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

[Yaarel]

You're missing the point. They are optional.................................in your setting. They are not optional in the PHB. They are there regardless of whether you use them or not.

Heh, I dont understand why you are ignoring what the Players Handbook says, while incorrectly claiming there is some kind of special Players Handbook canonical setting. The Players Handbook itself says these ten species are "options", and that species from other books are also options.

Of course, the DM (and players) decide which species are available − that is true for the ten example species as well.

Every species is an "option". None is a requirement.

"If you choose" does not equate to "you can choose." If the DM does not allow older books, there is no ability to choose an older option. If he does allow it, then the "if you choose" portion comes in to play.

If the DM (and players) want to use only the species in the PH 2014, then that is officially legitimate per the 2024 Rules-As-Written.

If the DM (and players) want to use only the species in the PH 2024, then that is officially legitimate per the 2024 Rules-As-Written.

If the DM (and players) want to use an assortment species from various books, like Astral Elves, Plasmoids, Warforged, plus Satyrs, then this too is officially legitimate per the 2024 Rules-As-Written.

In my games, Session Zero includes getting the group to decide together on which setting and adventure to play to play next.

The Realms will likely have every option from 5.5e in it. Anything from 5e is up to the DM to allow or not and cannot be assumed to be available to pick. A lot of DMs are going to say no to this.

There will be an official 2024 Forgotten Realms setting focusing on five regions around the planet Toril. We will all get to see how that particular setting handles the new and old options.



By the way, I looked and saw, the "Free Rules" in DnDBeyond, also mention how you can also choose species from other books.

"
ORIGIN COMPONENTS
Each part of your character’s origin reflects facets of your character, their life, and the circumstances that started them on the path to adventure. If you choose a background or a species from an older book, see the sidebar “Backgrounds and Species from Older Books” in chapter 2 for how to use them with the options here.

"

 

[Yaarel]

The FIRST RULE of Character Creation is ...

"
TALK WITH YOUR DM
Start by talking with your Dungeon Master about the type of D&D game they plan to run.

"

Any setting is equally legitimate.

 

[Maxperson]

Heh, I dont understand why you are ignoring what the Players Handbook says, while incorrectly claiming there is some kind of special Players Handbook canonical setting. The Players Handbook itself says these ten species are "options", and that species from other books are also options.

Because it doesn't say what you think it says. "If" doesn't equate to "you can." All it is is a possibility, not a set default option that is in place unless the DM removes it.

There will be an official 2024 Forgotten Realms setting focusing on five regions around the planet Toril. We will all get to see how that particular setting handles the new and old options.

I agree. That will be an interesting book to look at.

 

[Scribe]

The FIRST RULE of Character Creation is ...

"
TALK WITH YOUR DM
Start by talking with your Dungeon Master about the type of D&D game they plan to run.

"

Any setting is equally legitimate.

So what you are telling me is that player options in 5.5 are wholly dependent upon the DM? Oh wait.

"If the DM draws inspiration from Greek myth, for example, you might choose a different direction for your character than if the DM is planning for swashbuckling on the high seas. Think about the kind of adventurer you want to play in this game. If you don’t know where to begin, look at the character illustrations in this book for inspiration."

Well that has nothing to do with player options at all...funny that.

 

[Yaarel]

@Scribe

"If the DM draws inspiration from Greek myth, for example, you might choose a different direction for your character."

If the setting draws inspiration from Greek myth − such as the Theros setting does − this might supply other options for species and feats. A different direction for a character build.

The use of species from older books relates to the kind of D&D game a DM plans to run.

Meanwhile, the DM might include other backgrounds, depending on setting.

 

[SlyFlourish]

My point was that the 5e Community isn't a bunch of isolated individual games but share and intermix with each other. People use material from D&D, TotV, or other 5e based games because they are a common set of rules and expectations, even if the individual expressions differ. I don't think many people, for example, ONLY use Level-Up and never use material from any other 5e game, so the idea that if you are using Level Up and include a Tasha's subclass, you are no longer playing Level Up is patently absurd.

I think there might be both. My A5e game doesn't use any other material except A5e stuff. That's just the focus I want to have on this particular campaign. I'm about to run a Tales of the Valiant campaign and it too is going to be just Tales of the Valiant. We don't need anything else. We could use material from other variants or 5e compatible sourcebooks but for this one we're going to stick to these core systems.

The game you are playing is defined by the core rulebook you want, but because 5e material can be mixed in a way I can't mix Vampire or Shadowrun, its fair to call the 5e community as collective even if everyone in the 5e community is playing slightly different types of 5e.

I agree with this. I think a table is likely to pick a core rulebook to play around and then can tailor their game with material from other sources.

Because the alternative is to balkanize 5e into specific types and variants (D&D 14, D&D 24, TotV, A5e, etc) and say each of those games are separate islands and mixing them no longer creates a collective identity. There is no 5e, there is only D&D, Level Up, Tales of the Valiant, etc, and mixing those games is akin to trying to Go Fish in Poker; just because they all use similar elements doesn't mean you should be combining them.

There can be both. We can have individual games focused on one core set of rules and we can take stuff from the others when it suits us. That's what makes this a fun beautiful mess.

This is poignant because D&D 24 isn't a new game, its another expression of 5e. And the fact it can be mixed with the larger 5e community means it can draw on those resources the same way TotV can use Tasha's to plug gaps in its offerings. D&D 24 is heir to the same rich collection of content that all 5e games can use. That's what I mean by "its all 5e."

Yep!

 

[Scribe]

@Scribe

"If the DM draws inspiration from Greek myth, for example, you might choose a different direction for your character."

If the setting draws inspiration from Greek myth − such as the Theros setting does − this might supply other options for species and feats. A different direction for a character build.

The use of species from older books relates to the D&D kind game a DM plans to run.

Meanwhile, the DM might including other backgrounds, depending on setting.

Thats an incorrect reading.

Thero's has nothing to do with it. Its instead telling the player "If you have a DM preparing a game for kicking in doors, you may not want to build a character that is all about the social pillar and political intrigue."

 

[Yaarel]

Thats an incorrect reading.

Thero's has nothing to do with it. Its instead telling the player "If you have a DM preparing a game for kicking in doors, you may not want to build a character that is all about the social pillar and political intrigue."

A Greek mythology inspired game includes a Greekesque cosmology ... such as Theros.

The same page mentions how to use species from other books ... such as Theros.

 

[Mistwell]

Same rules as I used for monotheism in 2014. For a monotheistic culture, the deity is "infinite" beyond any aspect of any multiverse. Thus there is no "monotheistic" deity to be found in the Astral Plane. But there can be "saints" and "angels" in the Astral Plane who are in "unity" with the monotheistic concept. Meanwhile, these cultures view the Positive Energy Plane, as an aspect of the divine that is "imminent" within the multiverse. So healing and wellbeing generally are important ethical concerns. D&D rules work normally for monotheistic cultures too.

For animistic cultures, there is only the Material Plane. There are no other planes. In this context, the "Border" Fey, Shadow, and Ethereal, are important because they are the immaterial forces that are part of the Material Plane. The "Deep" if encountered at all is a kind of "illusion", transient dreams. (Note, Ginnungagap means the abyss of delusion, where reality itself is fluid.) In animistic contexts, the D&D Astral Plane would moreso be encounters with language, symbols, what can be put into words, as well as what is beyond words, but all of this thoughtstuff is happening while within the Material Plane. (Óðinn is the sky itself in the Material Plane. His shamanistic visualization of dying on the world tree, is something like an encounter with the linguistic words − runes − of the Astral Plane.)

In your opinion are the 2024 rules changed in any meaningful way with regard to this topic? In the 2014 PHB there was an entire appendix about the Gods, but I noticed in 2024 that seems to be gone. In the Outer Planes section they don't even mention the word Gods or Deities, just "immortals."

 

[Hussar]

Nothing you said rings accurate based on my experience. Experience here, on Reddit, on another D&D board, on many YouTube channels, on two active Discord channels I am on, or with any of the 17 people I play with. Morrus himself said he is calling it 5.5 here, and I am pretty sure he doesn't mean it as a negative.

I think you might be making an unwarranted assumption here.

Really? 'Cos splashed across the front page of the site is

New Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Master's Guide Art and Details Revealed​

Check out new images from the 2024 Dungeon Master's Guide.

and

2024 Player’s Handbook is ‘Fastest Selling D&D Book Ever’​

2024 Player's Handbook sells three times as many as the 2014 version.

and that one has Morrus' byline on it.

Yet, if I got to pretty much any site or youtube channel that's engaging in clickbait about how bad 2024 D&D is, it's inevitably got 5.5 somewhere in the title or at least in the first paragraph.