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."

 

[Guest 6801328]

Your argument boils down to, “well it doesn’t perfectly model what it models, so we shouldn’t hesitate to throw it out.” Which is a terrible argument no matter how you word it.

Um, no.

We should throw it out because it’s bad game design.

AND it doesn’t model what it claims to model as well as unique abilities would.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

God. Character creation already has too many pieces.

We should at least merge culture with background.

Not in my opinion. It currently has 3 pieces (Class, Background, Race/Lineage). Adding one more part won't overcomplicate anything.

 

[Azzy]

And I get you. Where it breaks down for me, and I assume a few others is that in your military vet scenario, there is no way that halfling should be as strong as a Goliath that went through the same experience.

Even with the same Str score, halflings can't use heavy weapons and goliaths can carry/lift more weight (due to powerful build). So, really, you don't need that +2 Str to show that goliaths are Vin Diesel, the Race stronger than halflings.

 

[Don Durito]

Not in my opinion. It currently has 3 pieces (Class, Background, Race/Lineage). Adding one more part won't overcomplicate anything.

Honestly I don't see the point. If customisation is the goal, wny not use a point buy system?

 

[Azzy]

Also, didn’t ODND not even have racial stat mods? I’m not retro or old enough to know first hand, but that what I remember reading.

Correct. The "Basic" line also didn't have racial ASIs, either. They did have "prime requisite" scores (abilities that had to be a certain score or higher, and if higher than a certain number, gave you a 10% XP bonus)—which didn't always line up with the AD&D ASIs.

 

[Scott Christian]

Its all an abstraction, I think we all get that, the issues are simply.

1. Where does one draw the line on what 'makes sense' from a starting stat point of view.
2. What differences do you want baked into a racial definition.
3. Is it ever acceptable to have a race better fill a role/class than another race.

Nice phrasing.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Honestly I don't see the point. If customisation is the goal, wny not use a point buy system?

It's not just customization, it's realism. It's realistic for your weapon and armor proficiencies to come from your culture, not your race. I like D&D, I don't like other systems. That's why I don't play them.

 

[Scott Christian]

I'm not. As I noted this morning, I slept on it, and I see the arguments on the other side.

I simply want to see race continue to matter, either through fully realized race mechanics (more of that Dwarven Resilience, or Savage Attacks, or more rules impact in Size) or an expanded official Racial feats system.

With a cap of 20, identical starting point, and a generic +2/+1 ASI on creation, the Ability Scores fail to reflect anything meaningful about race. I see that as a net negative as I want choices to matter.

EDIT: Fully Transparency. I'd be happy with this as well.

Race +1 ASI with Restriction
Background +1 ASI with Restriction
Class + 1 ASI with Restriction

EDIT x 2: But since even THAT wont get a Halfling to the same potential Str as a level 1 Goliath, drop the restriction on Race +1 ASI, but put rules in that cement the differences between races, again like Dwarven Resilience and what have you for everyone.

What is funny is this entire debate could have been avoided had WotC made the bonus markers at odd integers instead of even, and make no ASI greater than +1. Then you would have a 15 or 16 (same bonus) to start with, but that goliath would get to 20 by level 8 and the halfling by level 12. And by then no one cares because a magic weapon or class feat can determine damage at much greater intervals.

 

[squibbles]

[...] a signifcant number of players feels that the difference between a +2 modifier and a +3 modifier in their primary ability has a significant impact on gameplay. And understandably so; with how often you make rolls that your primary ability affects (every attack roll, every damage roll, most of the checks the party will be relying on you to make), you don’t have to do a bunch of math to notice that that 1 point difference having an impact. On the other hand, rerolling natural 1s? Maybe statistically it has a similar effect in the long term? I don’t know, I’m not a mathematician. But I‘ve seen players forget they even have that feature often enough to know it won’t feel like as big of a deal as ability modifiers do. And at the end of the day that’s what really matters. If people feel like they can’t play the race they want to without being gimped, there’s a problem, whatever the math may say.

One of the absolutely most depressing realities of gaming, tbh.

I’m grateful as hell that very few players I know are bothered by having 1 point lower modifier in their main stat.

In gaming, the sky is the baseline.

[...] the reality is we're talking about a roleplaying game and player experience is what matters. And we're talking about dumping that in favor of a lot of dumb tradition and worthless verisimilitude that are both totally divorced from actual play.

That's a pretty straightforward point, which is reasonable on its face, and I'm completely on board with burning false idols.

But don't be down on verisimilitude. If you want there to be emotional investment in a fantastical secondary world, suspension of disbelief is the buy in--and it requires verisimilitude. That said, I realize what is being argued about here is whether 3ft 40lb people and 8ft 340lb people should have a 5% differential in their likelihood of stabbing one another.

I think these endless arguments about race in D&D boil down to contentiousness between verisimilitude and the rule of cool. Person A says "I should be able to have cool thing XYZ! It would be so cool!" and person B says "cool thing XYZ doesn't make sense, your fun is ruining my engagement with the game." This is a tension with no perfect answer and is best handled on a case by case basis.

Now I hope in addition to lineage, background and class, we get "culture", which encompasses small features like limited weapon or armor training and maybe an extra tool or language.

An alternate Idea would just be strengthening backgrounds.
I think the soldier should be offered a choice of weapons and armor. Might be a way to go forward.

If D&D goes the way of lineage and culture, I would prefer they re/overwrite race AND backgrounds, for reasons of both parsimony and concept.

Having a background that is the high elf cantrip+weapon training+language+2 background skills (i.e. the cultural part) seems like it would be a great way to represent a society of militarized arcane-facing elves as well as other people raised in that tradition. It also makes it very easy to patch out D&D's 'race essentialism' by just having other types of elf culture listed in that section--and allow elves from a human town or less warlike elf society to be garden variety acolytes, artisans, and so on. (and obviously, those other backgrounds would need more cowbell)

 

[squibbles]

God. Character creation already has too many pieces.

We should at least merge culture with background.

oh hey! didn't see you there.

completely agreed.