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."

 

[Catulle]

Look, IMO, the stat bonuses should be meaningful and present in the game. They should inform the norms for making an NPC, for worldbuilding, and for reading about them in the books.

And that should also be optional.

But I haven’t lost anything if I have to say, “Moat Goliaths in my campaign are stronger than most humans.”

Yep. That.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

But if the player wants to be an effective raging barbarian, all woad and the power of the spirits?

Got to be worse, sorry, it's not you.

It's your race.*

*choice of aesthetic

They will be significantly worse in that even with floating ASIs. Small creatures can't use heavy weapons. The solution would be to amend the barbarian class to better support dex builds, not homogenise all PC species.

 

[Catulle]

To me, fantasy lineages, are more than an aesthetic. That is it.

Is this about fantasy biotruths..?

 

[Scribe]

Is this about fantasy biotruths..?

If that is what you call world building when considering distinct species of sentient humanoids?

Yes?

If thats just another way to call me racist as multiple others have done, (I'm not familiar with the turn) well...no?

 

[Crimson Longinus]

So why does what another player does with their numbers matter so much to you, besides a desire to control how they engage with their fun?

Ideally I would be playing with people who have roughly similar idea of a) how the setting works b) how the rules represent that.

The characters inhabit the same reality, everyone needs to be on the same page. Though ultimately there is no right or wrong page, as long as it is the same one for all players. I wouldn't run a game where halflings and half-orcs are equally strong, and I would be hesitant to play in a campaign in which that was the case (completely irrespective of whether I was playing either species) as it would indicate to me that the GM and I would probably have differing opinions on verisimilitude.

 

[Alzrius]

FWIW Alzrius is a frequent-and-habitual upvoter of posts that get tagged for anti-inclusive content (go check it out). They're probably not worth engaging with directly. Tilting at windmills and all that.

Insulting other posters is not allowed on EN World. Moderation has been alerted to your infraction.

 

[Faolyn]

Frankly, this is nonsense. Flight speed game trait is not a biological thing. Wings sure are, and so is half-orcs being hella bigger than halflings. These species have certain biological differences and in the game these are represented with certain rules. Sometimes with ASIs when that makes most sense, sometimes with some other rule. You're making an completely arbitrary distinction here.

Show me a canonical PC race that has flight without wings. Go on. Closest I can think of is air genasi and their 1/rest levitation.

The only distinction is that wings, horns, and the rest are actually physically part of a character. I could draw a picture of a PC race with wings or horns. I have, in fact, done so. I can't draw a +2 to an attribute.

Right. And that halfling could (even before the floating ASIs) to later enhance their strength or gain magic items that do so. Why was that not good enough, and if the halflings should be allowed to take half-orc's strength bonus at the first level, why shouldn't the dwarf be allowed to take aarakocra's flight speed? After all they might be an exceptional PC dwarf, and spent their whole life practicing flying!

Why shouldn't a halfling get a Strength bonus at first level? So far, the answer has been "I don't like it." And that's not a convincing answer.

Also, every race has a +2 in one attribute, except humans. So if you take a halfling's +2 in Dex and turn it into a +2 in Strength, there's been no change to the halfling: it continues to have a +2 in one attribute.

If you give a dwarf a flying speed, you're actually giving it a new ability, which is entirely different than merely altering an existing one.

Also, you could create a brand new subrace called Winged Dwarfs, if you wanted to.

No you always could play those things. 15 is a good score. It is just because some players cannot handle anything other than being the best of the best that this whole discussion exists.

So then if halfling fighter rolled a 13 for Strength, it would be perfectly fine for them to put a floating +2 ASI into Strength, to raise it to 15. Yes?

 

[Catulle]

If that is what you call world building when considering distinct species of sentient humanoids?

Yes?

If thats just another way to call me racist as multiple others have done, (I'm not familiar with the turn) well...no?

Look, fella, I'm not the one that capitalised "Race" repeatedly earlier, despite it not being a thing in D&D vernacular English... I can only judge the evidence before me.

 

[Catulle]

Insulting other posters is not allowed on EN World. Moderation has been alerted to your infraction.

Factual reporting, however...

 

[Faolyn]

Not in the least, but its clear you have no desire to see what I'm saying.

I've seen what you're saying. But what you're saying is basically "I don't like it, therefore, nobody should either."

The Goliath should still get that +2 to Str, but as they continued to apply themselves on their journey, they could indeed achieve that 20 Int score. It would just take longer to get there.

So answer this: how does it make the game better or the player happier to force the player into putting a +2 bonus into an attribute they don't want it to?