D&D (2024) 2024 PHB Race discussion

[Charlaquin]

Yeah, I’ll miss the half-elf. They have always been my favorite race in D&D.

One thing I don’t like is that they’re keeping what amounts to cultural traits for some races but calling them divine gifts or whatever (e.g. The dwarf’s tool proficiencies - and in Spelljammer, the giff’s firearms proficiency).

The reason I don’t like this is because it doesn’t play well with settings where the gods either don’t exist or their existence is uncertain. How does one explain these divinely-inspired cultural traits in a setting like Eberron, for example?

I don’t mind the prevalence of gods, but I do think “dwarves all know how to use these tools because the gods did it” feels like a cop-out. It’s still a cultural trait, it’s just attributing the universality of it to divine will, which is… not better… like “oh, this group of people don’t all share this cultural trait because of genetics. They all share it because god made them that way. Yikes.

 

[Micah Sweet]

They're trying to walk a fine line between races keeping certain archtypical elements (giff and guns, dwarves and crafts, elves and magic, halflings and stealth) and the disassociation of culture to race. Ergo, you get a lot of "a wizard/demon/God did it" explanations for ribbon features.

That said, Eberron isn't as big a plot hole as it seems. The majority of races don't have clear origins beyond where they race first appeared, but creation stories are few and far between. Maybe dwarves were blessed by Onatar. Maybe it's a side effect of Daelkyr intervention. Maybe the dwarves don't know and don't want to find out.

(As a side note: the changes to races between MotM and 1D&D is going to force a revised Eberron book. If for nothing else to address warforged vs autognome and dragonmarks as subrace).

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

 

[Minigiant]

If type is now a major aspect, why wasn't Warforged added to the base race list in the UA.

 

[Aldarc]

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.

 

[ClockworkNinja]

I want to suggest a minor change to dragonborn: the breath weapon tends to be a bit situational and doesn't scale well at higher levels, but what if each element had a minor utility rider?
E.G.: a red dragonborn could light a candle with her nose and a silver one could extinguish it, a copper dragonborn could melt things like a lock or rope by drooling on them, Green could clear foliage or insects, and Bronze could... idk, provide a light source? taze people? I'm open to suggestions.

 

[Maxperson]

I want the 2024 Players Handbook to only list the human race, with a note to consult with the DM for other races that exist in the setting.

The Players Handbook should be as setting neutral as possible, except for popular notions about "medieval-esque" plus the existence of magic.

Three things.

First, the inclusion of other races in the PHB does not remove setting neutrality from the PHB. The PHB is not a setting. It's simply a tool to be used when creating a setting or using an official setting.

Second, the PHB already does this. On page 6 is says...

"Your DM might set the campaign on one of these worlds or on one that he or she created. Because there is so much diversity among the worlds of D&D, you should check with your DM about any house rules that will affect your play of the game."

So don't assume all the PHB races are in the DM's world.

Third, there's no way in hell they are going to remove the races from the PHB. They would either need to put them in the DMG or another separate book and that's just silly. The vast majority of settings have all or most of those races in them, so putting them in the player's book makes the most sense.

Most importantly, it becomes easier for the DM to swap in a homebrew world. Perhaps the homebrew "adventurers guide" starts off local, with a few sheets of paper with brief notes describing the races who inhabit a particular town. Eventually by the time the players reach level 20, there can be a substantial amount of information about the cosmology and other parts of it.

It's hard to get easier than the current super, incredibly, amazingly easy that we have. I mean, you just do it and it's done. Then you inform the players and they follow the setting limitations you've set forth.

 

[Greg K]

Yeah, I’ll miss the half-elf. They have always been my favorite race in D&D.

I will too as it is my second favorite after human

One thing I don’t like is that they’re keeping what amounts to cultural traits for some races but calling them divine gifts or whatever (e.g. The dwarf’s tool proficiencies - and in Spelljammer, the giff’s firearms proficiency).

The reason I don’t like this is because it doesn’t play well with settings where the gods either don’t exist or their existence is uncertain. How does one explain these divinely-inspired cultural traits in a setting like Eberron, for example?

Not just that. What, if the in DMs homebrew setting, Dwarves are horse nomads, inhabit swamps/bayous, or whatever, and those abilities don't fit?

 

[cbwjm]

I will too as it is my second favorite after human

Not just that. What, if the in DMs homebrew setting, Dwarves are horse nomads, inhabit swamps/bayous, or whatever, and those abilities don't fit?

That's when you sort out your dwarf homebrew.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

That would make sense, and I hope you (and the voices you have heard) are correct.

It would seem a weird choice to add a race without any precedent, and with some kind of flight, in 1D&D.

Yeah, you can't take anything you see in a UA at face value.

The dragonborn (for example) could be yet-another-update to the race, a cut-and-paste error (wrong version), a "let's see who's paying attention...", or any number of things.

The missing half elf/orc could be "let's see how much the audience freaks out about this!" with the full expectation that it's not going to fly.

 

[Greg K]

That's when you sort out your dwarf homebrew.

Done it for enough editions, but it still doesn't change the lame decision that resulted in this version of the playtest dwarf which would require me to house rule (if I decide to embrace 5.5 rather than use 5.0 or jump to another system)