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

[Minigiant]

Define "doing something cool".

Doing "something".

In the old editions elves only had better senses, resistance to charms, immunity to sleep because it had to be balance to a human who had... nothing for a while.

When they gave some elf subraces "something" like spells, they were forced to give them harsh penalties as balance to square up with humans.

Now that humans have actual features, you have room to give other races actual feature without crazy penalties like "You are blind in the day and everyone hates you"

 

[Minigiant]

Level Up is compatible with WotC 5e too, pretty much. WotC could have chosen to go with (IMO) a far better origin system than they did, and as long as you could make a character that worked like the ones from 2014, it would be compatible. And that's not the kind of compatibility they meant anyway, though it took them a while to admit that clearly.

I short, I disagree with your claim that they had to stick with the far inferior (IMO) WotC system.

WOTC's 2024 system is not far inferior at least. The designers are just a bit too... hesitant... to push it.

Level Up's origin system is great. However it is likely too much and too many moving parts for a gateway system. Since the Advanced 5e moniker.

 

[Kobold Avenger]

which is dumb because drow are in the PHB.

They aren't as "sexy" as the Drow are

 

[Minigiant]

They aren't as "sexy" as the Drow are

All it takes to fix that is some sexy art and a companion in a BG3 DLC.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

They aren't as "sexy" as the Drow are

Drow and the general niche of "Dark Elves" is much more iconic and widely known than that of Duergar/"Grey Dwarves." Ask a newcomer to D&D if they've heard of Dark Elves before, they'd probably say yes (from Thor/Norse Mythology, the Elder Scrolls, or World of Warcraft). Ask them the same about a Grey Dwarf/Duergar, they'd probably say no.

 

[Mind of tempest]

All it takes to fix that is some sexy art and a companion in a BG3 DLC.

do not open that can of worms it will almost certainly some how make everything at least 2% worse

 

[Remathilis]

which is dumb because drow are in the PHB.

They're lucky. If they were in the PHB like drow, they would be reduced to three SLA and a ribbon feature.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Doing "something".

In the old editions elves only had better senses, resistance to charms, immunity to sleep because it had to be balance to a human who had... nothing for a while.

When they gave some elf subraces "something" like spells, they were forced to give them harsh penalties as balance to square up with humans.

Now that humans have actual features, you have room to give other races actual feature without crazy penalties like "You are blind in the day and everyone hates you"

So "something" equals "has spells". Got it.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I think the point here is that the racial/subrace rules don't do anything to distinguish between aspects that are genetic, that which are the product of upbringing, or that which require both.

Characters start as young adults, and we rarely (if ever) see stat blocks of children (for understandable reasons). All we're using to divine the inherent or learned nature of any racial ability is our intuition and the assumptions from the narratives of previous iterations of the race. And for any ability we assume as genetic, it's trivial to create a narrative where it's a learned/taught/granted by cultural rite ability. (And vice-versa!)

How does a Goliath learn to be 8 feet tall with the mass and musculature more like a stone giant than like a human?

How do elves learn to live for hundreds of years?

If Forest Gnomes learn to speak to animals, why can’t anyone else learn to do the same but instead must cast spells or gain other supernatural abilities?

 

[Micah Sweet]

Drow and the general niche of "Dark Elves" is much more iconic and widely known than that of Duergar/"Grey Dwarves." Ask a newcomer to D&D if they've heard of Dark Elves before, they'd probably say yes (from Thor/Norse Mythology, the Elder Scrolls, or World of Warcraft). Ask them the same about a Grey Dwarf/Duergar, they'd probably say no.

Just once I would like to see some aspect of D&D where the top priority isn't, "but what will new players think?". If WotC could pretend anyone who already owns their products matters to them, at all, that would be great.