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

[doctorbadwolf]

- throw tabaxi, haregon, tortle, minotaur, lizardfolk, sharkfolk and any other "human with an animal head" into a group and be done with it).

Gods no.

What traits would a Tabaxi and a tortle even have in common? Of the races you list, only the Minotaur is “human with an animal head”, and it has vanishingly little in common with the others you list.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

So does Level Up have different cultures with associated mechanics for humans? Because that is where I see this getting problematic rather quickly. In many settings there are human cultures directly inspired by real life cultures, and once you effectively start to assign mechanics to real world societies unfortunate implications and questionable stereotypes become hard to avoid.

 

[Corinnguard]

So does Level Up have different cultures with associated mechanics for humans? Because that is where I see this getting problematic rather quickly. In many settings there are human cultures directly inspired by real life cultures, and once you effectively start to assign mechanics to real world societies unfortunate implications and questionable stereotypes become hard to avoid.

Level Up has it where you can choose any culture for your human character. But there are a couple of cultures that are closely linked with the human heritage. cosmopolitan , imperial , settler , villager . These cultures are pretty world neutral in that they don't draw inspiration from a particular real life culture.

Human | Level Up

a5e.tools

 

[Micah Sweet]

So does Level Up have different cultures with associated mechanics for humans? Because that is where I see this getting problematic rather quickly. In many settings there are human cultures directly inspired by real life cultures, and once you effectively start to assign mechanics to real world societies unfortunate implications and questionable stereotypes become hard to avoid.

Yes it does, but they're not really based on specific real-life cultures. Instead you have stuff like Imperial, Cosmopolitan, Settler, and the like. Things that aren't real world culture specific, but are still identifiable as cultures.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

I'm still of the opinion that halflings and gnomes should be offshoots of a common stock. It helps pull both of them back from flanderization, at the very least.

 

[Corinnguard]

I'm still of the opinion that halflings and gnomes should be offshoots of a common stock. It helps pull both of them back from flanderization, at the very least.

In the Arcana Evolved setting (3e), Halflings and Gnomes were members of the same race known as the Faen. Halflings were called Quickling Faen while Gnomes were known as the Loresong Faen. Both of them had the ability to metamorphize into the third member of the Faen race, the Sprytes.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

In the Arcana Evolved setting (3e), Halflings and Gnomes were members of the same race known as the Faen. Halflings were called Quickling Faen while Gnomes were known as the Loresong Faen. Both of them had the ability to metamorphize into the third member of the Faen race, the Sprytes.

Interesting. I call them "hinnfolk" and had four subtypes, based partially on where the person in question was raised, as they're deeply connected to the land they live in. Lightfoot (arboreal hunters and conservationists), Stoutheart (plains-dwelling nomadic herders and gourmands), Cragstep (burrow-dwelling scholars and tinkerers), and Ghostwise (deep cavern-dwelling magicians and psionicists.)

Of course, this is one part of my overall effort to make a more coherent and consistent presentation for this area of mechanics. E.g. all races have four subtypes except humans, because I couldn't come up with four that made sense, I could only manage three (Earthfast, Starbound, and Dual-Bloodline). "Earthfast" would be all humans like those that exist on IRL Earth, those who have cosmologically "stayed home." "Starbound" is for the ones that have been Weirded by Space Magic/Psionics--think elan or slann. And then of course Dual-Bloodline would cover all the various "half human, half X" options, with an eye toward allowing pretty much any binary intermixing someone might want down the line (e.g. not needing it to be "half human, half X", but rather "half X, half Y"), though likely with a sidebar talking about how these options should be used carefully, as some folks may not be super keen on the idea of "half X, half Y" being a formal category that exists in the world.

 

[Corinnguard]

Interesting. I call them "hinnfolk" and had four subtypes, based partially on where the person in question was raised, as they're deeply connected to the land they live in. Lightfoot (arboreal hunters and conservationists), Stoutheart (plains-dwelling nomadic herders and gourmands), Cragstep (burrow-dwelling scholars and tinkerers), and Ghostwise (deep cavern-dwelling magicians and psionicists.)

Of course, this is one part of my overall effort to make a more coherent and consistent presentation for this area of mechanics. E.g. all races have four subtypes except humans, because I couldn't come up with four that made sense, I could only manage three (Earthfast, Starbound, and Dual-Bloodline). "Earthfast" would be all humans like those that exist on IRL Earth, those who have cosmologically "stayed home." "Starbound" is for the ones that have been Weirded by Space Magic/Psionics--think elan or slann. And then of course Dual-Bloodline would cover all the various "half human, half X" options, with an eye toward allowing pretty much any binary intermixing someone might want down the line (e.g. not needing it to be "half human, half X", but rather "half X, half Y"), though likely with a sidebar talking about how these options should be used carefully, as some folks may not be super keen on the idea of "half X, half Y" being a formal category that exists in the world.

In Level Up, the Halfling heritage has these four cultures: kithbáin halfling mustbairn halfling , stout halfling , tunnel halfling .

The Gnome Heritage has these cultures in Level Up: deep gnome , forest gnome , forgotten folx , tinker gnome .

 

[Mind of tempest]

Less lore. What do you mean by “a different opinion”?

another race or class or something else important.

Interesting. I call them "hinnfolk" and had four subtypes, based partially on where the person in question was raised, as they're deeply connected to the land they live in. Lightfoot (arboreal hunters and conservationists), Stoutheart (plains-dwelling nomadic herders and gourmands), Cragstep (burrow-dwelling scholars and tinkerers), and Ghostwise (deep cavern-dwelling magicians and psionicists.)

Of course, this is one part of my overall effort to make a more coherent and consistent presentation for this area of mechanics. E.g. all races have four subtypes except humans, because I couldn't come up with four that made sense, I could only manage three (Earthfast, Starbound, and Dual-Bloodline). "Earthfast" would be all humans like those that exist on IRL Earth, those who have cosmologically "stayed home." "Starbound" is for the ones that have been Weirded by Space Magic/Psionics--think elan or slann. And then of course Dual-Bloodline would cover all the various "half human, half X" options, with an eye toward allowing pretty much any binary intermixing someone might want down the line (e.g. not needing it to be "half human, half X", but rather "half X, half Y"), though likely with a sidebar talking about how these options should be used carefully, as some folks may not be super keen on the idea of "half X, half Y" being a formal category that exists in the world.

perhaps one who in some ways is defined by whatever gods first made humans in dnd the lost first gods of humanity?

 

[Charlaquin]

oh i'm well aware, it's what hooked me onto the idea in the first place way back when.

sure, but there's not standing out from the crowd and then there's being trampled underfoot of it, plus the 'doesn't stand out' thing is meant to be an in-universe trait, it's not a excuse for you to to only ever give them the most boring generic abilities possible, you can give them interesting abilities without making them wildly fantastical, like, because it was just mentioned, the Lotusden's Timberwalk: disadvantage to ability checks to track you and ignore nonmagic difficult terrian made of plants and overgrowth, that's interesting, it's flavourful, it says something about them without being this glaring magic thing they can do (even if you hypothetically upgraded it to actually include magical-plants based difficult terrain).

Sorry, that just doesn’t say “halfling” to me. Halflings’ simplicity is a huge part of their appeal. We already have gnomes, we don’t need halflings to be gnomes too.

you can give them stronger flavour without just making them 'fantastical' and if (and i'm not implying this is your perspective but just the general 'you') your idea of the halflings is that they are The 'boring' species and thus must remain boring then you've got a pretty terrible opinion of what makes a halfling then in my opinion.

They’re not boring, they’re just simple. And that’s ok. Less can be more sometimes.