D&D (2024) D&D species article

[LuisCarlos17f]

I wonder about future sourcebooks with PC species. We have got Volo's Monster Guide, Moderkainen's Tome of Foes and M's Monster of the Multiverse then the next sourcebook should be with new PC species, not a simple update. There are a lot what haven't appeared yet in 5ed.

 

[Remathilis]

With the usual caveat of not having seen the full picture...

I'm pretty much disappointed with all of them.

Dragonborn is an upgrade from 2014, but Fizban 's versions are better.

Dwarf trades all their extra abilities for .. a few minutes of tremorsense. RIP mountain dwarf.

Halflings are just all light feet now. RIP stout.

Goliaths lost athletes. Orcs lost powerful build.

Aasimar can change their celestial choice whenever, but gnome, elf, tiefling and goliaths still have subraces (I'm sorry, lineages).

Elf is a travesty. Apparently the trance proficiencies are gone, subraces are three bonus spells and you get a choice of three proficiencies (who are we kidding, perception is the best one).

Also, RIP to all the "subraces" that weren't in the core books. You're either so much better than the core race options or no longer usable. RIP ghostwise halflings, sea elves, eladrin, shadar-kai, duergar, snirfneblin, variant tieflings and Fizban dragonborn.

Oh, and pour one out for the half elf and half orc. Told you there would be no replacement system. Hope the DMG has more info, but not counting on it.

For all the praise I have for the revisions to the classes, I have as much disdain for their handing of species. Monsters of the Multiverse was perfection; they just needed to add the PHB species in that style and they would be great. But I wager we'll get a revised MotM soon so they can beat the everliving hell out of those species too.

 

[TerraDave]

Also not my favorite. For the classes it’s something here, something there. Probably 10% annoyance at the most. This is more like 35 to 40 % annoyance.

Though at least it’s not 100%

 

[Aldarc]

With the usual caveat of not having seen the full picture...

I'm pretty much disappointed with all of them.

Dragonborn is an upgrade from 2014, but Fizban 's versions are better.

Dwarf trades all their extra abilities for .. a few minutes of tremorsense. RIP mountain dwarf.

Halflings are just all light feet now. RIP stout.

Goliaths lost athletes. Orcs lost powerful build.

Aasimar can change their celestial choice whenever, but gnome, elf, tiefling and goliaths still have subraces (I'm sorry, lineages).

Elf is a travesty. Apparently the trance proficiencies are gone, subraces are three bonus spells and you get a choice of three proficiencies (who are we kidding, perception is the best one).

Also, RIP to all the "subraces" that weren't in the core books. You're either so much better than the core race options or no longer usable. RIP ghostwise halflings, sea elves, eladrin, shadar-kai, duergar, snirfneblin, variant tieflings and Fizban dragonborn.

Oh, and pour one out for the half elf and half orc. Told you there would be no replacement system. Hope the DMG has more info, but not counting on it.

For all the praise I have for the revisions to the classes, I have as much disdain for their handing of species. Monsters of the Multiverse was perfection; they just needed to add the PHB species in that style and they would be great. But I wager we'll get a revised MotM soon so they can beat the everliving hell out of those species too.

I suspect that WotC will point out that half-elf and half-orc are still there but you pick one parent lineage for the traits. I suspect that fair number of people won't see it that way. They will see the absence of these player options that they once had. The look is that these options are being removed because there is no meaningful difference between "pick a parent" and those options being absent.

Í remember WotC once talking about the mistake they made with gnomes in 4e. Most players don't play gnomes, so they thought that they could easily move gnomes to PHB 2 without an issue. Except while a single player doesn't usually play gnomes, there was often statistically at least one gnome player per table who was affected by the change. Even if gnomes were in PHB 2, which was released less than a year later, people who liked playing gnomes felt their absence. There are some people who still believe and assert that gnomes weren't a race in 4e D&D. And half-elves are more popular of a character option than gnomes.

So I'm a bit worried that the issue with half-elves and possibly half-orcs and the lost subraces will come back and bite them in the rear for a similar reason but time will tell.

 

[Scribe]

If there is one thing I havent liked in D&D for years, its the direction of their design of species. They have really doubled down on that.

No Half-Elf? No sale.

Wake me when they release the SRD and someone creates the real 5.5.

 

[Demetrios1453]

I mean, at least for half-elves, if indeed you get to choose one parent's traits, it's just a reversion to the original Tolkien concept of a half-elf - you have to choose whether you're human or elf in the end. It's just that there will be no Valar coming along to force you to make the choice though - unless you as the DM want to do it that way!

 

[Horwath]

Spell, spells, spells....

can we get some features that are not coded as spells?

just waiting for innate darkvision to be turned into Darkvision spell 1/Long rest...


Why do gnomes, halflings and dwarves now all have 30ft speed?

Might be cool for lightfoot halflings to have it as a special trait.

What is downside playing a small species now?
What is the upside?

 

[Charlaquin]

R.I.P. Mask of the Wild.

They do now get Pass Without Trace for free at 5th level. Not the same, of course, but I am sure Mask of the Wild and Naturally Stealthy caused WotC a lot of headaches with how their existence implied certain things about the how the stealth rules must work for everyone else (i.e. that light obscuration or cover due to a larger creature are not sufficient conditions to try to hide unless you have those traits), which might not have been fully thought out or intended.

 

[Sword of Spirit]

The only thing I like here is all species having at least 30' of movement, and the only reason I like that is because all small monstrous humanoids already had 30' of movement, leaving that 25' as purely a "typical PC race" penalty.

 

[Charlaquin]

What is downside playing a small species now?

Basically none, other than the fact that small size can limit the size of creatures you can shove or grapple, and if you become grappled, one more size of creatures can move you without spending extra movement if you’re small.

What is the upside?

Again, basically none, except that you can potentially squeeze through slightly smaller openings.

This is clearly very intentional though, they want small vs medium size to be mainly an aesthetic choice with as little mechanical impact as possible.