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

[Scribe]

People complain that species right now don't have any unique identity mechanically and then attempt to make every species trait a free spell...

Meanwhile I'm here going "Astral Elf is my ur-Elf" as far as templating goes.

 

[Remathilis]

Meanwhile I'm here going "Astral Elf is my ur-Elf" as far as templating goes.

I think the Astral elf is roughly on par with the shadar-kai and sea elf, and eladrin is just a touch weaker. The new 24 PHB elves though are 2014 dragonborn level bad. The step back is disheartening.

 

[Hussar]

I guess you are banning eladrin and shadar-kai too?

Maybe we can make aarakroca cast fly 1/day (plus use spell slots) or tritons cast water breathing 1/day.

People complain that species right now don't have any unique identity mechanically and then attempt to make every species trait a free spell...

Well, maybe not ban eladrin, because they absolutely drip with flavor, but, fey step will always be a spell. Period. And, well, I'm not entirely sure what a shadar-kai actually is, to be honest. No one's even remotely expressed an interest in them. But, looking them up now? Yup, not a chance.

No more free pass mechanics. If you get an ability that emulates a spell? It's a spell. Aarococra flying isn't the spell. So, not a problem and I honestly don't have much issue with fliers anyway. But the whole "I get to bypass the limitations on spell casting because I'm not really casting a spell" thing is something I will never allow at my table anymore. It's power creep drek. And totally unnecessary. We have perfectly good spell mechanics right there with nicely built in limitations.

Sorry, but, flight and water breathing aren't magical. Lot's of perfectly natural creatures can do either. However, teleportation? Not really a naturally occuring ability.

So, yeah. If you want to give a race a magical ability? It's a spell. It uses the spell mechanics. No shortcuts.

 

[Yaarel]

So, yeah. If you want to give a race a magical ability? It's a spell. It uses the spell mechanics. No shortcuts.

And if one needs to design a new spell for a specific magical ability of species. No problem.

 

[Gammadoodler]

So let me give you an example.

An astral elf can teleport 30 ft as a bonus action. They can do this prof-mod per day. But this is not a spell, so they can teleport and then cast a leveled spell. Their teleport cannot be countered and has no VSM components either.

Contrast to a high-elf using their misty step species spell. They can do that once for free, after that is a 2nd level spell slot to do it again. On the turn they use it, they can't cast any other spell but a cantrip, and the misty step can be countered with counterspell or stopped in the high-elf is silenced or restrained.

So at 5th level, the astral elf can teleport 3/day for free with no restrictions, while the high elf can do it once as a spell before burning their spell slots to do it again. In fact, the astral elf beats the 24 high-elf at most everything: the both get a bonus cantrip, (the AE is limited to one of three choices, the HE is the wizard list and mutable), the AE teleport is better than HE's Misty step in every possible way, and the AE gets a floating bonus tool/weapon AND Skill proficiency per day. The HE? Detect Magic. 1/day.

Swing and a miss.

Now, maybe WotC will revise AE to become lineage that grants sacred flame, guiding bolt, and misty step 1/day plus they can swap a skill prof out once per day to make them as lame as the HE in the PHB, but I'd much rather they made the HE as cool as the AE is.

Or simply remove astral elf entirely.

 

[Yaarel]

Or simply remove astral elf entirely.

I like the Astral Elf flavor. I feel it is better to do it as a culture.

 

[Gammadoodler]

I like the Astral Elf flavor. I feel it is better to do it as a culture.

No more elven cultures until other races/species/ whatever have cultures.

An astral elf is no more flavorful than an astral halfling/dwarf/dragon born/ or orc would be.

Like the proposal is..let's make 5 races into monocultures with no distinct mechanics and then separately split out 6...6!! different elves who are mechanically, biologically and culturally "distinct"

Get outta here.

 

[Hussar]

And if one needs to design a new spell for a specific magical ability of species. No problem.

Sure, that's fair enough. It's not like that's all that difficult. But, it still uses the spell mechanics.

 

[Yaarel]

No more elven cultures until other races/species/ whatever have cultures.

An astral elf is no more flavorful than an astral halfling/dwarf/dragon born/ or orc would be.

Astral Elf has much going for it, skyey, explicitly immortal, a trance that taps into the interconnected fates of all elves, magitech, etcetera. It is my favorite D&D Elf culture.

Other species merit diverse native cultures too.

 

[Gammadoodler]

Astral Elf has much going for it, skyey, explicitly immortal, a trance that taps into the interconnected fates of all elves, magitech, etcetera. It is my favorite Elf culture.

Other species merit diverse native cultures too.

And I would be fine with holding the astral elf hostage until those other species actually get them.

Like it's actually pretty stupid the way these subraces happen.. It's like someone pulls the name of an environment out of a hat, and it's a race to design the elves that simply must live there.