DDAL 2014 Character Options Will be Playable in AL After the 2024 Release

[doctorbadwolf]

I can only hope that bombed out. Have they said otherwise?

No, we won’t know until the next UA, which IIRC will have everything in it?

 

[Parmandur]

Ah, okay. So the idea would be to give each species a trait like that, along with the normal ASI freedom, maybe choose whichever size you want independent of the main species you choose to "take after", and split any difference in normal lifespan?

That still wouldn't solve the erasure of stable cultures of mixed ancestry folk being erased from the base game after at least 20 years of being part of the game in FR and Eberron, possibly in other settings, but it would at least make the "what these mechanics say to the player" part of it less bad. I don't know that it would fill me with the same discomfort as the UA did or bring Blood Quantum immediately to my mind like "choose how you want to look, and choose a species to just fully mechanically be in every way other than appearance" did.

I'd still prefer to also at least have some stuff like "these traits are worth the same power, so you can swap them around if your two ancestries have a mix of them" like if darkvision is considered worth the same as slight bonus speed, or if any skill proficiency is considered equal to any other. The Tasha's rules do give some of that, though, so maybe between Tasha's and the new PHB it will actually be satisfying to build someone with a gnome and a wood elf parent or whatever.

I think that Backwards compatibility makes that hard to pull off: the different Species options are not built with identically shaped "bricks" so to speak, so straight swaps are a bit hard if one runs the numbers. But we'll see where they end up.

 

[Parmandur]

No, we won’t know until the next UA, which IIRC will have everything in it?

Well, all we know it will have is the Monk (only Open Hand) amd Druid (only Circle of the Moon), since the other 5 Classes and the other Subclasses from UA 6 are done in public playtestinf. We'll see what needs more testing from UA 7, but orobsvly not much. So it will probably be relatively light: if they do want to do any further Background building adjustments thisnis probsvly where fheybwill test them out maybe Feats.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I think that Backwards compatibility makes that hard to pull off: the different Species options are not built with identically shaped "bricks" so to speak, so straight swaps are a bit hard if one runs the numbers. But we'll see where they end up.

Eh, just means some pairings are harder than others. I don't think that MTOM species are all that different from 2024 UA species, so I'm not convinced it even is more than a very small handful that aren't either in that book of the new PHB.

But yeah, we will see. Hopefully it doesn't suck.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Well, all we know it will have is the Monk (only Open Hand) amd Druid (only Circle of the Moon), since the other 5 Classes and the other Subclasses from UA 6 are done in public playtestinf. We'll see what needs more testing from UA 7, but orobsvly not much. So it will probably be relatively light: if they do want to do any further Background building adjustments thisnis probsvly where fheybwill test them out maybe Feats.

I thought they'd said directly that it wasn't going to be light in a recent video? Like, everything except for the classes that are good to go, or something like that.

 

[Parmandur]

I thought they'd said directly that it wasn't going to be light in a recent video? Like, everything except for the classes that are good to go, or something like that.

All we know that two Classes woth one Subclass each are going in from UA 6. Don't know about UA 7 yet, probsvly won't until UA 9 goes up. So 5 whole Classes plus 6 Subclasses are done and going straight into final internal development, we'll seeabout the rest. Nothing more has been promised, but I suspect Geats and some Spells, plus Warlock and maybe Sorcerer.

 

[Ancalagon]

How would this work with classes not getting subclasses abilities at the same level (2014 vs 2024)?

 

[doctorbadwolf]

How would this work with classes not getting subclasses abilities at the same level (2014 vs 2024)?

Either it will be 1) Take subclass features when your subclass says to, or 2) take subclass features when your class says to take a feature,

I think 1 is less headaches, though I used to prefer 2.

 

[Nikosandros]

Not unless they explicitly replace them in the new PHB, which I doubt they'll do. And no, generic "mixed ancestry characters" rules don't do that.

This thread appears to be full of mis-communication... I'll try to be clearer about what I posted.

There was a discussion about what would be legal in AL after the publication of the 2024 rules. It was said that player options not "updated" in the new rules would still be allowed.

Parmandur wrote that several subclasses would be part of that. What I wrote is that - probably - (from what we know so far) half-orcs and half-elves would also be in the same category, i.e. gone as distinct species in the 2024 OHB and thus still legal to play in their 2014 version.

 

[Parmandur]

How would this work with classes not getting subclasses abilities at the same level (2014 vs 2024)?

The only thing is Level 1 Subclasses move to Level 3. Probably handled in a sidebar.