D&D (2024) Do you think they will add more races to PHB2024 to make up for dropping other stuff?

[Parmandur]

No, they have said that's where they were at that moment. Let's see. I would bet it changes again.

Well, they confirmed thst there are exactly 9 Species in the PHB, and more recently Crawford suggested thst Packet 1, other than the Ardling and Dragonborn, are making it into the final PHB. Those hybrid rules, I would wager, are in, though they may give them a little more heft.

 

[Parmandur]

Wouldn't it finally make the half elves work more like in Tolkien (pick the rate of elves or the rate of men)? And a I'm guessing Tolkien was the big reason to have half-elves and half-orcs.

(Glenn Cook's Garret Files series seems to have half everythings on the other hand).

Yes, basically.

 

[Mistwell]

Well, they confirmed thst there are exactly 9 Species in the PHB, and more recently Crawford suggested thst Packet 1, other than the Ardling and Dragonborn, are making it into the final PHB. Those hybrid rules, I would wager, are in, though they may give them a little more heft.

I don't know why you're doing this "they said" thing. It's the playtest. They respond to feedback. If the feedback is "I won't consider it backwards compatible without half-elf as a distinct option" then they will change it to be that. None of this is written in stone like you seem to be saying they've declared it to be.

 

[Scribe]

Wouldn't it finally make the half elves work more like in Tolkien (pick the rate of elves or the rate of men)? And a I'm guessing Tolkien was the big reason to have half-elves and half-orcs.

(Glenn Cook's Garret Files series seems to have half everythings on the other hand).

So, I'm a big fan of Tolkien, and I (correctly) place him at the base, the foundation, of D&D, but when I think of Half Elf, I think Tanis, and based on the discussions here and elsewhere, when people are looking for the trope/representation of the Half Elf and applying it to themselves, I believe its Tanis Half Elven, and the experience of that character, which is primary.

 

[Parmandur]

I don't know why you're doing this "they said" thing. It's the playtest. They respond to feedback. If the feedback is "I won't consider it backwards compatible without half-elf as a distinct option" then they will change it to be that. None of this is written in stone like you seem to be saying they've declared it to be.

But on what basis do you believe that they received such feedback...? The presentations where they delineated the 9 Species in the game came well after they collected feedback for Packet 1, and it was at GenCon just last month where Crawford told a journalist that the character origins were well received and are making it in as presented, with the exception of Ardling or the first Dragonborn.

Now, will there be a way to have a character who is a half-elf? Sure, absolutely. But it won't be as a distinct Species, and no different than a Goliath/Dwarf hybrid character. Take that to the bank.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

I guess the "bloodtouched" will work like the lineage from Ravenloft 5e. This may mean you could create a half-elf, a half-orc, but also other mixed-blood character.

My suspects are the ardlings are a too commercial idea to be totally discarded. Hasbro also wants to sell action figures and that type of things.

Why both orcs and goliaths in the same book if they aren't too different?

I wonder if the future MM will be like Moderkainen's (I bought it and I love it!), with a space for PC species. In 3.5 Ed there were blocks of certain monsters as PC races.

- MOM! If daddy is an orc and you are human, why am I half-elf?

- Oh, darling! It was a so crazy night than it is a miracle you aren't spitting fire.

 

[Mistwell]

But on what basis do you believe that they received such feedback...?

Oh I think it's going to be coming, not that it has necessarily come. We'll see but I don't think it's irrelevant that BG3 has half-elf as the most popular race.

The presentations where they delineated the 9 Species in the game came well after they collected feedback for Packet 1, and it was at GenCon just last month where Crawford told a journalist that the character origins were well received and are making it in as presented, with the exception of Ardling or the first Dragonborn.

Now, will there be a way to have a character who is a half-elf? Sure, absolutely. But it won't be as a distinct Species, and no different than a Goliath/Dwarf hybrid character. Take that to the bank.

I am not taking that to the bank and I don't understand why you are but it's clear which bet you've made.

 

[dave2008]

The problem I see is that we're going to have a half dozen monster tomes that largely reprint the same core monsters (goblins, dragons, giants, vampires, etc) with just slightly variant lore along side of specific monsters for the setting, you'll have unique variations of the same types of monsters (goblin bandit in one, goblin infiltrator in another) or you'll split the monsters around several books (vampire in the Ravenloft MM, giants in the Eberron, drow in the FR). No matter how you slice that, you're buying multiple books either with repetitive info or the core info across multiple books (which was popular during 4e when they split the base classes and monsters over different PHBs and MMs).

No. One core book of basic monsters and let setting books deviate as needed. It's not like D&D settings share 90% of the same monsters anyway. I can't feel bothered that someone is whining "you got Forgotten Realms lore in muh Eberron". It's a game of imagination, pretend it's not there.

Personally, I imagine something like the Theros book which had a some information on using / modifying MM monsters for the Theros setting and then a decent bestiary of unique monsters. That is what I would like to see continue.

 

[Parmandur]

Oh I think it's going to be coming, not that it has necessarily come. We'll see but I don't think it's irrelevant that BG3 has half-elf as the most popular race.

I mean, I would say that is basically irrelevant. The new PHB will have Half-Elves covered just fine, same as Half-Goliaths or Half-Dwarves. Half-Elves were already one of the most popular choices on Beyond and per WotC other surveys, but they still introduced a new hybrid approach.

 

[Clint_L]

Half-elves are already in, just no longer as a distinct species. But you can absolutely play one with the 2024 rules, and they can be half-elf and half-whatever you want, which is even better. What is out is treating them (and half-orcs) as unique species, unlike all other mixed species options.