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

[jmartkdr2]

Nobody can tell you what you cannot do in your own games. Floating ASI does nothing in that regard. You could always float the ASI, you could double the ASI, you could leave it as it was on release for 5e.

There are no straight jackets in this game.

Oh, people will tell you how to run your game all the time. They can’t make you do anything.

And if we ignore everyone doing any telling, we must also ignore all advice, suggestions, or other conversations about the game.

 

[The Sigil]

From the latest D&D Beyond stats (2023) 2023 Unrolled: A Look Back at a Year of Adventure

This was precisely the sort of thing I was looking for. Thank you!

 

[Yaarel]

I’d be happy to remove Halflings altogether, if only so that people complaining about floating ASI’s would have to come up with something other than Halflings with high strength as an argument.

There needs to be solid mechanical rules for Size and Carrying Capacity.

In this context, the Carrying Capacity also applies to brute force checks − which are Weightlifting skill checks − to determine whether one can kick thru a door or kick thru a wall.

When there are solid rules for Size that have verisimilitude and game balance, then whether a Halfling is Small, or Medium or Tiny, will become a nonissue.

 

[Yaarel]

In Feywild campaigns, the Eladrin culture values Intelligence and Charisma. These play out in the Fey Courts that govern the diverse Eladrin communities.

The intellect and charm are vital for the political survival of the various politicos functioning in a Fey Court, as well as diplomatic alliances with other Fey Courts.

Meanwhile Wizards enjoy high status as technocrats and military personnel, and Bards are spiritual leaders and artistic event organizers.

Of course, there are communities within Eladrin cultures that value other abilities and other classes. At the same time, Intelligence and Charisma play out in socially prominent ways.

 

[Yaarel]

I dunno, but I'm kinda getting tired of the difference in subspecies being "list of bonus spells". I'd much rather they swap out different traits like astral/eladrin/sea elves do than make it "this type of dwarves has XYZ spells per day, but this other type has ABC spells per day nonsense.

Also, I don't think every race needs subspecies. Elves have it because they environmentally adapt. Goliath and tieflings to represent parent origins. Gnomes because WotC can't decide if they are fey or tinkerers. But the difference between a mountain and hill dwarf is how deep underground they live and halflings if they were hobbit- or kender -based. We sure don't need them for orcs or most other species. If a species has a choice point (like aasimar 's celestial manifestation) then make just a feature. If it represents different branches of the same family (like genasi) make them separate species with a tag. But the lineage system is a middle ground compromise that basically says "pick three on theme spells".

It is possible to have zero "subspecies".

Let the background design space diversify the communities of a species.

 

[Micah Sweet]

In Feywild campaigns, the Eladrin culture values Intelligence and Charisma. These play out in the Fey Courts that govern the diverse Eladrin communities.

The intellect and charm are vital for the political survival of the various politicos functioning in a Fey Court, as well as diplomatic alliances with other Fey Courts.

Meanwhile Wizards enjoy high status as technocrats and military personnel, and Bards are spiritual leaders and artistic event organizers.

Of course, there are communities within Eladrin cultures that value other abilities and other classes. At the same time, Intelligence and Charisma play out in socially prominent ways.

Are any of those things expressed mechanically in your view?

 

[Yaarel]

Are any of those things expressed mechanically in your view?

Yes.

In 4e, these were Int +2 and Cha +2, with a high frequency of Wizards and Bards, and related Arcane classes, like Swordmage and Sorcerer. Plus Psionic and Primal were common, but Divine rare, and Martial virtually nonexistent among the Eladrin.


In 5e 2024, these are several specific backgrounds, that grant the +2 to the score of Intelligence or Charisma, and relate to officials and other courtiers within a Fey Court.

Especially, Eladrin politics revolves around magical pursuits, of person and community, and the meritocratic status of powerful mages.

The Eladrin culture features an annual sacred Revelry that representatives from all Fey Courts attend, from around the multiverse. In the Material Plane, High culture also maintains Fey Courts as the government system of each of its communities, and representatives from these also attend the Revelry. Individuals attend the Revelry on their own volition. The Revelry is a time of intense political alliance building, diplomacy, economic transaction, as well as extravagant magical entertainments and mage duel sports, plus a time of dating, love, matchmaking, and wedding celebrations. This is also when the Eladrin perform massive collectively participating "mythal" rituals that alter Eladrin communities in various ways. This sacred Revelry is mainly an Eladrin Bard institution. Similarly, thru the year, Bards are often the leaders of local spiritual communities, who celebrate the Eladrin heritage and values, and emphasize creative self-expression via magic. During the year, the Eladrin tend to focus intensely and stoically on various magical pursuits and ambitions. But during the week of the Reverly, the Eladrin tend to go all out.

The High Elves have a distinctive Ancients Paladin faction which enjoys some prominence at certain Eladrin Fey Courts. Certain (Scottish-esque) Eladrin Courts privilege Ancient Paladin and Fey Warlock, with features boosting Healing magic, and whose head of court is a matriarchal office. The Bladesingers and Eldritch Knights tend to be High culture only, but are appreciated and respected even if viewed as "exotic". Notably, there are Elves from the Eladrin culture who immigrate to become part of the High culture, and viceversa.

 

[Yaarel]

Paracelsus[edit]​

In his 16th-century work A Book on Nymphs, Sylphs, Pygmies, and Salamanders, and on the Other Spirits, Paracelsus identified mythological beings as belonging to one of the four elements. Part of the Philosophia Magna, this book was first printed in 1566 after Paracelsus' death.[2] He wrote the book to "describe the creatures that are outside the cognizance of the light of nature, how they are to be understood, what marvellous works God has created". He states that there is more bliss in describing these "divine objects" than in describing fencing, court etiquette, cavalry, and other worldly pursuits.[3] The following is his archetypal being for each of the four elements:[4]

• Gnome, being of earth
• Undine, being of water
• Sylph, being of air
• Salamander, being of fire

I am looking anew at the folkbelief aspects of Paracelsus, a 1500s renaissance German.

When he describes "elemental spirits", these are spirits, not creatures that are made out of an element. It helps to describe them as something like the ghost of an element.

For Paracelsus, the elemental spirits are:
• Earth: gnomus (aka pygmaeus)
• Water: undina (aka nympha)
• Air: sylphes (aka sylvanus, aka sylvestris)
• Fire: salamandra

The Air elementals relate to the "forest" (silva, sylva), possibly in the sense of winds thru trees, as well as the outdoors generally.

While the four "elements" are forms of matter, their "elementals" are immaterial spirits. Paracelsus writes:

The "elementals" are "invisible spiritual counterparts of visible nature", "many resembling human beings in shape, and inhabiting worlds of their own, unknown to humanity, because undeveloped senses were incapable of functioning beyond the limitations of the grosser [material] elements."

Keep in mind the distinction between "element" which is matter, and "elemental" which is spirit.


Translating into D&D 5e

The D&D tradition of Elemental Planes are "worlds unknown to humanity", thus appear to derive directly from Paracelsus himself. However, Paracelsus is describing Elementals forming invisible communities within the spirit world, namely the Ethereal Plane.

In this context, the D&D Elemental Planes are also immaterial. They are planes where the "forms" of elements exist, but not the "substance". Only the Material Plane has actual matter. Matter can only exist in the Material Plane.

The 5e Elemental Planes are more like regions within the Elemental Chaos. In a region, a reasonably stable form of an element persists and prevails in frequency. However all the other elemental forms are also present, the edges of the regions are porous and open, and different regions can cross into and overlap each other. All of the regions drift within the energy turbulence of the Elemental Chaos.

However. Creatures can and do encounter apparitions of Elementals within the Material Plane. While Elementals can inhabit the Elemental Planes, they can also inhabit the Material Plane. These Elemental spirits exist ethereally.

The "Border Ethereal" (aka "Shallow Ethereal") is the part of the Ethereal Plane that exists inside the Material Plane. The ether of the Ethereal Plane is force. The Ethereal Plane and the Material Plane overlap in the sense of gravity of atomic forces. But also this overlap includes Ethereal creatures and Material creatures coexisting alongside each other and able to observe each other. Generally speaking, those in the Ethereal can plainly see the Material creatures and Material world. Those in the Material require magic to detect the creatures made out of subtle Ethereal forces, unless the Ethereal creatures are themselves using magic to manifest apparitions within matter. These manifestations are force constructs, made out of forces but behaving as if solid matter, or merely as visual or audio phenomena.


Possibly the Elemental spirits originate in the Material Plane, such as the Water Elementals forming ethereally where there are Material pools of water, rivers, lakes, seas, oceans, and rains. The fact these Elemental spirits can adopt human shapes, suggests learning from Human neighbors who are coexisting alongside them.

The Water Elemental spirit can remain in the Material Plane, or else travel via the Deep Ether to the Elemental Chaos and the Water Elemental Plane. The affinity of the Water element, and the sensory detection, can navigate the Deep Ethereal easily to their watery destinations on each side of it.


Where there is an Ethereal Border within the Material Plane, there is also a Fey Border and a Shadow Border. The Feywild is ether that Positive Energy energizes and enlivens. The Shadowfell is ether than Negative Void unravels and entropies.

There can be Elemental spirits with Positive Fey affinity, oppositely Negative Shadow affinity, in addition to the natural mix of Positive and Negative for an overall neutral Ethereal affinity.

 

[Mind of tempest]

Its not even particularly difficult. Step one is understanding that fantasy/sci-fi species, are distinct, and then actually defining the 3 mental attributes in a way that makes it clear.

A lightning quick mind? Thats a +2 Int.
A mind that is adept at lateral thinking? Thats a +2 Wisdom.
Particularly attractive? Well thats Charisma...oh wait sorry, that sparks some people.

charm is not all looks, I can apparently be charming and I am as ugly as sin.

Gnomes with high strength is just as much an abomination of a concept. Elves shouldnt have Strength on par with Goliath either, and Dwarves should never be as agile as Elves. We could go on.

if you want Goliaths to be stronger than everyone else you would have to remove the stat cap of twenty for fixed plus stats as otherwise there can never be a difference.

I do wish that races and subraces would go back to strengths and weaknesses like they use to have, it made playing those races fun and bred creativity for players to build off of on top of everything else. Sadly they are taking out a lot of things like that, including gold dwarf, mountain dwarf, hill dwarf, and the others. If the books don't have what I'm looking for, I have a massive library of old stuff that I can pull from and use that to give strengths and weaknesses, along with stat boosts and whatnot. It's not perfect, but I'm lucky to have the library of old books that I do. If I don't have it here with my dad's stuff, I can ask one of my uncles if they have something that he might not have picked up in terms of books. Not everyone has that pleasure though, so I do wish they would bring that type of stuff back; maybe not in the players handbook, but like a splat book based on expanding on the races.

what did the old options offer that was more useful? or just plus and minus stats?
I like my weaknesses more interesting myself.

 

[FrozenNorth]

If only there were a universal standard for attractiveness... I know plenty of people who'd take an orc's muscles over an elf's willowy grace.

Or that a dwarf would find the same attributes attractive as an elf.