D&D (2024) First playtest thread! One D&D Character Origins.

[Kobold Avenger]

I've totally missed that memo since the day they came to be.

There's those audio files out there somewhere, where I think it was Monte Cook actually pronouncing various things from Planescape.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

No more half-elves and half-orcs. Feels weird.

They are in there, sort of, it's just that they have been entirely reduced to fluff except life-span (which itself is borderline fluff). And you can mix any two races, although besides life-span, only one parent race provides your mechanics, the second one is just fluff and lifespan.

"CHILDREN OF DIFFERENT HUMANOID KINDS Thanks to the magical workings of the multiverse, Humanoids of different kinds sometimes have children together. For example, folk who have a human parent and an orc or an elf parent are particularly common. Many other combinations are possible. If you’d like to play the child of such a wondrous pairing, choose two Race options that are Humanoid to represent your parents. Then determine which of those Race options provides your game traits: Size, Speed, and special traits. You can then mix and match visual characteristics—color, ear shape, and the like—of the two options. For example, if your character has a halfling and a gnome parent, you might choose Halfling for your game traits and then decide that your character has the pointed ears that are characteristic of a gnome. Finally, determine the average of the two options’ Life Span traits to figure out how long your character might live. For example, a child of a halfling and a gnome has an average life span of 288 years.""

 

[Weiley31]

There's those audio files out there somewhere, where I think it was Monte Cook actually pronouncing various things from Planescape.

I'll still take my Buttimars anyday of the week still.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

I've houseruled that Inspiration is awarded on a roll of 1. I took that idea from Cortex, where a failure can boost your chance of future success.

They probably didn't go for that only because, even though it's a nice consolation prize for failure, it seems weird to be inspired by failure. People tend to be inspired by success more often. You're version is nice, but it's more "gamey". Of course, you should feel free to swap it from 20's to 1's if you so desire. They should put that in the DMG as an option, just to spell it out.

 

[Havrik Stoneskimmer]

I really, really don't like the stat bonuses being tied to backgrounds. This is, in my opinion, a serious mistake.

There was this ... discomfort, this tension, with stat bonuses and class. If you played a "dex class" but your race was dwarf, you were at a bit of a disadvantage for example, because you didn't get to boost your main stat.

Shifting the stat bonuses to the background just re-creates the same problem in another place. I want to play a cleric, but I didn't grow in a temple, I was a criminal before my PC "found god"? well, that's a wisdom bonus I'm not getting.

so instead of race choice being somewhat constrained, now backgrounds are. There was an opportunity to fix this problem, and instead WotC just moved it around.

edit: also why are specific languages tied to specific background? If you were a guard you knew dwarf? Why?

I agree that this is just moving the perceived problem, but at least these are just sample backgrounds. You could always swap out a different stat increase. So you can be a Criminal but put the +2 in Wisdom and be a cleric. (If you insist on mechanically optimizing your ability scores for your class.)

 

[Nikosandros]

So many of his rulings are whack-a-do. Like the one hour of combat thing.

... or the magical shields ruling. That was really weird, I wonder what was the reasoning behind it.

 

[Sir Brennen]

I think the bits they are going to double down in for races are the physical inherited things like tremor sense and not the cultural things like “good at mining”

But I'd say the Forge Wise is in the same category as "good at mining". It's a cultural thing, despite the fluff text trying to make it a lineage trait.

 

[Aldarc]

I like some of the changes, of course...

But I'd still like to see just a -tiny- bit more done to the spell lists:

Arcane, Divine, Occult, Primal

Split out the "Dark and Questionable" magic to be it's own thing, rather than giving Wizards and Sorcerers the Warlock's unique and interesting spells.

PF2 has Occult also for what's essentially the more "psionics" spells too.

 

[Yaarel]

Just saying, it's REALLY easy to accidentally spell aasimar with the double 's' even when not meaning to...

Seriously, they need to spell the name of the creature:

awsimar

 

[OB1]

I really, really don't like the stat bonuses being tied to backgrounds. This is, in my opinion, a serious mistake.

There was this ... discomfort, this tension, with stat bonuses and class. If you played a "dex class" but your race was dwarf, you were at a bit of a disadvantage for example, because you didn't get to boost your main stat.

Shifting the stat bonuses to the background just re-creates the same problem in another place. I want to play a cleric, but I didn't grow in a temple, I was a criminal before my PC "found god"? well, that's a wisdom bonus I'm not getting.

so instead of race choice being somewhat constrained, now backgrounds are. There was an opportunity to fix this problem, and instead WotC just moved it around.

edit: also why are specific languages tied to specific background? If you were a guard you knew dwarf? Why?

The default now is to create your own background with whatever stat bump, feat, 2 skills, tool and language you want.