D&D 5E Unearthed Arcana: Gothic Lineages & New Race/Culture Distinction

The latest Unearthed Arcana contains the Dhampir, Reborn, and Hexblood races. The Dhampir is a half-vampire; the Hexblood is a character which has made a pact with a hag; and the Reborn is somebody brought back to life.

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Perhaps the bigger news is this declaration on how race is to be handled in future D&D books as it joins other games by stating that:

"...the race options in this article and in future D&D books lack the Ability Score Increase trait, the Language trait, the Alignment trait, and any other trait that is purely cultural. Racial traits henceforth reflect only the physical or magical realities of being a player character who’s a member of a particular lineage. Such traits include things like darkvision, a breath weapon (as in the dragonborn), or innate magical ability (as in the forest gnome). Such traits don’t include cultural characteristics, like language or training with a weapon or a tool, and the traits also don’t include an alignment suggestion, since alignment is a choice for each individual, not a characteristic shared by a lineage."

 

[TwoSix]

Second, "Strength" score is an abstraction. Two beings with equal Strength scores do not have to be "as strong as each other". It means they have the same chance of succeeding at a variety of tasks that require Strength. How you interpret the results is up to the DM and players. So it's more accurate to say, "When the dice start falling, the halfling is as likely to succeed on Strength-based tasks as the goliath."

Exactly. Let me tell you the story of the Sherlock Holmes with 5 Int....

 

[Iry]

Is Killer Croc stronger than Superman?

 

[Guest 6801328]

T-rexes aren't a playable race, and thus don't have Strength bonuses. They're NPCs.

No, but the defense of racial ASIs seems to require evoking "what if" scenarios involving things like mouse and T-rex PCs.

 

[Scribe]

We're in the 3rd decade of D&D not having any sort of cap on racial minimums and maximums. If that's a deal breaker for you, you'll need to change systems.

I've already said it's not a deal breaker.

The consistency with which I'm misrepresented is bordering on comical..
In fact it happened again as I type this.

I want distinct racial difference, at the mechanical level.

5e has supported that at level 1 by default for years.

Support for that is officially being dropped going forward.

That is an issue to me.

Enjoy your Tasha's system. I have no issue with it existing.

Everything else is me attempting to explain the why, but it's consistently misconstrued or taken wildly out of context.

So have fun.

 

[Hurin70]

Well, if you knew who Wadlow was, you wouldn't make this comment. Funny thing about giantism in people, it doesn't really make you stronger. Many people with it have a hard time moving their own weight.

Well then thank god a Goliath isn't a human with giantism, but instead a creature that naturally carries around 300lbs of weight with little effort. So now we can recognize why your analogy is not apt.

Strained argument? The weight difference between a chimp (100 lbs) and a strong human (300 lbs) is a lot closer than with a bull (2,000 lbs). I find your comparison disingenuous. Even between a halfling (50lbs) and a human is a much closer ratio than a chimp to a bull.

Are you serious? So by that reasoning a child of 50 lbs will have a tougher time pushing an ant than a human would pushing a bull?

The absolute weight difference means virtually nothing. The relative difference is what matters. This is why a child can push an ant (absolute weight difference only 50 lbs) far easier than a human can push a bull (absolute weight difference 1700 lbs).

Did you think this through?

 

[Jack Daniel]

The trash bin is where ability scores belong. They're a wretched mechanic. Unfortunately, they are also the sacredest of sacred cows.

I sat down once to see what it would take to excise them from 5E, and decided the work required exceeded the benefits (when it would only benefit my table). So instead I just cheer every time Wizards does something that reduces their impact.

One thing I like to do is rename the stats to something like Valor, Subtlety, Discipline, Mana, Piety, and Creativity, so that it's as clear as day how the stats could be relevant to warriors, rogues, monks, wizards, clerics, and bards (respectively), but it's eminently impossible to tell how they could ever somehow represent the sum and total of any individual character's capabilities. The simple act of renaming the stats really does cause players to interpret them differently!

 

[Guest 6801328]

Exactly. Let me tell you the story of the Sherlock Holmes with 5 Int....

If Sherlock Holmes had half a brain he would have gone long on GameStop.

 

[Sacrosanct]

We're in the 3rd decade of D&D not having any sort of cap on racial minimums and maximums. If that's a deal breaker for you, you'll need to change systems.

Longer than that. While B/X also did not have racial modifiers, there were also no caps. Sure, the stats on the chart only went to 18, but you could do the "minus 2 to gain 1" method to keep going up, I suppose. Nothing said "halflings can only have a max strength of X".

 

[Guest 6801328]

Well then thank god a Goliath isn't a human with giantism, but instead a creature that naturally carries around 300lbs of weight with little effort. So now we can recognize why your analogy is not apt.


Are you serious? So by that reasoning a child of 50 lbs will have a tougher time pushing an ant than a human would pushing a bull?

The absolute weight difference means virtually nothing. The relative difference is what matters. This is why a child can push an ant (absolute weight difference only 50 lbs) far easier than a human can push a bull (absolute weight difference 1700 lbs).

Did you think this through?

His argument still stands if you assume he was using ratios (dividing upper number by lower number) instead of differences (subracting lower number from upper number).

 

[Sacrosanct]

Shh.... the anti-ASI people might use that to argue that Humans should get more strength bonuses than T-rexes, if only their players come up with the character concept of playing a 'human stronger than any T-Rex' at first level.

I find your arguments to be full of holes as I've pointed out in the context of the game, but this pretty much seals the deal for me that you don't want to even have an honest debate.

So have a good day.