D&D 5E A First Look at Tasha’s Lineage System In AL Player’s Guide - Customizing Your Origin In D&D

The new player’s guide for the D&D Adventurers League has been released. Appendix 1 includes the new info from Tasha’s Cauldron on customizing your origin. It‘s a one-page appendix.

The D&D Adventurers League now uses this variant system from Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything since it allows for a greater degree of customization. For ease of reference, the relevant information is included as an appendix to this document and doesn’t count against the PH + 1 rule.

You can do any of the following (obviously the full document has more detail):

1. Move your race ability score increases wherever your want to. “...take any ability score increase you gain in your race or subrace and apply it to an ability score of your choice.”​

2. Replace each language from your race with any language from a set list.​

3. Swap each proficiency for another of the same type.​

4. Alter behaviour/personality race-based descriptions.​

Its not clear if that’s the whole Lineage system or just part of it. You can download the player’s guide here.

 

[Charlaquin]

What about Ability Score Penalties?

Does a penalty count as an "increase" that can therefore be moved around, or are all Kobolds still stuck with a -2 to Strength?

Racial ability score penalties are getting errata’d away.

 

[Undrave]

I hope there's more to the ''lineage system'' than that. I hoped for something like XGtE's Its your life tables, but generating starting proficiencies and ASI instead. If its just ''you can replace whatever with something you like'', calling it a ''system'' might be pushing it little

It does feel a little uninspired...

I don't think a +2 to ability scores matters all that much anyway, my first 5E PC was a rogue with a 14 dex. It will make min/maxers happy. While I use point buy, rolling for stats (assuming no house rules) will still make more of a difference. I just predict even fewer human PCs, especially in AL.

Everybody in AL always took Variant Human for the free feat

 

[The Mirrorball Man]

I still don't quite understand how the push for more diversity came to be associated with free ASI. It feels a little absurd to me, as I quite enjoyed the modular nature of character creation of D&D, but if it pleases some people, it's cool, I guess.

 

[Cap'n Kobold]

I don't know. I've just assumed over the past x-editions that Clerics having more weapons and armor than Wizards was a game balance thing too, and not just flavor. Has it never been a balance thing? Were the extra HP and to-hit a bigger part? Or is 5e different about it?

As I understand it, it was to give them a more effective option in combat without using spells. Clerics were assumed to have to spend some to a lot of their spells on helping/healing the rest of the party, so were given the ability to wade in and fight reasonably well in combat to make up for it.

 

[Weiley31]

They said they were going to fix the Kobold earlier.

Kobolds are being retcon to lose the -2 STR.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

As I understand it, it was to give them a more effective option in combat without using spells. Clerics were assumed to have to spend some to a lot of their spells on helping/healing the rest of the party, so were given the ability to wade in and fight reasonably well in combat to make up for it.

This. In 1st edition clerics pretty much had to fill up with nothing but cure wounds spells (which had a different version for each level), so, to give them something interesting to do they where able to wade into a fight and smack things with a mace.

 

[briggart]

I find it interesting that the same document also completely excludes some races from Volo's and Mordenkainen's, because they don't fit the theme of the campaign. To me it seems to go in the compete opposite direction to the lineage system.

 

[Markh3rd]

I can see minmaxers abusing this. Overall, I like what I saw. This can open up a lot of various race class combos that you don't typically see, which is always a bonus. As I have said in many threads before, it gets tiresome seeing halflings only being rogues, countless tiefling warlocks, half-orc barbarians, elf wizards or rogues, etc. Now maybe there will be more dwarf wizards (as mentioned in the video, though hill dwarf will see a drastic reduction of use), gnome barbarians, half-orc clerics, halfling druids, etc.

I did something similar with my setting, except the +2 came from the class, while the +1 came from the race. I may have to change it back again.

Honestly I don't think this change fixes that issue of seeing repetitive builds. It just moved the preferred combinations of race class now. People tend to gravitate towards the path of least resistance anyway. This move just created new paths in place of old ones. I've already seen the min/max wheels begin in my circles of gameplay. And the book isn't even out yet. I expect to see more "not allowed" rules in AL to try and curb it.

 

[Markh3rd]

What I think is needed now is revamped or improved monster builds to raise the bar to match the new higher player power levels. This move has definitely given more power to the players, but has put more burden on the DM to try and balance it.

 

[Espadadelaaurora]

Well, as I have always said: don't write nothing in stone, give plenty of options and let people choose. For my part I'm ok with the rules in the PHB.