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

[Eubani]

To play the devils advocate here,

we could word it as dominant and recessive genes not races/species.
Like those genes that exist in real world.

I.E.

lets say that Elves all get proficiency and expertise in Perception.
Humans get skill versatility in two skills.

Half elves then could get proficiency in perception(dominant gene) and one skill for skill versatility.
No expertise in Perception as that could be recessive gene and both parents must have it.

Given the type of people who complain about this sort of thing, do you really want to use words such as dominant.

 

[Horwath]

Given the type of people who complain about this sort of thing and their quest for things to be upset about, do you really want to use words such as dominant.

Yes!

Dominance (genetics) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Eubani]

Yes!

Dominance (genetics) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

I know the meaning, but others do not let scientific accuracy to get in the way of such things.

 

[Blue Orange]

Given the type of people who complain about this sort of thing, do you really want to use words such as dominant.

Honestly, the kink context is consensual, so you might get away with it.

 

[Remathilis]

As I explained. It deprives them of their only feat to customize their character.

On the other hand, it is better than now, where you don't have a feat at all.

I still think, if you have one major trait packet for every species, thaz is equivalent of a feat, that you can swap with another one to make "half" species, you would sovle two issues in ome go.

So youbwant a tiefling elf? Swap out fey heriatage with tiefling heritage and you are good.

Of course, the biggest hurdle to this is that the species, even as of the last packet, were not balanced enough to break down into swappable packets. Some species have only one or two major abilities and some have a load of small ones. Further, some of those abilities define the species in question and there just isn't enough minor abilities to make it work. (My first PC would be a dragonborn-aarakroca, because flying and breath weapon at level 1 is kewl). You'd have to completely rebalance every species (moreso than is being done now) and then redo all the legacy ones too. And now we are firmly into "new, incompatible edition" territory.

I'd love to see a lot more customization, but being pragmatic about what can be done in a revision, I see three options:

1. Rename the half-elf and orc and declare they are the only interspecies combos with unique traits.
2. Do the "mixed species is an aesthetic choice" like they are doing.
3. Kick it to the DMG with advice on how to mix lineages, but leave it up to the DM/community to do that work.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Never ascribe to lack of racial perspective what can way more easily be ascribed to an overly simplistic design philosophy.

I can see plenty of my relatives just going 'welp, just pick one' without thinking it through without considering what it says about them until it's pointed out. Hell, a lot of my relatives said 'just pick one' when I came home complaining about the narrow choices I had to pick from on my standardized tests. And I'm third generation mixed.

I mean, I definitely hear that, I just think the two might have aligned in this specific instance. That said, there are people who have more perspective who do also subscribe to the "pick one" philosophy re: ethnicity (in the US at least sometimes in part as a reaction to the "one drop" evil and its consequences), but it's extremely reductive approach that really tends to leave mixed people in the lurch, imho.

 

[Eubani]

Or the Half races can be left in. Just because a complaint is made it does not mean that the complaint has merit. Just because a complaint is made of a racial matter does not mean that all must immediately bow. Half X is a term many of those of mixed race use themselves. This is just another misguided moral crusade.

 

[SteveC]

As I've been thinking about this, it really does seem to be the influence of the people coming over from Paizo. Pathfinder has this mechanic, but it's fully integrated into the game and so it is easy to use.

You pick an Ancestry and then every one of those gets a heritage. The heritage is the "half-elf" part of the equation. Periodically you get feats for your Ancestry, so a half-elf can pick either elf or human feats. It works well, but that's not how D&D is designed. I think the "take a feature" part is just clunky and I'd be really surprised if it survives.

I'd like to see more design like this, but it is going far afield of current 5E rules, so I'd be genuinely surprised to see it and other Pathfinder designs make it into the game.

 

[Remathilis]

Or the Half races can be left in. Just because a complaint is made it does not mean that the complaint has merit. Just because a complaint is made of a racial matter does not mean that all must immediately bow. Half X is a term many of those of mixed race use themselves. This is just another misguided moral crusade.

While we're at it, let's restore the racial and gender mods to ability scores and the original lore to hadozee and Vistani.

Privilege is a hell of a drug.

 

[Eubani]

While we're at it, let's restore the racial and gender mods to ability scores and the original lore to hadozee and Vistani.

Privilege is a hell of a drug.

The things you mention were an issue, the Half race thing no. The privilege card can go back into the deck.