D&D 5E Jeremy Crawford Discusses Details on Custom Origins

[Remathilis]

Again wrong. Nothing prevents a DM to change the stat bonuses for one particular character. I have done so on many occasions in my 37 years of DMing. But again, these were not the norm they were, exceptions for the rule of cool. I even once lifted the limitations on levels for a single classed elven fighter (no multiclass, just a plain simple fighter). Anything can be done as long as the players understand that this is an exception.
But when the exception is the norm... there's no point in having an exception does it?

Serious question: how often do you actually say no to that exception (assuming the exception is reasonable and not op)?

For example, drow elves are an optional race in every edition of D&D, but I've never turned down nor been turned down form playing one. Technically, it's an exception to play a non-evil drow, but PCs are always exceptional. I don't think I've ever said or heard say "sorry, but you can only be a drow if you're a CE demon worshipper." Yet for all those non-evil drow, nobody has ever stopped viewing drow primarily as antagonists. The lore didn't suffer. Why? Because the heroic drow are still wildly outnumbered by the non-pc evil drow. They are still exceptions.

That all said, I wonder how many people here would accept a game where races MUST abide by the alignment section of thier race. It's a racial trait according to Max, so what if elves MUST be CG, dwarves LG, tieflings LE and half-orcs CN? Humans, of course, could be any alignment due to having no specific tendency.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

Serious question: how often do you actually say no to that exception (assuming the exception is reasonable and not op)?

For example, drow elves are an optional race in every edition of D&D, but I've never turned down nor been turned down form playing one. Technically, it's an exception to play a non-evil drow, but PCs are always exceptional. I don't think I've ever said or heard say "sorry, but you can only be a drow if you're a CE demon worshipper." Yet for all those non-evil drow, nobody has ever stopped viewing drow primarily as antagonists. The lore didn't suffer. Why? Because the heroic drow are still wildly outnumbered by the non-pc evil drow. They are still exceptions.

That all said, I wonder how many people here would accept a game where races MUST abide by the alignment section of thier race. It's a racial trait according to Max, so what if elves MUST be CG, dwarves LG, tieflings LE and half-orcs CN? Humans, of course, could be any alignment due to having no specific tendency.

First thing I do in any D&D game I run is to get rid of the alignment. And I think that 'orcs are usually evil' and 'orcs tend to be pretty strong' are fundamentally different sort of statements and whist the former is rather problematic the latter really isn't.

 

[Remathilis]

First thing I do in any D&D game I run is to get rid of the alignment. And I think that 'orcs are usually evil' and 'orcs tend to be pretty strong' are different sort of statements and whist the former is rather problematic the latter really isn't.

I'm not going to re-litigate the summer debate on racial alignment. But nobody has a problem with the alignment section being mutable and a suggestion, but ability score mods are intrinsic and ironclad.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

I'm not going to re-litigate the summer debate on racial alignment. But nobody has a problem with the alignment section being mutable and a suggestion, but ability score mods are intrinsic and ironclad.

The latter simulates physical reality, the former is a bizarre value judgement based on broken and nonsensical ethical model.

 

[Remathilis]

The latter simulates physical reality, the former is a bizarre value judgement based on broken and nonsensical ethical model.

How about we agree to a compromise: neither racial ability mods nor alignment should be part of 6e.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

How about we agree to a compromise: neither racial ability mods nor alignment should be part of 6e.

Nope. I've been removing the alignment since the first edition and you can remove the racial ability modifiers if you want to.

 

[Remathilis]

Nope. I've been removing the alignment since the first edition and you can remove the racial ability modifiers if you want to.

It's cool. I have Tasha's. Thanks anyways.

 

[Undrave]

The latter simulates physical reality, the former is a bizarre value judgement based on broken and nonsensical ethical model.

I didn't think it mattered if one race was described as stronger, until I read this text on the history of the term 'martial races' as well as the stereotype of the 'model minority'.

Orcs, Britons, and the Martial Race Myth, Part I: A Species Built for Racial Terror — James Mendez Hodes

This is the first installment of a two-article series about the racist origins, nature, and ramifications of orcs, a malevolent humanoid species from English author John Ronald Reuel Tolkien’s Middle-earth fantasy setting. I started researching this article with the hypothesis that a collection of n

jamesmendezhodes.com

Orcs, Britons, and the Martial Race Myth, Part II: They're Not Human — James Mendez Hodes

This is the complement to my previous article , “Orcs, Britons, and the Martial Race Myth, Part I: A Species Built for Racial Terror.” In the previous article, we learned how racist myths from the British academy and army fueled JRR Tolkien’s creation of orcs as an analogue for Asian people. Today

jamesmendezhodes.com

It gave me a different perspective on things. I decided I didn't care enough about racial ability bumps.

 

[Oofta]

I didn't think it mattered if one race was described as stronger, until I read this text on the history of the term 'martial races' as well as the stereotype of the 'model minority'.

Orcs, Britons, and the Martial Race Myth, Part I: A Species Built for Racial Terror — James Mendez Hodes

This is the first installment of a two-article series about the racist origins, nature, and ramifications of orcs, a malevolent humanoid species from English author John Ronald Reuel Tolkien’s Middle-earth fantasy setting. I started researching this article with the hypothesis that a collection of n

jamesmendezhodes.com

Orcs, Britons, and the Martial Race Myth, Part II: They're Not Human — James Mendez Hodes

This is the complement to my previous article , “Orcs, Britons, and the Martial Race Myth, Part I: A Species Built for Racial Terror.” In the previous article, we learned how racist myths from the British academy and army fueled JRR Tolkien’s creation of orcs as an analogue for Asian people. Today

jamesmendezhodes.com

It gave me a different perspective on things. I decided I didn't care enough about racial ability bumps.

Which is quite a legitimate issue if we were talking human ethnicities but we are not. We're talking different species, it's the difference between a cat and a dog not different lineages of humans.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

I didn't think it mattered if one race was described as stronger, until I read this text on the history of the term 'martial races' as well as the stereotype of the 'model minority'.

Orcs, Britons, and the Martial Race Myth, Part I: A Species Built for Racial Terror — James Mendez Hodes

This is the first installment of a two-article series about the racist origins, nature, and ramifications of orcs, a malevolent humanoid species from English author John Ronald Reuel Tolkien’s Middle-earth fantasy setting. I started researching this article with the hypothesis that a collection of n

jamesmendezhodes.com

Orcs, Britons, and the Martial Race Myth, Part II: They're Not Human — James Mendez Hodes

This is the complement to my previous article , “Orcs, Britons, and the Martial Race Myth, Part I: A Species Built for Racial Terror.” In the previous article, we learned how racist myths from the British academy and army fueled JRR Tolkien’s creation of orcs as an analogue for Asian people. Today

jamesmendezhodes.com

It gave me a different perspective on things. I decided I didn't care enough about racial ability bumps.

I've read those and 'martial race' doesn't mean 'physically strong.' But ultimately if one feels that different fantasy species having different capabilities is problematic, then one needs to get rid of all such capabilities, not only the ASIs. Different movement speeds, traits such as 'powerful build', 'stone's endurance' etc. And you also need to get rid of such differences in the lore as well. And once you have done that, what's left? Why have these fantasy species at all?