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]

okay, but why is it a poor design choice?

To me, it decreases distinction between lineage, and to me, that is a poor choice that doesn't increase diversity at all, it simply removes a mechanical difference.

 

[Chaosmancer]

Not really. Once they show their hand going forward in an official release (since they already have communicated intent) it will be pointless to continue. When I'm right, there won't be any reason to discuss it, and if I'm wrong, it will be the crowd wanting only Floating, that complains.

I'll just put pen to paper on a system better suited to how I look at a setting, I started gathering my notes yesterday.

This UA version of Templates won't work for me either, it's incomplete, but that's not the concern for this thread.

Probably not.

If you just have a sidebar, no one is going to complain about a quick build side bar, or of they do it will be for very weak reasons.

And if they reverse course and decide to make all future races with static ASIs... well, we'll probably say it was sad that all this belly aching caused them to reverse course, but all of those future races still fall under Tasha's optional rules, so it will be more complaining that people forced them to back down than it would be over the mechanics. And I don't see that spawning a 100 page thread, until someone asks if a mouse should be stronger than an elephant and we do yet another referendum on the Tasha's debate.

Edit: Also, isn't discussing this UA and any lacks it has the entire point a thread about the UA should have? I think it is real sad we can say this thread is no longer about discussing the UA.

 

[Scribe]

Edit: Also, isn't discussing this UA and any lacks it has the entire point a thread about the UA should have? I think it is real sad we can say this thread is no longer about discussing the UA.

I've tried several times to talk about the UA lineages.

I'm more interested in what other templates they could use, or what changes they could implement in these, but other then the reborn, they don't really grab me.

 

[Chaosmancer]

Seriously, this is why we cannot have nice things. You cannot give one species a small bonus in certain area, because then min-maxers will fixate on that, decide that is now the default and any species without that bonus is worthless. And then they have nerve to complain about the character choices being limited, even though the limitation only exists in their own head.

This is something that people accuse of us of all the time. And yet, if people only cared about min-maxxing... then they would min-max within the limits and be happy about it. They are min-maxxers, they only care about mechanical optimization, the race doesn't matter to them.

It is only us people who would prefer a 16 (oh no, I'm a min-maxxer, alert the authorities) and actually do care about the racial choice for story reasons who are negatively affected by this.

And yet, we don't need to discuss this any more, Tasha's is out and done.

 

[Morrus]

Because I.

1. Didn't want to do the work.

It's no work. If that's your argument, then fine - you do you - but I wouldn't expect anybody to be interested.

 

[Scribe]

It's no work. If that's your argument, then fine - you do you - but I wouldn't expect anybody to be interested.

There's no argument anyway, just people saying what I want or like is wrong, while telling me that to not allow a halfling to Max out Str is an injustice and crime against god.

 

[Morrus]

while telling me that to not allow a halfling to Max out Str is an injustice and crime against god.

Nobody said that.

They disagree with you. This is a thing that happens in conversations.

 

[Scribe]

Nobody said that.

They disagree with you. This is a thing that happens in conversations.

I've been consistently saying that they are free to do whatever they wish, that both systems can coexist, and that Floating could be official default for days. Dozens of times.

The only disagreement, is that I want a system, that they disagree with on principle and they don't even want it to be an option.

They are free to disagree, but there is no argument here. No debate, as there will be no resolution as we can only control our own tables and I'll never play with Floating.

So I mean we can keep going forever but I've been pretty consistent I feel.

 

[Chaosmancer]

I've tried several times to talk about the UA lineages.

I'm more interested in what other templates they could use, or what changes they could implement in these, but other then the reborn, they don't really grab me.

The "other templates" is something I've been thinking about.

Some of the most obvious ones are Fiendish, Celestials, Elementals, and Dragons. The issue is those are also repeat concepts in a lot of ways.

Wild magic is a clear one that I think would work well.

Then there are a few concepts that are... out there. Things like "blessed by the land" or other archetypical ideas that you could use, but I'm not sure how well those will work out.

 

[Scribe]

Some of the most obvious ones are Fiendish, Celestials, Elementals, and Dragons. The issue is those are also repeat concepts in a lot of ways

I'd have to dig it up, but Vampire was the big one I remember.

Lich?

I mean hexblood still doesn't fit in my mind, I guess I'm not familiar with the tropes, but this seems like a lower impact way to implement what in the 3.5 world was pretty strong.