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."

 

[Scribe]

I'm shockingly lucky, but also quite lazy. The latter is the only thing preventing me from being the next Tolkien.

Honestly love that bit from David Eddings. "If this guys still in print (Tolkien) why cant I just write a series."

Wow, just found he and his wife did time for Child Abuse. Never look up your past favorite authors I guess. Ugh.

 

[Faolyn]

I'm tired of cultists. How many times in the official adventures are the bad guys groups of mostly humans worshipping something icky? We need to find some way to inject variety without running these other issues.

Last time I did cultists they were (a) halflings and (b) the actual cultist (of Vecna), also a halfling, was disguising himself as a tent preacher.

 

[Chaosmancer]

This one is a (elven) dog...

View attachment 132120

It said that, but there wasn't a link, so I didn't know if it was an actual dog or an elven dogman.

 

[Chaosmancer]

Well you can start trimming that list by removing all but one default setting from the game, but I expect there would be a lot of "but mah Greyhawk!!11!" Type responses. Esp if the default was Realms or Eberron.

Second, elves and dragons are literally the two most popular things in D&D. Elves are the most popular non-human race, dragons are the monster type in the title. Popular things tend to get a lot of variant versions as people want new spins in old faves. To whit, look at how many different types of stormtroopers or daleks have cropped up over 40+ years.

It's when people say "we don't need halflings AND gnomes" or "we don't need orcs, goblinoids and other humanoids", it always feels like the desire is to shrink and make the game duller and more uniform. The game is already low on unique low-level challenges, let's make it harder but making the only low level foes bandits and kobolds. It's akin to opening a pizza joint and only have pepperoni and mushrooms as toppings because those are the two most popular.

Sure, but... just how many mid to low CR "humanoid" monsters/races are there? (Using humanoid to refer to having language, culture and using weapons)

From 5e alone

Aarakocra, Azer, Bugbear, Bullywug, Centaurs, Cyclops, Doppelganger, Duergar, Drow, Ettin, Hobgoblin, Githyanki, Githzerai, Gnolls, Goblins, Grimlocks, Kenku, Kobold, Kuo-Toa, Lizardfolk, Merfolk, Merrow, Minotaur, Mindflayer, Myconid, Ogres, Orcs, Sahuagin, Salamander, Thri-Kreen, Troglodyte, Trolls, Yuan-Ti, Derro, Giff, Meazel, Shadar-Kai, Tortle, Chitine, Firenewt, Grung, Neogi, Vegepygmy, Xvart, Firbolgs, Goliaths, Tabaxi, Triton, Human, Elf, Dwarf, Halfling, Gnome, Dragonborn

Now, you likely noticed that I underlined and bolded some of them. Out of 53 races I listed here, I highlighted 32. That is 60% of them. All of the races I highlighted are generally presented as either 1) Tribal, 2) Violent by Nature 3) Prodigious Breeders 4) Cowardly and thieving 5) Stupid or some combination there of.

I'm simplifying, obviously, but let us take a look at this real fast.

Ogres are large, stupid, primitive people with no hygiene who smash people.
Hill Giants are large, stupid, primitive people with no hygiene who smash people.
Ettins are large, stupid, primitive people with no hygiene who smash people and have two heads
Cyclops are large, stupid, primitive people with no hygiene who smash people and have one eye
Grimlocks are large, stupid, primitive people with no hygiene who smash people and have no eyes
Trolls are large, stupid, primitive people with no hygiene who smash people and regenerate


Or how about this.

Goblins are small thieves and cowards, with a penchant for trickery and breeding quickly.
Kobolds are small thieves and cowards, with a penchant for trickery who worship dragons
Kenku are small thieves and cowards, with a penchant for trickery and can't talk
Meazels are small thieves and cowards, with a penchant for stealth and cruelty
Xvarts are small thieves and cowards, with a penchant for trickery.


Does it not seem that at some point... we have too much overlap? I mean, if I want savage raiders who live in tribes I can pick Orcs, Goblins, Bugbears, Grimlocks, Lizardfolk, Bullywugs, Gnolls, Sahuagin, Troglodytes, Goliaths, or Vegepygmies. Do I really need all of them?

And this is just 5e. I'm sure if I dug through more of DnD lore and history, I'd find even more races and examples. We just take the same tropes and repackage them with a new coat of paint, and we've done it so much, that we have a dozen options for the same trope over and over again.

 

[Chaosmancer]

Honestly love that bit from David Eddings. "If this guys still in print (Tolkien) why cant I just write a series."

Wow, just found he and his wife did time for Child Abuse. Never look up your past favorite authors I guess. Ugh.

Well, that was depressing to learn. I loved Eddings writing

 

[Azzy]

Well, that was depressing to learn. I loved Eddings writing

Same here. Sometimes ignorance is bliss. Sad that they only got 1 year in prisom for it. I hope that the child was able to overcome his trauma and abuse.

 

[Mind of tempest]

Well, that was depressing to learn. I loved Eddings writing

this is why these days I just assume people are rotten it works slightly better.

 

[Remathilis]

this is why these days I just assume people are rotten it works slightly better.

The advantage of being a pessimist is that you're always right or pleasantly surprised.

 

[Scribe]

Yeah, sorry folks.

 

[Faolyn]

Sure, but... just how many mid to low CR "humanoid" monsters/races are there? (Using humanoid to refer to having language, culture and using weapons)

From 5e alone

Aarakocra, Azer, Bugbear, Bullywug, Centaurs, Cyclops, Doppelganger, Duergar, Drow, Ettin, Hobgoblin, Githyanki, Githzerai, Gnolls, Goblins, Grimlocks, Kenku, Kobold, Kuo-Toa, Lizardfolk, Merfolk, Merrow, Minotaur, Mindflayer, Myconid, Ogres, Orcs, Sahuagin, Salamander, Thri-Kreen, Troglodyte, Trolls, Yuan-Ti, Derro, Giff, Meazel, Shadar-Kai, Tortle, Chitine, Firenewt, Grung, Neogi, Vegepygmy, Xvart, Firbolgs, Goliaths, Tabaxi, Triton, Human, Elf, Dwarf, Halfling, Gnome, Dragonborn

Now, you likely noticed that I underlined and bolded some of them. Out of 53 races I listed here, I highlighted 32. That is 60% of them. All of the races I highlighted are generally presented as either 1) Tribal, 2) Violent by Nature 3) Prodigious Breeders 4) Cowardly and thieving 5) Stupid or some combination there of.

I'm simplifying, obviously, but let us take a look at this real fast.

Ogres are large, stupid, primitive people with no hygiene who smash people.
Hill Giants are large, stupid, primitive people with no hygiene who smash people.
Ettins are large, stupid, primitive people with no hygiene who smash people and have two heads
Cyclops are large, stupid, primitive people with no hygiene who smash people and have one eye
Grimlocks are large, stupid, primitive people with no hygiene who smash people and have no eyes
Trolls are large, stupid, primitive people with no hygiene who smash people and regenerate


Or how about this.

Goblins are small thieves and cowards, with a penchant for trickery and breeding quickly.
Kobolds are small thieves and cowards, with a penchant for trickery who worship dragons
Kenku are small thieves and cowards, with a penchant for trickery and can't talk
Meazels are small thieves and cowards, with a penchant for stealth and cruelty
Xvarts are small thieves and cowards, with a penchant for trickery.


Does it not seem that at some point... we have too much overlap? I mean, if I want savage raiders who live in tribes I can pick Orcs, Goblins, Bugbears, Grimlocks, Lizardfolk, Bullywugs, Gnolls, Sahuagin, Troglodytes, Goliaths, or Vegepygmies. Do I really need all of them?

And this is just 5e. I'm sure if I dug through more of DnD lore and history, I'd find even more races and examples. We just take the same tropes and repackage them with a new coat of paint, and we've done it so much, that we have a dozen options for the same trope over and over again.

To be fair, a couple of those are elementals and won't be found on the Prime (azer, salamanders), or are quite pacifistic (myconids) in nature... but on the other hand, you missed several other creatures that (pterrafolk, crabfolk, aldani) that fill the "violent, thuggish humanoids" trope.

So yeah. Some overlap is OK, but D&D has a lot of overlap--even if you assume that these species live in very different parts of the world.

I'm working on a new setting (yet another one that I'll probably never run: sigh) and I'm going through the monsters one-by-one, not only picking out interesting monsters but figuring out what purpose they serve, if they have any interesting NPCs among them, if anyone in particular allies with them or hunts them, etc. Sure, for a bunch of them, it becomes "they're animals," but I've come up with the base elements of some potentially interesting factions.