D&D 5E D&D Studio Blog - Sage Advice - Creature Evolutions

There's a new D&D Studio Blog - Jeremy's posted about "Creature Evolutions": Creature Evolutions | Dungeons & Dragons

Some quick takeaways:

• Some creatures that were formerly humanoids will, going forward, be monstrosities, fey, or something else. ("Humanoid" is reserved for creatures with similar "moral and cultural range" to humans.)
• Alignment got put in a "time out".
• They've started using class tags so that DMs know that a particular NPC can attune to magic items limited to a particular class.
• Bonus actions get their own section in the stat block now.
• They've merged the Innate Spellcasting and Spellcasting traits and have gotten rid of spell slots.

Also some stuff we've already guessed based on the stat blocks and playable races in Wild Beyond the Witchlight.

There's also some Sage Advice on "rabbit hops" for harengon PCs.

 

[Bolares]

That like cow tipping, but with Gnolls they become chaotic evil?

Haha - he used a word wrong.

 

[Mistwell]

I hope for racial languages they put something like "Typically dwarvish" for Dwarves, for example. I'd prefer some notation of what the culture typically produces. I don't want the game drifting more towards the 4e "everything in the rulebooks is just the toolbox mechanics and you decide the fluff" mode. Yes, I can change the fluff, but I prefer professional game designers provide some guidelines for implied setting to work from to begin with. If typical Dwarvish cultures produce Dwarves who speak Dwarvish, please note that's what's typical and then I can decide if this Dwarf is atypical or if I am changing that implied culture for my setting.

 

[Yaarel]

Human: humanoid

Dragonborn: dragon
Dwarf: elemental
Elf: fey
Gnome: fey
Orc: giant
Tiefling: fiend
Warforged: construct



I wonder if a race can be more than one type, such as dragonborn being a humanoid dragon.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Artificers already get to use Mend to heal their steelbots so theres already precedent in 5e for Mend to be applied to Warforged too. Fabricate and Restoration could provide higher level repair

Dude they don’t even make tiny or large races, they aren’t going to make a race that can get healing from a cantrip or from high level spells but not from Cure Wounds.

Under, because of the healing limitations.

Edit: But thinking about it, you could easilly create a feature for warforged that circumvents that.
Organic Core. Warforged count as humanoid for the purpose of (insert a good word for healing effects here).

Easier to just keep them humanoids, tbh, but I could maybe see this.

Liability covered at the cost of every humanoid just being a person with a rubber mask. Won't change much for me but it doesn't feel like the right direction.

You really reading the Harengon and seeing a human [all PC races have always been people. That’s the point] with a rubber mask?

 

[Oofta]

You really reading the Harengon and seeing a human [all PC races have always been people. That’s the point] with a rubber mask?

I agree with many things being described as "typical" or "default". Things that are just the default should be spelled out clearly as the default even if though they've always been the default. I want some advice on how to make elves feel different from dwarves feeling different from humans even if most of the time it doesn't really make a difference.

It's just that after a point nothing feels special or distinct any more to me. Which doesn't really impact my home game, I just think the hobby loses something if it becomes just like Star Trek or Star Wars where every species (even most artificial life forms) no matter how alien pretty much think the exact same way. Probably inevitable as more and more playable races are added and any creature that was previously described as a monster that looks vaguely human become playable.

 

[Tonguez]

I hope for racial languages they put something like "Typically dwarvish" for Dwarves, for example. I'd prefer some notation of what the culture typically produces. I don't want the game drifting more towards the 4e "everything in the rulebooks is just the toolbox mechanics and you decide the fluff" mode. Yes, I can change the fluff, but I prefer professional game designers provide some guidelines for implied setting to work from to begin with. If typical Dwarvish cultures produce Dwarves who speak Dwarvish, please note that's what's typical and then I can decide if this Dwarf is atypical or if I am changing that implied culture for my setting.

I never liked racial languages, afterall Humans dont speak Humanish. Humans are allowed to have various ‘cultural’ languages so why doesnt that apply to other races too?

 

[Weiley31]

No matter what they do, at least I still have a playable Gnoll option.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

No matter what they do, at least I still have a playable Gnoll option.

I just wish that it was official. Both of 5e's Eberron and Exandria books explicitly mentioned how Gnolls are not innately evil, but failed to provide PC stats for them.

 

[Bolares]

I just wish that it was official. Both of 5e's Eberron and Exandria books explicitly mentioned how Gnolls are not innately evil, but failed to provide PC stats for them.

I think Keith Baker made a Gnoll on Exploring Eberron.... And as far as I'm concerned whatever he says is official

 

[Mistwell]

I never liked racial languages, afterall Humans dont speak Humanish. Humans are allowed to have various ‘cultural’ languages so why doesnt that apply to other races too?

Well they are not removing racial languages so that doesn't help with this issue. And "typical" means they are ALLOWED to have various cultural languages, right? If I tell you the typical person in Wyoming speaks English, does that imply to you that nobody in Wyoming speaks anything other than English, or that nobody in Wyoming speaks another language as their first language?