D&D (2024) D&D species article

[mamba]

And sure, Dragonborn smiths will do that... but what if you got magical armor off of a hobgoblin warlord, are you going to be unable to use your feature until you can find a dragonborn smith? That is exactly the thinking that led to all wings that are formed being energy. Because instead of just handwaving that sort of thing as not an issue, people would insist on making a huge deal out of it.

I’d rather have them have real wings and if there are some ‘real world’ consequences to that, even better.

 

[Chaosmancer]

Actually, that a decent take. Would work even better if they said that was why instead of it being a fan rationization.

It has to be a fan rationalization, because it is not a design concern in any way shape or form. It is only a limited number of fans who MUST have an answer. I personally am unhappy with the idea, because it causes problems for orcs, tielfings, goblins, aasimar, shifters, ect. who are not long lived like elves, dwarves and gnomes.

 

[Chaosmancer]

I’d rather have them have real wings and if there are some ‘real world’ consequences to that, even better.

"I would rather" is a perfectly fine stance. "Therefore the designers did this with no thought, no consideration, and are just hacks who have no talent" is not a fine stance.

People keep accusing the designers of doing this stuff for no reason, or just because it is cool, but there ARE reasons behind a lot of this design, and whether or not you prefer those reasons doesn't make them cease to exist.

 

[Minigiant]

why should this be race based, it makes more sense to be based on the background

Because it's biological

Elves have better eyes.
Orcs have strong forearms

 

[Micah Sweet]

It has to be a fan rationalization, because it is not a design concern in any way shape or form. It is only a limited number of fans who MUST have an answer. I personally am unhappy with the idea, because it causes problems for orcs, tielfings, goblins, aasimar, shifters, ect. who are not long lived like elves, dwarves and gnomes.

See to me, them's the breaks. I'd rather a concept be represented logically than twist it into incomprehensibility in the name of "balance".

In short, to me, it not being a design concern is a mistake.

 

[Micah Sweet]

"I would rather" is a perfectly fine stance. "Therefore the designers did this with no thought, no consideration, and are just hacks who have no talent" is not a fine stance.

People keep accusing the designers of doing this stuff for no reason, or just because it is cool, but there ARE reasons behind a lot of this design, and whether or not you prefer those reasons doesn't make them cease to exist.

Oh, I know they had reasons for all the decisions they implemented. I just don't like pretty much any of those reasons. They are bad reasons from my perspective, and IMO they make a worse game.

 

[mamba]

Further, all of the ones we've seen are trivially easy to think of counter-examples for! Often including classic fantasy characters who are direct counter-examples - i.e. they possess exceptional scores in the areas you can't have pluses in by the background rules.

so they rolled high, the background gives you a 5-10% bonus, most of the result still comes from your roll, and someone with an 18 is still exceptional, whether it comes from the roll or was buffed by the background. It does not take a 20

 

[Ruin Explorer]

so they rolled high, the background gives you a 5-10% bonus, most of the result still comes from your roll, and someone with an 18 is still exceptional, whether it comes from the roll or was buffed by the background. It does not take a 20

What are you talking about lol? Who rolls stats in the year 2024 AD?

 

[mamba]

Brute force counting gives me 17. I am pretty confident I didn't double-count or miss one but I'm not a maths wizz either.

isn’t it the same formula you would use for the lottery (n! / (r! * (n - r)!)?

Or in our case (n = 6, r = 3): 6! / (3! * 3!)

So 5 * 4 / 6 for any background having the 3 stats you want

 

[CreamCloud0]

it is known fact that even within humans there exists variation in the different kinds of inteligence people may have, that people's brains can be wired differently and inclined to different kinds of information processing, some of us are better at data retention and recall, some people have greater emotional awareness and processing, others have sharper instinct and intuition, is it so out there that creatures with fundamentally different biological makeup to humans might have different baselines for these different kinds of inteligence?

that something about a half-elf brain is simply more suited for processing social matters than a human's or an elf's?

is that something that can be called racist when we aren't even talking about the real meaning of races?