D&D 5E New Unearthed Arcana: Folk of the Feywild!

Wander into the magical realm of the Feywild with our latest Unearthed Arcana: Folk of the Feywild!

Your character can be a member of one of the new D&D races: fairy, hobgoblin of the Feywild, owlfolk, or rabbitfolk. Which will you choose?

Playtest now:

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

 

[JEB]

The spectacularly funny thing about this is you can search back into the early days of the forums, back to the 3e/3.5 days, and see this IDENTICAL criticism. Word for word. Since 3e came out 20 years ago, well, more actually, I'm really struggling to think that this is a new thing with a new zeitgeist.

3E removed some major boundaries, like race-class restrictions, but also kept many as well. Ability score penalties, alignment requirements for classes, etc. They also had pretty much the opposite approach to 5E for more powerful options - instead of scaling down monstrous races to balance them with core options, they used concepts like level adjustments or monster classes to balance out their advantages.

5E largely has avoided any sort of balancing disadvantages or similar boundaries, and those few they did have have since been removed, or are almost certainly going to be stripped away in the near future.

You can argue that this isn't a new trend, I suppose, but they've definitely shifted from believing in some boundaries in 3E, to none or almost none in 5E.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

I don't like the particular races, but I do like that racial abilties are still making differences.
I like not having racial ability bonuses but othe factors making the difference. I would like to see the perception proficiency removed from the owl folk and instead give a different advantage based on sight.
Same goes for the elf btw.

As to balancing of races: increasing the basline is the way to go.
Give a strong racial ability. Something that helps all classes but makes them truly unique. Make it so good, that flight is balanced with that.
Look at 4e for such abilities. Also look at the fey race of 4e i liked the Idea of flight which is limited to 10 ft or so above ground level.

 

[Mecheon]

Yep, and most heavy armor should be within that range. Also, eagles IIRC are not heavy flyers, but are much faster than birds like owls. For flyers with a higher fly speed I’m fine with lowered encumbrance and stricter “weight you can fly with” rules, but giants birds IRL (Haast’s eagle, for instance) could carry off fairly large prey like dogs and human children.

We don't know the specifics on weight, but Steller's Sea Eagle (The heaviest eagle) can make off with seal pups that could be roughly its weight.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

From the PH:

If you carry weight in excess of 5 times your Strength score, you are encumbered, which means your speed drops by 10 feet.​

​

If you carry weight in excess of 10 times your Strength score, up to your maximum carrying capacity [Str x 15 lbs], you are instead heavily encumbered, which means your speed drops by 20 feet and you have disadvantage on ability checks, attack rolls, and saving throws that use Strength, Dexterity, or Constitution.​

​

​

Should point out that this rule is optional, with simple encumbrance being the default.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

The same appeal as Hagrid from Harry Potter, or playing an Aasimar that is the child of an angel. It's cool/inspiring to have part of your character's parentage be grounded and realistic, while the other half is otherworldly and magical.

I played a half ogre back in 1st edition. But in 1st edition there where no size categories, rules for number of grid squares occupied, or large weapons. As such, his size had no mechanical effect. I seem to remember he was 7'8", which made him a similar size to a 5e goliath. I wouldn't need Lothric Skullspliter to be large in order to recreate the experience of playing him in 5e.

 

[Mecheon]

I seem to remember he was 7'8", which made him a similar size to a 5e goliath.

Goliaths specifically exist due to 3E half ogres being.... Well, 3E half ogres. Goliaths were a new-race version of them at medium that didn't have the issues half ogres did

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

D&D is using mythology and folklore from North Europe, and this is not wrong, but they could find more sources of inspiration in the folklore from the rest of the continent, the East and the Mediterranean regions.

The feygobling trait "fey gift" may be useful, but this has to be easy to understand and remembered in the battlefield. If the DMs and players have to remember a lot of details about when you can use an adventage or disaventage then combat become slower. If I use "smite" I have to remember the enemy after the hit suffers a disavantage on his next attack. The 5th is trying to use a simple system easy to be used by the new players. Could be fey gift be used for adventage to a will save check?

How would be the fey gift being used by nPCs (enemies or allies)? It may be too complex when several feygoblings are using "fey gift-smite" to remember when somebody suffer disaventage.

* About halfling fighters..... if you allow me to use Street Fighter characters as examples I can say Sakura, Cammy or Chun-li can defeat Blanka, Honda, Zangief, Abigail, Birdie or Alex... but to win she has to fight as Jackie Chan, not as a Bud Spencer's action-comedy movie. She has to be a fast fighter, not a heavywight. Halfling fighters can't fight as taller humanoids but with their own style, more slippery.

 

[Mind of tempest]

D&D is using mythology and folklore from North Europe, and this is not wrong, but they could find more sources of inspiration in the folklore from the rest of the continent, the East and the Mediterranean regions.

The feygobling trait "fey gift" may be useful, but this has to be easy to understand and remembered in the battlefield. If the DMs and players have to remember a lot of details about when you can use an adventage or disaventage then combat become slower. If I use "smite" I have to remember the enemy after the hit suffers a disavantage on his next attack. The 5th is trying to use a simple system easy to be used by the new players. Could be fey gift be used for adventage to a will save check?

How would be the fey gift being used by nPCs (enemies or allies)? It may be too complex when several feygoblings are using "fey gift-smite" to remember when somebody suffer disaventage.

* About halfling fighters..... if you allow me to use Street Fighter characters as examples I can say Sakura, Cammy or Chun-li can defeat Blanka, Honda, Zangief, Abigail, Birdie or Alex... but to win she has to fight as Jackie Chan, not as a Bud Spencer's action-comedy movie. She has to be a fast fighter, not a heavywight. Halfling fighters can't fight as taller humanoids but with their own style, more slippery.

but how do we explain str fighters and barbarians fighting giants with little effort?

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

How do you explain Krilin and Son Goku (child) killing dinosaurs with their own fists?

 

[Mind of tempest]

How do you explain Krilin and Son Goku (child) killing dinosaurs with their own fists?

that goku is a super human alien, krilin is largely dex based.