D&D 5E Companion thread to 5E Survivor: Species

[CleverNickName]

It is as close as one can get though, no? Surely you would not argue that eating a single meal for the rest of your life, repeated precisely identically each time, would not be boring? Surely you would agree that if we replaced all paintings ever made with variations on the Mona Lisa, that would be boring because it is repetition without alternative?

That last bit is the important part. Repetition isn't the problem, it's a lack of meaningful alternatives. The reason I can eat a sandwich for every meal for every day of the year and still not get tired of sandwiches is because I have meaningful options. I can make a sandwich any way I like, with any ingredients I prefer in the moment. Today a PBJ, tomorrow a reuben. Sure, a sandwich is always going to be two slices of bread with stuff between them, but that doesn't mean they have to be repetitive. It's the "precisely identical each time" that makes it boring.

This is why I keep championing the Custom Lineage options in Tasha's Cauldron of Everything. Why do all dwarves have to be miners? Why do all elves have to be smart? Who says Aasimar can't be small-sized and fluent in Orc?

But clearly I'm in a very small minority, since that option didn't even last a day.

 

[Vaalingrade]

why do people keep upvoting the halflings they are duller than the seven times seven times seven damn elves for the love of the nailed god why do people love them so?

Because they're the best trad species due to being the most human (especially compared to humans). They're just good folks who want a good life and if they're an adventurer, there's a personal reason for it. Excellent baseline for a PC. The only issue is how much WotC HATES small people and tries to verisimilitude them out of certain roles.

 

[el-remmen]

Can we just agree that it is time to focus on downvoting the "half" races?

 

[Scribe]

This is why I keep championing the Custom Lineage options in Tasha's Cauldron of Everything. Why do all dwarves have to be miners? Why do all elves have to be smart? Who says Aasimar can't be small-sized and fluent in Orc?

Not to begin this war again, but because they have to at least be SOMETHING.

Can we just agree that it is time to focus on downvoting the "half" races?

Your refusal to focus on Gnomes, means one thing....

 

[EzekielRaiden]

Because they're the best trad species due to being the most human (especially compared to humans). They're just good folks who want a good life and if they're an adventurer, there's a personal reason for it. Excellent baseline for a PC. The only issue is how much WotC HATES small people and tries to verisimilitude them out of certain roles.

Well, there is one other issue. (Possibly more, this is just one I know of.)

Humans don't like being short. Height communicates power in essentially all human cultures. Most CEOs are tall, for instance. Height correlates with intelligence and wealth and a bunch of other things, and this is something humans are instinctively aware of. So short races naturally have a bias to struggle against.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

Not to begin this war again, but because they have to at least be SOMETHING.

Do they? What does that even mean?

 

[Scribe]

Do they? What does that even mean?

Whats a dwarf?

 

[EzekielRaiden]

Whats a dwarf?

A miserable pile of secrets.

 

[Mind of tempest]

Thing is, I dont think thats dull, I think they are there (in other worlds outside of Tolkiens) because they should be there. As tropes, as archetypes, they are universal, at least to my experience in relation to how I view the world, because of my own world view, upbringing, experiences, and so on. They are British, and that is where my roots lay.

They do what they are meant to do, as yes defined by Tolkien, and if people need something different (and there IS scope for it, your Dragonborn among them!) then do so with those things.

Elves and Halflings (Hobbits) are what they are, so why change it?

my roots are british yet we clearly see things differently.

the problem is when a thing is endlessly mindlessly copied to the point of uselessness it becomes dull, and few innovate or make a new archetype for them.

I respect Tolkien's ability, but living in his shadow would deprive us of what we could make.

because i like them.

fair reasoning.

That last bit is the important part. Repetition isn't the problem, it's a lack of meaningful alternatives. The reason I can eat a sandwich for every meal for every day of the year and still not get tired of sandwiches is because I have meaningful options. I can make a sandwich any way I like, with any ingredients I prefer in the moment. Today a PBJ, tomorrow a reuben. It's the "precisely identical each time" that makes it boring.

This is why I keep championing the Custom Lineage options in Tasha's Cauldron of Everything. Why do all dwarves have to be miners? Why do all elves have to be smart? Who says Aasimar can't be small-sized and fluent in Orc?

But clearly I'm in a very small minority, since that option didn't even last a day.

I dislike it out of implementation it doesn't feel very interesting, more every possible version of just jam sandwiches than the other options.

Because they're the best trad species due to being the most human (especially compared to humans). They're just good folks who want a good life and if they're an adventurer, there's a personal reason for it. Excellent baseline for a PC. The only issue is how much WotC HATES small people and tries to verisimilitude them out of certain roles.

okay so past being nice and small I am seeing nothing.

 

[Vaalingrade]

okay so past being nice and small I am seeing nothing.

You don't have to. You've got other options. Just let me have mine and take gnomes away from everyone.