D&D 5E PHB Races Redone

[Tales and Chronicles]

One way of doing it would be to remove the ''cultural'' traits and add instead their ''racial feat'' from XGtE to buff the race a little.

 

[Dragonsbane]

Yes, I would suggest doing away with any racial bonus, abilities and lore too.

Let the PCs play as amorphous blobs of math and mechanical effects picked from a generic array of possibilities. That's the way we are heading anyway. Slowly, but steadily.

We think alike!

Seriously, imagine two dwarven subraces. Sorry, ancestries. One was forced by other races to live high in the mountains, working hard all day. Another settles in a region of easy living. A thousand years pass. Can one sub-ancestry have a +2 to Str or Con, and the other a +2 to something else? Is it not possible for one sub-ancestry to have a higher top end for an ability score? It strains realism.

Although... it is a game. Perhaps we should not be too worried about realism? But then we would not be concerned with ability scores...

Tell me a gnome and a goliath have the same Str range so I can sleep tonight!

 

[Eubani]

So basically the difference between the 3 subclasses is I live in the forest, I like books & magic and I lived underground. Only the Dark Elves show any biology based mechanics. Looking at the UA's subrace isn't a thing. So maybe there should Be Elf and Drow races?

 

[Eubani]

We think alike!

Seriously, imagine two dwarven subraces. Sorry, ancestries. One was forced by other races to live high in the mountains, working hard all day. Another settles in a region of easy living. A thousand years pass. Can one sub-ancestry have a +2 to Str or Con, and the other a +2 to something else? Is it not possible for one sub-ancestry to have a higher top end for an ability score? It strains realism.

Although... it is a game. Perhaps we should not be too worried about realism? But then we would not be concerned with ability scores...

Will get to Dwarves after Elves, One thorny rose at a time.

 

[Eubani]

One way of doing it would be to remove the ''cultural'' traits and add instead their ''racial feat'' from XGtE to buff the race a little.

many of the Racial Feats are somewhat cultural.

 

[Krachek]

Do we have any Biologists on hand?

Indeed still need to prove in a lab that dark vision is a biological trait!

 

[Eubani]

So basically without the cultural parts Elves are pointy eared humans with a sleeping disorder + Fey Ancestry.

 

[Yaarel]

So basically without the cultural parts Elves are pointy eared humans with a sleeping disorder + Fey Ancestry.

Elves are nature beings taking the shape of a human while wielding some form of powerful innate magic ( = choice of magical race feat).

 

[Yaarel]

many of the Racial Feats are somewhat cultural.

Yeah.

I think of the major trait as a feat, and the minor trait as a cultural background.

Both the feat and the background can be magical or nonmagical, depending on the concept.



I think it is good design to do the elf race first. If it is possible to resolve the tens or hundreds of D&D elf concepts into a single reasonable format. Then just about any race can use this same format.

 

[Eubani]

Most references to Elves tend to agree on the following: tied to nature, adapted to magic use and Sharp senses. Also Naturally graceful and beautiful. I would like to do away with darkvision, it appears to often maybe a "Starvision".