D&D (2024) No Dwarf, Halfling, and Orc suborgins, lineages, and legacies

[LuisCarlos17f]

Azers are fire-elemental touched dwarves. There was other PC specie in 3.5 planar handbook.

I guess the PC species like the fashion, some clothing is very confortable and practical, but everybody wearing the same may be boring.

 

[tetrasodium]

Azers are fire-elemental touched dwarves. There was other PC specie in 3.5 planar handbook.

I guess the PC species like the fashion, some clothing is very confortable and practical, but everybody wearing the same may be boring.

I think that the important distinction there is that everything in the planer handbook was some kind of extra-planar thing not native to the prime material plane.v that's super different from phb or generic splatbooks having so many elementally attuned races players could choose from

 

[CreamCloud0]

Again, the problem with D&D species is that they have to be generic to support the half-dozen D&D settings each with different niches for them.

Look warforged. They have a strong thematic and mechanical niche because they exist in only one world. They aren't made to be generic construct people. Contrast that to elves who have to support dozens of different cultures on different worlds. And look how bland and boring they are for that.

If you want to make species have more nuance than "elemental race, fiend race, cat race, vampire race, etc" then drop support for all but one setting and give them room to grow in that setting!

i've never played ebberon but i don't see any to them the reason WHY you can't consider them just some generic construct species? it's not like they're tied to some god or religion or whatever and even if they are it's not like that kind of lore doesn't get ignored in basically every other species,

i've listened to a podcast that used them as just that (the generic construct species) and yet there was absolutely no wrinkles from it not being ebberon, just they exist because a wizard discovered how to put souls into bodies of wood and metal, done deal, 'artificial person' is possibly one of the most common concepts you could come up with for a species.

 

[Minigiant]

Again, the problem with D&D species is that they have to be generic to support the half-dozen D&D settings each with different niches for them.

Look warforged. They have a strong thematic and mechanical niche because they exist in only one world. They aren't made to be generic construct people. Contrast that to elves who have to support dozens of different cultures on different worlds. And look how bland and boring they are for that.

If you want to make species have more nuance than "elemental race, fiend race, cat race, vampire race, etc" then drop support for all but one setting and give them room to grow in that setting!

The problem isn't D&D.

It's The Fantasy Genre itself.

"Fantasy Race" is not a 2 step branch structure. It's not Race+Subrace or Species+Culture.

It's really a minimum of 4 steps with some species skipping branches..

Like Elf. You start as Elf, then you choose if you are a Magic Elf or Magic Warrior Elf or Teleport Elf. Then if you choose either Magic Elf, you choose type of magic. If you choose Teleport Elf, you choose Fey or Shadow.

THEN you choose setting.

The "D&D" problem is it crams 3 choices into 1 choice and thus 200 types of elf.

 

[tetrasodium]

i've never played ebberon but i don't see any to them the reason WHY you can't consider them just some generic construct species? it's not like they're tied to some god or religion or whatever and even if they are it's not like that kind of lore doesn't get ignored in basically every other species,

i've listened to a podcast that used them as just that (the generic construct species) and yet there was absolutely no wrinkles from it not being ebberon, just they exist because a wizard discovered how to put souls into bodies of wood and metal, done deal, 'artificial person' is possibly one of the most common concepts you could come up with for a species.

Warforge are deeply tied to recent history and events that took place during the Last War with links going wayy wayyy back in addition to being a key component of various sociopolitical problems that exist in noteworthy ways in current day (998yk) eberron. Would Blade Runner be the same if you replaced the replicants with generic clones lacking questionable ethical choices as their core identity? How about if you replaced Tyrell corp with a generic nation state government like US UK EU or UN? Obviously those kinds of "small" changes are going to have a massive impact on the kinds of stories the world is capable of supporting just as replacing warforge with a generic construct race.

 

[CreamCloud0]

Warforge are deeply tied to recent history and events that took place during the Last War with links going wayy wayyy back in addition to being a key component of various sociopolitical problems that exist in noteworthy ways in current day (998yk) eberron. Would Blade Runner be the same if you replaced the replicants with generic clones lacking questionable ethical choices as their core identity? How about if you replaced Tyrell corp with a generic nation state government like US UK EU or UN? Obviously those kinds of "small" changes are going to have a massive impact on the kinds of stories the world is capable of supporting just as replacing warforge with a generic construct race.

sorry i'm not familiar enough with the source materials to get the nuance of either of those references, but how much lore do you really need for the concept of 'someone made you, and controled you to perform actions you had no choice or desire to perform before being abandoned because they'd finished what they needed you for'? why does it need to be that war, or that sociopolitical landscape to ask the question 'what makes a person'

 

[Minigiant]

Paradox's Age of Wonders series displays better how D&D and other fantasy games should do races.

AOW4 races has like 4 steps

1. Physical Form
2. Culture
3. Society
4. Adaptation

D&D really has 4 choices

1. Physical Form
2. Lineage/Legacy Power Type
3. Lineage/Legacy Power Color
4. Setting or Adaptation Niche

Some species is just one choice: Minotaur, Bugbear

Some species is two choices: Goliath-Stone, Human-Feat

Some species is three choices: Dwarf-Duergar-Psionics, Gnome-Normal-Forest, Genasi-Paraelemental-Smoke

Some species (ELVES) is four choices: Elf-Teleport-Underdark-RavenQueen, Elf-Spells-Underdark-Lolth

 

[Yaarel]

Azer can be Dwarf culture (that sometimes has an Elemental creature type).

 

[jmartkdr2]

A lot of these issues could be mitigated with racial/ancestral feats so long as they're available at first level.

 

[Yaarel]

A lot of these issues could be mitigated with racial/ancestral feats so long as they're available at first level.

2024 Background feats resolve most problems.

Because magic. Characters from a magical culture can gain magical features.