D&D (2024) How did I miss this about the Half races/ancestries

[Ruin Explorer]

Game stats wise though, you’re a Halfling. Talk about the most boring solution.

It's boring and kind of gross and erasure-y. I'm not impressed with it and I suspect if it comes up again for playtesting it's going to eat dirt, because most people just missed it the first time, and it hadn't been discussed much. Now it's been discussed a ton and people are not impressed.

 

[Sacrosanct]

My issue is, you aren't playing a "half orc half dwarf" you are playing an Orc who looks kind of dwarfish or visa versa.

That's like saying they should have one stat block for humanoids and just choose what you look like. "I'll put my +2 in Dex and I look like an Elf!" "I put my +2 in Str and look like a Dwarf!" Everyone just gets Darkvision because why not.

My son doesn't call himself half-white or half-black. He chooses himself who to identify as. And since racial modifiers are all the same now (floating), it doesn't really matter. If someone has a dwarf parent and an elf parent, they can choose to identify as dwarf, or elf, or neither if they want. It should be their choice.

 

[DarkCrisis]

My son doesn't call himself half-white or half-black. He chooses himself who to identify as. And since racial modifiers are all the same now (floating), it doesn't really matter.

I'm not saying they should keep with the Half-Whatever label. Just that calling a mixed race person a "You're really just one of those deep inside" just as bad.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I'm not saying they should keep with the Half-Whatever label. Just that calling a mixed race person a "You're really just one of those deep inside" just as bad.

It's arguably significantly worse, even.

 

[dave2008]

Yes, but from a practical standpoint, no DM (who doesn't want a headache) is going to mix and match the different versions depending on player preference.

Why not. They are just another class. It has worked fine to mix and match in our playtest and have adopted a playtest thief into our 2014 game with no issues.

 

[Undrave]

They couldn't come up with someway to combine an attribute of each to make something unique? Not just a weird looking basic Orc or Dwarf or Elf etc. Like pic one special ability of the Dwarf parent and one of the Orc parent (I have the Stonecunning of a Dwarf and the Aggression ability of the Orc) decide how you look (I'm light green like an Orc but the size and shape of a dwarf... with a beard!) Instead it's Im just a somewhat green Dwarf. Yawn.

I'd like them to name one feature of a species "signature" and allow swapping one signature feature for the other when you have mixed heriatge.

That's a laudable idea, but I worry about it branching out into unworkability. Coming up with combinations for nine base races is already a lot, and that number will only proliferate when you factor in the inevitable splatbook expansion (or even just existing races from 5E). Not to mention it leads to one wondering why it's only a one/one split; couldn't your half-orc have one parent that was a dwarf/human and another that was an orc/elf? What would that combination look like, in terms of traits?

The issue, as I see it, is that presenting the option of "universal interfertility" creates more problems than it's worth. The end result of that is that you end up needing some sort of table of racial characteristics, all with point values, and players get a pool of points to pick out their characteristics, after which they can define their lineage appropriately. And that leads to all sorts of issues, from game balance to expanded lists in new books to coming up with a reason why game worlds still have distinctive races at all if everyone's from a mixed background.

While less options tends to rub people the wrong way on general principle, keeping the game to the level of simplicity that the designers seem to want demands either an inelegant solution like the one presented in the OP, or simply sticking to the idea that most races can't interbreed, notwithstanding certain combinations such as the classic half-elf and half-orc.

Here's what I would do: each ancestry has two types of traits: Major Traits and Minor Traits. Depending on how powerful the Major Traits are, an ancestry could have more or less Minor Traits. When making a mixed ancestry character, you pick 1 base Ancestry and get the Major Traits and then you get to swap as many Minor Traits as you want from your other parents. Or heck, as many other ancestry as you want! Maybe your grand parents are all from different ancestry!

Maybe the Human's schtick would be to have lots of minor traits to swap?

 

[Minigiant]

Member of the Half Race Appreciation Society here.

I would accept dual race rules if we're are doing optional rules.

The feats are being pulled into another chapter so there is space for it.

I loved the flavor of the human ambition and elf longevity made the ultimate charismatic dabbler and the human body straighted the orc back to make them hit harder with big weapons.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

That's like saying they should have one stat block for humanoids and just choose what you look like. "I'll put my +2 in Dex and I look like an Elf!" "I put my +2 in Str and look like a Dwarf!"

There are games that do just like that. It works fine, although it's harder to sell future splatbooks this way.

 

[cranberry]

Why not. They are just another class. It has worked fine to mix and match in our playtest and have adopted a playtest thief into our 2014 game with no issues.

I was thinking in broader terms about mixing and tracking all of the rule changes between the two versions, not just the species.
I should have specified that in my OP.

 

[Emberashh]

Coming up with combinations for nine base races is already a lot, and that number will only proliferate when you factor in the inevitable splatbook expansion

May be the game doesn't need 50 gajillilon race options.