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.

News Archive | Dungeons and Dragons

Read the full archives of Dungeons & Dragons news, Sage Advice, Unearthed Arcana, and D&D Studio Blogs.

dnd.wizards.com

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."

 

[Scribe]

Why is that better? Whenever you list something as alternate you going to a group that reject it just because it is alternate. It might be better for you, but is it universally better? With the proposed new paradigm you can get the same modifiers that the PHB provides, so is it better to default to a more restrictive option?

Would you he OK if the default as +2/+1 to any stat and then there are alternate rules for each race to get specific stat bonuses?

Absolutely yes.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Athenas and Sparta may be good examples of same lineage but different nurture. Even two half-brother living in the same city (King's Landing, for example) could have got different nurture because one is a member of the nobility and the other a bastard surviving in the underground.

* If a dhampire needs psychic energy.... could a psionic PC spend psionic points to feed them? It shouldn't be too different when magic is used to create food and water.

Are you thinking about dhampires and any house-rule about "hunger points"?

* Sorry, but when we talk about Gothic D&D I feel the lore of WoD+CoD are too strong. I imagine a noirpunk mash-up of Ranveloft where arcologies (super-building, taller event the current skycrappers) of the cities are like Gotham City from Tim Barton's Batman movies, and with all my favorite factions by WW, but with some "tricks" to explain how the "local ecosystem" can survive too many supernatural predators, one of them is ghosts are used as food source, or fuel for infernal machines, until the penance for their sins ends (then the ghost isn't destroyed only allowed to enter the celestial realm because the punishment ended, villains don't worry about this fate when they can be hired as mercenary helltouched/mistouched petitioners).

 

[Scribe]

I hope you like protein.

Gorilla's in the wild are herbivores. No Human is going to get jacked just 'being around and doing what Gorilla's do'. Is the point here. Just like a Dwarf, isnt going to be a graceful slender elf, just because he grew up with Elves.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Gorilla's in the wild are herbivores. No Human is going to get jacked just 'being around and doing what Gorilla's do'. Is the point here. Just like a Dwarf, isnt going to be a graceful slender elf, just because he grew up with Elves.

No one is arguing otherwise.

 

[dave2008]

I think it would be very hard for WotC to resist having a sixth edition come out in 2024. The fact that we're now getting bolt-on systems to address things in the PHB they refuse to change, since they don't want to split the user base, suggests we're pretty late in the development cycle.

When systems started changing dramatically in 2E, 3E and 4E, new editions were imminent and we often saw previews of what they were thinking about in the new edition. (Think the Book of Nine Swords with their abilities that foreshadowed how player characters would work in 4E and the later Monster Manual volumes that foreshadowed 4E monster design.)

I can see what your saying, but the changings and additions to 5e have been so minor to this point (and so few), I don't see it as a preview to major changes that warrant a new edition. WotC have even talked about making 5e a legacy edition. Now, I could see, and actually anticipate, a 5.1e that has updated PHB and DMG (maybe MM, but I don't know if that is needed) that include all the updates in XGtE and TCoE and other future books. However, incorporating these changes and maybe some more it still be compatible with 5e. Thus, it wouldn't be a new edition IMO. For example, I think they could issue a new MM, but they wouldn't need to because the current MM would be 100% compatible. A new one might remove alignment or tweak a few things hear and there, but it would be required to play 5.1e

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Rookie move - The pro antagonizer move would be to bring back Greyhawk...as a continent on Toril.

I thought that all D&D campaign settings were contained in a snowglobe in Elminster's bedroom?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I can see what your saying, but the changings and additions to 5e have been so minor to this point (and so few), I don't see it as a preview to major changes that warrant a new edition. WotC have even talked about making 5e a legacy edition. Now, I could see, and actually anticipate, a 5.1e that has updated PHB and DMG (maybe MM, but I don't know if that is needed) that include all the updates in XGtE and TCoE and other future books. However, incorporating these changes and maybe some more it still be compatible with 5e. Thus, it wouldn't be a new edition IMO. For example, I think they could issue a new MM, but they wouldn't need to because the current MM would be 100% compatible. A new one might remove alignment or tweak a few things hear and there, but it would be required to play 5.1e

At this moment, I think a 6E would be more like a 5.5E -- comparable to the differences between 1E and 2E at most -- but probably just called the Golden Anniversary Edition, or something, to paper over the issue with the general public.

But we still have several years to go. If we have even more dramatic systems changes/options in 2022, 2023, 6E could be another big break between editions.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Presumably there's a lot of crossover between the two (though like I said, I am mostly unfamiliar with Innistrad). A hybrid book that presents both could work - if I recall correctly, the 3e book Heroes of Horror wasn't 100% Ravenloft.

Call it Madam Eva's Guide to the Realms of Horror and include player options, monsters, spells and two lengthy gazetteers of each world (with an emphasis on the areas that share monsters with the other world). It could be doable.

You're never going to please everyone, but if you give fans of Ravenloft or Innistrad a book where only 20% are so isn't of interest to them, that's a higher signal to noise ratio than most game books.

 

[dave2008]

At this moment, I think a 6E would be more like a 5.5E -- comparable to the differences between 1E and 2E at most -- but probably just called the Golden Anniversary Edition, or something, to paper over the issue with the general public.

I think the 1e- 2e comparison is largely accurate. Basically a cleaning up of the rules and pretty much compatible. If that transition happened today it would probably be 1.1e (or whatever digit) not 2e.

 

[Marandahir]

Well, I'm guessing we're getting "Van Richten's Guide to Monsters" or some such as a Player's Options + Monsters book this October. We're overdue for a Monsters book, for sure. And monstrous ancestries and spooky subclasses would fit in well.