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."

 

[JEB]

I don’t really see them adding the old racial based mods as a sidebar going forward in the same way they didn’t have a sidebar in 3E about how to use THACO.

With respect, there's a big difference between "supporting an older edition of the game with very different rules and assumptions" and "supporting the rules in the same edition as they stood two months ago". The analogy doesn't really hold up.

 

[Faolyn]

I've explained it before, but I'll try again. Some people are happy with being a "typical" halfling or elf or orc, and don't want to have to think about it. Having default ASIs gives them what they want and saves them the trouble of pondering the matter, so they can get to gaming. Other folks want to be rebels, and having the default ASI therefore tells them what NOT to do. So it's helpful for them too.

Halflings get +2 to Dex, which makes them equally good at being rogues, monks, or any sort of martial that chooses to rely on ranged or versatile weapons. Orcs get +2 to Strength, but that can benefit them as any martial, a monk, many types of cleric, or even a frontline hexblade warlock.

In neither case does the stat bonus actually guide you to what class to play. What actually guides you are the tropes in your head, which is why most people think halfling rogue and not elf rogue, even though elves are just as Dexterous as halflings are and wood elves are even batter at hiding than halflings are. Instead, you tend to think of an elf druid, ranger, or wizard--even though their actual ASIs only tangentially support those builds.

You may be imagining cheery halfling thief or arcane trickster and brutal orc berserker as the "typical" build, but a murderous halfling long death monk and kind-hearted orc devotion paladin in shining armor are equally typical going purely by racial stats. Which means that these stats are not actually at all helpful.

In the game I'm running, there's actually both a (mostly cheery) halfling arcane trickster and an orc barbarian (who is actually more sweet than brutal), and they're both great characters. But neither of them were quick builds.

Either way, what's the harm in having defaults, if you also have floating?

Look, there's nothing wrong with a sidebar saying "historically, people gave thri-kreen +2 Con," even though the idea of healthy thri-kreen could be just as easily explained in a less-clumsy way in the flavor text. And your existing books are not suddenly going to be rewritten to exclude all that previously-written information.

The problem is with people who insist that nothing, not even divine intervention, can allow a nontypical member of a race; or who claim that players who want to put a +2 in a stat other than their racial stat are somehow not as good at roleplaying as players who don't, but that making a player play a race they don't want to just to get that +2 bonus us somehow not minmaxing.

 

[Zardnaar]

Halflings get +2 to Dex, which makes them equally good at being rogues, monks, or any sort of martial that chooses to rely on ranged or versatile weapons. Orcs get +2 to Strength, but that can benefit them as any martial, a monk, many types of cleric, or even a frontline hexblade warlock.

In neither case does the stat bonus actually guide you to what class to play. What actually guides you are the tropes in your head, which is why most people think halfling rogue and not elf rogue, even though elves are just as Dexterous as halflings are and wood elves are even batter at hiding than halflings are. Instead, you tend to think of an elf druid, ranger, or wizard--even though their actual ASIs only tangentially support those builds.

You may be imagining cheery halfling thief or arcane trickster and brutal orc berserker as the "typical" build, but a murderous halfling long death monk and kind-hearted orc devotion paladin in shining armor are equally typical going purely by racial stats. Which means that these stats are not actually at all helpful.

In the game I'm running, there's actually both a (mostly cheery) halfling arcane trickster and an orc barbarian (who is actually more sweet than brutal), and they're both great characters. But neither of them were quick builds.


Look, there's nothing wrong with a sidebar saying "historically, people gave thri-kreen +2 Con," even though the idea of healthy thri-kreen could be just as easily explained in a less-clumsy way in the flavor text. And your existing books are not suddenly going to be rewritten to exclude all that previously-written information.

The problem is with people who insist that nothing, not even divine intervention, can allow a nontypical member of a race; or who claim that players who want to put a +2 in a stat other than their racial stat are somehow not as good at roleplaying as players who don't, but that making a player play a race they don't want to just to get that +2 bonus us somehow not minmaxing.

Part of it is power creep and Tasha's half assed it. If the race is built from the ground up it's probably fine. Xanathars Guide to Powercreep and Tasha's Cauldron of Broken things crank up the power levels.

So it makes an easy game even easier my life as a DM even harder and the various rules are uneven such as the variant class rules.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

The problem is with people who insist that nothing, not even divine intervention, can allow a nontypical member of a race;

I'm sure divine interventions and other such circumstances can justify all sorts of things, be it super strong halflings (that you want to be the default) and winged dwarves (which you presumably don't.)

But here's the thing, some of us don't want first level D&D characters to be some super special, divinely-blessed chosen ones. Now having such characters if fine, if everyone agrees to that, but I feel that should be something specifically chosen, not just baked into standard character creation rules.

 

[Older Beholder]

With respect, there's a big difference between "supporting an older edition of the game with very different rules and assumptions" and "supporting the rules in the same edition as they stood two months ago". The analogy doesn't really hold up.

Most analogies have flaws, and I'm wrong on a daily if not hourly basis.
So I guess you've got nothing to worry about.

 

[Chaosmancer]

All this talk and no one asked what class Victor Frankenstein is yet?

Coward with a dash of Artificer

 

[JEB]

You may be imagining cheery halfling thief or arcane trickster and brutal orc berserker as the "typical" build, but a murderous halfling long death monk and kind-hearted orc devotion paladin in shining armor are equally typical going purely by racial stats. Which means that these stats are not actually at all helpful.

Just because the stats are not helpful for you doesn't mean that they're not helpful for other players, who don't put nearly the thought into character creation that you do. Some people have said they like having them. So let them have them.

In the game I'm running, there's actually both a (mostly cheery) halfling arcane trickster and an orc barbarian (who is actually more sweet than brutal), and they're both great characters. But neither of them were quick builds.

That's great that you didn't need quick builds. Does that mean that quick builds shouldn't exist?

Look, there's nothing wrong with a sidebar saying "historically, people gave thri-kreen +2 Con," even though the idea of healthy thri-kreen could be just as easily explained in a less-clumsy way in the flavor text. And your existing books are not suddenly going to be rewritten to exclude all that previously-written information.

The problem is with people who insist that nothing, not even divine intervention, can allow a nontypical member of a race; or who claim that players who want to put a +2 in a stat other than their racial stat are somehow not as good at roleplaying as players who don't, but that making a player play a race they don't want to just to get that +2 bonus us somehow not minmaxing.

I feel like this argument is being addressed at someone other than me? The philosophy behind floating ASI vs. fixed ASI is irrelevant to me, as long as both approaches continue to be supported.

 

[Minigiant]

Artificer. Alchemist, most likely, or possibly some heretofore unwritten Biomancer archetype.

Artificer works out of what we got.

But a real mad scientist needs a new subclass.

Coward with a dash of Artificer

Barbarian: Hmmm. So he's a wizard too.

 

[Faolyn]

That's great that you didn't need quick builds. Does that means that quick builds shouldn't exist?

You're very much misunderstand what I wrote, which is: the quick builds you think exist for the races actually don't exist. Picking a Dex-based race only narrows down the options from 12 or 13 to 5 or 6 Dex-based classes and leaves 6 or 7 "rebel" builds, and doesn't even come close to addressing the archetype issue. As an example, Dexterity isn't important for warlocks but can be important for Bladelocks. Charisma isn't normally important for rogues, but is important for Swashbucklers.

So when you say "Some people are happy with being a "typical" halfling or elf or orc, and don't want to have to think about it. Having default ASIs gives them what they want and saves them the trouble of pondering the matter" you're ignoring that there really is no typical halfling or elf or orc class combo.

I'm sure divine interventions and other such circumstances can justify all sorts of things, be it super strong halflings (that you want to be the default) and winged dwarves (which you presumably don't.)

I think you know as well as I do that it's ridiculous to compare wings to an abstract stat bonus. You're pulling out really stupid strawmen here.

For starters, all races (with only a tiny handful of exceptions) get a +2/+1. Therefore, switching where that +2/+1 goes does nothing to affect balance. Only what, the aarakocra and maybe one other, get flight? And if you look at their stats, you see they have very few other useful traits. Thus, adding wings to a dwarf really upsets the balance unless you take a lot of other stuff away.

There are many ways to justify a high-Strength halfling without resorting to divine blessings. There are basically no ways to justify a dwarf born with wings without completely rewriting the dwarf.

Part of it is power creep and Tasha's half assed it. If the race is built from the ground up it's probably fine. Xanathars Guide to Powercreep and Tasha's Cauldron of Broken things crank up the power levels.

How does a halfling who trades Dex for Strength break the balance?

 

[Zardnaar]

You're very much misunderstand what I wrote, which is: the quick builds you think exist for the races actually don't exist. Picking a Dex-based race only narrows down the options from 12 or 13 to 5 or 6 Dex-based classes and leaves 6 or 7 "rebel" builds, and doesn't even come close to addressing the archetype issue. As an example, Dexterity isn't important for warlocks but can be important for Bladelocks. Charisma isn't normally important for rogues, but is important for Swashbucklers.

So when you say "Some people are happy with being a "typical" halfling or elf or orc, and don't want to have to think about it. Having default ASIs gives them what they want and saves them the trouble of pondering the matter" you're ignoring that there really is no typical halfling or elf or orc class combo.


I think you know as well as I do that it's ridiculous to compare wings to an abstract stat bonus. You're pulling out really stupid strawmen here.

For starters, all races (with only a tiny handful of exceptions) get a +2/+1. Therefore, switching where that +2/+1 goes does nothing to affect balance. Only what, the aarakocra and maybe one other, get flight? And if you look at their stats, you see they have very few other useful traits. Thus, adding wings to a dwarf really upsets the balance unless you take a lot of other stuff away.

There are many ways to justify a high-Strength halfling without resorting to divine blessings. There are basically no ways to justify a dwarf born with wings without completely rewriting the dwarf.


How does a halfling who trades Dex for Strength break the balance?

Probably doesn't but some if the other races get a big power up eg Mountain Dwarves, Satyrs and Yuan Ti.

If I say yes to the Halfling and another player wants one of those races that's a problem.

DM rulings need to be consistent IMHO.