D&D 5E The Fate of the Smol

[Baron Opal II]

I'm curious to hear the communities thoughts, and if you feel there will be a change, what form do you suppose that will take?

The will be one race, "Adventurer", where you choose one strong ability, one medium ability, and four average abilities. You also have three talents, proficiency, or whatever. Possibly some having a cost of two "slots" like darkvision.

There may be an option of some ancestral ribbons like fey-touched or plane-touched that grant minor benefits and/or unlock certain features. Regardless, you can describe you character however you wish, regardless of how it does or doesn't align with the game's fiction.

This is an ideal state for some, rank heresy for others.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

The will be one race, "Adventurer", where you choose one strong ability, one medium ability, and four average abilities. You also have three talents, proficiency, or whatever. Possibly some having a cost of two "slots" like darkvision.

There may be an option of some ancestral ribbons like fey-touched or plane-touched that grant minor benefits and/or unlock certain features. Regardless, you can describe you character however you wish, regardless of how it does or doesn't align with the game's fiction.

This is an ideal state for some, rank heresy for others.

It is not what I'd want, but it would be the logical outcome of the direction the game is going. And it would at least be more coherent solution than the current approach. If the design premise indeed is that the PCs are unique and don't need to be bound by their species, and the players should be able to customise their characters how they want, then this is exactly what they should do.

 

[CreamCloud0]

The will be one race, "Adventurer", where you choose one strong ability, one medium ability, and four average abilities. You also have three talents, proficiency, or whatever. Possibly some having a cost of two "slots" like darkvision.

There may be an option of some ancestral ribbons like fey-touched or plane-touched that grant minor benefits and/or unlock certain features. Regardless, you can describe you character however you wish, regardless of how it does or doesn't align with the game's fiction.

This is an ideal state for some, rank heresy for others.

I think a ‘point buy species builder’ would be really fun to play around with, but it’d have to be much more in depth than tasha’s lineage builder if it was made to be the core species builder instead of having preset race builds as the standard.

 

[Stormonu]

I think a ‘point buy species builder’ would be really fun to play around with, but it’d have to be much more in depth than tasha’s lineage builder if it was made to be the core species builder instead of having preset race builds as the standard.

Unfortunately, such point-buy systems tend to get gamed hard. It’s why I prefer there to be limited or fixed options, so it doesn’t spiral out of control because of an unforeseen game-breaking combo.

 

[James Gasik]

Which is probably why WotC never embraced "alternate racial traits". Some things races have already seem a little niche, so why muddy the waters by letting someone discard an option for something better...or worse?

 

[cbwjm]

I'm not sure the whole heavy weapon disadvantage is that big a deal, people just adapt and use other weapons. I've a halfling barbarian in my game, they just went sword and board instead of great weapon master, hasn't really slowed her down. I'd say it's likely that those who decide to be a small version of the race will also be picking a class where that penalty to heavy weapons just doesn't matter because they wouldn't be using them anyway.

 

[Stormonu]

The weapon disadvantage is a bit silly - small weapon versions doing less damage. You don’t see it being applied to casting spells, where say a Halfling’s fireball does 8d4 instead of 8d6, or the reverse where an Ogre Magic’s would do 8d8.

 

[James Gasik]

Or big creatures- a Dragon casting a Fireball should do 8d10, right?

I mean, it isn't a bad rule, in and of itself. Small races would use smaller weapons. I remember an article where a developer was looking at his 5 year old son, who was in the height and weight range to be an adult Halfling, was having trouble holding a pencil. We're probably being quite generous to Smallfolk as it is.

But "realism" and "fun" are two very different things. One person might have their verisimilitude challenged by smallfolk kicking ass (I personally enjoy it when they do). Another might have their sense of fair play challenged when a character has a disadvantage for no reason other "well it wouldn't make sense otherwise" in their fantasy make-believe game where people can slay dragons with nothing more than 4' of steel.

Personally, I'd like to see a sidebar in the PHB talking about this, and presenting an OPTIONAL rule you can employ if you'd like to see Small characters less disadvantaged. That should appease everyone's sense of fun, I think.

 

[Frozen_Heart]

The will be one race, "Adventurer", where you choose one strong ability, one medium ability, and four average abilities. You also have three talents, proficiency, or whatever. Possibly some having a cost of two "slots" like darkvision.

There may be an option of some ancestral ribbons like fey-touched or plane-touched that grant minor benefits and/or unlock certain features. Regardless, you can describe you character however you wish, regardless of how it does or doesn't align with the game's fiction.

This is an ideal state for some, rank heresy for others.

Race: Adventurer
Background: Adventurer
Class: Adventurer

 

[Crimson Longinus]

Race: Adventurer
Background: Adventurer
Class: Adventurer

I genuinely think that a lot of people would be happier with this. There is incessant complaints about any restrictions or limitations, as well as desire for approximately seven thousand new classes so that every imaginable character concept can be realised in exact detail.

That's not what I want from D&D, but I feel that a lot of people don't actually like the implications of a splat based game, but fail to understand the root of their problems as they have no experience of games other than D&D and its derivates.