D&D (2024) Half Race Appreciation Society: Why don't they just make a list?

[Kobold Stew]

I proposed something quite similar last week, here.

Spoiler

This could be easily done, maybe in a separate section like the multiclassing rules in the current PHB.

You could have a table listing the specific features that are gained/lost with mixed parentage: FOR EXAMPLE:
Human -- Versatile (but must take Skilled feat)
Ardling -- Clelestial Legacy
Dragonborn -- Draconic Ancestry and Breath Weapon
Dwarf -- Dwarven Toughness and Darkvision
Elf -- Elven Lineage
Gnome -- Gnomish Cunning
Halfling -- Luck
Orc -- Relentless Endurance
Tiefling -- Fiendish Legacy

So, to use an example of my best friend Rick's halforc/halfling chracter when we were 14, he could be small sized [i.e. building off the halfling], with Brave, Halfling Nimbleness, Naturally Stealthy, and the Orc's Relentless Endurance. (Or he could be medium sized [i.e. based on the orc], with Darkvision, Powerful Build, Adrenaline Rush, and the halfling ability Lucky.).

ps -- to be clear: the proposed list is to show ease of implementation, not to be dogmatic about specific traits represented.

It would be easy to implement, requiring less than half a column in a chapter where multiclassing is introduced.

 

[Minigiant]

I'm not saying this implementation is necessarily perfect, but the old system is almost certainly gone.

WotC is probably going to leave more granular mechanics to DMs Guild and thirty party publishers, both of which already have products like this.

I dunno.

Including a new race and the rules for half-new race might help sell weaker books. WOTC might not cede it to DMGuild in order make easy buzz for each new setting book.

 

[Benjamin Olson]

Preserving the old ways from being abused
Protecting the new ways for me and for you
What more can we do

 

[cbwjm]

I'm thinking of splitting racial features into major and minor. You get the major features from one parent, and minor ones from the other. Mind you, I'm probably only really going to support half-orcs and half-elves in my own setting so I might just set them up in DnDbeyond with set traits. Currently thinking resourceful and the elven lineage and fey ancestry for half-elves; resourceful, powerful build, and relentless endurance for half-orc. I'll have to have a good look at the abilities to lock it down though.

 

[Parmandur]

I think these new rules are here to stay, it matches what they did in the Critical Role books already.

Heritage Feats might be a cool way to make a character whose background revolves around being of Elven ancestry.

 

[Minigiant]

Preserving the old ways from being abused
Protecting the new ways for me and for you
What more can we do

Hmmm...

A song about the loss of traditional things and the quality of the new things that replaces them

 

[JEB]

I think these new rules are here to stay, it matches what they did in the Critical Role books already.

No rules like that in Wildemount or Call of the Netherdeep that I'm aware of. If you're referring to Tal'dorei Reborn, their "Mixed Ancestry" says to mix up traits from each parent race, not make them 100% the traits of one parent as in One D&D.

 

[Parmandur]

No rules like that in Wildemount or Call of the Netherdeep that I'm aware of. If you're referring to Tal'dorei Reborn, their "Mixed Ancestry" says to mix up traits from each parent race, not make them 100% the traits of one parent as in One D&D.

In Wildemointz in the section about the Dwarf-Elf kingdom.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

No rules like that in Wildemount or Call of the Netherdeep that I'm aware of. If you're referring to Tal'dorei Reborn, their "Mixed Ancestry" says to mix up traits from each parent race, not make them 100% the traits of one parent as in One D&D.

In Wildemointz in the section about the Dwarf-Elf kingdom.

It's just a small part of Explorer's Guide to Wildemount, but in the section on the Diarchy of Uthodurn, it mentions that elves and dwarves frequently get married and have children there, but they're not a new race, they just use whichever parent race's stats that you think would best fit the character.

 

[Parmandur]

It's just a small part of Explorer's Guide to Wildemount, but in the section on the Diarchy of Uthodurn, it mentions that elves and dwarves frequently get married and have children there, but they're not a new race, they just use whichever parent race's stats that you think would best fit the character.

Yeah, and also the Genasi Orc character prominent in Call of the Netherdeep. It really seems to have emerged as the done thing...