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Message: <blockquote data-quote="DEFCON 1" data-source="post: 6252463" data-attributes="member: 7006">As far as the halfling/gnome/dwarf speed increase... here's what I suspect might have been the issue (and why they decided to remove it.)  Since the game is not defaulting to a grid, in most combats it doesn't make any difference whether someone can move 25' or 30', because in theater-of-the-mind, all those distances get estimated anyway.  The DM usually isn't going to tell the group that the goblins are within melee range except the halfling, gnome, and dwarf-- he's going to tell them the goblins can either be charged or not.  So if in gridless combat that 5' of difference doesn't matter... where would it?  The answer is in long-distance travel.Whenever long-distance travel is calculated... it's always based upon the slowest member of the party.  Which means that in probably 75% or more groups... because invariably a dwarf, gnome, or halfling will be in it... the party would be travelling at the 25' speed on the distance chart.  As a result... having others at 30' and the wood elves at 35' don't ever actually matter.  Their "bonus speed" never actually gets used.So at that point, if the only time a race's speed comes up in is calculating long-distance travel... you might as well put down one speed for everyone because that's what you're going to be doing anyway.  And at that point, whether it's 25' or 30' no longer matters.  So just go with the 30' for everyone because that's what most of the races are going to have anyway.Now yes... for those games that choose to use the grid... dwarves, gnomes, and halflings gaining that one extra square of movement might feel weird for some people.  And that's possibly the case for characters in heavy armor too.  Maybe not having that differential between PCs moving 7 squares, 6 squares, or 5 squares does make gridded combat a little less interesting for some people.  But it probably won't matter for some segment of the grid-using population, just like changing diagonals on the grid from 5'-10' to 5'-5' didn't matter to a segment of the population.  Thus the proportion of players for whom this is a big deal compared to the entire playerbase (including all those who will be using theater-of-the-mind) is on the smaller side.  Thus, it seems (to WotC) like a worthwhile change to make the exploration pillar easier or more consistent.Especially considering they probably expect that most tables who use grids and want the speed differentials are going to houserule the slower speeds back in anyway, regardless of what they write in the book.</blockquote>

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