D&D General How many mechanical features does a race need to feel "right"?

[Twiggly the Gnome]

Three feats worth of abilities, no ASIs.

 

[jmartkdr2]

Yeah that does make it difficult. People consider humans 'the default' which also means not much in the way of impactful unique mechanics.

So then when you get a species which is not close to that and have to give it a load of abilities to feel right (e.g. flight), they're clearly more powerful mechanically, which then makes people unhappy.

To be fair, it makes them unhappy because they know it can make the game a lot less fun.

But if we want a list of races as diverse as DnD has been using since mid-3.5e (2002? 20 years now?) then you need to find a way to account for the fact that some races have more inherent power than others.

ECL is not the answer. Maybe racial levels? I'm a 3rd-level centaur / 9th-level rune knight fighter?

 

[Scribe]

But if we want a list of races as diverse as DnD has been using since mid-3.5e (2002? 20 years now?) then you need to find a way to account for the fact that some races have more inherent power than others.

ECL is not the answer. Maybe racial levels? I'm a 3rd-level centaur / 9th-level rune knight fighter?

The righteous and proper return of Negative Modifiers.

 

[Li Shenron]

For your tastes, how many mechanical features does a race in D&D need to feel "right", worthwhile, not-oversimplified, or whatever? One? Three? Five? More? None?

Does it matter what the features are? Do they need to include ASIs? Do they need to include movement? Save modifiers? AC modifiers? Proficiencies? Advantage or Disadvantage? Languages? Feat-like abilities? Innate spellcasting?

Do the races need to be balanced with each other, insofar as the rule system allows?
Do the races need to be balanced with themselves, i.e. do drawbacks like "this race has a slower-than-average movement speed" need to be balanced by an extra bonus or feature?

Roughly balanced with each other and themselves is enough. Unfortunately 5e doesn't support something like equivalent class levels of more powerful creatures, so playable races must be more or less equivalent.

I don't care if a race has one single powerful racial ability or several minor ones. It's ok to have simple and complex races in the same game.

Any type of ability is fair game as a racial ability, including spellcasting.

It is also ok for a race to have zero racial ability (although in that case it needs human ASIs to balance). I have run 5e for many groups of beginners where everybody had human stats for simplicity and race choice was cosmetic only. But in a published book I expect the designers to do some work and come up with interesting novel racial abilities.

 

[HammerMan]

I doubt it would happen but I want

stats removed (why give everyone floaters just remove it and build it into other parts)
2-3 always on features (maybe from a choice of 4-5)
1 short rest or long rest ability that requires tracking and using
at 2 later level (3rd, 5th what ever) that increase the abilty or add a new one

and all of these should have all of this

 

[Frozen_Heart]

I doubt it would happen but I want

stats removed (why give everyone floaters just remove it and build it into other parts)
2-3 always on features (maybe from a choice of 4-5)
1 short rest or long rest ability that requires tracking and using
at 2 later level (3rd, 5th what ever) that increase the abilty or add a new one

and all of these should have all of this

Yep just remove the +2/1 from player races altogether, and build it into the part of the game where you select your scores.

If it's identical for everyone, then how is +1 in score select any different to +1 in race select?

 

[jmartkdr2]

The righteous and proper return of Negative Modifiers.

What penalties would make a centaur feel more horsey? What does fire magic make you bad at?

 

[J.Quondam]

Each race should have its own special seventh ability score, to cover essential characteristics such as "Mirth", "Hair", or "Spiciness".

 

[Scribe]

What penalties would make a centaur feel more horsey? What does fire magic make you bad at?

Centaur - Negative Dex.
Fire Magic Bonus = Water Magic Penalty.

5e doesnt do anything of this well of course, because 5e is far too generic and simplified.

 

[jmartkdr2]

Centaur - Negative Dex.
Fire Magic Bonus = Water Magic Penalty.

5e doesnt do anything of this well of course, because 5e is far too generic and simplified.

Centaurs are bad archers now? That seems like a odd choice, given that it's their traditional weapon, historically. (Well that and the club.)