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

[Corinnguard]

This is fantasy, but we could say planetouched species, sentient and not, are organic bodies with some planar quantic particles within their DNA

I like to think they are Half-Prime and Half-Planar as the planes are made of a completely different form of matter according to Pathfinder 1st edition. When you look at the Genasi in Monsters of the Multiverse, their descriptions suggest that part of their bodies is literally made of one of the four elements.

 

[Veltharis ap Rylix]

I'd have gone for Senator Armstrong from Metal Gear Rising*, but that works too...

* "Nice argument. Got a source for that, Senator?"
"My source is I made it the **** up."

 

[Scribe]

The issue I've seen here (and I'm not focusing on you exclusively here, but a lot of people in this thread) is that you are making that judgment call. Half-elf is an acceptable combo and worthy of unique stats in the PHB, tabaxi-plasmoid is a bad combo, a joke and should be left to the DM to determine if it is allowed. (With more than a hint that you yourself would not allow it). Those two pairings are not equal, one set is good and the other is bad.

I was with you, till here.

Its not about 'good' and 'bad', that kind of framing is the actual problem.

Its about there being combinations which are actually nonsense even within a framework of fantasy, and some that well, need to be grandfathered. Thats all.

You are 100% correct that its a generational thing but well whatever.

The best solution for this imo remains.

Half Elf and Half Orc continue to exist, grandfathered.
Custom Lineage gets filled out, and you can make your own DragoDwarf or Goo Catgirl.

 

[Scribe]

It comes from the description of what the Astral Plane is. But the playtest Tiefling description is explicit.

The part where it says they are linked by blood, aka genetic material?

 

[Kobold Avenger]

Most Planetouched are derived from Humans, Tieflings, Aasimar, Genasi and the rest are not exclusive to Human bloodlines. It's the planar part that's dominant, among the lineages. A child of a Tiefling and a Human is a Tiefling, a child of a Genasi and an Orc is a Genasi, a child of an Aasimar and a Goblin is an Aasimar. The influence of the immortal on the mortal bloodline is a strong one that lasts many generations.

As for what happens when different lineages of Tiefling mix, or a Tiefling and an Aasimar have a child, I think that's definitely where one should use the "pick one base species" and apply other aesthetics and possibly background feat choices to reflect that.

 

[Corinnguard]

Most Planetouched are derived from Humans, Tieflings, Aasimar, Genasi and the rest are not exclusive to Human bloodlines. It's the planar part that's dominant, among the lineages. A child of a Tiefling and a Human is a Tiefling, a child of a Genasi and an Orc is a Genasi, a child of an Aasimar and a Goblin is an Aasimar. The influence of the immortal on the mortal bloodline is a strong one that lasts many generations.

As for what happens when different lineages of Tiefling mix, or a Tiefling and an Aasimar have a child, I think that's definitely where one should use the "pick one base species" and apply other aesthetics and possibly background feat choices to reflect that.

I remember a 2e article in Dragon Magazine involving the Para-Genasi sometimes being the result of two Genasi of differing elements having offspring. For instance, an Earth Genasi and Fire Genasi could have Earth Genasi, Fire Genasi or Magma Para-Genasi offspring.

As for a child of Tiefling and Aasimar descent, a Nephilim perhaps?

 

[Veltharis ap Rylix]

I remember a 2e article in Dragon Magazine involving the Para-Genasi sometimes being the result of two Genasi of differing elements having offspring. For instance, an Earth Genasi and Fire Genasi could have Earth Genasi, Fire Genasi or Magma Para-Genasi offspring.

The Para-elemental planes were (more of) a thing back in 2e (and so were the Quasi-elemental planes), so para-genasi presumably could have been descended from natives of those planes as well.

 

[Remathilis]

I The best solution for this imo remains.

Half Elf and Half Orc continue to exist, grandfathered.
Custom Lineage gets filled out, and you can make your own DragoDwarf or Goo Catgirl.

How about then we get rid of orc in the PHB (since orc and half-orc are statistically the same and largely redundant. Then the PHB is just the 2014 races plus goliaths. And if you relegate them back to supplemental race status, you can have all the 2014 races again and once again completely backtrack on any proposed changes to the PHB. Golly gee, I'm so glad this new PHB is an opportunity to change absolutely nothing!

 

[Cadence]

How about then we get rid of orc in the PHB (since orc and half-orc are statistically the same and largely redundant. Then the PHB is just the 2014 races plus goliaths. And if you relegate them back to supplemental race status, you can have all the 2014 races again and once again completely backtrack on any proposed changes to the PHB. Golly gee, I'm so glad this new PHB is an opportunity to change absolutely nothing!

I think I'd rather replace half-orcs with orcs?

 

[DEFCON 1]

At the end of the day... I would not be surprised if WotC decided to keep the Half-Elf (renamed to something else) as its own stand-alone entry in the species book just due t its popularity (even if I don't like it). Then WotC adding (or perhaps not) adding a section on creating custom multi-species.

But the one thing that I think has little to no chance of surviving (but again, just my opinion, I could end up wrong) is the Half-Orc remaining as its own stand-alone entry-- even though it's one of the two "legacy" half-species. And the reason I believe that is simple... despite attempts to change its narrative over the decades, its origins as a species were most often due to sexual assault. And I would tend to believe there is almost a zero-percent chance of WotC keeping the species stand-alone because of it. Now sure, if a multi-species entry or ruleset is introduced, then there will be opportunities for players to create PCs of human/orc parents... but that will have to be one of the custom creations, and not printed in the book by WotC.

I just do not see a world with our current social landscape that keeping this species as its own thing with its own lore (that while it could be changed in the 5E24 book, is based upon lore that is not socially conscious anymore) is worth the potential issues many players might have. Especially when they can just add Orc as a species on its own to the PHB.