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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Voadam" data-source="post: 9670886" data-attributes="member: 2209">Two paragraphs above that in the PH in the two-paragraph Goliath general narrative description section it explicitly says "Goliaths have physical characteristics that are reminiscent of the giants in their family lines."You seem to be taking the position that technically the special trait giant ancestry is not explicitly linked to the separate narrative giant family physical characteristics and so does not need to match up, so you could get a blue-skinned white-haired physical characteristic frost giant-descended goliath with no fire giant actual ancestry yet still choose the fire giant ancestry special trait fire's burn and not explicitly contradict the PH lore. I think a more natural reading is that ancestry is supposed to indicate the giant type(s) in the family tree (which could be more than one). It would be kind of odd to have a specifically ancestry power that does not connect to the actual giant type(s) ancestries in your family (which themselves are strong enough to affect your goliath's physical characteristics in type specific ways to look like those specific types). Reading Giant Ancestry as a technical label without narrative connection to the goliath's actual giant type ancestry is one way you could go, though I think it will be a minority reading of the text and its specific narrative elements.Also I don't see any indication that the Giant Ancestry special trait in the race section is learned. All the references seem to be inborn and inherent from the ancestry. I could see not knowing you have the ability (they are limited use and not automatic) until you learn about it somehow, but it does not have any indications that it is something that can be learned such as a class power you get after advancing a level or learning the basics of the class. "As a goliath you have these special traits""Giant Ancestry. You are descended from giants. Choose one of the following benefits-a supernatural boon from your ancestry" The elven and tiefling lineage higher level spells in contrast are explicitly learned at a higher level."When you reach character levels 3 and 5, you learn a higher-level spell, as shown on the table."It seems odd to have even those limited circumstances for a species ability to be learning specific things. I would think class and background would grant learning and species would be all about inherent species abilities, especially as the 24 PH species seem to have dropped all the 14PH racial training abilities like dwarf combat training and specific tool proficiency or the elven subraces' weapon training. If a species trait is dependent on learning then it indicates that there could be those who could narratively not learn the ability and therefore not have it. It is odd that the drow lineage grants you knowledge of dancing lights but then at 3rd level you have to narratively learn faerie fire and at 5th darkness. Narratively I think the species lineage powers would work better as a more sorcerer style coming into the power of knowing a spell framing. Sort of the magic power growing into specific new electron rings with the individual's growth in the lineage granted magic. It is doubly odd as it is a change from the 14 PH drow and tiefling wording of "When you reach 3rd level you can cast". It saves word count over "can cast" but not fewer characters and "know" which they used at 1st level would have worked as well for 3rd and 5th level and saved character space over learning.Adulthood rituals and magic tattoos granting type specific giant powers tying into the goliath's giant family ancestry but not the specific type of giant ancestry are neat ideas but seem to be in the neat variant category from the little descriptive text we have to work with.I am a fan of reskinning for specific games and concepts, I had a PC in my last game with a reskinned warforged artificer as an actual technologist robot, a human druid as a Werewolf the Apocalypse style werewolf and a shifter barbarian as a WtA werebear. But I really like having a default flavor for the game for me to accept or reject and modify. I am glad I had default D&D (and multiple variations across the editions) kobold flavor for the kobold bard and me to work with to riff off of.</blockquote>

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