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.

 

[TwoSix]

So for 6E maybe we should just have a blank sheet and "you figure it out?" Think of it as the ultimate in flexibility!

I'm fairly close to that point with 5E. I homebrewed a subclass just for my character in one of our current campaigns, and I'm thinking of doing a whole class just for my next one.

 

[WayOfTheFourElements]

Come on, folks. Is min-maxing the worst thing there is? I'm a good player, contribute to role-playing, want to help the GM move the story forward, look for out of the box solutions to problems. But I also want my character to be good at what he is supposed to do in the group. I don't want to bring in a wizard with a 12 Intelligence or some other sub-optimal build just because "it's a cool character concept." I can have good stats AND a cool character concept.
D&D is like a team sport. You don't put your slugger in to pitch, and you don't put your pitcher in to bat cleanup. Everyone has roles to play if the team is going to succeed.

If D&D is a sports team, min-maxed characters should be the norm. Anyone who can't make the cut should be booted from the team.

In my mind, however, D&D is not like a sports team.

If I lived in a D&D world, I (and every sane, comfortable individual) would remain behind the city walls and never leave. If I were to venture past the gate, it's too likely I would crushed by a giant club, , sold into slavery, scorched by a dragon, gobbled up by a T-rex, shredded by a displacer beast, or have my brain sucked out by a mind flayer. That sort of curiosity is just asking for trouble. I see adventurers as misfits without a place in society. They're dirty, amoral, petty, and frantic, but they also might be the greatest heroes a desperate world could scrape up.

 

[Wrathamon]

racial attribute bonuses should go away and be moved to Class Bonuses. +2 to one stat +1 to another.
If a race is considered strong powerful build works for example of representing this. Create cool features that arent tied to math to highlight their racial differences to create interesting choices. I like the skill/language swaps. I didnt grow up in china so I shouldnt have to speak chinese. Its pretty ignorant to assume I speak it. Proficiencies should be "recommended" but let the player pick.


That would have been a better variant rule but it requires more design work since some races rely on their Attribute modifier to "define" them. Creating a bunch of variant racial features that replace the ASI is a lot of work.

 

[hawkeyefan]

I mean......all kidding aside, I think just a new Standard Array or Point Buy Total would have pretty much accomplished the same. Just incorporate the adjustments into those figures and you're done.

Those who roll stats don't need to increase their stats any more ....

 

[WayOfTheFourElements]

Another fun alternative is to tell the player, "You can choose any stats you want. Go." I've never had poor results when using this method.

 

[Jeff Carpenter]

The real problem is not stat bumps, but dark vision. No one in my campaign will play a charachter without it. (I rarely play but when i do i alwas grab dark vision) Get rid of dark vision and I would have an all human party.

Next campaign I am homebrewing out dark vision.

 

[WayOfTheFourElements]

The real problem is not stat bumps, but dark vision. No one in my campaign will play a charachter without it. (I rarely play but when i do i alwas grab dark vision) Get rid of dark vision and I would have an all human party.

Next campaign I am homebrewing out dark vision.

Yeah. Dark vision makes adventuring less adventurous. Its existence is a net negative on play.

 

[Parmandur]

What works in an awesome book like The Colour of Magic might not work well in a game. Rincewind is a lot of fun in the books, he'd probably be a lot of fun in a game using FUDGE, but I don't think he'd be a lot of fun in D&D. But, hey, if that's what floats someone's D&D boat I'm not going to tell them they're doing it wrong. But I do think most players have an expectation that the wizard, fighter, or cleric in their party is going to be pretty good at fulfilling their role.

I'd say it's reasonable to apply the Multiclassing minimums as a requirement to choose a Class, but people act like 5E is unplayable with suboptimal characters, but it just ain't so.

 

[Twiggly the Gnome]

I'd say it's reasonable to apply the Multiclassing minimums as a requirement to choose a Class, but people act like 5E is unplayable with suboptimal characters, but it just ain't so.

Yeah, the conflation of effective with optimal is a wierd kind of expectation inflation.

 

[JiffyPopTart]

yeah cause god forbid a player has to make a choice that isn’t optimal to play a concept. Seriously, this isn’t inclusivity. This is badly balanced pandering that does little but water down any sort of uniqueness for a race.

fun fact: you can have a fantasy race that is inherently stronger or smarter on average compared to another race without it being prejudicial.

Counter Fun Fact: You can play an exception to the inherent description of a fantasy race (like a bookish weakling orc) without it disrupting the game OR the world in which the game is set.