D&D (2024) No Dwarf, Halfling, and Orc suborgins, lineages, and legacies

[Scribe]

I expect coding for mental stats, even without the ASI, would still raise the hackles of the folks who complained before.

Its not even particularly difficult. Step one is understanding that fantasy/sci-fi species, are distinct, and then actually defining the 3 mental attributes in a way that makes it clear.

A lightning quick mind? Thats a +2 Int.
A mind that is adept at lateral thinking? Thats a +2 Wisdom.
Particularly attractive? Well thats Charisma...oh wait sorry, that sparks some people.

 

[Neonchameleon]

Its not even particularly difficult. Step one is understanding that fantasy/sci-fi species, are distinct, and then actually defining the 3 mental attributes in a way that makes it clear.

D&D does not do this...

A lightning quick mind? Thats a +2 Int.
A mind that is adept at lateral thinking? Thats a +2 Wisdom.

You sure that lateral thinking is wisdom not intelligence? And that there's ine measure of it?

Particularly attractive? Well thats Charisma...oh wait sorry, that sparks some people.

If only there were a universal standard for attractiveness... I know plenty of people who'd take an orc's muscles over an elf's willowy grace.

 

[Scribe]

You sure that lateral thinking is wisdom not intelligence? And that there's ine measure of it?

Yep, because I just said it is as part of the definition of Wisdom. Its a game, we can do that.

If only there were a universal standard for attractiveness... I know plenty of people who'd take an orc's muscles over an elf's willowy grace.

See above.

 

[Mecheon]

we could just merge dwarf, gnome and halfling as subraces of something?

The problem is they're all distinct niches from one another so you can't really merge the three together. Dwarves are gruff and mine a lot, they don't merge well with the magic and tech focused rock gnomes even if they both have mine and have some tech leanings.

Like, you could maybe do something with elves, forest gnomes and ghostwise halflings as they're close enough, but I don't think anyone would be happy with even more elves, and ghostwises are particular popular due to being so far from the typical halfling standard. Your stereotypical gnome, halfling and dwarf are just so different to each other they don't merge well. Heck, just the stereotypical gnome and halfling are that different that the only thing they really have in connection with one another is they're short

 

[Older Beholder]

I’d be happy to remove Halflings altogether, if only so that people complaining about floating ASI’s would have to come up with something other than Halflings with high strength as an argument.

 

[Scribe]

I’d be happy to remove Halflings altogether, if only so that people complaining about floating ASI’s would have to come up with something other than Halflings with high strength as an argument.

Gnomes with high strength is just as much an abomination of a concept. Elves shouldnt have Strength on par with Goliath either, and Dwarves should never be as agile as Elves. We could go on.

 

[O-Castitatis-Lilium]

I do wish that races and subraces would go back to strengths and weaknesses like they use to have, it made playing those races fun and bred creativity for players to build off of on top of everything else. Sadly they are taking out a lot of things like that, including gold dwarf, mountain dwarf, hill dwarf, and the others. If the books don't have what I'm looking for, I have a massive library of old stuff that I can pull from and use that to give strengths and weaknesses, along with stat boosts and whatnot. It's not perfect, but I'm lucky to have the library of old books that I do. If I don't have it here with my dad's stuff, I can ask one of my uncles if they have something that he might not have picked up in terms of books. Not everyone has that pleasure though, so I do wish they would bring that type of stuff back; maybe not in the players handbook, but like a splat book based on expanding on the races.

 

[Older Beholder]

Gnomes with high strength is just as much an abomination of a concept. Elves shouldnt have Strength on par with Goliath either, and Dwarves should never be as agile as Elves. We could go on.

I didn’t say people couldn’t still find ways (to tell other people what they can and can’t do in their games), just that it would be refreshing to not have to read the same thing over and over again.

 

[Scribe]

I didn’t say people couldn’t still find ways (to tell other people what they can and can’t do in their games), just that it would be refreshing to not have to read the same thing over and over again.

Nobody can tell you what you cannot do in your own games. Floating ASI does nothing in that regard. You could always float the ASI, you could double the ASI, you could leave it as it was on release for 5e.

There are no straight jackets in this game.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Its not even particularly difficult. Step one is understanding that fantasy/sci-fi species, are distinct, and then actually defining the 3 mental attributes in a way that makes it clear.

A lightning quick mind? Thats a +2 Int.
A mind that is adept at lateral thinking? Thats a +2 Wisdom.
Particularly attractive? Well thats Charisma...oh wait sorry, that sparks some people.

Certain loud and influential folks don't seem to be able to get past step one, unfortunately.