D&D General Race Has No Mechanics. What do you play?

[KYRON45]

the point isn't anything being useful in any given encounter, it's the point of if it ever has the capacity to be useful, if it's ever useful then it ceases to exist purely as a narrative ability and failed the premise of the thread, the species' narrative became mechanical impact.

Well...when you change the premise of the original question than of course its original premise is meaningless. Seems to me that they OP just wanted to know if people are picking things based on what they offer in game or what they look like. Once you start splitting hairs and changing definitions anything can become anything else.
Good luck on your journey.

 

[CreamCloud0]

Well...when you change the premise of the original question than of course its original premise is meaningless. Seems to me that they OP just wanted to know if people are picking things based on what they offer in game or what they look like. Once you start splitting hairs and changing definitions anything can become anything else.
Good luck on your journey.

the premise of OP's question was never changed, it merely spurred another question: where does species narrative become mechanical impact. it doesn't matter if some abilities aren't codified in rules, if the narrative of their species can let your character produce unique results someone of another species couldn't of, then that to me is a mechanical impact.

 

[KYRON45]

the premise of OP's question was never changed, it merely spurred another question: where does species narrative become mechanical impact. it doesn't matter if some abilities aren't codified in rules, if the narrative of their species can let your character produce unique results someone of another species couldn't of, then that to me is a mechanical impact.

Yes. You have quantified the definition of mechanical impact. After that i'm not sure what we are talking about. Thank you and enjoy.

 

[TaranTheWanderer]

Birds fly and fish swim.

The assumption in most fiction is this is true.

So, if the assumption is Triton can breathe under water and swim really fast, they can.

If you are implementing a no-mechanics PC bioform rule, then you probably have to disallow Tritons as a race.

For breathing underwater, I’d probably just allow the fiction to dictate that as true and let people argue whether or not that’s a mechanical advantage. For swimming and flying speeds, you’d definitely be crossing over to needing game mechanics.

If you are setting a hard rule that all races are the same, as mentioned by someone else, if a player REALLY wanted to play a Triton, they would need a background reason for not being able to breath under water. Maybe they’ve been banished cursed so they can never return! Being a triton among humans, trying to find a cure for their curse so they can return home could certainly lead to some interesting stories.

 

[DEFCON 1]

Except that you made a claim and I refuted it.

Exactly. Thus you should've told them, as they were the one who needed the information. Why would I care if the material Harold wanted actually existed?

 

[Reynard]

Birds fly and fish swim.

The assumption in most fiction is this is true.

So, if the assumption is Triton can breathe under water and swim really fast, they can.

If you are implementing a no-mechanics PC bioform rule, then you probably have to disallow Tritons as a race.

For breathing underwater, I’d probably just allow the fiction to dictate that as true and let people argue whether or not that’s a mechanical advantage. For swimming and flying speeds, you’d definitely be crossing over to needing game mechanics.

If you are setting a hard rule that all races are the same, as mentioned by someone else, if a player REALLY wanted to play a Triton, they would need a background reason for not being able to breath under water. Maybe they’ve been cursed! Being a triton among humans, trying to find a cure for their curse could certainly lead to some interesting stories.

I think the question gets interesting when we start talking about these edge cases. The triton, for example, only has a mechanical advantage over other PC types under pretty specific circumstances. A flying or wall crawling race, though, would almost always have an advantage.

 

[TaranTheWanderer]

I think the question gets interesting when we start talking about these edge cases. The triton, for example, only has a mechanical advantage over other PC types under pretty specific circumstances. A flying or wall crawling race, though, would almost always have an advantage.

Just like the one that can change forms any time they wish, as was previously discussed.

 

[Reynard]

Just like the one that can change forms any time they wish, as was previously discussed.

That's why in my assessment of that situation, if the changeling is always obviously a changeling it is okay. The player would need to put other resources (class, background, whatever) into being good at disguise.

 

[Baron Opal II]

I would pick the bird person over the centaur. I don't want to get too side-tracked about the latter's internal anatomy.

Tangent- A while ago there was a fun and fascinating thread on Twitter on how do you cardiovert a centaur? Do you put the pads on the human or horse chest? And, for bonus amusement, there are actually equine AEDs. Never realized that.

So, yeah, anatomy matters in ways you don't expect, sometimes.

 

[Reynard]

So, yeah, anatomy matters in ways you don't expect, sometimes.