D&D General Race Has No Mechanics. What do you play?

[KYRON45]

You might not use it that way but I suspect that would make you a minority numbering exactly one.

"The Duke has a reputation of being a real Elf-lover - he can't resist anything they ask of him!". You're a changeling about to be involved in negotiations with said Duke and you wouldn't change to Elf form for this? Seriously?

Or "These Elves are super-isolationist; non-Elves aren't welcome inside their borders." You can make yourself look like an Elf, though, which very likely gives you a huge advantage over the other non-Elves in your party when trying to deal with these guys or sneak into their lands or whatever.

Further, even if you-as-player don't think of these benefits and-or proactively decline to use them, others in your party who are aware of your capabilities might either suggest or insist that you do.

Aren't these narrative benefits and not mechanical ones? Wouldn't a mechanical benefit impose a +x or -y to a roll?
I'm just curious. I'm not part of this argument at all.

 

[Lanefan]

Being able to change your face whenever you want is a benefit based on the lore. It’s definitely not a mechanical advantage but it definitely is narrative advantage.

If race has no mechanical advantage, it ONLY has narrative advantage based on the Lore.

Which is why I made the joke of being the only person of a specific race. While it was a joke, Doing so adds narrative complications and can make a race more interesting without needing mechanical advantages.

So , if the lore has a slave race, it will be disadvantageous to be that race in many situations. If the lore has a noble race, it will be advantageous to be that race in many situations. If you can select your race, you can pick and choose advantage. This has nothing to do with mechanics and everything to do with narrative

Except the minute any form of social mechanics come into play, either that narrative advantage starts having mechanical effect or that narrative advantage is a lie.

 

[Lanefan]

Aren't these narrative benefits and not mechanical ones? Wouldn't a mechanical benefit impose a +x or -y to a roll?
I'm just curious. I'm not part of this argument at all.

If the mechanics don't match or reflect the narrative, what's the point?

Here, what starts out looking like a narrative benefit might (and probably should) in 5e terms give Advantage on your Diplomacy roll when your changeling-as-Elf talks to the Elf-loving Duke.

And boom, your species just affected the mechanics.

 

[KYRON45]

If the mechanics don't match or reflect the narrative, what's the point?

Here, what starts out looking like a narrative benefit might (and probably should) in 5e terms give Advantage on your Diplomacy roll when your changeling-as-Elf talks to the Elf-loving Duke.

And boom, your species just affected the mechanics.

Isn't the point of the thread that there are no mechanics?
It's a hypothetical question isn't it? Also, wouldn't it be the spell affecting the mechanics and not your species?

 

[Voadam]

You might not use it that way but I suspect that would make you a minority numbering exactly one.

"The Duke has a reputation of being a real Elf-lover - he can't resist anything they ask of him!". You're a changeling about to be involved in negotiations with said Duke and you wouldn't change to Elf form for this? Seriously?

Or "These Elves are super-isolationist; non-Elves aren't welcome inside their borders." You can make yourself look like an Elf, though, which very likely gives you a huge advantage over the other non-Elves in your party when trying to deal with these guys or sneak into their lands or whatever.

Further, even if you-as-player don't think of these benefits and-or proactively decline to use them, others in your party who are aware of your capabilities might either suggest or insist that you do.

I think for purposes of this discussion being an elf with no mechanical bonuses or penalties compared to a human would still allow people to like or dislike elves.

Being an elf could impact interactions and roleplay, but not combat stuff or powers or special abilities.

 

[Lanefan]

I generally don't care within limits. Generally speaking, I wouldn't approve a character below age 16 or above age 65 (or racially adjusted range) without some serious discussion with the player and something in the stats to justify that take, and I generally encourage characters between age 18 and age 45 because within that range you have "adult" with casual realism without regard to mechanics and with little 'ick' factor. If age choice is extreme enough that it feels like it should matter then I probably do care.

The youngest character I've ever seen played was 11 years old. Fully adult for its species (almost-full-blooded Orc), however, which had a normal maximum lifespan about half that of a Human. Our tables allow you to start as young as about Human-equivalent 17, and yes our system still has age affecting stats (which in many ways is a very sensible rule, if imperfectly implemented in 1e).

Our roll-up tables don't allow a character to start beyond about (Human-equivalent) 40-ish years old, but get unlucky against a Ghost and you can very soon be playing someone in their 80s.

 

[Lanefan]

On this table, I'd choose Arakokra.

GM: "But there is no Arakokra"

Me:"Exactly. I'm the only one."

It'd have to be a flightless Aaracokra, though, so as not to have any built-in mechanical benefits.

 

[Voadam]

For the 5e PH races the biggest mechanical distinction that would be lost narratively would probably be dragonborn breath weapons. Nobody having darkvision would be a minor but probably more common change.

 

[Lanefan]

Having played a centaur, I can tell you the most important mechanical aspect was: +2 strength. All the other stuff barely came up (as in, maybe once) in a 1-16 campaign.

So even if you reduced them to only +2 strength ... they would play exactly the same mechanics-wise. All the rest - all the little ribbon-y rp moments that leaned in on her centaur-ness, were purely rp and narration.

I DMed a Centaur PC for quite some time and it was something of a headache now and then.

The first challenge wasn't ladders, but simple stairs. The player aced every roll, though, to the point where I just said OK, you've got stairs figured. But ladders? Hard no.

The next challenge was, if it can't climb a ladder, how do we get it up there? It's too heavy to levitate or use any flight device we have, and hauling it up by rope ain't easy. The only recourse they had was the actual Fly spell, which I'd long-ago ruled works on any living target regardless of its size.

An ongoing and constant player-side challenge was all the places where the damn thing simply didn't fit. Horses (and thus Centaurs) can't crawl if the ceiling gets low and aren't good at squeezing into narrow spaces (I was lucky here; I know nothing at all about horses but one of the other players was a horse enthusiast, so I just asked her for the details of what a horse could and couldn't do).

Another ongoing challenge was stealth, to which the clop-clop-clop of hooves on hard surfaces is not kind.

The flip side was this Centaur - a Fighter by class - came with some nice mechanical benefits built in. Extra kick attacks, for example, to front or rear (but not both at once!). A major bonus on attacks when charging. Etc.

 

[Corinnguard]

For the 5e PH races the biggest mechanical distinction that would be lost narratively would probably be dragonborn breath weapons. Nobody having darkvision would be a minor but probably more common change.

If the Dragonborn's breath weapon had no mechanical limitations, they would be breathing a lot more.