D&D (2024) The Half Orc. Are they still needed?

[FitzTheRuke]

If "race" goes like it did in Monsters of the Multiverse (which seems likely) than it becomes a short list of features and some backstory. There will be plenty of room for more of that sort of options, rather than less, so I doubt that they will be gotten rid of. There might be little reason to include them (and I've seen some excellent arguments here to the contrary) but there's no reason at all NOT to include them.

I think we'll see more race options in the future, not less.

 

[Mind of tempest]

Today the stereotype of orcs are "bad guys, a bag of muscles without too much brain".

I would rather aasimars than tienflings, because the last is the bad guy being the popular star in the high-school, and the aasimar like the brighter student being totally ingored, and suffering bulling and the syndrome of the tall poppies, and a bad repuration by fault of false rumour created by enviers.

* Have you imagined any time a orc bard/skald singing a bardcore version of "I like to move it"?

tiefling has no inbuilt need to go towards evil but are irrationally disliked and are cool looking that is why they are a handbook race as for reasons I would not like to get into they resonate with people as they feel similarly, whilst little aasimar golden child is likely to get preferential treatment as they were born of something people see as desirable.

look I am not for deleting the half orc and half elf but we could free up two whole slots to put in things that might honestly matter more to people.

 

[Minigiant]

2) Why are elves/humans and orcs/humans the only two that get defined by their mixed lineage (and thus their own entries in the Player's Handbook?) Where is the dwarf/human entry? Where is the elf/gnome entry? The halfling/goblin entry? The human/halfling entry? If we are assuming that most of these humanoid races can interbreed... they there is no reason to single out the elf/human and orc/human as the only two that get their own entries for lineage selection. This is one of the things that's been grandfathered into the current game from editions past... but I do not believe they warrant any specialness in getting their own PHB entry-- especially because the grandfathered reason for including "half-orcs" is so distasteful for how the interbreeding has been portrayed in the first place.

Gnelf, dwworcs, and goblings for 6e.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

If "race" goes like it did in Monsters of the Multiverse (which seems likely) than it becomes a short list of features and some backstory. There will be plenty of room for more of that sort of options, rather than less, so I doubt that they will be gotten rid of. There might be little reason to include them (and I've seen some excellent arguments here to the contrary) but there's no reason at all NOT to include them.

I think we'll see more race options in the future, not less.

Yep.

Which is basically the opposite direction than what I'd want. I'd prefer fewer, but well defined species, that are conceptually distinct and have a decent amount of mechanical significance.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

While I am in the minority that vastly prefers aasimar to tieflings, this is... oddly specific.


I feel that this does not do justice to the difficulty that complicated ancestry brings in places where it matters. It just so happens that I am of mixed lineage myself. Reality being what it is, I frequently face prejudice from both of my parent cultures, not acceptance. It is not so much having a foot in two worlds as it is being barred from having a foot in either.

Yep. I’m a white Latino, and while that’s a pretty easy mix to navigate here in sunny California, it still changes how I experience the world.

There are things I have in common with other Latines, and things that I never will, and there is something…insidiously unique in being a member of the ethnic group that sold old guy is complaining about on the assumption that I will agree with him, because I’m a pale semi-ginger with a red beard.

I know from friends that every possible mix of ancestry comes with its own cultural labyrinth to navigate, and I don’t think it is useful or even acceptable to erase that by making all mixed race characters use the same rules.

Generalized rules for that are a consolation prize for the rules not having room for every combination under the sun. The two most well known mixed ancestries should never be erased from the actual mechanics of the game, or from the core books, IMO.

 

[Azzy]

I'm glad most of the people on this thread are not in charge of D&D. lol

I doubt that the half-orc is going anywhere anytime soon, and I'm happy about that.

 

[Scribe]

Another boring conversation about mechanics that ignores that trend of the game is to widen the stories being able to be told, not shorten them.

Yes, you could insist to my friends that are considered half that their play option is to be half-devil, sure. I wouldn't expect that to go over well.

I think the point some are making, is that 'half-orc' and 'half-elf' are too limiting, and to have every option broken out into a distinct character choice, will be...obnoxious.

Instead, I would imagine the more optimal path is a 'make your own' character race template, that allows for any mix players want.

Custom Lineage would be the obvious choice for a beginning point, I would think.

 

[Mirtek]

Is any race needed? Just assign a point value to every racial trait and let players buy them according to some budget and then slap on whatever fluff description they want

 

[Faolyn]

If half-orcs and half-elves are gone in the future, so should aasimars, tieflings, and probably others: just bring in playable celestials and fiends.

That being said, if future editions don't include them, I'll either add them back in (like everything else) or just not play it.

Nah, those are sufficiently different.

First off, it can be assumed that celestials and fiends have a minimum of free will. Yeah, it might be possible for one to rise or fall, but that's one in a million or tens of millions rather than the significant percentage of humanoids who go against a "racial alignment." Orcs, in 3x, were "often" Chaotic Evil, which means that anywhere from 50-60% of them could be of any of the other eight alignments (not that this was ever done in any of the books, but...).

Secondly, tieflings, aasimars, and genasi aren't (necessarily) half-whatever. They can be said to be the product of a far distant bloodline (great-great granma had a fun night out with an incubus), the result of a pact, a blessing or curse, spending too much time on another plane, or even the result magic gone awry.

 

[Mind of tempest]

Nah, those are sufficiently different.

First off, it can be assumed that celestials and fiends have a minimum of free will. Yeah, it might be possible for one to rise or fall, but that's one in a million or tens of millions rather than the significant percentage of humanoids who go against a "racial alignment." Orcs, in 3x, were "often" Chaotic Evil, which means that anywhere from 50-60% of them could be of any of the other eight alignments (not that this was ever done in any of the books, but...).

Secondly, tieflings, aasimars, and genasi aren't (necessarily) half-whatever. They can be said to be the product of a far distant bloodline (great-great granma had a fun night out with an incubus), the result of a pact, a blessing or curse, spending too much time on another plane, or even the result magic gone awry.

that and most celestials and fiends are far too powerful to be playable.