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."

 

[Crimson Longinus]

I think the crux of the issue is:

Do many think the Goliath Rogue with +2Str/+1Con is still a strong enough PC to be consider a serious character for completing quests under the baseline assumptions?

And I think despite people saying 5e is easy, the push for floating ASIs is that many are saying "No".

The questions to me are "Why?" and "How?". Are people bring OSR Grindfest mentalities to 5e? If so.. makes sense.

I don't think that complaints about 5e being too easy and common desire to minmax every character are necessarily unrelated phenomena...

 

[Aldarc]

We are, and it doesnt mean a Halfling should be a Str based Fighter, on par with Goliath or Half-Orc, because in my fantasy world, there is still internally logical consistency where a 3 foot tall being doesnt have the mass to hit nearly as hard as races predisposed to physical combat.

At your table? In your world? Do whatever, have fun.

Your internally consistent fantasy world is irrelevant, as it's your ideal, and we are talking about the game of D&D 5e as presented by WotC. If you want to play 5e as it was originally sold to you, you have always bene choosing to play a game where a halfling barbarian can use the standard array and still end up with a 24 Strength and 24 Constitution at level 20.

Floating ASI does invalidate that races are predisposed to certain tasks by their very nature.

I want more racial distinction in the game, not less. Simple as that.

How does it invalidate that? I just pointed to Savage Attacks with half-orcs. Floating ASIs does not erase Savage Attacks, does it? Is that not a predisposition towards certain tasks? Do you not not know what Savage Attacks is or how it works? It seems preposterous to me that someone would argue that the only metric for a predisposition towards certain tasks is via lineage ASIs rather than other perks the lineage may receive.

 

[Scribe]

Yes, Savage Attacks is. That doesnt mean we throw out ASI. Like I said, I want more race distinction, not less.

You know what else though? I'm more than happy to have Floating ASI as an ADDITIONAL OPTION.

You see, I dont care what you do. I dont care what your table does. I dont care if you make Halflings the strongest race in the game.

I care that Wizards continues to provide a system that demonstrates restriction at the ASI level as an official option.

 

[Morrus]

On that note, Morrus, what exactly are the 5E stats for Zidi Wheatling the Halfling Titan?

I've no idea. She's a character concept. I believe I told you I was done with discussing the strong halfling. Drop it.

 

[Minigiant]

I don't think that complaints about 5e being too easy and common desire to minmax every character are necessarily unrelated phenomena...

Well then what is it?

The only reason for floating racial asi is to great specific arrays or to mitigate bad rolls in order to create competent PCs.

If bad rolling or strict arrays aren't allowed at your table, then there isn't a real need for floating racial ASI on the player side.

 

[Aldarc]

Almost seems like its people wanting to simply tell their DM to shove it, when it comes to ASI and Race combinations, because this could all be done already.

Let's see here, so far people who have advocated for the floating ASIs have been accused of within at least the past day of discussion of (1) just pushing social issues onto the game, (2) being min-maxers pretending to care about social justice issues, and (3) just wanting to tell their DM to shove it. Are there any other disrespectful bad takes on people who may disagree with you that I'm missing?

 

[Scribe]

Let's see here, so far people who have advocated for the floating ASIs have been accused of within at least the past day of discussion of (1) just pushing social issues onto the game, (2) being min-maxers pretending to care about social justice issues, and (3) just wanting to tell their DM to shove it. Are there any other disrespectful bad takes on people who may disagree with you that I'm missing?

Chin up, let me know when your called a racist and a mysoginist.

 

[Aldarc]

I don't think that complaints about 5e being too easy and common desire to minmax every character are necessarily unrelated phenomena...

I do, because min-maxing every character has been a consistent thing for three editions now, not including Pathfinder 1 and 2, and there are likely old threads one could dig up here to prove it. It's simply a part of character building.

 

[Scribe]

I do, because min-maxing every character has been a consistent thing for three editions now, not including Pathfinder 1 and 2, and there are likely old threads one could dig up here to prove it. It's simply a part of character building.

Interesting concept there from a game design perspective, but if the assumption is 'minmax must take place' and that is what the game is balanced around, then good luck in keeping variety and diversity in your play options. No game that I have played at a 'hardcore' level holds up under that pressure, without flattening the players options into an illusion of choice.

 

[IndigoTraveler]

I mean look at it now.

If someone says "Sure. You can play an orc wizard. You are the loremasterapprentice for an orc tribe". Sure. However getting that +2 Strength to matter for your orc wizard is a doozy. Strength is usually leveraged via heavy armor, martial weapons, and Athletics skill. Stuff wizards don't have. So you have to multiclass and take feats just to use your +2 to Strength. Sucking even more power out your already underoptimized PC.

OR

The game could have wizard subclass that lets the orc wizard use Strength in come way.

Carbon 2185, a 5E Cyberpunk game, does something similar to what you suggest, where it allows you to use STR for Heavy Ranged Weapons, like a Gatling Gun, instead of DEX for both attack and damage rolls.