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

[Micah Sweet]

We arent losing a Half Elf. We are gaining a Half Dwarf.

Except we are losing a half-elf, as it exists mechanically in the current PH.

 

[Sorcerers Apprentice]

Looks like they're going back and scrubbing them from the lore too. DnD Beyond had a preview of some Phandelver content and they've gone and changed the half-elf NPC into another species.

Ok, that's Phandelver off the buy list. Thanks for the warning.

 

[MoonSong]

Except we are losing a half-elf, as it exists mechanically in the current PH.

And we have lost something else. Even if they made it possible to still have half elf with a weird mix and match system, by atomizing mixed people, we have a defacto erasure. [Close to] no adventure writer is going to bother messing with a new subsystem in order to populate the world with NPCs. So no more mixed people representation.

 

[MoonSong]

Ok, that's Phandelver off the buy list. Thanks for the warning.

As I warned, this is an erasure event. But nobody believed me -like I warned with wizard getting flexiprepared casting, sorcerer not being propperly playtested, sorcerer not getting the obvious patch, or right now sorcerer losing subclass at first level-. At this point I should change my username to Cassandra.

 

[Sorcerers Apprentice]

I wonder if there's a consensus at WotC that they want to remove the half races, or if it's the pet cause of some vocal staffer that nobody else cares enough about to object to? Not that it really matters, half-elves are gone either way.

 

[mamba]

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

I guarantee they will not.

you have more confidence in WotC’s decision making than I do. Better mixed race rules would be a nice surprise

 

[Yaarel]

Except we are losing a half-elf, as it exists mechanically in the current PH.

Here is the 2014 Half Elf:

HALF ELF
Type: Humanoid
Size: Medium
Speed: 30 feet
Lifespan: 180 years
Species Feats:
Darkvision
Charm Resistance
Sleep Immunity
Abilities Scores: +2 Charisma, +1 Any, +1 Any
Languages: Common, Elvish, and Any
Skill Proficiencies: any two
Background:
Proficiencies: any two skills and possibly any two from tools and languages


Here is the playtest Half Elf

HUMAN-ELF
Type: Humanoid
Size: Medium
Speed: 30 feet
Lifespan: 750 years
Species Feats:
Darkvision
Charm Resistance
Trance (with Sleep Immunity)
Perception Proficiency
Innate Magic: two cantrips (or equivalent), slot-1 spell at level 3, slot-2 spell at level 5
Background:
Ability Scores: +2 Charisma, +1 Any
Languages: Common, Elven (Species), Any (Background)
Proficiencies: any two skills and any tool
Background Feat (equivalent to +1 Any Score or any three proficiencies)



There is virtually zero information loss. The 2014 Half Elf remains intact.

The only difference is the absence of a +1 to Any third Score, which is flavorless, and which gets "swapped" for a Background feat. Even then, a player can still choose instead +1 Charisma with two +1 Any if wishing to have a bonus to a third score.

The point is, it remains possible to play a playtest Human-Elf character that is meaningfully identical to the 2014 Half Elf.



To complain about some missing 2014 Half Elf is misguided.

 

[mamba]

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).

not sure it makes any difference, but these are reflections of wealth, not beauty, and tend to change over time

Lighter skin for the longest time meant you did not need to work out in the fields but could afford to be indoors. That also is where blue-blooded comes from, your skin is light enough in color to see the veins.

Now that ‘everyone’ is working indoors, having a tan is a sign of being able to afford to be in the sun rather than having to working in an office / factory.

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.

agreed

 

[Ruin Explorer]

you have more confidence in WotC’s decision making than I do. Better mixed race rules would be a nice surprise

I've actually lost that confidence talking to some other people. At this point it's sadly plausible WotC might be that dumb.

We arent losing a Half Elf. We are gaining a Half Dwarf.

We already had them as much as the UA supported them - i.e. you could just say a dwarf or a human was a half-dwarf. Forgotten Realms Adventures, all the way back in 1989, has at least one half-dwarf mentioned in it.

So unless they do a better job, there's absolutely no gain there.

Here is the 2014 Half Elf:

HALF ELF
Type: Humanoid
Size: Medium
Speed: 30 feet
Lifespan: 180 years
Species Feats:
Abilities Scores: +2 Charisma, +1 Any, +1 Any
Darkvision
Charm Resistance
Sleep Immunity
Skill Proficiencies: any two
Languages: Common, Elvish, and Any
Background:
Proficiencies: any two skills and possibly any two from tools and languages


Here is the playtest Half Elf

HUMAN-ELF
Type: Humanoid
Size: Medium
Speed: 30 feet
Lifespan: 750 years
Species Feats:
Darkvision
Charm Resistance
Trance (with Sleep Immunity)
Perception Proficiency
Innate Magic: two cantrips (or equivalent), slot-1 spell at level 3, slot-2 spell at level 5
Background:
Ability Scores: +2 Charisma, +1 Any
Languages: Common, Elven (Species), Any (Background)
Proficiencies: any two skills and any tool
Background Feat (equivalent to +1 Any Score or any three proficiencies)



There is virtually zero information loss. The 2014 Half Elf remains intact.

The only difference is the absence of a +1 to Any third Score, which is flavorless, and which gets "swapped" for a Background feat. Even then, a player can still choose instead +1 Charisma with two +1 Any if wishing to have a bonus to a third score.

The point is, it remains possible to play a playtest Human-Elf character that is meaningfully identical to the 2014 Half Elf.



To complain about some missing 2014 Half Elf is misguided.

That's a laughable response that demonstrates how shallowly you're analyzing this. I love how you think 750 years and 180 years are "identical" too. Absolutely ridiculous.

You come here saying we're gaining Half-Dwarfs, and here, I present your Half-Dwarf:

Creature Type: Humanoid
Size: Medium (about 4–7 feet tall) or Small (about 2–4 feet tall), chosen when you select this Race
Speed: 30 feet
Life Span: 80 years on average
As a Human, you have these special traits.
Resourceful. You gain Inspiration* whenever you finish a Long Rest.*
Skillful. You gain Proficiency in one Skill of your choice.
Versatile. You gain the Skilled Feat or another 1st-level Feat of your choice.

Did you enjoy your half-dwarf?

 

[mamba]

The fact that you're worrying about min-maxing though tells me you're not really thinking about this very well, though. People will min-max whatever systems there are, and if there's no mixed system, they'll just min-max off the species/races that there are.

but those mins and maxs are controlled by WotC. When you start to mix two sets together, you can get to a combination outside of those margins.

Not saying that is a good reason to do it the way WotC does, but it probably is why they do it that way