Micah Sweet
Level Up & OSR Enthusiast
I'd talk it out with them, but ultimately I'd accept it, because I trust my GM.
D&D (2024) Half Race Appreciation Society: Half Elf most popular race choice in BG3
- Thread starter Minigiant
- Start date
MoonSong
Rules-lawyering drama queen but not a munchkin
That's precisely what I don't want. I'd be very happy if race/heritage/whatever was purely fluff with no mechanics, provided we'd still have fluff for half-elves/khorovar/whatever-politically-correct-naming-alternative-is-given. I'd be perfectly happy with no specific stats and half-elves being mechanically no different from humans or forced to be cobbled together with custom lineage as long as they have lore and a full write-up associated. (Heck, in 3.x half-elves were as vanilla as they'd come and it was fine).
What I want is lore and visibility. Mix-and-match hybrid rules with no lore and no visibility (even lore without visibility -i.e. shoved into a sidebar as "an example"-) is the worst of the possible worlds for me. Hybrid rules being the only choice for a half-elf means we effectively have no half-elf, because they become invisible and drowned by the influx of the novelty brought by all combos under the sun, then after that the hybrid rules become a Charop tool, less likely to be allowed and I don't get to play any half-elf ever again. Let's not talk about ever seeing a half-elf NPC on any future adventure.
Having to waste a feat on the right to half-elfness is a very close runner up for worst possible outcome.
Mistwell
Crusty Old Meatwad
I hadn't even seen that position, I was just saying what I'd like to see to resolve the complex issues in play with the concept. Of course my position was not personal to you. Why would it be, given your position wasn't personal to me?
Remathilis
Legend
I have to agree with you, though I think there might be a compromise in expanding the custom lineage idea from Tasha and then showcasing the Khorvar as an example of how to use it, complete with official stats that can be replicated using CL.
(I think the CL is actually a little underwhelming; its essentially a variant human who can swap a skill for darkvision. I'd like to see it have a few more swappable options mixed in, enough that a half elf or half orc is replicatable).
Something like:
Custom lineage
Some character origins do not fit in one of the common species traits. Blah blah blah. Flavor.
Custom species stats
Here are two examples of custom lineages your character could be:
Half-elf/Khorvar
Half elf lore
Half elf stats
Half-orc/whatever new name.
Half-orc lore
Half-orc stats
bedir than
Full Moon Storyteller
Heroic recovery with instant short rests and hour long rests will never, ever be used at my table.
I had a first time player who insisted on playing a half-orc, despite its racial history and this player being self proclaimed woke. He wanted that race (now species) because it directly represented his own path to heroism in the real world. He has a mixed background.
He's told me since he would not be an orc. He will not be a human. He doesn't want to be part of something he is, but all of something he is or none of it.
MGibster
Legend
I came across a Youtube video of some Asians discussing the movie Crazy Rich Asians. One young lady complained that an actress in the movie was half-Asian saying, "I thought the movie was Crazy Rich Asians, not Crazy Rich Half-Asians." Oh, my goodness, did I ever feel bad for that actress. Granted, she probably didn't see that video but I imagine she's had to deal with that at times and it must really, really suck.
I was watching another program, not on Youtube, about racial identity in the United State and they were interviewing a young woman whose appearance into the most common categories we created. She lamented that she had been teased about her appearance her entire life and was frequently asked, "What are you?"
Your experience having a mixed heritage might be similar to others who feel as though they're outsiders, but I can respect that your experiences are unique as well.
Yaarel
🇮🇱 🇺🇦 He-Mage
Human person never stops being a human.
It is an ethical point.
In D&D, the Human-Elf qualifies for anything that requires Human or Elf. The Human-Elf remains a member of both species.
Some of it depends on the particular culture. For example, Filipinos tend to put mixed race people up on a pedestal (with a caveat). Almost all the Filipina beauty pageant contestants are of mixed ethnicity. Watch their TV, and an outsized proportion of the actors are also mixed. Sadly, the caveat is that the mixture has to be with a White. I have known some mixed Filipino/Black people who don't get the same idealized treatment that Filipino/White mixes do.
On the other hand, I knew 2 half Vietnamese, half White people, and their experience was quite different. They got shunned even more than I did from both Whites and the Vietnamese (this may have been timing sensitive..as I said before, I was born at the tail end of the Vietnam War, and they were about the same age as me). I've watched some Youtube clips about being mixed ethnicity in Japan, and they seem to have it pretty bad too.
I've mentioned before in another thread that my style as a player may be a bit odd. I pretty much play "myself". Not due to a lack of roleplaying skill (I don't think), but simply because I like to simulate "me". I consider my character an avatar of me.
But at least a part of the rationale is that I don't know if I would do justice to roleplaying something I am not. Would it be a caricature of what I thought and assumed it would be like? Some games of course, require you to put yourself into another culture's shoes or perhaps even species. For example, any historical game set in Feudal Japan, or maybe an anthropomorphic game like Albedo. Even playing different time periods may require, depending on your table's ability to grapple with ugly parts history, a shift away from "presentism", and all the warnings about how unprogressive society was (not that) long ago.
This is not to suggest that others shouldn't try it, I just don't feel like I would do it justice, nor do I feel the need to roleplay out something I am not. In fact, one of the great strengths of roleplaying, not just as a game but in therapeutical terms, is to try to put yourself in someone else's shoes.
Yaarel
🇮🇱 🇺🇦 He-Mage
A freeform point system is great for a DM to use to build the traits of a species for the setting. The DM can adjudicate if the combos truly balance or not within the game engine.
Bundling traits into species feats is "safer" for the gaming balance, for a player to choose from to determine the species traits of their character.
Every 2024 species is worth about three feats. (Here, a "feat" refers to the 2024 level-0 background feat and is equivalent to a 2014 level-4 "half-feat". In other words, a normal feat like Greatweapon Master is worth two of these 2024 feats. The feat is worth 4 points, while Greatweapon Master is worth 8 points.) Each species comprises a design space of three feats.
Determine Your Species Traits
Choose three species feats to determine the species traits of your character. If your character descends from two or more species, your choices can be from any of your species.
Elf Feats
If your character descends from the Elf species, you gain Nature Spirit, Fey Magic, and Twilighter, or any three Elf feats of your choice.
ELF KNIGHT
(Counts as two choices of Elf feats)
Elven Accuracy. Whenever you have Advantage on an Attack Roll, you can reroll one of the dice once.
Elf Weapon. Choose a longsword or a longbow, or an other weapon of your choice. You gain proficiency with this weapon. Your Attack Rolls with it can apply your spellcasting ability instead of Strength or Dexterity.
FEY MAGIC
Charm Resistance. You have Advantage on saving throws you make to avoid or end the Charmed Condition on yourself.
Innate Caster. From any spell list, choose a slot 1 spell when you reach level 3, and a slot 2 spell when level 5. These spells are innate. (Thus you can cast each of these two spells once after a Long Rest. You prepare these spells and can also cast them using any spell slots you have. You can cast them without a spell component, using Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma as your spellcasting ability for them.)
NATURE SPIRIT
Choose two cantrips from any spell lists. You can also treat the following effects as if cantrips when you choose:
• your speed improves to 35 feet
• you can breathe water as well as air
• after each long rest, you can swap one cantrip with an other one of your choice
• if you have Darkvision, it improves to 120 feet
Your two chosen cantrips are innate. (Thus you cast them without spell components, using Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma as your spellcasting ability for them).
KEN OF FATES
After each long rest, you gain two proficiences of your choice from skills and tools, until your next long rest ends.
TWILIGHTER
Trance. You dont need to sleep, and magic cant put to you sleep. You can finish a long rest in 4 hours if you spend those hours in a trancelike meditation during which you retain consciousness.
Darkvision. You have Darkvision with a range of 60 feet.
Keen Senses. You have Proficiency in the Perception Skill.
Bundling traits into species feats is "safer" for the gaming balance, for a player to choose from to determine the species traits of their character.
Every 2024 species is worth about three feats. (Here, a "feat" refers to the 2024 level-0 background feat and is equivalent to a 2014 level-4 "half-feat". In other words, a normal feat like Greatweapon Master is worth two of these 2024 feats. The feat is worth 4 points, while Greatweapon Master is worth 8 points.) Each species comprises a design space of three feats.
Determine Your Species Traits
Choose three species feats to determine the species traits of your character. If your character descends from two or more species, your choices can be from any of your species.
Elf Feats
If your character descends from the Elf species, you gain Nature Spirit, Fey Magic, and Twilighter, or any three Elf feats of your choice.
ELF KNIGHT
(Counts as two choices of Elf feats)
Elven Accuracy. Whenever you have Advantage on an Attack Roll, you can reroll one of the dice once.
Elf Weapon. Choose a longsword or a longbow, or an other weapon of your choice. You gain proficiency with this weapon. Your Attack Rolls with it can apply your spellcasting ability instead of Strength or Dexterity.
FEY MAGIC
Charm Resistance. You have Advantage on saving throws you make to avoid or end the Charmed Condition on yourself.
Innate Caster. From any spell list, choose a slot 1 spell when you reach level 3, and a slot 2 spell when level 5. These spells are innate. (Thus you can cast each of these two spells once after a Long Rest. You prepare these spells and can also cast them using any spell slots you have. You can cast them without a spell component, using Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma as your spellcasting ability for them.)
NATURE SPIRIT
Choose two cantrips from any spell lists. You can also treat the following effects as if cantrips when you choose:
• your speed improves to 35 feet
• you can breathe water as well as air
• after each long rest, you can swap one cantrip with an other one of your choice
• if you have Darkvision, it improves to 120 feet
Your two chosen cantrips are innate. (Thus you cast them without spell components, using Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma as your spellcasting ability for them).
KEN OF FATES
After each long rest, you gain two proficiences of your choice from skills and tools, until your next long rest ends.
TWILIGHTER
Trance. You dont need to sleep, and magic cant put to you sleep. You can finish a long rest in 4 hours if you spend those hours in a trancelike meditation during which you retain consciousness.
Darkvision. You have Darkvision with a range of 60 feet.
Keen Senses. You have Proficiency in the Perception Skill.
