D&D 5E A Compilation of all the Race Changes in Monsters of the Multiverse

Over on Reddit, user KingJackel went through the video leak which came out a few days ago and manually compiled a list of all the changes to races in the book. The changes are quite extensive, with only the fairy and harengon remaining unchanged. The book contains 33 races in total, compiled and updated from previous Dungeons & Dragons books.

D&D 5E - List of All 33 Races in Mordenkainen's Monsters of the Multiverse

Mordenkainen Presents Monsters of the Multiverse contains 33 races compiled from previous Dungeons & Dragons books. Aarackocra Assimar Bugbear Centaur Changeling Deep Gnome Duergar Eladrin Fairy Firbolg Genasi, Air Genasi, Earth Genasi, Fire Gennasi, Water Githyanki Githzerai Goblin Goliath...

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D&D 5E - Full List of Monsters in Mordenkainen Presents Monsters of the Multiverse

Mordenkainen Presents Monsters of the Multiverse contains revamped stat blocks for 260 monsters previously published in previous Dungeons & Dragons 5E books. The list was compiled by YouTuber Bob Worldbuilder based on some blurry screenshots originally shared by Nerd Immersion (see the video...

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[Crimson Longinus]

Who is saying that's going to happen?

It isn't. But according to your logic where PCs are unique individuals that do not need to conform to rest of their species it should.

Also, there's an enormous difference between saying "this particular halfling is pretty darn strong" and "anyone can take any racial trait they want."

No there isn't.

So do you understand it now? Because attributes are already varied, it's fine putting a +2/+1 in a varied attribute.

Effects of some traits is varied too, as they're based on other numbers. For example powerful build increases one aspect of your strength, which is varied. It is literally doing the exact same thing than increasing strength would, except that just one part of it. Same for any trait that offers any skill or other bonus which boosts an ability check.

Not that I am at all convinced that this variance makes these things fundamentally different. Traits and ASIs are all basically the same thing: mechanical benefit in certain area, which may or may not be actually useful for the character and which the player may or may not decide to utilise effectively.

Also (in case that's not enough), a +2 in one stat is pretty much balanced against a +2 in any other stat. If you put it in Strength, then chances are you're playing a fighter, barbarian, or paladin, and maybe a ranger. If you put it in Intelligence, then you're likely playing a wizard or artificer. Etcetera. You're not going to be OP if you put the +2 in a different stat than the one your race says.

But racial traits aren't balanced against each other. That's why some races have one or two traits and other races have three, four, or more. If you swap out a halfling's Nimble for an aarakocra's Flight (even the new, 30-foot version), then you've unbalanced your character because you still have all Lucky, Brave, and whatever your subrace trait is.

You'd have to assign some value for traits. That's how systems which are actually meant for building PCs that can be individuals not conforming to splats do it. I guess in current D&D context it might mean saying how many ASI+1s/half-feats they're worth.

 

[Faolyn]

It isn't. But according to your logic where PCs are unique individuals that do not need to conform to rest of their species it should.

That's an enormous break in logic. PCs can put their ASIs in any stat =/= PCs can swap traits.

Effects of some traits is varied too, as they're based on other numbers. For example powerful build increases one aspect of your strength, which is varied. It is literally doing the exact same thing than increasing strength would, except that just one part of it. Same for any trait that offers any skill or other bonus which boosts an ability check.

The effect may be varied, but the trait itself is not varied. The trait remains the same. All goliaths are Powerfully Built, and even the scrawny ones are better at lifting and carrying than it would seem. All wood elves are good at hiding behind a raindrop. All gnomes are good at resisting mind-affecting magic. But they're not all equally good at it.

Quick, what's in a halfling's statblock? Nimble, Brave, Lucky, something from the subrace... now what's their Dex?

You can't answer that, because there is no answer for that; their Dex is the same as everyone else's: a number that varies between 3-18 (or 8-15), to a maximum of 20.

You'd have to assign some value for traits. That's how systems which are actually meant for building PCs that can be individuals not conforming to splats do it. I guess in current D&D context it might mean saying how many ASI+1s/half-feats they're worth.

Go do that then. Or just play GURPS Dungeon Fantasy, which has already done that.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I am not ignoring what you're saying at all. The problem here is that you seem to be unable to consistently follow your own logic.

ROFL is the only response to this. Yeah that's definitely it.

 

[Malmuria]

They're not just rhetorical questions, they're quite real design questions and the examples you cite are valid answers to them. I feel that D&D currently is kinda waffling here, having all these sacred cows but but quite knowing how to use them anymore.

5e is sort of an everything game, so there are a lot of bases to cover. There are people who do like the simulationist aspects, but as discussed what that means has tremendous variance. What bothers one person is a non-issue to another (for example, the idea of racial languages makes very little sense to me but other people just shrug and move on). Then there are people who like the character creation and system mastery minigames, and would leverage any change in features to make higher dps characters. There's lots of things they can't touch, from lore to mechanics, because it vaguely references tradition.

I suppose what they could do is have a dmg (or a dmg2 or whatever) that shows people how to use variant rules as dials to make the generic 5e game into the game they want to play.

 

[Dire Bare]

Obviously, the beards provide buoyancy. No wonder they're so popular!

That, and dwarven bones are made of solid rock. Which counteracts the beardy buoyancy, but explains why they are so heavy compared to halflings . . . who have hollow bones like birds.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

That's an enormous break in logic. PCs can put their ASIs in any stat =/= PCs can swap traits.

It is not at all. It is swapping racial features. It is you who arbitrarily decide to treat ASIs and traits as different.

The effect may be varied, but the trait itself is not varied. The trait remains the same. All goliaths are Powerfully Built, and even the scrawny ones are better at lifting and carrying than it would seem. All wood elves are good at hiding behind a raindrop. All gnomes are good at resisting mind-affecting magic. But they're not all equally good at it.

Sorry, that's completely unconvincing. The effect is the same. But if you insist, we can rename +2 ASI to strength to 'Mighty Strength' trait, which has an effect of increasing your strength score by two.

Go do that then. Or just play GURPS Dungeon Fantasy, which has already done that.

I don't really want to. But that is your reasoning actually taken to its logical conclusion.

 

[Faolyn]

It is not at all. It is swapping racial features. It is you who arbitrarily decide to treat ASIs and traits as different.

You are the only one talking about swapping racial features and insisting they're the same. Everyone else realizes that they're different and should be treated differently. That suggests that you either still don't get what we mean, or you get it and are just being contrary. Which is it?

And we're not swapping ASIs. We're just assigning them differently.

Also, the game itself treats ASIs and traits differently. They're in different sections of the statblock, for one. There are magic items and spells that raise stats (tome of clear thought, the wish spell), but none (AFAIK) that add new traits without changing your entire race in the process. And note that you get new ASIs as part of your class as you increase in level, not as part of your race, and some classes (fighter, rogue) grant more ASIs than others. How does you being a halfling explain why you get a new ASI or your choice at level 4? Are you going to claim that "class ASIs" and "racial ASIs" are different now?

(Compare to Level Up, where you get a paragon heritage trait at 10th level, completely unrelated to your class).

Your insistence that traits and stats are the same is ludicrous.

Sorry, that's completely unconvincing. The effect is the same. But if you insist, we can rename +2 ASI to strength to 'Mighty Strength' trait, which has an effect of increasing your strength score by two.

None of the other traits increase stats. So, no. That doesn't make sense as a racial trait. If you want to do that for your game, go ahead.

I don't really want to. But that is your reasoning actually taken to its logical conclusion.

Your logic is based on several faults, such as: your insistence that ASIs are traits, your unwillingness to accept that everyone else recognizes that there is a difference.

 

[Mordhau]

Yes, and the even more recent level based ASIs can follow them right out the door.

And the scaling issues they causes can go with them.

 

[Hussar]

Is there actually a scaling issue with ASI's?

 

[Mordhau]

Tradition? Mostly really. Mathwise, they have pretty much zero impact.

That's why I reject the simulation argument. If there is meant to be a statistically significant difference between two races, then a +1 just isn't going to cut it at all. If the only difference between a goliath and a halfling, for example, is a +1, then it just doesn't actually do what you are claiming it does. It can't. At best, it only impacts 5% of successful die rolls. Which means it would actually impact about 3-4% of die rolls.

Is that significant enough to enforce? Not really, IMO. It just doesn't matter. It certainly isn't simulating anything. If it's meant to enforce archetype, it has to be seen as a very large failure since it isn't actually doing anything other than maybe having a psychological impact.

The racial bonuses would need to be at least as large as a proficiency bonus in order to have any real impact. And that's never going to happen.

It sort of stands for a simulation it doesn't really enact.

It's meant to ensure that, for example, a Goliath Fighter is stronger than a Halfling.

This tends to work in practice because Goliaths are traditionally funnelled into Strength based melee classes, and Halflings are funnelled into Dex based classes that don't use Dex. It's the whole design of the race, rather than just the ASI, but they're a part of the design and without them a lot of the rest somewhat flounders.

For example, Powerful Build makes a lot of sense on a Str 20 Goliath in that it shows that even if a human can match their Strength in one dimension they're at least still stronger in others. When that Goliath is a Str 8 Sorcerer it's just silly.