D&D (2024) 2024 PHB Race discussion

[Yaarel]

I much prefer the PHB have all the main rules, including as many races and classes as can fit and just label them all building blocks for the DM

Having a corebook, 2024 Forgotten Realms Adventurers Guide, as part of the corebook release, allows the designers to detail the multiverse cosmology and race flavors, in a way that keeps worldbuilding and other official settings easy to do.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Having a corebook, 2024 Forgotten Realms Adventurers Guide, as part of the corebook release, allows the designers to detail the multiverse cosmology and race flavors, in a way that keeps worldbuilding and other official settings easy to do.

I disagree I don't want to have 3 core books let alone 4. I think the PHB should be all a new DM needs

 

[akr71]

Pretty sure I mentioned it in the main plates thread, but I'm pretty sure that what I'll be doing is setting up some specific half races. I'll be taking the human and perhaps replacing the feat with an elf or orc ability to get that flavour. I find the whole, pick your parents and get the stats of one but mix your height/age based on both.

I was thinking of tagging racial features as major and minor. Choose major features from one parent and minor features from another. That's just off the top of my head - if it seems unbalanced then it might end up '2 from this list, 1 from that list' kinda thing.
If somebody really wants something 'out of the box' it can be discussed and I'll work with the player to come up with something balanced that still helps them realize their character concept.

 

[Horwath]

I think we should just assume 1d&D will not put any negative on a playable race... so 30 is the lowest move you will see

that small decrease is not really that negative,

I get ASI's as much derives from your primary/secondary ability but 5ft less speed to be such a hurdle?

also, stealth on halflings feel forced into one playstyle. What if you want heavy armor? racial almost wasted completely.

Maybe if ability was agile-athlete so you can pick one skill from; athletics, acrobatics, sleight of hand, stealth.

 

[Yaarel]

I was thinking of tagging racial features as major and minor. Choose major features from one parent and minor features from another. That's just off the top of my head - if it seems unbalanced then it might end up '2 from this list, 1 from that list' kinda thing.
If somebody really wants something 'out of the box' it can be discussed and I'll work with the player to come up with something balanced that still helps them realize their character concept.

Yup.

There are race traits that are worth about a feat. And other race features that are worth a half-feat. Some even about two proficiencies/cantrips (like 120 darkvision).

Demarcating the design space makes it easy for half-race players to use their background to pick up a trait from the other parent.

 

[beancounter]

We are having a TMI moment right now with D&D, so I thought it might help to create some more focused threads.

I will start: So they still seem to be calling them "races".

Yep, it bugs the Heck out of me. They are different species, not races.

You would think that they would have updated the term given their emphasis on avoiding offense.

OT rant: crystal, as in crystal dragon, is not a mineral (like amethyst or emerald). Crystals are the atomic structures within minerals. If WoTC wanted a dragon with white translucent scales, it would be more appropriate to call them either quartz or calcite dragons.

 

[Yaarel]

OT rant: crystal, as in crystal dragon, is not a mineral (like amythyst or emerald). Crystals are the atomic structures within minerals. If WoTC wanted a dragon with white translucent scales, it would be more appropriate to call them either quartz or calcite dragons.

... Or gem dragons!

It is easy for the Players Handbook to represent gem dragons to some degree, by simply adding psychic and force damage types to the list of breath weapons.

 

[Yaarel]

Unfortunately, it seems the ODD designers want to delete psionics from the edition.

Even where it is helpful: such as mind-affecting spells listed under the Psionic power source spell list.

 

[DEFCON 1]

In many settings, Half-Elves at the least aren't in the same situation as mixed-race people IRL. Hell in some you have some who are and some who aren't. Like, in Taladas, an Armach-Nesti Half-Elf is very much in that situation, but a Tamire Steppe Half-Elf isn't having the same experience at all, because he's part of a culture that's mostly Half-Elves (and a large and successful one). So this demand that every person playing a Half-Elf must be interested in that narrative seems strange and bordering on the repugnant. It's like demanding every Dwarf player be telling a story about hearth and family, or every Halfling has to be a story about how they left home and are unusual for adventuring. Like one-true-wayism for how you play a race, but only applied to certain ones.

I understand what you are saying here, and concur to a certain extent. I agree that not every half-elf character's backstory needs to go into the "torn between two worlds" trope. But I think what I'm more getting to is this-- I've seen people thus far talk about how they don't like the removal of half-elves and half-orcs as set races because they now have to just take the mechanics of either human or elf (or human or orc) for their character while saying their character is a half-elf or half-orc. Seems to me that being a half-elf isn't important... the all-important half-elf game mechanics are what are important.

If that's the case and the game mechanics of a race are what matters... then what's the point of having mixed race characters? You could just make more races if players simply want more game mechanic options. Or if you feel like the game needs mixed-race characters, then why are these two the only mixed-race character options in the game? Why are these two so special that they need to be called out when all the other mixed heritages are expected to just be represented by one or the other parent race (other than HE and HO being grandfathered in from editions past?) To me... you either mechanically represent every racial combination by coming up with Multirace rules where a player does indeed pick and choose bits from both parent classes... or you just remove the mechanical differentiation altogether and have players play multiracial characters in their story without needing to give them their own mechanics.

I personally do not believe half-elves and half-orcs need their own independent racial write-up and mechanics while the mul (human/dwarf) and gnoblin (gnome/goblin) and any other parental pairing do not. The game either should go all-in for mechanical representation for every combination, or none at all.

But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong.

 

[Willie the Duck]

why does dwarf has 30ft move speed?
and gnome too?

That should have been some penalty countered by more positive features.

I get the halfling 30ft as they are really nimble.

This might be the started-with-BX/BECMI* player in me talking, but I totally get this decision. Differing player character speed is an unnecessary annoyance with minimal benefit to the game and D&D movement is artificial enough anyways. AD&D 2e was probably the nadir, with dwarf/halfling/gnome being literally half as fast and human/elf/half-elf fighters not also being slowed simply by wearing plate (also the super-gamist 120 movement that was feet if underground and yard if outside). Regardless, how many groups have slapped their foreheads when that-one-person decides to play a dwarf/gnome/halfling, and thus the entire part moves at a different speed?
*where, IIRC, everyone had the same base speed

None of this changes how you find the decision, and if it violates your verisimilitude for short races, I don't want to diminish that. I'm just saying I get the logic of it.