D&D (2024) D&D species article

[Micah Sweet]

Honestly, I am getting frustrated with this community. We seem to latch onto narratives and just run with them despite the evidence.

No, they are not turning everything into spells. They made sure the elf design matched the elf design, and gave the Rock Gnomes spells, to match with the Forest and Deep gnomes. The Forest Gnome speak with animals is actually a boon as I have shown multiple times. Meanwhile, tremorsense isn't a spell, gaining inspiration every day isn't a spell, Adrenaline rush isn't a spell.

Are they anti-complexity? Not really. DnD is still a pretty complex system, and despite what you may think "Elves get +2 charisma, +1 Wisdom, +3 Dexterity, -2 Strength, -3 constitution" isn't complex. It is just basic 2nd grade math, and that fight is over. You are free to use those things at your table, but the game no longer does ASI's that way. We haven't for years.

We haven't done that for years.... and species STILL MATTER at our tables, they STILL have an impact on game play. Playing an Elf still feels completely different than playing a Reborn still feels completely different than playing a dwarf. Playing these things at the table feels EXACTLY THE SAME as it always did. Because those differences in base line numbers never actually felt impactful at the table, because we just built our characters to emphasize them. Anyone attempting to do anything with dexterity picked species with dexterity bonuses, so they never felt unusually dexterous. And again, this entire conversation about racial ASI's is over. It was over years ago. We are not going to go back in the larger DnD community.

When you say "we", I assume you mean you and your table's personal experience, right? You're not trying to speak for anyone else?

 

[Maxperson]

I mean, at least for half-elves, if indeed you get to choose one parent's traits, it's just a reversion to the original Tolkien concept of a half-elf - you have to choose whether you're human or elf in the end. It's just that there will be no Valar coming along to force you to make the choice though - unless you as the DM want to do it that way!

That's not Tolkien's half-elves. Tolkien's half elves never stopped having traits from both human and elf. They simply got to choose whether to be mortal or immortal and be counted as human or elf. Counted as, not become. That's why Elrond is still half-elven and Elros lived several hundred years. Humans didn't live several hundred years.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

It's the attitude. They're not thinking about everyone, or each other, or the game. They're thinking about themselves IMO.

As I said above though, the desire by itself is not a problem. Stat bonuses were never particularly interesting as a means to differentiate characters, and I've been pretty consistent about claiming that. I've always believed it was better for the game to make the actions of characters different, because actions speak, stats don't. Dragonborn have dragon breath. Tieflings tap into hellish powers. Orcs are blood-frenzy ferocious. Etc. Making races different by what special thing they do is far and away better than "Orcs have +2 Str and Con, and -4 Cha."

The problem is, WotC doesn't want to do that. I fundamentally disagree with @Chaosmancer on this. I absolutely do think they have a "replace everything with spells" agenda. I think we've seen the signs of that loud and clear, and that it takes significant player pushback for them to retreat from this stance. That's why they tried to make Warlock pacts into spells; that's why they initially made Hunter's Mark a spell, and why Divine Smite has been turned into a spell as well. The spell-ification process is not restricted to any one area. Yes, they do make other kinds of things, but there has been a consistent trend of using spells even when spells are NOT warranted, and essentially never going the other way, turning stuff that is a spell into a non-spell instead.

But "you can cast spell X 1/day" (or whatever) does not feel the same way as a special racial feature that only fnords get. It just doesn't, and it never will. Instead, it feels like...getting to be a weaker spellcaster occasionally. The fact that dragon breath isn't just a spell really does matter. It feels different--even if you could theoretically restructure it as a spell, you really shouldn't, because that feels different.

For an edition that has allegedly prioritized "feel" above all else, because (allegedly) "math is easy," the fact that they keep chucking so many things--no, not absolutely positively everything @Chaosmancer, but FAR too much and consistently more over time--into the flavorless-crappy-feels zone of "you get a couple weird spells!" just flat is not helping.

It sounds like the goliath is a (IMO, rare) example of NOT doing this, and for that I'm glad...even if the "what do you do" sounds incredibly thin and frankly pretty dull.

 

[Minigiant]

Big things are not better at jumping
Big things are not better at climbing
And if you want to argue swimming, I'd suggest you look up what a swimmer's build means. They don't look like body builders

It's not big.

It's big and muscular.

Orcs and Goliaths are noted for their extreme non-agility-limited strength.

 

[Minigiant]

It sounds like the goliath is a (IMO, rare) example of NOT doing this, and for that I'm glad...even if the "what do you do" sounds incredibly thin and frankly pretty dull.

I feel the only reason why Goliath don't get spells is to limit the number of added racial spells to remain backwards compatible.

If this were actually 6e...

 

[Belen]

But "you can cast spell X 1/day" (or whatever) does not feel the same way as a special racial feature that only fnords get. It just doesn't, and it never will. Instead, it feels like...getting to be a weaker spellcaster occasionally. The fact that dragon breath isn't just a spell really does matter. It feels different--even if you could theoretically restructure it as a spell, you really shouldn't, because that feels different.

I detest 1/day abilities. I find them worthless. People will hoard them to wait for the right moment and it is just lame.

 

[CreamCloud0]

I detest 1/day abilities. I find them worthless. People will hoard them to wait for the right moment and it is just lame.

and most of the time you reach the end of the day not having used that ability because you were always wondering if an even more 'just the right moment' would come along so even if an opportunity did come up to use it you convinced yourself out of using it at the time.

 

[mamba]

A rule in a sidebar doesn't create a feat-based species mix and match subsystem.

no it doesn’t, and the PHB does not have to create it either because it does not have those species in it. Create it for the 10 species in the PHB, give some guidance for other species, and move on. Do the full conversion when you revisit the species in the next X of Everything. There is a reason why I called it a sidebar and not a chapter

 

[Belen]

I am not sure I will even use half the PHB species any longer. I would probably not use Aasimar, Dragonborn, Goliath, Orcs, or Tieflings unless I was running a Planescape campaign. I do allow Dragonborn now as a royal version of the Lizardfolk but that is about it.

The more I see, the more I think I will stick with 5.0. I upgraded to 3.5 immediately back in the day and that was a massive mistake.

 

[dave2008]

But "you can cast spell X 1/day" (or whatever) does not feel the same way as a special racial feature that only fnords get. It just doesn't, and it never will. Instead, it feels like...getting to be a weaker spellcaster occasionally. The fact that dragon breath isn't just a spell really does matter. It feels different--even if you could theoretically restructure it as a spell, you really shouldn't, because that feels different.

Well that is obviously your opinion. I know for a fact that some players do find it special and flavorful to be able to cast a "spell" as a racial feature. So it is possible that your experience and opinion is the minority, or not. Who knows. The fact is you presume to know better/more, but you don't. None of us do.

Personally I wish there was only one caster class (wizard) and all other magic using classes handled their magic abilities without casting spells. But since that is never going to happen (along with other things I want), I don't feel to need to rage about it.