Level Up (A5E) Changes to race (species?)

[Undrave]

So, some of the races need additional benefits to balance out the intrinsic things I could pull from the PHB.

The following already have resistances and traits that bring them up to 'neutral' levels.

• Elf: Neutral
• Halfling: Neutral. Lucky is strong enough that it absorbs the balance of lacking Darkvision.
• Dragonborn: Neutral? Breath Weapon is roughly equal to a 1st level spell that scales up with level. Is it enough for trait+Darkvision?

The following need a trait. All of them have Darkvision, so the traits should mostly be 'normal' strength.

• Dwarf: Maybe Dwarven Toughness (+1 HP per level) as universal, instead of only Hill Dwarves?
• Gnome: minor trait (resistance for the race is relatively strong)
• Half-Elf
• Half-Orc
• Tiefling: Infernal Legacy? Since it's described as being a factor of their demonic heritage, may not require training. It's more sorcerer-like.

And humans have no built-in trait, resistance, or Darkvision, so need something that compensates for that.

• Human: resistance, trait, darkvision

Shouldn't the Dwarves just keep their poison resistance? And Tiefling the Fire resistance?

I don't think we need Half-Orc if we're getting pure Orcs...

For the humans I was thinking just giving them an extra save proficiency.

 

[aco175]

I don't think we need Half-Orc if we're getting pure Orcs...

Are we getting pure orcs? We keep talking about it, but I thought it was mostly in regards to the racist talks with them. I know some worlds have them as a PC race, but I was not sure if everyone was. I would be fine with keeping 1/2 orcs and leaving regular orcs as monsters.

 

[KnightOfTheGrey]

Are we getting pure orcs? We keep talking about it, but I thought it was mostly in regards to the racist talks with them. I know some worlds have them as a PC race, but I was not sure if everyone was. I would be fine with keeping 1/2 orcs and leaving regular orcs as monsters.

If we're talking about the racism question here I'd advise not having any species exist purely to be always-evil non-playable monsters...

 

[Kinematics]

I don't think we need Half-Orc if we're getting pure Orcs...

There are several dozen additional races in other source books. I only took what was in the PHB for simplicity. I'm sure pure orcs are out there somewhere, but I'm not going to work through all of those races in this preliminary work.

Shouldn't the Dwarves just keep their poison resistance? And Tiefling the Fire resistance?

They do, I thought? I double checked, and those resistances are listed. What seems to be the problem?



Critiquing my own proposal:

Dwarf: +1 HP per level seems fairly weak compared to the other racial traits. Overall does not feel like there would be a lot of draw to the dwarf. Needs a buff.

Elf: Loses a lot of the standard draw for people choosing elves, but I don't think that's a bad thing. Trance as the main extra trait is a little iffy, though.

Human: Maybe solid, maybe overpowered. Have to take a deeper look at what an extra Background entails.


The rest still seem fairly solid, and reasonable in comparison to each other.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I don't think we need Half-Orc if we're getting pure Orcs...

They're really important to a lot of mixed-race folks I know. Much moreso than half-elf, IME.

 

[Undrave]

They're really important to a lot of mixed-race folks I know. Much moreso than half-elf, IME.

Alright then!

Maybe next edition we can get Orcs and Goblins the PHB though, they end up being playable often enough...

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Alright then!

Maybe next edition we can get Orcs and Goblins the PHB though, they end up being playable often enough...

Yep. Honestly, I'd be fine with fewer Wizard and Cleric subclasses in teh PHB and more races.

 

[Dire Bare]

A subrace can be biological, such as an elf with waterbreathing.

There is no meaningful difference between culture and species.

The significant difference is the design space, whether the mechanics work better as a background or a feat.

Even the background itself can be a halffeat, but it specializes to provide proficiencies and noncombat ribbons, and can involve magical ribbon if sensible for the concept.

I'm a bit confused . . .

If you are saying, in the game right now, there isn't a meaningful difference between race/species and culture . . . yes, that's what I said. I suppose we are in agreement.

If you are saying, in real life, there is no meaningful difference between species and culture . . . have to disagree hard on that. I mean, IRL, there is only one sentient species we know of, those pesky hoomans (maybe dolphins too). But that also seems to imply that real life culture has biological differences between peoples . . . which is simply not true. A related term, ethnicity, does differentiate folks by cultural, linguistic, and MINOR physical differences (skin color, hair texture, face shape, etc) . . . but part of the racism problem is assigning biological/genetic differences by ethnicity that just simply aren't there, and assigning value judgments (positive or negative) to them.

You do bring up a good example . . . if most of the differences between elves (for example) are cultural . . . but sea elves can breathe underwater and avariel (sky elves) have wings and can fly . . . that makes it a bit more difficult to come up with a good system that separates species/race from culture/ethnicity. My current working design is that the elvish species, due to their fey ancestry, are magically adaptable to almost any environment (which matches up with their description in Mordenkainen's) and what would be minor differences between human populations (skin color, etc) can be more pronounced in elves (water-breathing, wings). Mechanically however, I would still avoid assigning ASIs by species or by culture, to avoid the racist tropes about ancestry IRL, even though I can imagine hulking, burly goliaths and slender, agile gnomes . . .

 

[Haldrik]

I'm a bit confused . . .

If you are saying, in the game right now, there isn't a meaningful difference between race/species and culture . . . yes, that's what I said. I suppose we are in agreement.

If you are saying, in real life, there is no meaningful difference between species and culture . . . have to disagree hard on that. I mean, IRL, there is only one sentient species we know of, those pesky hoomans (maybe dolphins too). But that also seems to imply that real life culture has biological differences between peoples . . . which is simply not true. A related term, ethnicity, does differentiate folks by cultural, linguistic, and MINOR physical differences (skin color, hair texture, face shape, etc) . . . but part of the racism problem is assigning biological/genetic differences by ethnicity that just simply aren't there, and assigning value judgments (positive or negative) to them.

You do bring up a good example . . . if most of the differences between elves (for example) are cultural . . . but sea elves can breathe underwater and avariel (sky elves) have wings and can fly . . . that makes it a bit more difficult to come up with a good system that separates species/race from culture/ethnicity. My current working design is that the elvish species, due to their fey ancestry, are magically adaptable to almost any environment (which matches up with their description in Mordenkainen's) and what would be minor differences between human populations (skin color, etc) can be more pronounced in elves (water-breathing, wings). Mechanically however, I would still avoid assigning ASIs by species or by culture, to avoid the racist tropes about ancestry IRL, even though I can imagine hulking, burly goliaths and slender, agile gnomes . . .

Heh, of course, in reallife, a species differs from a culture.

But in the Players Handbook, the differences between races look almost entirely cultural.

For example, among the elven subraces, the sea elf can breathe water and the avariel elves can fly by means of wings. The elves seem to have acquired their biological gills or wings − by means of shapeshifting magic. In other words, even these physical features are cultural after all.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Heh, of course, in reallife, a species differs from a culture.

But in the Players Handbook, the differences between races look almost entirely cultural.

For example, among the elven subraces, the sea elf can breathe water and the avariel elves can fly by means of wings. The elves seem to have acquired their biological gills or wings − by means of shapeshifting magic. In other words, even these physical features are cultural after all.

That’s a wild leap.

They gained those feature because they are biologically prone to rapid adaptation with pretty extreme potentials. They didn’t cast spells to get wings or gills.