D&D (2024) 2024 PHB Race discussion

[AnotherGuy]

I think stonecunning and the tremorsense are biological, though. They're the product of a race living primarily in mountains and working with stone for millennia, since their creation. Excepting setting specific changes of course.

I'm not sold on every dwarf gaining tremorsense.

 

[Li Shenron]

Mostly the updates proposals I've seen so far from the UA as a whole do nothing for me either good or bad, they feel like changes for the sake of changes. I mean, if I were to join the hobby in 2024, I think the Races chapter of the PHB would be completely fine for me, but at the same time I still don't see any reason to update from the 2014 races.

For example, I don't care for half-races. I never liked them but if you want to play one, suit yourself, just don't pretend that because you can be a half-goliah-half-dragonborn then it means it's actually a thing in the world at large. For me the only exception has been usually half-orcs which I sometimes have used to represent "WoW-style orcs" as opposed to "LotR-style orcs", and actually prefer to narrate them as completely different species. The proposed system is a good thing for those who wish to have lots of combinations and want official rules about mixing any two races; at the same time it's a nail in the coffin for anyone who'd like unique features for half-races.

I do agree with the OP that at least they could try to replace "Races" with a more friendly term such as "Creatures" or "Folks". At the same time I'd rather keep "Races" than using the irritating "Ancestry" or "Lineage".

 

[Mind of tempest]

honestly I am fairly content with everything other than the dragonborn who need to be buffed back in line with fizbans.

 

[Yaarel]

honestly I am fairly content with everything other than the dragonborn who need to be buffed back in line with fizbans.

To buff the dragonborn might mean that all ODD races are buffed along with it.

I am ok with that.

The races need to be a satisfying amount of design space.

 

[Maxperson]

I'm not sold on every dwarf gaining tremorsense.

That's fair. It's something new for dwarves that will appeal to some and not others.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

WotC thinks new players don't want their choices to have any downsides whatsoever, even minor ones. Apparently, it "feels bad" for there to be consequences to your actions.

Why should there be negative consequences built into the rules for a legal and normal rules option?

Beyond that, penalties feel more restrictive narratively than bonuses, it’s easier for most people to ignore a bonus that doesn’t quite fit the concept than to do the same with a penalty.

But beyond even all that, why do you constantly trash on wizards in every thread about D&D?

I was very disappointed when I read level up. I really wanted it to be something I’d like and use in my games. But there are a lot of things I don’t like about it, it changed some stuff just to change something, seemingly, and the way it adds complexity feels like needless complication, to me, as often as it feels like good complexity. I also have bumped heads with Morrus so much he put me on his ignore list, usually about how he runs the site.

But I don’t go into every thread about it and crap on him, enworld, or level up.

I get that D&D has moved in directions that you don’t like, and that’s a bummer. It doesn’t justify crapping on what other people like constantly, nor (again constantly) making snide comments toward the character of the company and thus the people who make up the company, in every single thread about the game.

Please. When you aren’t doing this I often enjoy your contributions to threads. Please figure out a way to keep the vitriol regarding wizards and the future of D&D to yourself.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

If they had used the Level Up solution, none of this would be a problem.

And I and many others would look at it and walk away from the game entirely.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

In regards to Orcs and Eberron: I hope that going forward for Eberron, this means that House Tharashk and the Mark of Finding (human & half-orcs) will be expanded to Orcs in One D&D. Even if it would be a retcon, I suspect that Keith Baker would be open for it.

Mechanically, you just use the mark of finding half Orc writeup, regardless of where on the spectrum between mostly human to mostly orcish you are.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I had been wondering about this, and I'm pretty surprised to see stuff like this and the Giff gun origin, still remain.

I’m not, they’ve been presenting supernatural and biological as equivalent for some time, in races. The races are all constructed by their gods, apparently, so it makes sense that divine gifts would essentially be biological.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Why should there be negative consequences built into the rules for a legal and normal rules option?

Beyond that, penalties feel more restrictive narratively than bonuses, it’s easier for most people to ignore a bonus that doesn’t quite fit the concept than to do the same with a penalty.

But beyond even all that, why do you constantly trash on wizards in every thread about D&D?

I was very disappointed when I read level up. I really wanted it to be something I’d like and use in my games. But there are a lot of things I don’t like about it, it changed some stuff just to change something, seemingly, and the way it adds complexity feels like needless complication, to me, as often as it feels like good complexity. I also have bumped heads with Morrus so much he put me on his ignore list, usually about how he runs the site.

But I don’t go into every thread about it and crap on him, enworld, or level up.

I get that D&D has moved in directions that you don’t like, and that’s a bummer. It doesn’t justify crapping on what other people like constantly, nor (again constantly) making snide comments toward the character of the company and thus the people who make up the company, in every single thread about the game.

Please. When you aren’t doing this I often enjoy your contributions to threads. Please figure out a way to keep the vitriol regarding wizards and the future of D&D to yourself.

I would really like to do what you ask. The problem is that I have very limited opportunity to engage with D&D socially; I don't game as much as I'd like, and almost everyone I game with is just less invested in the hobby than I am. The internet is my only outlet, and almost all the conversation is about new stuff and how great it is that the game is moving away from what I enjoy. It just makes me sad.

And as for WotC, I have been emotionally invested in D&D for over 30 years, and overall enjoyed the TSR version more than any of WotC's. 5e is actually my favorite rule set, but for everything else about the game I prefer the TSR way. In the last few years, WotC has been explicitly moving away, in the rules, from the only thing about them I really loved. My players don't care about any of this stuff, so I really feel all alone. There's no point in getting mad at WotC about it, it won't change anything. But I'm still mad.