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."

 

[Mind of tempest]

Counterpoint: none of them ever pumped a single iron and they have the sad baby arms to prove it.

With that giant head and huge bite strength, they were clearly the nerds that Yutyrannus and Giganottasaurus wedgied into extinction.

Then again, they got more chicks than Carnotaurus, whose primary behavior was dipping their tiny drummies in butter and hot sauce in order to lure prey into its mouth.

a trex's arms had more muscle on them than most human will ever have on their arms.

 

[JiffyPopTart]

I'm pretty sure 3e had something like that... IIRC bigger things were easier to hit.

Small creatures in 3.X got a blanket +1 to AC. A difference, sure, but not one that actually reflects 8' vs 2' of surface area I would say.

 

[Hurin70]

So couldn't you just build your NPCs using PC rules? NPC creation is pretty much freeform in 5e, so whatever system you want to use for their creation is fine.

Yes, though in other systems (and to some extent even in previous editions of D&D, at least in regards to important NPCs), PCs and NPCs follow the same rules. This gives the world some internal consistency. That's one of the things I don't like about 5e -- the rules for PCs and NPCs aren't the same.

 

[TwoSix]

Yes, though in other systems (and to some extent even in previous editions of D&D, at least in regards to important NPCs), PCs and NPCs follow the same rules. This gives the world some internal consistency. That's one of the things I don't like about 5e -- the rules for PCs and NPCs aren't the same.

Considering that’s one of the best things about 5e IMO, I don’t think there’s a real compromise opinion.

 

[Remathilis]

Yes, though in other systems (and to some extent even in previous editions of D&D, at least in regards to important NPCs), PCs and NPCs follow the same rules. This gives the world some internal consistency. That's one of the things I don't like about 5e -- the rules for PCs and NPCs aren't the same.

I hated that in 2e, until I played 10 years of 3e and had to account for every skill point, feat and magic item for every bandit, chieftain, or cultist the PCs had to fight. Yeah, 5e would have made it easier with bounded accuracy, but the allure just grabbing a stat block of an appropriate challenge npc and tossing on darkvision and a few minor racial traits is enough to not want to go back to building NPCs like that again...

 

[Oofta]

a trex's arms had more muscle on them than most human will ever have on their arms.

I was going to say, based on fossilized evidence of teeth imprints it's believed that T-Rex had a bite force of 8,000 pounds. By comparison that's double the bite force of the largest living crocodile. They could chew apart even the largest bones to get at the marrow.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Man, I’d love to see Tieflings done up in this style.

Aasimar and Genasi, too. That would be amazing. I want to play a dwarven Aasimar or Halfling Fire Genasi.

 

[Scribe]

Aasimar and Genasi, too. That would be amazing. I want to play a dwarven Aasimar or Halfling Fire Genasi.

I think Aasimar are pretty amazing, you would just prefer they are more template vs distinct race?

My gut doesn't it like the idea, but I'm not sure in my position.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

I think Aasimar are pretty amazing, you would just prefer they are more template vs distinct race?

My gut doesn't it like the idea, but I'm not sure in my position.

Yes, as a template. It never made sense to me why Tieflings/Genasi/Aasimar had to be descended from humans.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Man, I’d love to see Tieflings done up in this style.

In mechanics, they kinda are, but yeah the rest of the writeup really takes the concept and adds to the world with it.