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.

 

[DND_Reborn]

guess we,ll agree then that point buy is the best

Agreed! It's what we usually use. Or rolling. We've never used a standard array in any d20 game.

also I would not give ASI to human from half feat at 1st level.
Either 1 full-feat or 2 half-feats without ASI

when we're at it, just remove +1 ASI from all half feats.
Then when you gain ASI from your class; raise 1 ability by 2, two abilities by 1, one half feat and one ability by 1, two half feats or one full feat.

Sure. Decoupling the specified ASI from a half-feats would be fine IMO, or just have feats and half-feats and no ASIs... it all works for me.

 

[Maxperson]

point buy pool increased from 27 to 32 points.
minimum score 8
maximum score 16

cost

ability score 8 - cost 0
ability score 9 - cost 1
ability score 10 - cost 2
ability score 11 - cost 3
ability score 12 - cost 4
ability score 13 - cost 5
ability score 14 - cost 6
ability score 15 - cost 8
ability score 16 - cost 10

or if you just want default array; it's:

16,16,14,12,10,8

Currently you can point buy a 15 and add +2 for a 17 in a stat. 17 ought to be the point buy maximum if you are going to ditch racial stat bonuses entirely.

 

[billd91]

Because you are adding options for players that like them and allowing more concepts. Broadening the game without increasing the power levels of the PC's. Win Win.

IOW, now I can play a barbarian elf, if that's the concept I want to go for, without having to fight against the restrictions of what some game designer thinks an elf should look like.

Let's get real. You always could play an elf barbarian. There was nothing preventing it. One of my players played one back in the 3e days (when they had penalties to Constitution). What the designers have done with this option is not allow more concepts but provide more optimization support for certain concepts that didn't have it before.

Honestly, if that's what people needed to play a concept...?

 

[Horwath]

Currently you can point buy a 15 and add +2 for a 17 in a stat. 17 ought to be the point buy maximum if you are going to ditch racial stat bonuses entirely.

sure, if you want; add 17 for a cost of 13pts.
But, as all races dont have +2 for their class primary ability, having 16 as max seems a right solution. you still need 8th level for max score. or 6th as a fighter.

 

[Cadence]

sure, if you want; add 17 for a cost of 13pts.
But, as all races dont have +2 for their class primary ability, having 16 as max seems a right solution. you still need 8th level for max score. or 6th as a fighter.

Which besides humans, gith, shifters, and tritons are the only ones missing it under the optional rules, right?

 

[Crimson Longinus]

One thing that makes the difference between the odd and even scores such a big deal is how the ASIs you get while levelling work. As you can always bump a stat by two points, it it always better to start with an even score. One change I'm planning to try is to make levelling ASIs to always be +1 and +1, no single +2 allowed. This way if you started with 15 and your friend started with 16 and you both bump this score with every ASI they will have a better bonus for half the levels and same as you for the second half. This makes starting with the odd scores to be an actual meaningful midpoint instead of always being a full modifier point behind.

 

[Maxperson]

sure, if you want; add 17 for a cost of 13pts.
But, as all races dont have +2 for their class primary ability, having 16 as max seems a right solution. you still need 8th level for max score. or 6th as a fighter.

Yes, but the races who don't have a +2 have better racial features(except stock humans who get more stat bonuses), which is going to boost them with the new method coming out. Further, it's not about what level you max the score at 20 for a lot of people, it's also about two +1s boosting odd stats over that hump. That 17 becomes an 18 at level 4 AND another odd stat moves to even and gives a +1 higher modifier as well. I think the 17 for 13 points would be reasonable to accommodate all of that.

 

[Hussar]

Let's get real. You always could play an elf barbarian. There was nothing preventing it. One of my players played one back in the 3e days (when they had penalties to Constitution). What the designers have done with this option is not allow more concepts but provide more optimization support for certain concepts that didn't have it before.

Honestly, if that's what people needed to play a concept...?

And you can play EXACTLY the same character now. Or, you can choose to optimize, or not. It's up to the player.

Which, frankly, is the whole point. Now it's up to the player, not the game designer or the DM. I can play an elf barbarian whose stat bonuses line up perfectly with that class, or I can choose to not to. IOW, I have more choices than I had before.

Seems win win to me.

Or, to put it another way, why can't my elf be very strong and clumsy? Or my dwarf be very nimble? So on and so forth? Why does the race of my character HAVE to be locked into a single body type with zero deviation?

 

[DND_Reborn]

Currently you can point buy a 15 and add +2 for a 17 in a stat. 17 ought to be the point buy maximum if you are going to ditch racial stat bonuses entirely.

I wouldn't since a 16 or 17 are just as good (both being +3 modifier), especially if you remove the ASI +1 from half-feats. Also, this way if you want the +4 at level 4, you have to invest the full ASI into that score.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

Because you are adding options for players that like them and allowing more concepts. Broadening the game without increasing the power levels of the PC's. Win Win.

IOW, now I can play a barbarian elf, if that's the concept I want to go for, without having to fight against the restrictions of what some game designer thinks an elf should look like. Maybe, for some reason, my elf is honkingly muscular with some serious anger management issues. Sure, unusual for an elf, but, meh, so what? Any PC I play is likely going to be different than the baseline anyway. Certainly by any significant level my character is going to be FAR different than the baseline of his or her race.

By 12th level, most PC's are going to be 18 or 20 in their main stat. That's not unreasonable is it? Which means, that most 12th level PC's are basically godlike compared to the baselines of their respective races. They are stronger/smarter/wiser/faster/whatever than EVERYONE around them. They are unmatched by any standard member of their race.

So, since I'm going to reach that point anyway, does it really matter when I reach that point?

Why are you so set on allowing game designers to tell you what your character should look like? The game designers decided the stat bonuses for various races based on their views of that race. Why should I be forced to play a stereotypical member of a given race simply because the game designers thought that elves should be dexterous or dwarves should have higher Con's?

That's why.

Your elf can be hoinkingly muscular and I think even without shifting the bonus from dex to str, the elven barbarian is very powerful. Faster, harder to hit, stealthy, good with a bow. So if you want to shift, why not. I am not in the way of your fun. You can do what you like. The argument of +1 does not break the game came from your side... I just showed, that if +1 does not break the game, you can equally use it for the other side of the argument.
In the end: whatever.
I just don't like the way it ia done. There are better ways to do it.

Edit: @Hussar why do you think I let a game designer tell me how my character looks like? That is why I roll my stats and assign them as I like. I just don't like cherry picking or I would play a different game. I feel boring and lazy to just always put a +2 into my main stat.