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

[Mecheon]

Someone once told me I could roleplay as a witch with a katana, but when I looked at my character sheet, it was just a wizard with a longsword and lipstick on it...

I got that many witch homebrews in my Homebrew Pile that, legit, you could pull an easy all witch party with every single one using different mechanics

What does one want a Half-Elf to be?

I will note on this that, despite Tolkein being the inspiration for half elves, they've never really followed his way on how it is. Instead, they've always had that presentation as Half Elves. They've got a pinch of elf magic stuff, a pinch of human versitiltiy, and that's that. A half-way point between how humans and elves were presented

I really don't know. At some point they indeed did not exist and then were invented. And when they didn't have rules, they did not truly exist in the game, even though you'd refluff a wood elf into a tabaxi or something.

Tabaxi pretty much replaced the old Rakasta on the Isle of Dread, they absolutely were around

 

[Maxperson]

No, I’m saying when a high elf reproduces with a drow it doesn’t produce a unique ‘high-dark’ subspecies of elf

Sure it would. The baby would be a unique mix of the two.

 

[Maxperson]

You are factually wrong.

They are listed right there with the other species. Granted there is no longer a separate section for them where they are just elves but a bit less, but nope you are wrong. I can make a half elf right out of the phb and it will be at least as mechanically distinct as the 2014 one.

Quote it, because everyone else and everything I've read says that they are no longer a race in 5.5e.

The 5.5e PHB has
1) Aasimar
2) Dragonborn
3) Dwarves
4) Elves(drow, high and wood, but no half)
5) Gnomes
6) Goliaths
7) Halflings
8) Humans
9) Orcs
10) Tieflings

There's no half-elf on the list of races.

 

[Maxperson]

On my phone right now so no. But if you go to DnD beyond and look up half elf it’s right there.

Or to put it another way, how do folks know it’s pick either human or elf mechanics?

You mean the legacy rules(2014) half-elf? That's not in the PHB, even if it's on DDB. You can't count that as being in the 2024 rules.

 

[Maxperson]

2 could be done if they took the concept of custom lineages and then gave them some generic options that could be flavored to make mixed species. For example, you could take darkvision, fey ancestry and resistance to fire and say you are half-elf/half-red dragonborn, or even half-hobgoblin/half-infernal tiefling. You won't get the cooler unique abilities of most species, but being able to pick some useful generic ones (fly/swim/climb speed, breathe water, resistance to an element, fey ancestry, relentless endurance, darkvision, bonus skill, or a bonus spell) might allow you to make something that resembles a hybrid.

You'd have to give every ability some sort of weighting score so that you don't end up creating something too powerful for game.

You could easily end up not really being able to represent a half race effectively since to do so would be unbalancing, and it would be unsatisfactory to create an ineffective representation that fits within the design space.

 

[Hussar]

I suggest you read the entry on half elves in the DnD beyond.

 

[TwoSix]

You mean the legacy rules(2014) half-elf? That's not in the PHB, even if it's on DDB. You can't count that as being in the 2024 rules.

I mean, I think it’s open to interpretation if the “2024 rules” is inclusive of all pre-2024 material that wasn’t explicitly overwritten.

Like, I could definitely see a difference between “2024 rules” and “2024 rules only”. I personally wouldn’t assume that if someone said “2024 rules game” that I couldn’t play a tabaxi or a half-elf.

I think it’s also an open question if the fact that a 2014 PHB option isn’t included in the 2024 PHB automatically means it should be considered deprecated.

 

[Remathilis]

You'd have to give every ability some sort of weighting score so that you don't end up creating something too powerful for game.

You could easily end up not really being able to represent a half race effectively since to do so would be unbalancing, and it would be unsatisfactory to create an ineffective representation that fits within the design space.

Sure. You'd have to do a "pick one from column A, one from column B" or even a simple point system, which is why it's probably good that such a system is in a supplement book and not the PHB. I absolutely agree that you would have to playtest the hell out of it, but I think it's at least doable. And by confining it to mostly generic traits, it wouldn't need to update every time a new species is added and it could be used to make unique characters or even new species.

I mean, short of a fourth pass at species to do a TotV/A5e design, it's the best option.

 

[Maxperson]

I suggest you read the entry on half elves in the DnD beyond.

Why? I play with the hardcover books. If it's not in the hardcover books, it's not in 5.5e.

 

[Scribe]

Why? I play with the hardcover books. If it's not in the hardcover books, it's not in 5.5e.

I mean this should be patently simple. Is it in the book? Multiple people have said its not in the book, therefore, its not in 5.5.