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No More "Humans in Funny Hats": Racial Mechanics Should Determine Racial Cultures
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<blockquote data-quote="Faolyn" data-source="post: 8444246" data-attributes="member: 6915329"><p>Scribe is complaining that the Level Up yeti is listed as potentially not always murderous; instead, Level Up wrote:</p><p></p><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">yetis are known to become violent during blizzards</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">when the weather is nicer, it's up in the air as to how violent a yeti will be. They're changeable.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">according to one legend, a family of yetis was helpful to an adventurer and gave him mushrooms to eat.</li> </ul><p></p><p>In other words, when Scribe wants to have his PCs, who are adventuring on a snowy mountain, encounter a hostile monster, he wouldn't know if he could pick a yeti because the book doesn't say "yetis are always murderous," apparently he doesn't want to make that decision himself, and rolling on or picking from the "behaviors" table in the yeti's entry is a step too far.</p><p></p><p>I don't know about how you run games, but when I want a monster to attack the PCs, I just grab a monster that I feel is appropriate to the area and story, is of roughly the right CR, and that I think is cool. I don't need the books to tell me if the monster is "always" violent.</p><p></p><p></p><p>A tabaxi has the Feline Agility trait, and speed 30 ft. A giff has Hippo Build, and speed 30 ft. The Feline Agility trait allows a tabaxi to move at a very high speed for short periods of time. A tabaxi with a Dex of 5 has Feline Agility and a speed of 30 feet. A tabaxi with a Dex of 20 has Feline Agility and a speed of 30 feet. A giff with Strength 5 and a giff with Strength 20 still have Hippo Build and a speed of 30 feet. </p><p></p><p>Attributes, whether high or low, do not affect movement speed. Attributes affect attacks, skills, and saving throws, and a tiny handful of other abilities.</p><p></p><p>Feline Agility and Hippo Build are great, flavorful traits, and all races should have more traits like them. I think half the problem is that people assume that WotC will remove cultural traits and not add any new biological traits. And maybe WotC won't, for 5.5, because of backwards compatibility, but I can see them doing it for 6e.</p><p></p><p></p><p>But keeping fixed ASIs doesn't make races more interesting either.</p><p></p><p></p><p>But there will <em>always </em>be far fewer clumsy halflings than agile dwarfs, and far fewer strong halflings than strong dwarfs. Because the <em>only </em>halflings that automatically get to move around their ASIs are PCs. <strong>Every single other halfling in the world has their stats assigned by the DM. </strong>And the PCs may very well go along with the halfling norm and put at least a +1 in Dex, because of decades of tradition.</p><p></p><p></p><p>How? You can always put the floating ASI in the traditional spot. With a floating ASI, you <em>have the option </em>of the traditional racial stats. But with a fixed ASI, <em>nobody has the option </em>of a nonstandard individual.</p><p></p><p>And, well, I have the sneaking suspicion that most people who prefer that their halflings have +2 Dex are still going to move that +1 to a stat they find more useful.</p><p></p><p></p><p>Halflings have +2 Dex. So do aarakocra, elves, goblins, kenku, kobolds, and swiftside shifters. That +2 Dex does nothing to differentiate those races from each other.</p><p></p><p></p><p>Ugh. No thanks. This would immediately turn me off D&D.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Faolyn, post: 8444246, member: 6915329"] Scribe is complaining that the Level Up yeti is listed as potentially not always murderous; instead, Level Up wrote: [LIST] [*]yetis are known to become violent during blizzards [*]when the weather is nicer, it's up in the air as to how violent a yeti will be. They're changeable. [*]according to one legend, a family of yetis was helpful to an adventurer and gave him mushrooms to eat. [/LIST] In other words, when Scribe wants to have his PCs, who are adventuring on a snowy mountain, encounter a hostile monster, he wouldn't know if he could pick a yeti because the book doesn't say "yetis are always murderous," apparently he doesn't want to make that decision himself, and rolling on or picking from the "behaviors" table in the yeti's entry is a step too far. I don't know about how you run games, but when I want a monster to attack the PCs, I just grab a monster that I feel is appropriate to the area and story, is of roughly the right CR, and that I think is cool. I don't need the books to tell me if the monster is "always" violent. A tabaxi has the Feline Agility trait, and speed 30 ft. A giff has Hippo Build, and speed 30 ft. The Feline Agility trait allows a tabaxi to move at a very high speed for short periods of time. A tabaxi with a Dex of 5 has Feline Agility and a speed of 30 feet. A tabaxi with a Dex of 20 has Feline Agility and a speed of 30 feet. A giff with Strength 5 and a giff with Strength 20 still have Hippo Build and a speed of 30 feet. Attributes, whether high or low, do not affect movement speed. Attributes affect attacks, skills, and saving throws, and a tiny handful of other abilities. Feline Agility and Hippo Build are great, flavorful traits, and all races should have more traits like them. I think half the problem is that people assume that WotC will remove cultural traits and not add any new biological traits. And maybe WotC won't, for 5.5, because of backwards compatibility, but I can see them doing it for 6e. But keeping fixed ASIs doesn't make races more interesting either. But there will [I]always [/I]be far fewer clumsy halflings than agile dwarfs, and far fewer strong halflings than strong dwarfs. Because the [I]only [/I]halflings that automatically get to move around their ASIs are PCs. [B]Every single other halfling in the world has their stats assigned by the DM. [/B]And the PCs may very well go along with the halfling norm and put at least a +1 in Dex, because of decades of tradition. How? You can always put the floating ASI in the traditional spot. With a floating ASI, you [I]have the option [/I]of the traditional racial stats. But with a fixed ASI, [I]nobody has the option [/I]of a nonstandard individual. And, well, I have the sneaking suspicion that most people who prefer that their halflings have +2 Dex are still going to move that +1 to a stat they find more useful. Halflings have +2 Dex. So do aarakocra, elves, goblins, kenku, kobolds, and swiftside shifters. That +2 Dex does nothing to differentiate those races from each other. Ugh. No thanks. This would immediately turn me off D&D. [/QUOTE]
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