FitzTheRuke
Legend
Dibs on playing the half-halfing half tiefling "Halftie!" (as long as you don't call it a ling-ling).
D&D (2024) Do you think they will add more races to PHB2024 to make up for dropping other stuff?
- Thread starter Henadic Theologian
- Start date
Dibs on playing the half-halfing half tiefling "Halftie!" (as long as you don't call it a ling-ling).
Corinnguard
Hero
That would be a Wispling.
Wispling
Wisplings were planetouched descended from the breeding of halflings and demons. Wisplings were of apparently normal halfling size and shape, with light brown skin and bright red hair, as well as angular features. They typically preferred to wear brightly colored clothing. Wisplings were...
forgottenrealms.fandom.com
Shardstone
Hero
Weak attitude.There would be some risk if they did so. If they kept too many of the bolder changes and no one liked them, they would have another 4e situation on their hands. The last thing WoTC would want is a portion of the D&D fan base seeking an alternative and bolstering a rival work's popularity. That's how we got Pathfinder.
Corinnguard
Hero
It must have been because WoTC later asked the D&D community to playtest D&D next, which later became 5e. Before 5e, WoTC did all of it's playtesting internally.
Remathilis
Legend
The problem is that the traits of each species aren't remotely balanced enough to do that. Every race has a primary "marquee" feature (flight, breath weapon, spells, shapechanging, stonecunning, lucky) and a bunch of features that are ribbon or weaker (free skills, darkvision, fey ancestry, energy resistance). The amount of the latter depends on the strength of the former.
Now, let's take a PHB option: the dragonborn/tieflng. According to the playtest, they each gain the following:
Dragonborn: darkvision, breath weapon, energy resistance, limited flight at 5th
Tieflng; darkvision, thaumaturgy, fiendish legacy (bonus spells plus energy resistance).
That's what you have to work with. Build a hybrid that isn't more powerful than its parents.
Hmm. Hard to do, isn't it? Darkvision is shared by both species, so that's a given. You can't give both spells AND breath weapons (the marquee feature of both races) and they both get energy resistance of some type. So the dragonborn tieflng is a dragonborn that trades limited flight for thaumaturgy? That's a bad trade. How about a tieflng that gets dragon flight at 5th for the cost of a vanity cantrip? Well, that's a strict upgrade to the tieflings kit, every tieflng will want a dragonborn baby momma. That said, you're still mostly at tieflng until 5th level, not very dragon/fiend, don't you think? I guess you could rip the bandage off and let them have breath weapon and free spells, making them superior to both dragonborn and tieflng, ensuring everyone who wants to play either race picks the hybrid option and full blood versions are relegated to NPCs.
And I picked two of the weaker options in the game. Good luck balancing changeling, aarakroca, aasimar, yuan ti, fairy, eladrin and other one trick pony races. The only way this works is dedicated stat blocks for each hybrid option to make sure they don't end up OP or redundant.
Or what WotC has already proposed.
CreamCloud0
Hero
reading that made me think, is resistances stacking to immunities and then absorbtion not a thing in 5e? if not, why? that seemed like a cool feature
Remathilis
Legend
Probably would be too powerful for a PC except at very high levels.
CreamCloud0
Hero
yeah i can see how that could end up being a problem, well, with absorbtion at least, i think they would have a little more leeway with letting multiple resistances stack into immunities.
Scribe
Legend
Thats the 'kill a fly with a rocket launcher' approach I suppose.
Corinnguard
Hero
Killing a fly with a rocket launcher with Disadvantage. "The fly is still there, not only is it still there, it's laughing at you." 
