D&D (2024) D&D species article

[Charlaquin]

How did you come up with that number? I agree with you about how distant relationships can become irrelevant, what with elves in LoTR being immortal and High Men being long-lived. I am curious about the math.

Just counting kings of Númenor, Gondor, and Arnor, and the Chieftains of the Dúnedain from Elros down to Aragorn II. Aragorn is the 64th generation down from Elros, and Arwen is the first generation down from Elrond. So, first cousins 63 times removed.

EDIT: The source of that count is the Numenorean kings’ family tree from The Thain’s Book, which is defunct, but it’s the best source available if you are looking for a precise count. Otherwise it’s somewhere greater than 59 and fewer than 100 generations.

 

[Remathilis]

From my understanding, those other games offer character creation components that allow for mixed ancestry to have more significance a palette swap or CoD skin.

The moral of the story is the HALF-ELF and HALF-ORC as separate races are toast.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

personally my own inclination for the optimal way to pay hommage to half elves and orcs being slightly more 'official' would be to make them dedicated lineage/subrace options under the human, having them as feats IMO runs into making them a tax for character concept.

No. It just soaks up the human extra feat. You could as well make it lineage and swap the feat against that.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

It wasn't inferior elves.
it was adaptable elves.

With 1/3 of their sleep and charm resistance. No weapon bonuses. No trance. Sounds very inferior to me. It just looked adaptable because the system itself was so restrictive.

Essentially like you said, half elf who can choose to be in more classes that weren't elfish.

People typically played half elf to

• a fey who can dive into human things
• A human who can dive into fey things
• a being who can connect or combine the fey and human

You forgot: people who wanted to multiclass. Or play a character to high level and not be a human.

With racial restrictions and ASI gone, you'd have to do is convert them into something else

Maybe. But this would still leave them as not-half-elf.
I can see the point of having a fey ancestey species, but nit the sentimwnt that leaving half-elf out is discriminating when there are other mixed heritage species in the book (goliath, tiefling, aasimar, dragonborn?).

That said, I still would appreciate the DM guide that obviously has custom background to also have custom species.
What I reject is any pick any trait from your parents as you like. Maybe it would have been a good idea to designate minor and major traits, and you can swap out a few minor traits.

 

[Scribe]

other mixed heritage species in the book (goliath, tiefling, aasimar, dragonborn?).

None of those are mixed species.

 

[Chaosmancer]

All the systems I've seen (snd there are a lot now) do mixed species really well, without unbalancing choices. The heritage/culture system in LU is fun. (I just recently made a wood elf raised by fire elementals. His forest was destroyed and he's now a champion dedicated to retribution.) And what I'm seeing from Ghostfire looks like it'll be awesome too.

Games should be encouraging creativity. 5e 2024 is handing out the goodies but are curating background choices, which I'm finding grating.

We have people already complaining that the 2024 species are bland and lifeless. To do a system where half the species block is a series of different "feat" options that could be mixed and matched, they would need to completely redesign every single aspect of the species. You couldn't use the existing options in any way, shape, or form.

Is it theoritically possible for someone to write a game that way? Sure, like you said it happened, but you can't design it and keep how the species have worked in 5e this entire time. Because they have never been designed to be broken apart, mixed-and-matched like that proposes.

 

[Hriston]

Just counting kings of Númenor, Gondor, and Arnor, and the Chieftains of the Dúnedain from Elros down to Aragorn II. Aragorn is the 64th generation down from Elros, and Arwen is the first generation down from Elrond. So, first cousins 63 times removed.

EDIT: The source of that count is the Numenorean kings’ family tree from The Thain’s Book, which is technically no longer canon, but it’s the best source available if you are looking for a precise count. Otherwise it’s somewhere greater than 59 and fewer than 100 generations.

I don't recall ever having visited The Thain's Book, so thanks for providing your source, but I'm curious, what do you mean by "no longer canon"?

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

I still think that, in an eventual splatbook, they should had a bunch of mixed ancestries as their own unique thing instead of 1000s of various elves. That'd be nice.

 

[Minigiant]

With 1/3 of their sleep and charm resistance. No weapon bonuses. No trance. Sounds very inferior to me. It just looked adaptable because the system itself was so restrictive.

yes
an adaptive elf

You forgot: people who wanted to multiclass. Or play a character to high level and not be a human.

yes

An elf who can act like a human.
A human who can act like an elf

Maybe. But this would still leave them as not-half-elf.
I can see the point of having a fey ancestey species, but nit the sentimwnt that leaving half-elf out is discriminating when there are other mixed heritage species in the book (goliath, tiefling, aasimar, dragonborn?).

Those other races have ancestry that isn't humanoid.
Both humans and e;f/goblin/hobgoblin etc are humaniods.

Goliaths aren't actual half giants in core. One parent isn't a giant or half giant. Some reuse the mechanics for half giants. Some don't.

Same for genasi. Genasi are even more diluted in core.

 

[Aldarc]

The moral of the story is the HALF-ELF and HALF-ORC as separate races are toast.

I think that there is a lot of argument missing between whether half-races should receive distinct racial entries and D&D 2024's likely questionable implementation of them, and equivocating between those is probably not for the best.