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."

 

[Stefano Rinaldelli]

They both die.

Actually, it's not. A medium creature with a strength of 10 can lift 300 lb. A tiny creature with a strength of 10 can only lift 150 lb.

It is not directly correlated but still absolute. Not relative. And in regards to "they both die" I have no interest to exchange messages with people that don't want to understand. See you.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I freely admit to doing some after the fact optimization. However, the last time I actually gamed as a player, I was a forest gnome OoA Paladin. I thought it would be a fun concept, despite not being an optimal combo.

Sure, and a lot of people do that. But equally, a lot of players choose a race that has a stat bonus because they want that stat bonus. The choices are often not stark binaries or whatever. Someone may like Race X the most, but they quite like Race Y, or think they're okay, and Race Y has better stats, so they pick Race Y.

You seem to be trying to portray them as big dummies who are so dim they want to "win" D&D and are desperate for that 5% edge, but it's pretty much never that. It's more that they're making more boring or safe choices because of stat mods, not expecting to "win" D&D or something, and not because they're dummies, but because they know having a higher stat is really helpful, in practice. Particularly with standard-array and point-buy, which surveys suggest is how the vast majority of people play these days.

By letting them move ASIs around, you free them up to do like you did, and pick fun concepts, without being nagged at by the part of their mind that tells them they made a bad decision, or might be letting the party down or whatever. You can criticise them for having that part of their mind, but it's not generally a choice to do that, it's just how they are.

This isn't the only reason either, just one we've been particularly addressing here.

 

[Stefano Rinaldelli]

By letting them move ASIs around, you free them up to do like you did, and pick fun concepts, without

being penalized by the fact they want something unusual. But if it is unusual there are reasons. In italy we say "drunken wife and full barrel". Something like "have the cake and eat it too".

 

[Scribe]

Sure, and a lot of people do that. But equally, a lot of players choose a race that has a stat bonus because they want that stat bonus. The choices are often not stark binaries or whatever. Someone may like Race X the most, but they quite like Race Y, or think they're okay, and Race Y has better stats, so they pick Race Y.

I've been passing the time making characters. The thing that happens, is if you were predisposed to build toward a 'logical' race/class due to the bonus, now you just look at what additional rules are on that race, and see if they still matter.

It just punts the min/max consideration down the road a bit, it will still happen, and ultimately the only change is.

"If you desired an official link between ASI and Race, with restrictions, you no longer get that."

 

[Guest 6801328]

I've been passing the time making characters. The thing that happens, is if you were predisposed to build toward a 'logical' race/class due to the bonus, now you just look at what additional rules are on that race, and see if they still matter.

It just punts the min/max consideration down the road a bit, it will still happen, and ultimately the only change is.

"If you desired an official link between ASI and Race, with restrictions, you no longer get that."

Funny how earlier in the thread it was your side making the “don’t let perfect be the enemy of good” argument.

 

[Scribe]

Funny how earlier in the thread it was your side making the “don’t let perfect be the enemy of good” argument.

Just an observation. This isnt even about 'perfection'. I dont think anyone is arguing there is a perfect answer, I'm just communicating what I personally was doing as I played around with making a party of 4.

I'm pretty sure you are aware of what my personal argument is, so picking out 'my side' seems counter productive anyway.

 

[Aldarc]

Please keep in mind that people can like/dislike a design decision for one or multiple reasons, whether it's on a metric of fun, real world politics, simulationism/abstraction, cultivated game experience, etc. It's not necessarily either/or for some of these issues. Carry on.

 

[Faolyn]

I elaborated on my response, but the short version is: in this thread I have seen lots of pro-ASI people assuming the anti-ASI people are arguing against biological essentialism. But the anti-ASI people are, as far as I've seen, basically saying, "Sure, Minotaurs tend to be stronger than Halflings. But modeling that by limiting player character options isn't useful." It's entirely a game design argument, and not at all about moral philosophy.

I'd like to add to this by noting that there are going to be, in general, maybe 4-6 player characters in an entire world. Maybe more if there are PC deaths or you keep playing in the same setting with a new party and don't "reboot it" between campaign.

Which literally means that there likely will be no more than one, maybe two halflings, out of tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, or even millions of halflings in any given world, that is stronger than minotaurs.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

I was thinking again....

...I guess this book will be publishe near Halloween.

The keys for a new PC race:

- Racial traits with a right power balance, for course. Some racial trait with a special touch, to feel your PC is different, but it has to be useful most of time. A gnome with "speak with animals" may be "exotic" but this will be more useful if the gnome can use this with his animal companion or familiar.

- Racial Traits have to allow flexibility, to avoid typecasting with certain classes, for example the classic halfling rogue or the gnome illusionis/bard.

- Interesting concept. This is very subjetive. It has to be a race a amateur writter would like to add to his own fantasy world writting a webnovel with zero gameplay. 3.5 Ed had got lot of new PC races, and most of them have been forgotten, for example today the psionic race nearest to a revival is the blueskin goblin subrace, because today lots of players would like to use them for their own rip-off of Grogu "baby Yoda". Have you seen the D&D races in the fan-art? Tielflings and dragobonr are tendency. I would bet if Kara-Tur player guide is published today, the most popular PC race from Kara-Tur would be the dragonborn subraces linked with the lungs (eastern dragons).

- Reborn have to prove they aren't warforged with a different name, but with their own mark of identity. Warforgeds start from zero, reborns lost memories from their previous lives.

- What if a dhampire bites a theriantrope? Bitting may be very risky from a hygienic point of view, it is like eating a sewer rat.

Can dhampires breed? What if anybody says vrylokas are dhampires' children? Should a dhampire bard worry about unwated pregnancies (or STDs)?

If dhampires are undead, can they get sick, or transmit contagious diseases? what if a louse, (female) mosquito or other bloodsucker parasite drinks dhampire's blood?

What happens if a Toreador dhampire is listening bard music? Can Lasombra dhampires see their own image on the mirror?

* What about racial subclasses? Something like the racial parangon classes from 3.5 Unearthed Arcana?

* Could hexblood used magic tokens and summoned creatures for special messages? For example a scroll for teletransportantion, or a magic rune with the same effect, sent by a falcon to the bedroom on the top of the tower when the window is opened. Better with an invisibility spell to avoid attacks by potential predators or males defending their territory.

 

[Faolyn]

Put a brick over an human, then over an ant. Who dies is weaker. STR in DnD is absolute, not relative and directly correlated with muscolar power.

The diabolical ironclad beetle can apparently survive being run over by a car. Humans can't.

Also, ants can carry something like 5,000 times their own weight.

(Also, look up people with dwarfism who are weightlifters.)

Edit: While strength does correlate with muscular power, not all muscles are built the same. I posted earlier about how chimps are quite a bit stronger than humans, because chimp muscles are built differently than human muscles are. Maybe the Small races in D&D have muscles more like chimps have than like humans have.