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.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

No, you did:

Nope. Only if you imply that min maxing is the only way to be good at your role.

 

[Twiggly the Gnome]

Probably best would be redoing races altogether as I already said. Look at 4e. If you take their racial bonuses away and you still have a functional race.

4e was sort of ingenious in how it hid ability penalties behind a bonus in the other score associated with a defense. The half-orc had a bonus to dexterity in order encourage dumping intelligence.

 

[Remathilis]

Reads the AL notes on lineage in Tasha's...

You win. It could be worse. The only races that seem wonky with this are the aforementioned half-elf, mountain dwarf, and triton. Some of the races with floating bonuses (warforged, changeling, and simic hybrid) lose some luster, and most of the tiefling subraces are mostly redundant, but it is what it is.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

4e was sort of ingenious in how it hid ability penalties behind a bonus in the other score associated with a defense. The half-orc had a bonus to dexterity in order encourage dumping intelligence.

Hmmh I actually forgot about that. But yes, that also helped quite a bit. I think the short rest abilities made those races really feal different and conveyed a lot better how sturdy or nimble those races were than their stat bonuses.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Nope. Only if you imply that min maxing is the only way to be good at your role.

It's not the only way of being good at your role, you can do that with even a +1 in your main feature, but it is necessary to be better at your role. If another player is better at their role than you are at yours, that's a problem.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

It's not the only way of being good at your role, you can do that with even a +1 in your main feature, but it is necessary to be better at your role. If another player is better at their role than you are at yours, that's a problem.

I am confused by this statement. I see no problem that a different player is better at their role than you are at yours, if the discrepancy is not too great.
I only have a problem if I try to be best at my role and soneone is better at my role even though he did not even try. And I can't see how a difference of 1 point in main stat can actually achieve that in 5e.

 

[Hurin70]

So it's basically doing away with the concept of racial bonuses?

Kind of like the move from Oblivion to Skyrim?

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

I am confused by this statement. I see no problem that a different player is better at their role than you are at yours, if the discrepancy is not too great.
I only have a problem if I try to be best at my role and soneone is better at my role even though he did not even try. And I can't see how a difference of 1 point in main stat can actually achieve that in 5e.

The difference is still a difference. Their attacks/spells are 5% more effective than yours, and to some that doesn't matter, but it does to others.

 

[Zardnaar]

I think there is a reason Yuan ti are banned this season. Maybe it's just because it's cold outside, and maybe it's because now you have a race that has one of the best racial features (You have advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects) combined with any stat combination you want.

Yeah the only minor negative they had was the ability scores.

 

[Maxperson]

Wait a minute, Rincewind isn’t dumb. He’s a smart guy who had all the lesser spells scared out of his head by one of the great spells. Yes he’s a coward, and extremely unlucky/lucky but he’s also amazing at languages and even spends a little time as a nuclear physicist.

Arguably a few of the faculty of UA come across as less switched on however it’s also strongly implied that they are cunning b@st@rds. I’ve always seen them as low Wisdom high Intelligence like a lot of people in academia (I live in Oxford Uk and see that all the time)

Yeah. He's actually pretty darned smart.