D&D General What is the purpose of race/heritage?

[Reynard]

of the scale of minor "ribbon" D&D heritage effects

I keep seeing this term pop up. What does it mean in this context?

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I find the argument that you can't play a race unless you have four pretty much meaningless racial features that you barely use and are completely overshadowed by the myriad of Class features you are actually using to be a relatively weak one. But that's me.

Look, I say this with respect, but no one cares how compelling you find their reasons for playing a thing.

Your post is dismissive for no reason of the preference for mechanical representation of thematically important elements, and utterly ignores most of the post it replies to.

 

[DEFCON 1]

Look, I say this with respect, but no one cares how compelling you find their reasons for playing a thing.

Your post is dismissive for no reason of the preference for mechanical representation of thematically important elements, and utterly ignores most of the post it replies to.

If you don't care, why did you bother responding to me? You could have let the post go through and just thought "Meh... that's just DEFCON being DEFCON" and nothing would have happened. But instead, you chose to quote my post to tell me why you thought I was wrong. Which is cool... I don't mind. But I then chose to respond back to say I think you're wrong. Seems like a fairly typical EN World exchange.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

If you don't care, why did you bother responding to me? You could have let the post go through and just thought "Meh... that's just DEFCON being DEFCON" and nothing would have happened. But instead, you chose to quote my post to tell me why you thought I was wrong. Which is cool... I don't mind. But I then chose to respond back to say I think you're wrong. Seems like a fairly typical EN World exchange.

My initial reply was respectful toward your points. I didn’t dismiss your POV as “weak” or try to paint it as irrational or otherwise try to invalidate it.

Edit: I guess that does make it a typical interaction around here, but a thing being typical does not make it excusable.

 

[DEFCON 1]

My initial reply was respectful toward your points. I didn’t dismiss your POV as “weak” or try to paint it as irrational or otherwise try to invalidate it.

Edit: I guess that does make it a typical interaction around here, but a thing being typical does not make it excusable.

I guess I don't find saying an argument is weak to be disrespectful. But if you do, then sorry about that.

 

[Gimby]

I keep seeing this term pop up. What does it mean in this context?

Abilities that have a minor mechanical impact but are explicitly called out in a heritage or class writeup. Dwarven ability to know whether floor is sloped, that kind of thing

 

[CreamCloud0]

Abilities that have a minor mechanical impact but are explicitly called out in a heritage or class writeup. Dwarven ability to know whether floor is sloped, that kind of thing

Yeah, stuff that’s there more for flavour rather than any real practical applications discounting rare niche circumstances

 

[Guest 7034872]

Ahh...so like the ribbons adorning a wrapped Christmas gift, is that it?

 

[Reynard]

Abilities that have a minor mechanical impact but are explicitly called out in a heritage or class writeup. Dwarven ability to know whether floor is sloped, that kind of thing

Why "ribbon" I wonder.

Also, I hate jargon.

 

[Mannahnin]

Ahh...so like the ribbons adorning a wrapped Christmas gift, is that it?

Yes, I think so. I think ENworld was the first place I ever saw this term used for minor character abilities, but it was fairly intuitive in context.