D&D 5E (2024) Half Race Appreciation Society: Half Elf most popular race choice in BG3

[MGibster]

Humans should just get 3 feats and nothing else.

Everyone knows humans have two feets not threes.

 

[Mirrorrorrim]

Lets just say, my faith in Wizards is really low.

Its a solid data point, but we dont know the 'why' behind it.

I know why my character is a half-drow elf in BG3.

• Design-wise, I feel half-elves subjectively look better than humans and elves. They are "fey-touched" rather than mundane or alien. I can still pick skin and hair color however I wish.
• They have Darkvision for stealthing, as well as Dancing Lights as a bonus action to hurt other stealthers so your allies can target them better.
• Half-elves have the Civil Militia ability, which gives them weapon proficiency with Spears, Pikes, Halberds, and Glaives, and Armour Proficiency with Light Armour and Shield (Shield is good for a lightly armored rogue that uses a rapier rather than TWF).

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I am surprised so many people think the current hybrid rules are going to go live.

I guarantee they will not.

They're just as weird and "problematic" as D&D's current approach to half-races, if not worse. The "oh just take all the powers and traits of one race, and none from the other" thing is MESSED UP. And yes it's all-caps level of messed up. Creepy and weird and kinda racist-adjacent.

They were also not all well-received, IIRC, not even WotC tried to suggest they were, rather they just downplayed how badly received they were somewhat without suggesting the reception was positive.

What they'll actually have, I don't know, but I'd extremely surprised if Half-Elves weren't the "example" race for how it worked.

 

[deganawida]

Considering Tanis Half-Elven is a major character, and Simon the Sorcerer is a half elf, AND that Eberron has two half elf dragonmarked house, half elf is a requirement.

However, given WotC’s, pardon my frankness, boneheaded moves the last year, they will stay on course and remove it.

 

[MoonSong]

They're just as weird and "problematic" as D&D's current approach to half-races, if not worse. The "oh just take all the powers and traits of one race, and none from the other" thing is MESSED UP. And yes it's all-caps level of messed up. Creepy and weird and kinda racist-adjacent.

This is an understatement. I felt very slighted by them. The closest to an ethnicity I -and the vast majority of my compatriots and I'd venture a lot of Latin America- is being a mixture. With us as a collective squished in a limbo by activists on the left who want to erase us with a dichotomic "everybody is indigenous -if not Aztec- or a white colonizer" and the higher classes -who are disproportionately white-.

And I feel this so hard because despite my mother's family inhabiting the same area since pre-Columbian times, I'm too light skinned to be "a real Mexican". (And I'm not exactly lily white either) So the whole charade felt like a giant middle finger wielded against me.

 

[Remathilis]

Everyone knows humans have two feets not threes.

You've never seen me dance then.

 

[RareBreed]

This is an understatement. I felt very slighted by them. The closest to an ethnicity I -and the vast majority of my compatriots and I'd venture a lot of Latin America- is being a mixture. With us as a collective squished in a limbo by activists on the left who want to erase us with a dichotomic "everybody is indigenous -if not Aztec- or a white colonizer" and the higher classes -who are disproportionately white-.

And I feel this so hard because despite my mother's family inhabiting the same area since pre-Columbian times, I'm too light skinned to be "a real Mexican". (And I'm not exactly lily white either) So the whole charade felt like a giant middle finger wielded against me.

As I mentioned earlier, I'm half White and half Asian. I'm what Filipinos call a "mestizo" which is a Spanish loan word (originally meaning half Spanish, half Indios, but the Spanish started applying it to the mixed Filipinos as well). What I find disgusting, is that to Filipinos, mestizo no longer means mixed race, it means "handsome" and/or "light skinned" (the rationale being the lighter your skin color, the better looking you are, and conversely, another Spanish loan word moreno in Tagalog (meaning dark skinned), implies ugliness. Because the darker skinned you are, the uglier you must be). Contrast this to the now derogatory or even pejorative term mulatto. Although this is up for debate, some believe that mulatto etymologically derives from mula or mule (mix of a horse and donkey). Despite the end of American colonization almost 80 years ago, the imprint of colonization still runs deep in Filipino culture.

This whole "well, you can be a half race, but you're really just one or the other" is racist in and of itself in my opinion. It's like rejecting half of what I am, and anyone else with any admixture. If they are doing this to try to be politically correct, they have in my view, failed miserably. It makes me wonder if they talked to anyone of mixed ethnicity before playtesting this (ideally several...I am not the sole voice of all mixed race people, but my "vote" should count)? If they're all about diversity, equity and inclusion, then you would think they would.

At the risk of getting political, this is why I've become more and more disenchanted with America's two party system and feel that neither really represents me. Given that several polls show almost half of Americans want a 3rd party, and that desire mostly evenly split between Democrats and Republicans, it makes me think I'm not the only one feeling this way. But cancel culture is making people afraid to voice their real opinions and thus, here we are.

Whatever happened to "sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me"? Has this saying gone out of vogue or something? This endless need to "protect the marginalized" is missing the point in the proverb above. Trying not to offend anyone through changes in language or erasing history is doomed to failure.

To be clear, there must be laws preventing physical discrimination (ie, unfair hiring, or "we don't want your kind here") and hate speech. But therein lies the rub: where is line between hate speech and hearing something you disagree with? Where is the line between learning uncomfortable history, and changing or eradicating history that one finds "offensive" or even "unfair"? I think (American) society has totally lost this distinction.

 

[Mistwell]

I've said before the concept of half-elves goes back to the first days of D&D, and is in every edition of D&D. It's prominent in Tolkien, and one of those concepts that just should be a core concept for D&D. It's too popular not to be. And if they claim they go with what 70%+, I am betting if they surveyed the subject it would be at 80%+.

 

[Vaalingrade]

Whatever happened to "sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me"?

We invented psychology and sociology in the interim and it turns out that whole sentiment is BS.

Turns out, when people use those words to justify discrimination, abuse and straight murder, they really can hurt you.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

See, thats just crazy to me.

It’s bonkers. It also literally mirrors blood quantum.

This is an understatement. I felt very slighted by them. The closest to an ethnicity I -and the vast majority of my compatriots and I'd venture a lot of Latin America- is being a mixture. With us as a collective squished in a limbo by activists on the left who want to erase us with a dichotomic "everybody is indigenous -if not Aztec- or a white colonizer" and the higher classes -who are disproportionately white-.

I’m confused. I’ve never seen any leftist say anything like that. I could see a dumb 14 year old posting it on tumblr, but otherwise…what?

And I feel this so hard because despite my mother's family inhabiting the same area since pre-Columbian times, I'm too light skinned to be "a real Mexican". (And I'm not exactly lily white either) So the whole charade felt like a giant middle finger wielded against me.

Same. I’m probably “whiter” than you, having mostly my Irish mom’s complexion, but yeah we aren’t one thing. We can’t be. i get why some folks feel “half-whatever” is a racist linguistic construction, but…that isn’t a strong enough reason to drop the actual folk from the face of the game, and replace them with “you’re actually either white or Indiginous, even if you look like a mixture of traits”. No. Unacceptable.