D&D (2024) Should 2014 Half Elves and Half Orcs be added to the 2025 SRD?

[Mecheon]

So, yeah, my vote is what they did with 2024. Make all the "hybrid" races purely cosmetic. Fantastic. it's simpler and means that we don't need to worry about fifteen thousand "half" races in the game. Pick another race, use that race's mechanics and call it a day. Done and dusted.

I will oppose this and say that I think the half races do serve as a good mix and match thing

Show folks how to design a new race with them as the goal like Aasimar were back in the original DMG. Explain the background weighting of features and how they're balanced internally for re-balancing, using a half-elf or half-orc as an example and the goal of "We want some features from elf, and some from human", two recognisable easy races to draw from. Let the adjustment and re-distribution of stats inspire DMs for making their own custom races

But I stubbornly will maintain they're not PHB or SRD material

 

[Crimson Longinus]

Is this another stealth 'on no, some species don't get a net +1 to some rolls so now they're all the same' argument again?

That certainly is part of it, but overall, they have greatly lessened the amount of impact the species have. So irrespective of specific expressions, there simply is less stuff that the species give than there used to be. And I think how it used to be was already too little.

 

[Remathilis]

Again, @Maxperson, I do not consider a couple of skills which any character, and many backgrounds, can also take, to be unique characteristics of an entire species. There is more to a character sheet than species after all.

But, hey, I know that this isn't going to go anywhere. Fifty pages of "nuh uh, they're totally unique, completely different from all other things" proves that. I mean, a 2014 Half-elf is mechanically expressed with the following:

Darkvision - not unique
Fey Ancestry - not unique
Skill Versatility - 2 skills which may be copied by any class and/or background.
Languages - Common, elvish and one extra - also can be taken by a number of classes and/or backgrounds.

Wow. Being proficient in 2 skills, which means I could be identical to the virtually any other character at the table is the "unique mechanical expression" of an entire species. As I said, @Maxperson, your definition of "unique" is not the one I would use.

The two skills thing is really bad because wotc already has a handful of species that have that and more:

Ancestral Legacy. If you replace a race with this lineage, you can keep the following elements of that race: any skill proficiencies you gained from it and any climbing, flying, or swimming speed you gained from it.
If you don't keep any of those elements or you choose this lineage at character creation, you gain proficiency in two skills of your choice.

What races get this? Dhampir, hexblood and reborn. What else do they get?

Dhampir:
Darkvision
Climb speed, spider climb at will at 3rd
Doesn't breathe
1d4 bite attack with extra riders prof/day

Hexblood
Darkvision
Fey type
Eerie tokens (telepathic message or scry on holder)
Disguise self and hex spells 1/day

Reborn
Poison save advantage and resistance
Advantage on death saves
Don't eat, sleep or breathe. Immune to sleep effects.
Add 1d6 to any skill checks prof/day

Vs
Darkvision
Fey ancestry
+1 ASI
+1 language

Yeah, half-elf is absolutely the weakest option...

 

[Remathilis]

Is the issue with 1/2 races
(A) Racism?
Are we trying to eliminate racism and racial isolationism as storytelling tools?

And/Or

(B) Not unique enough as a character concept mechanically?

Both?

A. The half-breed naming and lingering specter of othering hangs over both races and despite people like Minigiant attempting to remove the idea that they are a just human/X combos (like aasimar not being human/angel combos), the story keeps looping to "they are the species defined by being prejudiced against by one or both parents"

B. Both races don't give anything overtly unique, with both species being either a mix of human and X or a variation on X that is different on a micro scale but indistinguishable on a macro one.

So we're going to save the half-elf (orc). Except we're giving them a new name, new origin, and new abilities. What exactly are we saving again?

That's my problem.

 

[AnotherGuy]

But I stubbornly will maintain they're not PHB or SRD material

So you'd prefer those rules of mixing/matching between racial components be included within the DMG I presume?

I'd be ok with that, that is why I offered something like a 1-page blurb in the PHB that you'd have to discuss the option of a half-race with your DM and in reference to the particular setting of the game.

 

[TiQuinn]

Is the issue with 1/2 races
(A) Racism?
Are we trying to eliminate racism and racial isolationism as storytelling tools?

And/Or

(B) Not unique enough as a character concept mechanically?

For me, it's A.

I understand where people are coming from with B, but personally, that's not as big a driver for me. I have more trouble with halflings and gnomes and distinguishing them.

 

[Micah Sweet]

That certainly is part of it, but overall, they have greatly lessened the amount of impact the species have. So irrespective of specific expressions, there simply is less stuff that the species give than there used to be. And I think how it used to be was already too little.

Another reason to make the switch to Level Up! Heritage is much more significant here, and we solved the mixed heritage problem in our book.

 

[Remathilis]

So you'd prefer those rules of mixing/matching between racial components be included within the DMG I presume?

I'd be ok with that, that is why I offered something like a 1-page blurb in the PHB that you'd have to discuss the option of a half-race with your DM and in reference to the particular setting of the game.

They're not going to be in the DMG either. Set your expectations for NPC's Object to Everything in 2026.

 

[Micah Sweet]

They're not going to be in the DMG either. Set your expectations for NPC's Object to Everything in 2026.

Or look elsewhere and stop waiting for WotC to fix it.

 

[Remathilis]

Or look elsewhere and stop waiting for WotC to fix it.

Absolutely, but if you want to see WotCs follow up, it's not coming out in November