D&D 5E Ability Score Increases (I've changed my mind.)

[Maxperson]

But isn't everyone upset that you can no longer play against type?

If you remove the ability to play against type for those races with type, sure.

An argument can also be made that classes you commonly see due to racial bonuses are also a form of type, so in that context I suppose Genasi and such have a type.

That was the discussion you were having with @Bill Zebub , wasn't it? That you could no longer play against type for a dwarf or an elf. And yet, here, we find out that there were multiple races in the game that never even had a type to play against. If it was never a problem that humans, genasi, aasimar, shifters and others all didn't have a type to play against...

None of the races without types matter. They're completely irrelevant to the discussion about races with types having those types go away.

 

[Scott Christian]

To have "clear" good guys and "clear" bad guys, almost implies that there is no free will, ... in which case, neither can they be "good" or "bad".

Somewhat seriously, can you describe a setting premise in where such a clear division between good and evil is plausible?

Many settings...
You can look at the gods and their influence. (Forgotten Realms is ripe with this.)
You can look to the natural intent of the creature. An intent that is extremely difficult to resist. (Mind flayers have been used as an example because they feed on the brains of creatures they consider lesser than them.)
You can look at cultural directives. (A militant force that raids, rapes, and kills civilians to inspire fear.)
You can look at a setting where a group has been cursed. (Norse and Greek and Japanese mythology offer examples of this.)

In all of these impose on freewill, be it by divinity, nature, culture or curses. All of these can be used as a setting premise to explain a bad group.

 

[Scribe]

Not generic enough.

Especially how religions work and how the multiverse works, also which races and classes are present, etcetera, are highly specific to Forgotten Realms, and unlike other settings.

Which again, is why a 6e reflecting a more cosmopolitan modern look, with a new setting divorced from decades of world build must take place.

 

[Scribe]

To have "clear" good guys and "clear" bad guys, almost implies that there is no free will, ... in which case, neither can they be "good" or "bad".

Somewhat seriously, can you describe a setting premise in where such a clear division between good and evil is plausible?

I am thinking of Star Wars, which is basically Good freedom versus Evil imperialism. But even then, the imperialists werent all monolithically Evil. There were a few clear villains, but then entire planets caught up in the misguided ideology, a planet with many innocents.

Right, but it is still a setting of Good and Evil. You call it out yourself.

 

[Yaarel]

They did. No setting is strong-armed in the PHB. There are only mentions that are described and not prescribed.

The Players Handbook fails to mention the Cleric class being about a "cosmic force".

Xanathars does, and the core rules of the Players Handbook can update to do so too.

As is currently, the Players Handbook details and supports the polytheism of Forgotten Realms.

 

[PsyzhranV2]

Real life has no place in this discussion. Nothing I'm saying is making any attempt to mirror reality. That's like the point and everything! We don't want to have reality in the game.

Well, reality's there whether you realize it or not. And even if you don't see it, somebody else eventually will. That's the issue with escapism; if you go out of your way to try to escape reality, you've already failed.

"The problem with escapism is that when you read or write a book society is in the chair with you. You can't escape your history or your culture. So the idea that because fantasy books aren't about the real world they therefore 'escape' is ridiculous. Fantasy is still written and read through the filters of social reality. That's why some fantasies (like Swift's Gulliver's Travels) are so directly allegorical--but even the most surreal and bizarre fantasy can't help but reverberate around the reader's awareness of their own reality, even if in a confusing and unclear way." - China Mieville

 

[the Jester]

What is against type for a Genasi anyways? Or an Aasimar? Or a Shifter?

Seems to me that there are a lot of races without a "Defined type" to go against.

I find that to be a pretty strong argument against including all the various race options willy-nilly, actually.

 

[Yaarel]

If you remove the ability to play against type for those races with type, sure.

An argument can also be made that classes you commonly see due to racial bonuses are also a form of type, so in that context I suppose Genasi and such have a type.

None of the races without types matter. They're completely irrelevant to the discussion about races with types having those types go away.

When playing against "type", I would rather have a "faction" define the type, rather than an entire race.

 

[Maxperson]

The Players Handbook fails to mention the Cleric class being about a "cosmic force".

It does! But that has nothing to do with the Forgotten Realms.

Xanathars does, and the core rules of the Players Handbook can update to do so too.

I hope so. That was a good option.

As is currently, the Players Handbook details and supports the polytheism of Forgotten Realms.

As it does Greyhawk, Eberron, Dragonlance, Nonhumans, Celts, Greeks, Egptians, etc. That's not a prescription for the Realms, but simply a description of all the options.

 

[Maxperson]

Well, reality's there whether you realize it or not. And even if you don't see it, somebody else eventually will. That's the issue with escapism; if you go out of your way to try to escape reality, you've already failed.

Yes. I'm aware that people often imagine real life connections that don't exist. Some very few rare connections are there, like the Vistani, but for the most part they don't. They see some obscure similarity to something and immediately see that as the absolute reason the designer put it into the game.