D&D (2024) D&D species article

[Minigiant]

Shouldn't that be the player's choice if their elf is stuck up and only interested in elf niche stuff? (Which apparently isn't history, arcana, performance, nature, medicine or religion-based. I guess they spend 100 years contemplating their navels?)

That was the core explanation why elves didn't excel at everything

 

[Sorcerers Apprentice]

You really don't get it do you? It has nothing to do with half elves. It is the concept that members of one species (i.e. race) can be better (e.g. more charming) than members of another species that is racist.

An ostrich will always run faster than a human, regardless of how many skill points the human has put into Athletics.

Is that racist?

 

[Remathilis]

An ostrich will always run faster than a human, regardless of how many skill points the human has put into Athletics.

Is that racist?

I don't think that biological advantages (claws, scales, wings, gills) are what is being argued as being racist. An aarakorca can fly, a tabaxi can climb, a triton can breathe water, an elf can see in the dark and a dwarf is less affected by poison. No one is saying biological advantage is bad.

But how do you balance them in a game?

Is flying worth the same as seeing in the dark or resisting poison? Is breathing water equal to a breath weapon? What does a human, from which all modifications like poison resistance is measured against, get when they don't have any biological advantages? Are we okay with the idea that humans or halflings have no inherent biological advantages compared to flying or the like.

So the issue becomes how you balance those biological advantages without relying on stereotyping cultural or mental abilities?

 

[Remathilis]

That was the core explanation why elves didn't excel at everything

And it was a very stupid one.

They should, IMO. That they don't is a gamist conceit.

This is the correct answer. Which is why age really should never be an explanation for any mechanics, since it opens up all kinds of stuff like this.

 

[Charlaquin]

I don't think WOTC has a correct perception of people want.

They might know what people don't want.

But what people want? Eeh? At least YouTube HATES these species.

YouTube hates everything. And also loves everything. And then algorithms funnel you to the channels expressing opinions you agree with.

 

[Arilyn]

Does how fast you age and learn really matter when a few months of the adventuring life will send you hurtling up several levels?

 

[Micah Sweet]

I don't think that biological advantages (claws, scales, wings, gills) are what is being argued as being racist. An aarakorca can fly, a tabaxi can climb, a triton can breathe water, an elf can see in the dark and a dwarf is less affected by poison. No one is saying biological advantage is bad.

But how do you balance them in a game?

Is flying worth the same as seeing in the dark or resisting poison? Is breathing water equal to a breath weapon? What does a human, from which all modifications like poison resistance is measured against, get when they don't have any biological advantages? Are we okay with the idea that humans or halflings have no inherent biological advantages compared to flying or the like.

So the issue becomes how you balance those biological advantages without relying on stereotyping cultural or mental abilities?

Designers have been doing it for 50 years, to various subjective degrees of success. IMO WotC's current plan is far from the best of those ideas.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

An ostrich will always run faster than a human, regardless of how many skill points the human has put into Athletics.

Is that racist?

Yes. The strongest male human can lift more weight than the strongest female human, but D&D makes the genders equal, because to do otherwise is sexist. D&D is about the fantasy that anyone can be whatever they want to be. It’s not a real life simulator because reality is full of discrimination.

 

[Aldarc]

YouTube hates everything. And also loves everything. And then algorithms funnel you to the channels expressing opinions you agree with.

My YouTube algorithm can't seem to tell the difference between friend and foe.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

They are different species, not different ethnicities though. Everyone on Earth is Human. Elves and Dwarves aren't, but they're also fictional.

If elves and humans can interbreed, they are the same species, by definition.

But that’s not really the point. It’s about messaging. “You are born this thing, so you can only be this, never that” is the message D&D desperately needs to get away from.