D&D (2024) Half-race feats how would you design them?

[Charlaquin]

A Feat that combined Dwarven Weapon Training and Dwarven Armor Training would be handy. Even just "pick 4 Martial Wrapons. That would allow my Orc Sorcerer with Dwarven heritage and culture to wear Medium Armor and wield an Axe. Or a straight Dwarf leaning unto stereotypes, or any Background for a non-martial character coming from a martial cultural background. So, cultural Frats have potential, even to be the main story of a PC.

Alternatively, a Feat that grants some of the magical abilities of a Race can help with getting that hybridization across (Dwarces with Fey Ancestry amd Misty Step? Orcs with magical wings?). So it seems like something that could be part of the system.

Yeah, I was surprised weapon master and the various X-armored feats didn’t make it as 1st level feats. I mean, they grant +1 ASIs, but that could be changed to make them suitable 1st level feats.

 

[Parmandur]

Yeah, I was surprised weapon master and the various X-armored feats didn’t make it as 1st level feats. I mean, they grant +1 ASIs, but that could be changed to make them suitable 1st level feats.

Just take weapon master and medium armor training, take away the half-ASI and combine the benefits, and you have a pretty decent Level 1 Feat: though it may need something to be useful for martial lyrics trained characters, which may become too much...?

 

[Argyle King]

I don't think half-races should be done via feats.

That typically either leads to RP choices competing with mechanically better choices OR racial choices becoming something that are overly gamed.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

So go human and get an extra feat.

This might be a solution. Half-elf and half-orc could easily be done with a human specific feat. I mean, inspiration at dawn would be ok for both, an extra skill too. And then you can give some of the orc and elf features.

 

[Mephista]

Half-orcs started off as a work around to let people play an orc back when orcs were Always Evil. The traits have always been about bing orcish. The only part that came from the human/elf/etc half was Free Will. The 1dd orc is just the 5e half-orc without Brutal Crit. Which is a good thing - don't feel compelled to go barbarian anymore.

I can't see anything to really add on here that would make the half-orc mechanically distinct from the 1dd orc.

Half-elf? I'd just suggest remaking the Fey-touched feat and use that as my bonus feat frim being a human.

Alternatively, start elf and, instead of getting spells, get Resourceful and a free skill.

 

[Yaarel]

I am satisfied with how the playtest handles mixed-races. Pick one parentage for the mechanics, pick both parentages for the flavor. This especially works well for the half-elf and half-orc. There is no loss of information.

That said, it would be cool if race is a bit more do-it-yourself, like the background is. Then one can swap one feature for an other one.

Also, backgrounds can refer to specific cultures that are prominent to a race. Like there can be a Grey Elf Griffon Rider and a High Elven Chain Maker. So, a mixed-elf character can take the background of the non-mechanical parentage.

 

[Yaarel]

Yeah, I was surprised weapon master and the various X-armored feats didn’t make it as 1st level feats. I mean, they grant +1 ASIs, but that could be changed to make them suitable 1st level feats.

From what I understand, the playtest only mentioned those level 1 feats that were part of a background. There might be other level 1 feats as well that the playtest didnt list because they werent part of a background.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

I am really not attached to half-orc, but for me the half-elf (bard) was my first character.
I mean, compared to a human, he had only advantages.

So while I think, we can do without half-orcs with ork as a close enough replacement, elf as a halfelf replacement feels wrong to me. Human too, but with the right feat support, I could see it work well enough. It could be in a setting book where half elves are a true breeding race.

 

[Parmandur]

From what I understand, the playtest only mentioned those level 1 feats that were part of a background. There might be other level 1 feats as well that the playtest didnt list because they werent part of a background.

All first Level Feats can be used to got. A Background.

 

[Corinnguard]

Maybe 1D&D should borrow a page from Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition when it comes to beings of mixed heritage? In A5e, races have been split up into heritages and cultures. A heritage is composed of two parts- traits that are commonly held by all members of that heritage (age, size, speed plus something like Darkvision, an Elf's Trance or even a Dragonborn's breath weapon) and gifts. The A5e heritage gifts have a feat-like appearance IMO. For instance, the A5e Dragonborn have a gift called Draconic Armor, which functions very much like the 5e feat, Dragon Hide. The only difference between Draconic Armor and Dragon Hide is that the latter's ASI was replaced with Resistance.

Now when it comes to mixed heritages, you pick a heritage and another heritage's gift. For a Half-Elf, this could be either a human heritage with an elven gift, or an elven heritage with a human gift.

That said, I don't think the players are going to go after every half-race combo as some are sure to better than other combos. Then there are those traits that you might not want to give up by being a half-race.