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.

News Archive | Dungeons and Dragons

Read the full archives of Dungeons & Dragons news, Sage Advice, Unearthed Arcana, and D&D Studio Blogs.

dnd.wizards.com

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."

 

[bedir than]

Also, there's a very big question about what you are optimizing for. We usually think of this as "combat", and even more specifically, "Damage per round".

This, of course, will hose you if, in order to succeed, the party needs broad skill bases beyond their primary damage stats.

How much of the need to optimize is rooted in limited vision in adventure design?

I love this comment and wish to highlight it, because you rarely see people optimize their characters for what is supposed to be 2/3rds of the game.

ALL of the optimization discussion as relates to race and lineage focuses on combat. How boring.

 

[Charlaquin]

"All other things being equal, should a Halfling be as strong at level 1 as a Goliath at level 1."

It doesnt need to be made more complicated than that.

I disagree. If you’re arguing for versimilitude, it absolutely needs to be more complicated than that, because the strength ability does a poor job of expressing the differences between characters of different weight classes.

 

[Hurin70]

Really? I'll admit that I'm not expert on classical cultures, but my impression was that the Spartans emphasized military training more than the other city states, and had fewer philosophers and artists. So if you actually measured the strength of each member of each society, by whatever measure you choose (how far you can throw a rock?), I would expect the Athenian average to be lower.

The differences in average strength between real-life humans are going to be minuscule. This is one of the reasons the concept of race is so problematic when applied to real-world peoples. Yes, the Spartans did practice a primitive form of eugenics (inspection and infanticide) to their children, but it is unclear whether they could really tell which infants would be strongest at birth. In any case, the real-life differences between humans are so small that the concept of race really doesn't carry much if any water when applied to real world peoples. We're all the same species in the end.

In the fantasy world, though, we're not really talking about race so much as species. They do have real differences. A Minotaur or Bull is much stronger than a Chimpanzee. And we're talking orders of magnitude there.

 

[Stefano Rinaldelli]

No, sorry, that's not good enough. Please show me where just one person said that all they care about is what it looks like, and the rest is irrelevant.

Don't have time. Excuse me. it is sufficient to scroll the thread.

Do you think that the average Spartan would have had the same strength score as the average Athenian? Or are they genetically different?

Don't mess with concept . I don't think anything. It is a fact that an orc, as depicted, is stronger than an halfling as the rules of physiology are the same in Faerun and in the Real World (and there is no suggestion of the opposite). Spartans and Athenian are different:

1. they both are humans
2. they aren't of different races
3. if they have different strenght in average is by cultural difference and do not regards ASI which is applyed in the race choosing phase, where class heritage, culture and so on are not yet applied.

Ok, I'm glad you said that, because I can truly understand that if somebody thinks this racial ASI think is a sign of impending cultural apocalypse, then it must be resisted at all costs. I get it. (I mean, it's not a sign of impending cultural apocalypse, but just like the value of +1 to your primary stat, what matters is perception not reality.)

Don't use hyperbole to ridiculize my thoughts, it is not fair. I don't belevie that we are on the edge of cultural apocalypse. I believe that changing the meaning of words and pervert logical human constructs (as a rule system) by ideology is wrong. This could lead to a dystopic society if rationality do not prevail, obviously but we are far from that now. Now. If a society is not capable to arginate this drift in the beginning, the whole think could go on and like a train will be difficult to stop. In total honesty i've seen this kind of drifts more than one time in US history. It seem to me that US people is less immune to this kind of witch hunting attitude than European people. Maybe because we've seen it on our skin and flesh. And remember that the road to hell is paved with good intentions.
if you think that my perception of the importance of ASI is a distortion, I can only say to you that timings are significant, and the definition of ASI as cultural flash in the dark like a fireball. It is a scientific project aimed to remove all embarassment from the word RACE in the game. As I sad before: no sense to continue this opposition between me and you if you disagree. I cannot demonstrate it to you nor you to me.

As for all this nonsense about "logic" it's true that in the real world strength correlates highly (although not perfectly) to size. And in the real world giants would collapse under their own weight. And plate armor doesn't weigh 65 pounds. And you don't walk away from 200 foot falls just because you're really good at sword fighting. Etc. etc. etc.

Good point. But to voluntarily ignore the fact that a giant do not collapse is very different to voluntarily ignore that two creatures with enormous difference in size and complexion have exactly the same chance to be very strong. At least for me. It is obviously a matter of shades from easy to suspend to impossible to suspend the disbelief and I agree that this could be a matter of individual sensibility and knowledge.

So I think it's a little silly to draw a line in the sand and say, "It's ok that halfling player characters can start off as strong as a pony, and eventually be as strong as goliath player characters, but it blows my sense of immersion if halfling can start off as strong as goliaths."

That's fine if you think that's too illogical. People all have their own pet peeves: for some it's the archery rules, for some it's the heavy armor rules, for some it's the falling rules.

But to make a sweeping statement that this one thing crosses the logic, and that everybody should be able to see that, is a bit myopic.

It is not necessarily silly, nor pet peeves, nor myopic. It is as I see it: everybody can see that remove ASI creates an hole in mechanics representing differences in races. But as the conversation go on I can clearly see your point of view and respect it. The true divergence is about the idelogical part. You negate its presence so your acceptance of the changes is quiet and tend to see positive effects (no standard combo etc). I want a fictional world in which racial differencies exist because I put them into being from the first time. (Don't want a real world where racial difference are built from nowhere to maintain an ethnic power over others, obviously).

 

[Guest 6801328]

Here's why I don't buy the whole "strength score tells the whole story" narrative:

D&D 5e uses Strength for jumping, swimming, and climbing. Certainly athletes who do those things well are highly physically fit, and have excellent strength-to-weight ratio. But the top climbers in the world...regardless of which sub-sport we are talking about (sport, alpine, mountaineering) are typically fairly small, and the exceptions tend to be tall but lithe. They certainly aren't going to excel at the Shove action, or swinging a greataxe, or bending bars/lifting gates. Same thing for swimmers and high jumpers.

But, as has been pointed out, the Strength score is an abstraction that combines many things. Just as it's silly to imagine that a dwarf excels at clinging to dime-thickness protrusions in a rocky face, or doing "a series of one-fingered pullups" (Action Directe, 9a/14d, f.a. Wolfgang Güllich 1991), it's also kinda silly to imagine a halfing succeeding at a Shove action on a Hill Giant.

And, yet, them's the rules.

 

[Minigiant]

I thought Powerful Build was designed to solve this issue?

Do we need Lithe Build and Stout Build?

 

[Guest 6801328]

The differences in average strength between real-life humans are going to be minuscule. This is one of the reasons the concept of race is so problematic when applied to real-world peoples. Yes, the Spartans did practice a primitive form of eugenics (inspection and infanticide) to their children, but it is unclear whether they could really tell which infants would be strongest at birth. In any case, the real-life differences between humans are so small that the concept of race really doesn't carry much if any water when applied to real world peoples. We're all the same species in the end.

Except I was specifically arguing that the difference would be due to the Spartan's emphasis on military training, and de-emphasis on philsophy/art/mathematics. NOT that there would be any genetic drift.

In the fantasy world, though, we're not really talking about race so much as species. They do have real differences. A Minotaur or Bull is much stronger than a Chimpanzee. And we're talking orders of magnitude there.

I'm only addressing the debate about whether culture can impact physical attributes.

 

[TwoSix]

I love this comment and wish to highlight it, because you rarely see people optimize their characters for what is supposed to be 2/3rds of the game.

ALL of the optimization discussion as relates to race and lineage focuses on combat. How boring.

I always have to check my surprise when I remember some people really do like the looking around/planning parts of the game more than the fighting parts.

 

[Guest 6801328]

I love this comment and wish to highlight it, because you rarely see people optimize their characters for what is supposed to be 2/3rds of the game.

ALL of the optimization discussion as relates to race and lineage focuses on combat. How boring.

Is it "supposed to be 2/3" of the game? I mean, yes, there are 3 pillars, but what evidence do you have that they are supposed to be equal pillars? Certainly not the page count of the rules, or the content of the official adventures, I hope.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

The magic token by hexblood may be very interesting for storytelling purposses, but not too practical in the battlefield. I wonder about how to use it with an ally or a sidekick, human or monster. I like the idea of something like the "silent speech" of the ghostwise halflings.

I imagine the hexblood as potential waifus, in the middle between elf and kender, cute and sinister like a monster high schoolgirl. Shorter than humans, with pointy ears, and a too cute child face, a gothic lolita. Something like Sunset Shimmer, from Equestria Girls (My Little Pony spin-off), or an almost chibi version of Bayonetta, the videogame action-girl witch. Hexbloods have born to the the D&D version of the maho-shojo/magical girls!!!

Could a racial feat for dhampire replace the vampire bite with a life-draining touch to be used against no-living creatures (for example constructs)? Other matter is if the dhampire can drink blood or other thing, but she needs time to assimilate, al least a short rest.

Can dhampires by healed by potions or divine spellcasters? Can dhampires eat a half-troll animal, or a sentient magic beast, or dragons?

If reborns don't breath then they can't be hurt by poisonous gases, can't they? how are affected by ordinary toxins and poisons? Teorically they shouldn't worry about a heart attack caused by a poison in the wine. They could drink lot of alcohol but never to be drunk.

* D&D lore is changing, for example some no-hostile kobolds are allowed to live in the humanoid communities (but still religious conflict with the gnomes), at least in the underground hunting rats and digging tunnels for the sewerage and underground shelters. Orcs, hobgoblings and bugbears not always are raiders, but hired as mercenaries sometimes, or sometimes slave-soldiers as the Mamluks and the Janissaries. Now there are other options besides the genocide against the evil humanoids..(but the gnolls, they are pure anathema).

* Three brothers with the same education, the same cultural customs, and blood/lineage could follow different paths, one a solider, the second a cleric and the third a bard singing for the noble houses. Their characters stats shouldn't be identical.

We need the racial traits about "training" with armors and/or weapons to can be replaced with other thing, because that character didn't receive a militar training. Let's think about a dwarf from low class. She couldn't train with armors because they are too expensive, it is like paying classes to drive trucks. Maybe she learn to throw knives to defend herself againt criminals. I suggest some backgrounds allowrf some "racial traits" based in culture/costumes/traditions to be replaced with other thing.