Its time to exempt (sub)race from the PHB +1 rule!

[epithet]

Too bad some of you don't get that these rules aren't written for your benefit.

Just like aarakocra being disallowed isn't about you.

These rules for AL are written for new player and new DM's. Not for the folks that have been playing for years. Perhaps the biggest driver of the success of 5E (and the continues sales of new PHBs) is accessibility to new people. And a big part of that is keep organized play accessible to those same potential new customers.

PHB+1 is simple, it's understandable, it accessible to new players and new DM's. Exceptions are not. Complexity is not.

So if I show up with my AD&D books and some 30 year old characters, I can use all the published 5e material? Awesome! Glad to know that being a grognard comes with perks.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

You can popcorn with salt, or popcorn with butter. Not both.

I like mine with salt or butter, not both, but either way I like to add a little pepper. Which book is pepper in?

 

[gyor]

Too bad some of you don't get that these rules aren't written for your benefit.

Just like aarakocra being disallowed isn't about you.

These rules for AL are written for new player and new DM's. Not for the folks that have been playing for years. Perhaps the biggest driver of the success of 5E (and the continues sales of new PHBs) is accessibility to new people. And a big part of that is keep organized play accessible to those same potential new customers.

PHB+1 is simple, it's understandable, it accessible to new players and new DM's. Exceptions are not. Complexity is not.

It's not an issue of being for my personal benifit, it's that PHB +1 leads to absurdly stupid outcomes. I could play a Drow or Dwarf Divine Soul or Celestial Warlock but not an Aasimar one.

Same with the Shadar Kai Shadow Sorcerer and Hexblade.

The PHB +1 rule don't fit with the release schedule, the way the books are written (only a fraction of any of them are player content) and the way they split races in one book, subclassses and other stuff in the other (EE and SCAG being minor exceptions).

If they have done some situational exceptions like the SCAG Tiefling they might as well make race/subrace race exempt from the rule.

And we already have exceptions for Gods and Background that can come from outside you PHB +1. I could make a Devil's Tongue (SCAG) Tiefling (PHB) Arcane Archer (XGTE) multi class Beastmaster (PHB) with a Background from Curse of Starhd, that worships the Cat Lord (VGTM), and pulls it's animal companion from MTOFs (if it has any animals that could qualify for being companions in it), so at this point your main argument no longer holds any water.

 

[jasper]

The PHB already states you create your own custom background. My human archalogist was kick out an Azure Police box called the Enterprize Z by a green blooded elf name Dr. Spock. And exactly what crunch effects your god has to your spell casters?

 

[MechaTarrasque]

See if you let one SK be a shadow sorcerer, then you have to explain why all of them aren't shadow sorcerers. They (or at least their ancestors) were all in the 'Fell long enough for it to change them, which is remarkably enough how you become a shadow sorcerer. The Raven Queen already owns their souls, so why should she pay twice for the same thing by giving out warlock goodies? That is just bad business.

Ditto for the aasimar/divine soul sorcerer and aasimar/celestial patron warlock (although this is more of you get lectures from celestials all the time, and everyone knows their advice is worth more than gold, so why should you need goodies on top of that?).

I kid (only slightly). I think PHB+1 will eventually be PHB+1+AL Handbook of Races, Classes, and Spells that are popular enough to rate their own book.

 

[Warpiglet]

See if you let one SK be a shadow sorcerer, then you have to explain why all of them aren't shadow sorcerers. They (or at least their ancestors) were all in the 'Fell long enough for it to change them, which is remarkably enough how you become a shadow sorcerer. The Raven Queen already owns their souls, so why should she pay twice for the same thing by giving out warlock goodies? That is just bad business.

Ditto for the aasimar/divine soul sorcerer and aasimar/celestial patron warlock (although this is more of you get lectures from celestials all the time, and everyone knows their advice is worth more than gold, so why should you need goodies on top of that?).

I kid (only slightly). I think PHB+1 will eventually be PHB+1+AL Handbook of Races, Classes, and Spells that are popular enough to rate their own book.

This would solve every problem anyone here could have.

For the naysayers: PHB+1 is only for AL. We like some control on AL because we want new people to have fun as well. However, some things are not going to kill the game. We are overly cautious but in time, it would be clear that certain races and class would not break the game and can be included.

The current restrictions are for AL only! And the idea is that you can get a few comic book guys (i.e. Simpsons fame) to ruin your efforts at recruitment and community in a public game.

If people really feel hamstrung by these restrictions might I suggest running your OWN game? By the time you are bored with AL and its restrictions, you ought to be ready to forge your own path if necessary!

 

[Nemzid]

Disclaimer: I've never played AL

The way I see it, the PHB+1 AL rule serves 2 purposes:

* Keep the entry price low (at most you only need to pay for 2 books, but could also play just fine with the free Basic Rules)
* Keep the entry need for system mastery low

The second point is where I feel people are misunderstanding WotC's intentions. It's not that each book is only balanced against the PHB, they also think of the overall balance of the game when designing new options and it would be ludicrous to think otherwise since their biggest audience is not playing AL. AL is designed to be accessible and a good entry point first and foremost.

When adding new options, some builds will always come out ahead even so slightly due to new options complementing each other. It's not bad on its own and when you have an experienced DM/Players, but it's bad for new DM/Players. Most combos won't be gamebreaking, but they don't want people creating their first character and coming to AL just to be told by an another player "Ah that's not the way to build a X character! You should have selected Y race/sub-race from this book, Z class/sub-race from this book, these spells from this book, and these feats from this book to be more effective" or feel like they made sub-optimal choices due to their lack of system mastery when comparing their character to another one - that's just daunting and may lead them to drop D&D. They want to close the gap between experienced players with system mastery and new players who don't have it yet so both can have a good time playing together. If everything was on the table, new players might feel like they need to extensively research all the books to be good at D&D and to "meaningfully" contribute to the party, which isn't a good thing when you want to bring more newcomers to the hobby.

If you consider this, the PHB+1 rule makes a lot of sense, is a good business decision, and I doubt it will change in the future (at least I hope not for the aforementioned reasons).

Edit: fixing typos