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."

 

[Argyle King]

I still like the fact that the Vampiric Bite is a monk weapon technically. Limited uses due to CON/Prof, but still we had Smite Dentures at one point with a topic on here.

When a party cleric turns undead, does that turn the vampiric character?

 

[cbwjm]

When a party cleric turns undead, does that turn the vampiric character?

Wasn't that also an issue with the satyr ancient paladin turning themselves?

 

[Weiley31]

When a party cleric turns undead, does that turn the vampiric character?

Paaaaaaaaaart of me wants to say yes.

 

[Nathaniel Lee]

You then play with the soon to be sole official rules, Tasha's.

So your desires are met.

People who want a system with racial modifiers?

Nope, not going forward.

That's an exaggeration. The system has racial modifiers by default as the rules presented in Tasha's are optional (except in the case of Adventurers League games). A few race options going with Tasha's flexibility going forward does not even remotely offset that. The fact that so many people are still complaining about Tasha's not being enough speaks to that.

If the edition is not changed, and in fact once it is changed, every race updated or released will be under this new approach, and the system I prefer is essentially discontinued and no option will be provided outside of my own homebrew or 3rd party.

I mean that's it really, unless someone at Wizards says 'let people have a choice' then this UA telegraphs that I won't even be given an option.

All because an option for others, wasn't good enough for them.

Except that this is going to represent the overwhelming majority of all possible races in the game within the lifetime of this edition. They're not going to suddenly release a deluge of race options when races have been coming to us at a relative trickle over the past several years.

Like I said before, I do empathize with your sentiments here -- I too would prefer them to include ASIs, languages, etc. -- but the impact of the problem you describe is objectively small.

I wonder if an approach that might work, along the lines of what you've been "asking for", is having a called out block for race options that says something like "in the Forgotten Realms, gnolls typically have a +2 to DEX and a +1 to CON and speak the gnoll language"... basically framing what was baseline or default as just a sample configuration, which would provide the old school of us (or newer DMs who maybe don't have the time, experience, inclination and/or confidence to come up with something for their own campaigns) what we're looking for while clearly and explicitly identifying it as just an example rather than what should be accepted as the baseline?

 

[JEB]

One thing I don't understand - why the determination to keep using the term "race", but only for players? It actually makes more sense as a synonym for NPCs and monsters' species, and less sense for explicitly exceptional PCs. It's not as if the players who preferred having races matter will be appeased by simply using the word "race", why hold back if that's where you're going?

Also, anyone who doesn't think at this point that a 5.5E or a 6E is in the works at this point is fooling themselves. This presents a pretty significant design shift on how races work, even more so than Tasha's. As someone noted above, this is very much like the 4E precursors in late 3E.

And as was also pointed out above, 5E elves and dwarves don't have a lot left once you delete ability score adjustments and cultural stuff. Pretty much screams "here's a design challenge", doesn't it? Surely this has occurred to Wizards designers...

 

[Weiley31]

Here's something I just realized: It's a bit hypothetical and what not since the example is gonna be the Planeshift: Ixalan/Zendrik vampire pc race , but still.

I don't recall the Lineage rules in this UA mentioning if certain Lineage can be applied or if there is limits. Example being: if the system does become an layer to apply, how would that work if you did a Dhampir Vampire? Does the Vampire suddenly become a Half-Half Vampire or something? Or a Half Dragon Dragonborn? Would there be certain guidelines like if it already has a Bite Attack or If it's a Fey than it is exempt from Oath of the Ancients Paladin or something? I know the options are supposed to be more open, but this thought just occurred to me.

I also guess 2:42 in the morning will do that to ya with thoughts as well.

 

[Nathaniel Lee]

Wasn't that also an issue with the satyr ancient paladin turning themselves?

Nope. The feature has no effect on the person using it -- if it did, it would target "you and fey or fiend within 30 feet of you".

 

[Nathaniel Lee]

When a party cleric turns undead, does that turn the vampiric character?

Yep. The cleric doesn't get to choose their targets.

 

[Weiley31]

Nope. The feature has no effect on the person using it -- if it did, it would target "you and fey or fiend within 30 feet of you".

I think myself counts for qualifying the 30 feet.

 

[Nathaniel Lee]

Also, anyone who doesn't think at this point that a 5.5E or a 6E is in the works at this point is fooling themselves. This presents a pretty significant design shift on how races work, even more so than Tasha's. As someone noted above, this is very much like the 4E precursors in late 3E.

On the contrary, the actual, practical impact on the product that Wizards releases will be pretty small. This design shift applies to future race options, and there really aren't going to be very many of those if the past 5+ years is any indication. And there really aren't any "OMG everyone wants to play this" race options left unpublished at this point so whatever we'll be getting will be pretty much setting-specific things like new races from whatever the next MtG crossover book is or something niche like an official grung option. The "core" races that most people play are still defaulted to the pre-Tasha's way of doing things.