D&D 5E Assaying rules for non-racial ASIs

[Lyxen]

If I don't notice any problem with the semantic content, then I am unlikely to agree that arguments motivated by such problems are justified.

And, once more, you have not explained what the semantic content of racial ASIs is.

Do you mean that unless we can solve a problem everywhere it occurs, we should not try to solve that problem anywhere? Essentially, a call to inaction? I favour doing what we can, where we can. That creates a context in which others may feel encouraged to act. One important fact about WotC's changes is that they are making those changes to the world's most ubiquitous - and perhaps most influential - TTRPG.

The thing is that I totally advocate some of the actions taken. For example, it’s an unfortunate reality that black = evil in the mind of many people, and that the view that some races with black complexion were inherently evil is certainly problematic. Where I’m sad is because this comes from biased reading of the sources, since drows never were inherently evil, and neither were orcs, and orcs certainly did not have black skin until LotR. But since we are dealing with perceptions, I fully agree that something needed to be done.

But racial ASIs? Where exactly is the problem, in a world of giants and goblins, in a world where some races are inherently magical and others not, etc ?

 

[Ixal]

The only problem with Racial ASI was that the modifiers were not also applied to the attribute maximum.

Never did they force people to play only certain race-class combination, not having a 16 does not make a character unplayable, differences in abilities between individuals are the realm of the standard array/point buy and different fictional races having different abilities is not racist. First because they are fictional and second because, to paraphrase a other poster from this board I don't remember the name, having a halfling, an elf and an orc is like having a cat, a dog and a horse. Its not racist to say the horse pulls wagons, the dog protects sheep and the cat hunts mice.

Or to account for the ability of certain of those fictional races to breed with each other, the playable races in D&D are like dog breeds. And (hopefully) no one considers it racist to say that a rottweiler is stronger than a poodle.