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

[Remathilis]

As I don't have the new PHB, can someone who does tell me if there's a section like in older editions that list average heights, average lifespans, max lifespans, etc.? If there is such a section, are Half-Elves listed there?

The individual species sections list lifespan in the description and height range in the size category. There is no chart for rolling height, weight or age, nor age categories.

 

[RhaezDaevan]

The individual species sections list lifespan in the description and height range in the size category. There is no chart for rolling height, weight or age, nor age categories.

OK, thank you.

And though Half-Elves are forced to "pick a parent" now, do they at least get their own lifespan and height range entry similar to what they used to get? Or is that also the same as one of their parents?

 

[pemerton]

So what. Why does it all have to be in the PHB?

I don't know what you mean by "it". But when I post this -

No one can use just the PC build and action resolution rules found in the PHB to play space marines.

- I don't think it is refuted by pointing to stuff that's not in the PHB.

Reflavored plate armor is power armor, or if you want more make it magic plate armor that has a magical ability that is similar to power armor. The PC can take firebolt and reflavor that as a blasty gun. Cutlasses would be short swords or longswords reflavored. Revolvers are already in D&D. Firearms are in the DMG and I've seen nothing that would lead me to believe that they will be removed from the 5.5e DMG.

Computers are fluff. The DM can just stick those and programming in the setting. The same with running a spaceship. There also don't need to be rules for the quick generation of new planets or explosive decompression.

At this point you've jumped the shark and are no longer just asking to be able to play a space marine. You've moved the goalposts to trying to recreate the game of Traveler. That isn't necessary to play a space marine in D&D.

This is all a bit weird from the guy who is insisting that the PHB doesn't include Half-Elves because the only way to play a Half-Elf is to play a (mechanical) human and describe the character as a Half-Elf.

But anyway, I didn't say anything about "playing a space marine in D&D". I posted:

Of course default rules establish (some elements of) setting.

The PHB contains rules for building heroic fantasy warriors and magic-users, but not for building space marines who fly about in spaceships. That establishes setting.

If you're really trying to insist that the PHB doesn't establish setting - that it is neutral as between a fiction that involves knights, castles, dragons, magicians etc and a fiction that involves space marines who fly about in spaceships - well, as I said, that is pretty weird given everything else that you have posted in this thread.

 

[Remathilis]

OK, thank you.

And though Half-Elves are forced to "pick a parent" now, do they at least get their own lifespan and height range entry similar to what they used to get? Or is that also the same as one of their parents?

Pick a parent was dropped. Right now, they are MIA with necromancer and tempest priest. We'll see what wotc is going to do with hybrid species in some later supplement.

 

[Yaarel]

Spelljammer is not in the PHB.

The Players Handbook mentions "spelljamming vessels" in the Multiverse appendix. No details tho.

Space marines don't use plate armour and glaive-guisarmes. They use powered armour or (in Classic Traveller) ballistic cloth, and they fight with blast-y guns or (in Classic Traveller) with cutlasses and revolvers.

Even if you "refluff" you won't get a game of space marines. There are no rules for computers or computer programming, for all the other technical tasks involved in operating a space ship, for quickly generating new planets, for how to handle explosive decompression, etc, etc.

It seems to me, the "space marines" compare to a mid-tier 5e campaign, around levels 9 thru 12, with powerful magic items, where the "magic" is tech.

Rules for computers and programming are setting mechanics. Much "cyberspace" technology equates divination spells. I use the Astral Plane for the "virtual reality", where the Wildspace is the augmented reality that overlays a simulation of the Material Plane, and where the Sea is the freeform to remote virtual realities. (I also use the Feywild to represent a subtle nanobot presence within the Material Plane.) The virtual realities equate illusion and conjuration spells.

 

[Yaarel]

As I don't have the new PHB, can someone who does tell me if there's a section like in older editions that list average heights, average lifespans, max lifespans, etc.? If there is such a section, are Half-Elves listed there?

In the section, "Character Species", texts include the following:
"
A player characters species is the set of game traits that an adventurer gains from being one of those life forms.
Members of most species live for about 80 years, with exceptions noted in the text about the species in this chapter. Regardless of life span, members of all species reach physical maturity at about the same age.

Parts of a Species
Creature Type. Every species in this chapter is Humanoid. Playable non-Humanoid species appear in other D&D books. [ @Maxperson ].
Size. Individuals within a species cover a wide range of heights, ans some species include such diversity of size that you can choose whether your character is Small or Medium.

"

Otherwise, the appearance of species seem to depend on the specific setting. For example, the Elf entry mentions "elves have pointed ears and lack facial and body hair", but details like skin color which the Greyhawk and Forgotten Realms obsess over, are absent from core rules. Forgotten Realms Drow Elves generally have gray skin ranging from black to white, with a hint of purple, ranging from blue to red. Tashas has an image of two Elves, one "High" and one "Drow". It took me a moment to realize, the dark blue skin was the High Elf and the pale silver skin was the Drow Elf. When I looked into it, it turns out these color possibilities are canon in the Forgotten Realms.

Generally speaking, players can choose any humanlike bodytype and appearance, and probably doublecheck with the DM if portraying something unusual.

 

[pemerton]

It seems to me, the "space marines" compare to a mid-tier 5e campaign, around levels 9 thru 12, with powerful magic items, where the "magic" is tech.

Rules for computers and programming are setting mechanics. Much "cyberspace" technology equates divination spells. I use the Astral Plane for the "virtual reality", where the Wildspace is the augmented reality that overlays a simulation of the Material Plane, and where the Sea is the freeform to remote virtual realities. (I also use the Feywild to represent a subtle nanobot presence within the Material Plane.) The virtual realities equate illusion and conjuration spells.

My assertion is that the PHB brings with it elements of setting, and that these setting elements include things like knights, castles, dragons, magic, glaive-guisarmes, etc; and do not include space marines, space ships, computers etc.

I can't tell if you are disagreeing with me or not. @Maxperson seems to be disagreeing, though as I said I don't know how his argument that the PHB does include space marines is meant to fit with his argument that it doesn't include Half-Elves.

 

[Micah Sweet]

My assertion is that the PHB brings with it elements of setting, and that these setting elements include things like knights, castles, dragons, magic, glaive-guisarmes, etc; and do not include space marines, space ships, computers etc.

I can't tell if you are disagreeing with me or not. @Maxperson seems to be disagreeing, though as I said I don't know how his argument that the PHB does include space marines is meant to fit with his argument that it doesn't include Half-Elves.

Yeah, otherwise you're arguing that D&D is not a faux medieval/Renaissance fantasy game.

 

[Maxperson]

I don't know what you mean by "it". But when I post this -
- I don't think it is refuted by pointing to stuff that's not in the PHB.

This is all a bit weird from the guy who is insisting that the PHB doesn't include Half-Elves because the only way to play a Half-Elf is to play a (mechanical) human and describe the character as a Half-Elf.

But anyway, I didn't say anything about "playing a space marine in D&D". I posted:
If you're really trying to insist that the PHB doesn't establish setting - that it is neutral as between a fiction that involves knights, castles, dragons, magicians etc and a fiction that involves space marines who fly about in spaceships - well, as I said, that is pretty weird given everything else that you have posted in this thread.

You're conflating positions of mine.

Are half-elves in the PHB explicitly as such? No. Are space marines in the PHB explicitly as such? No. That does not conflict with the argument that someone could fluff both of those things into existence with things only found in the PHB. I would not do so, but others here would. You could fluff a dragonborn into a half-elf with a chronic case of acid reflux if you were so inclined.

No amount of refluffing will put those things explicitly into the PHB, though.

I also never once said or implied that there were no elements(building blocks) of setting in the PHB. I said the PHB is not a setting. It is not.

 

[Remathilis]

Yeah, otherwise you're arguing that D&D is not a faux medieval/Renaissance fantasy game.

Well, that's been my argument for why Dark Sun isn't real D&D...