D&D (2024) Should 2014 Half Elves and Half Orcs be added to the 2025 SRD?

[Scribe]

Human/elf
Human/orc
Human/dwarf- Mul
Human/Halfling
Elf/orc- Wild elf
Elf/dwarf
Elf/halfling- Tallfellow
Dwarf/halfling- Stout
Orc/goblin
Dragonborn/kobold
Dragonborn/lizardfolk
Kobold/lizardfolk

Way too much for me. At that point you just free form it.

 

[Minigiant]

Way too much for me. At that point you just free form it.

It's a lot but that's only to create a unique species feature for each.

I don't want freeform.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

D&D fans consider half elves and half orcs is important aspects

Sweeping generalisations for the lose!

My roots are in 1st edition, when half elves wear boring humans with multiclass restrictions and no dual classing, and half orcs were too ugly to look at. When "always evil was dropped" my players where delighted to be able to play proper, full blooded orcs (down to having three in the party, as opposed to never for half orcs).

 

[Minigiant]

Sweeping generalisations for the lose!

My roots are in 1st edition, when half elves wear boring humans with multiclass restrictions and no dual classing, and half orcs were too ugly to look at. When "always evil was dropped" my players where delighted to be able to play proper, full blooded orcs (down to having three in the party, as opposed to never for half orcs).

Well not everyone.

But when WOTC posted the species article, the first comments were...

"So… Half-elf is no longer exist in this setting right"

Fans brought it up.

 

[Mistwell]

So what are you cutting out the PHB to fit an entire "mix your species" system in?

Nothing. This is a DMG thing. I said that? It should just be a one line reference in the PHB.

 

[Remathilis]

a question i have (but i'm considering maybe taking to the 'what if gnome/halfling baby?' thread so it doesn't get buried under the other topics here), if they were to design other additional 'official' cross-species offspring, which species combinations would you want to see or think would make sense to see given their own write-ups?
Edit: please state what you think the resulting conceptual intersection being provided between the two species is.

this line of thought is not meant to prevent a mixed species generator mechanic or say 'these are the only official cross-species', i just thought it is an interesting line of hypotheticals.

Human elf
Human dwarf
Human gnome
Human halfling
Human orc
Human dragonborn
Human tiefling
Human aasimar
Human goliath
Elf dwarf
Elf halfling
Etc etc etc...

I don't want only select officially sanctioned options. Because the existence of half-elves but not half-gnomes implies the latter is not possible. Make it open or nothing.

 

[Remathilis]

Nothing. This is a DMG thing. I said that? It should just be a one line reference in the PHB.

What are you cutting from the DMG to fit it in?

 

[Micah Sweet]

Id prefer them not be as mix match species

Sure. Your call.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Human elf
Human dwarf
Human gnome
Human halfling
Human orc
Human dragonborn
Human tiefling
Human aasimar
Human goliath
Elf dwarf
Elf halfling
Etc etc etc...

I don't want only select officially sanctioned options. Because the existence of half-elves but not half-gnomes implies the latter is not possible. Make it open or nothing.

Sure. Hence, the mix-and-match system of Level Up. All combinations are possible.

 

[Remathilis]

Sure. Hence, the mix-and-match system of Level Up. All combinations are possible.

Conceptually, I got no problem with that. But 5e has over 50 species* at this time, and they're not built for this. It would require yet another gutting and overhaul of the species system and a major blow to backwards compatibility. (Such that it is).

You'd have to rebuild and rebalance each species from every sourcebook, including the setting specific ones. That's a massive undertaking. Probably a sourcebook dedicated to it alone. Of course, you could cut down on the workload by ignoring certain options (no half-warforged or half-kender) but you're pretty much recreating the "legitimate" and "illegitimate" combos problem again, just with a wider net.

I just think such a system is about 11 years too late for 5e. The species system is already a mess with the changes from pre-Tasha to now (with several species never having been updated to the MotM standard and others now no longer matching the 24 power level). The internal logic is not there and it would need a whole rebuild to make it work.

And I just don't know if or when we'll see that.

* Depending on the sources and how you define certain options, such as the change to how subraces are handled.