D&D 5E Player's Handbook Races

[Shemeska]

IIRC, in the playtest document 2e's Tieflings were renamed as "Planetouched" and are a blanket category for "humans with extraplanar blood". The Tieflings in the PHB will be probably 4e ones.

I know, I'm just hoping that they don't make that mistake. It's just a lot more respectful to the history of the game to keep the classic tiefling as the default one.

The 2e/3e tieflings have a longer history and larger amount of material written using them than the 4e versions, the 4e versions are very different, and "Planetouched" has already been used in the past to mean something very different than the proposed 5e meaning (it collectively referred to any mortal with a fraction of outsider or elemental blood: tieflings, aasimar, genasi, etc).

 

[Charles Wright]

Because one of the goals they had for the races (as stated way back in 2012) was to have all races that were present in every edition's first Player's Handbook playable right out the gate.

And this prevents them from writing up Aasimar as a playable race in the PHB how?

[Edit: They got them all in, nothing prevents them from adding another 1 or 2 is what I'm saying]

 

[Sword of Spirit]

Kind of a lame preview for WotC to put out, as we already knew all the info. (Well we can examine the fonts and background I guess).

My only real concern is that they need to keep Planescape Tieflings distinct from 4e Tieflings, and present them with Aasimars. From the playtest text it appears that is what they were planning on doing (having a Planetouched race with Planescape Tieflings as a subrace (perhaps under a different name)), but a lot could have changed since then.

So I'm hoping the reason there are no Aasimar is because these aren't that kind of Tiefling.

 

[GrumpyGamer]

I like that they have expanded the core races in the PHB to include two from 4e. Campaigns are going to have their own lists of playable races, and nothing is lost from having more options for DMs to select from.

 

[RichGreen]

Hi,

Great to see the dragonborn and tieflings in there alongside the not unexpected gnome. There have been three dragonborn PCs in my Parsantium campaigns and I've been having fun playing a tiefling warlord since KotS

Cheers


Rich

 

[Charles Wright]

I have to admit that I forgot what they did to the Tiefling race which created the necessity of creating the "Planetouched Tiefling" as a word. It's the reason I don't like the appropriation of terms to mean something different from the intention of the original meaning.

 

[Sonny]

And this prevents them from writing up Aasimar as a playable race in the PHB how?

I'm just stating the reasoning for providing the races they did in the PH, and why AAsimar weren't on the list. They had a clear content goal, and they met it. I'm somewhat disappointed that Aasimar aren't there, since I like them a lot, but I also know they had to stop somewhere and PH space is at a premium.

 

[Remathilis]

I know, I'm just hoping that they don't make that mistake. It's just a lot more respectful to the history of the game to keep the classic tiefling as the default one.

The 2e/3e tieflings have a longer history and larger amount of material written using them than the 4e versions, the 4e versions are very different, and "Planetouched" has already been used in the past to mean something very different than the proposed 5e meaning (it collectively referred to any mortal with a fraction of outsider or elemental blood: tieflings, aasimar, genasi, etc).

This is where I feel the subrace thing will work out.

One subrace of tiefling has a clear lineage: the Hellborn. They are descended from an ancient pact made with devils by an evil empire long ago. Such tieflings have a uniform appearance and characteristics (befitting ones made of LE stock).

While another subrace has a less known origin, the mongrels. Their bloodline is muted with a mix of fiendish and humanoid stock, and while the majority appear mostly human, a small fiendish feature betrays their ancestry. These tieflings lack a uniform characteristic in appearance (and perhaps even in powers) and lack the common cultures the hellborn tieflings have.

So one subrace is for 4e tieflings, the other for 2e/3e ones.

 

[Charles Wright]

I'm just stating the reasoning for providing the races they did in the PH, and why AAsimar weren't on the list. They had a clear content goal, and they met it. I'm somewhat disappointed that Aasimar aren't there, since I like them a lot, but I also know they had to stop somewhere and PH space is at a premium.

Now that it's been brought to my attention that the "Tiefling" race in question will most likely be the 4E version, (one that breeds true with huge horns and cloven feet) I'm kind of glad that they didn't make an Aasimar version of that.

 

[Charles Wright]

While another subrace has a less known origin, the mongrels.

Hmm.. needs a better name than that. "Mongrels" has a pretty negative connotation attached to it. I would go with "The Tainted" or something of that sort, myself.