D&D 5E Wow! No more subraces. The Players Handbook races reformat to the new race format going forward.

[Ixal]

And yet everyone's biology caps at 20 in all those stats.

Which is the actual rule that should be removed and replaced by 20+ASI

 

[Chaosmancer]

As I said before, ASI do not hamper creativity. A unwillingness of playing anything not optimized does.

People who do not play race/class combinations because of ASI will just not play race/class combination with a not synergyzing racial trait after ASI is removed.

This is not true. It has never been true. Heck, we've had posts of people realizing it isn't true and telling other people they've realized it isn't true.

At some point you need to realize that... it isn't true.

 

[Minigiant]

First, stat bonuses are a biological trait. Second, elves are agile and dexterous, so they should have non-racial abilities reflecting that. Abilities that humans with the same build should also have, if we follow what you've said here. Stocky humans should have dwarven endurance traits. A nd so on. That homogenization of the races. It may not make them identical, because as you've noticed elves live longer, etc., but it does move them closer to just being humans with a few differences.

Humans don't have dwarven biology ever unless they are half dwarf.

So a pure Human can never ever get a dwarven trait.

Likewise an elf should get a test that emphasizes their grace.

Emphasis and focus on ability adjustments for biological different races is a crutch for weak game design. A simple +2 dexterity does not display the grace and agility of a elf because it's only a +1 to a d20 roll.

And if you increase it, you get balance problems.

By using non-ability traits, you can invoke massive changes that display racial differences without breaking the game.

 

[Chaosmancer]

Which is the actual rule that should be removed and replaced by 20+ASI

Why? ASIs aren't biological so there is no reason to make this change. You can homebrew it if you want, but there is no reason for the game to follow this model. All it will do is pigeonhole concepts.

 

[Minigiant]

Which is the actual rule that should be removed and replaced by 20+ASI

I used to think that.

But in a short campaign I play with a DM with that rule saw the campaign end with all race/class stereotypes anytime someone died.

 

[Micah Sweet]

The point is that overemphasis of Racial Ability Score causes an issue with creativity of characters, groups, and worlds.

So WOTC is shifting to emphases to derived aspects that are useful to all character types from adjustments that that push particular classes.

Yeah, the previous 45 years have been so much less creative than the last couple.

 

[Scribe]

But it has always been possible to do, even with Halflings having a +0 strength and Goliaths having a +2 strength. As long as rolling the dice is an option, then the numbers are always going to be possible. This doesn't change that at all.

I'm not a fan of rolled stats either.

 

[Minigiant]

Yeah, the previous 45 years have been so much less creative than the last couple.

D&D officially has been running the same racial tropes the whole time.

Individual DMs and world holders might be creative. But the "official game" is very racially conservative. It rarely creates new settings with races in very new lights. At best it copies ideas from other games or DMs.

I mean this whole change is happening because players ask to break tropes so much now.

 

[Ixal]

Why? ASIs aren't biological so there is no reason to make this change. You can homebrew it if you want, but there is no reason for the game to follow this model. All it will do is pigeonhole concepts.

No matter how much some people want to deny it, ASI are biological both on a individual level (thats what rolled stats/starting array represents) and on a racial level (rottweiler vs. poodle. That is what ASI is)

D&D officially has been running the same racial tropes the whole time.

Individual DMs and world holders might be creative. But the "official game" is very racially conservative. It rarely creates new settings with races in very new lights. At best it copies ideas from other games or DMs.

I mean this whole change is happening because players ask to break tropes so much now.

Nothing prevented players from going against tropes in the last few decades. And its pretty much impossible to only have trope characters in the game. Elves also need construction workers at some point and among dwarves there will also be thieves.
And WotC and their authors are free to introduce such people without needing to make all races the same.

 

[Minigiant]

Nothing prevented players from going against tropes in the last few decades. And its pretty much impossible to only have trope characters in the game. Elves also need construction workers at some point and among dwarves there will also be thieves.

Of course. The point is to make it easier to relay new concepts.

The reason why cultural subraces might be gone is because DMs and Players might have different ones in their games.

A DM might use City and Wild elves for their game like how Dragon Age does it. So a generic Elf with a ton of proficiency options and bonuses to senses and AC is more useful than Elf, High, Elf, Wood, and Elf, Dark running on magic and +2 Dex/+1 mental stat.