley31]

Nothing stopped you. Your bodybuilding elf just wouldn't be as strong as a bodybuilding goliath and I don't really see that as a problem. But mine is the unpopular opinion and the winds of change are sweeping the land.

Morrus butt hurt+3

 

[dave2008]

I wasn't particularly on board with genericizing ASIs when they first starting talking about it, but in the end its not that big a deal to me, and I can see the benefits. Tasha's is fine. But removing cultural concerns from the game altogether really seems a bridge too far to me. I don't see what it gives anyone. Can someone tell me how this makes the game better?

More freedom of choice is the low hanging fruit. FYI, they are not removing them, they are just letting you apply them as you see fit.

 

[Retreater]

I go really old school and don't have any ability score adjustments. 3d6 in order, no penalties or bonuses.

 

[Jack Daniel]

It used to be that the racial ability score adjustments were meant to reflect how a particular demihuman race differed from the human norm. And they tended to be balanced: bonus here, penalty there. Then 5e did away with penalties. (Or was it 4e that did that?) And now the bonuses won't be tied to race. So… why have such adjustments at all, when they aren't a reflection of anything in the fiction and aren't adjusting anything?

Might as well just fold the bonuses into your stat generation method from the get-go and otherwise forget about what they used to represent. Players are just going to use them to buff their class's key ability anyway!

(For what it's worth, racial stat adjustments are such an AD&D thing anyhow. Basic D&D chugs along just fine without having them at all, at least until you get into all the optional monstrous races from the Creature Crucibles and Mystara Gazetteers…)

 

[Morrus]

Nothing stopped you. Your bodybuilding elf just wouldn't be as strong as a bodybuilding goliath and I don't really see that as a problem. But mine is the unpopular opinion and the winds of change are sweeping the land.

But what if I want to play Zidi Wheatling, the Halfling Titan, a halfling known in the nine boroughs for beating a bodybuilding goliath in a weightlifting competition? I'm not allowed to?

Just because in your world and your game that can't happen, why can't I be allowed to have it happen in mine?

 

[BookTenTiger]

Nothing stopped you. Your bodybuilding elf just wouldn't be as strong as a bodybuilding goliath and I don't really see that as a problem. But mine is the unpopular opinion and the winds of change are sweeping the land.

I like how Level Up is approaching this, and it's infected the way I think of new lineages too.

You come up with the Lore Truths: Dwarves are hearty smithies who live deep underground. You come up with a few abilities for players to choose from at level one: a "hearty" ability, a "smithy" ability, a "deep underground" ability. You also get a few things that are common amongst dwarves (darkvision, advantage on saving throws versus poison). Now you've established that dwarves are, in fact, hearty smithies who live deep underground, but not every character needs to conform to it, and the stereotypes of a culture are not being generalized through biology.