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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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."

 

[TwoSix]

My guess is Ravenloft, but I certainly could be wrong. Having two gothic horror fantasy settings would create a 2e-like self-cannibalization scenario, and Ravenloft is already established. Maybe if they found a way to combine the two, but I've a feeling fans of either wouldn't be happy with that.

Honestly, that sounds amazing.

 

[Sir Brennen]

Remember it only works PROF times per day. With monks, that could be a single round.

The Advantage on the bite is while you're half hit points or less, other wise there's no limit. (Except maybe when you're 100% below your hit point max.)

It's only the empowerment (regain hit points, or gain bonus equal to bite damage) that are tied to the Prof Times per Day.

 

[PsyzhranV2]

You're a Humanoid and Undead, which means that you're basically only going to be regaining HP from your bite, because spells like Cure Wounds will absolutely refuse to work on you.

Um, actually:

 

[tetrasodium]

Having both cultural & species traits baked into the race selection is also how we got 47 different varieties of elf 32 dwarf & so on so we could have a strong elf smart dwarf charismatic elf charismatic elf that fits Y class instead of Z class & so on. Splitting the two allows the various cultures of the different settings to be better developed & be less setting locked. Tbh splitting them probably allows them to make "Xrace in YSetting usually use the ExistingRace stats" something they can make a meaningful addition to a book someone is considering buying by adding some level of mechanical stuff to it as well

 

[Blue]

You're a Humanoid and Undead, which means that you're basically only going to be regaining HP from your bite, because spells like Cure Wounds will absolutely refuse to work on you.

This is incorrect. From the first page of the document:

Having More Than One Type. Some creatures are of more than one creature type. If an effect works on at least one of a creature’s types, that effect can work on that creature. For example, if you are both a Humanoid and an Undead, cure wounds works on you, since the spell works on a Humanoid.

Italics mine.

 

[Blue]

The Advantage on the bite is while you're half hit points or less, other wise there's no limit. (Except maybe when you're 100% below your hit point max.)

It's only the empowerment (regain hit points, or gain bonus equal to bite damage) that are tied to the Prof Times per Day.

Thank you, I stand corrected. You're right that's pretty powerful.

 

[dave2008]

After a quick look, I like separating ability score bonuses and languages out and the lineages provided seem interesting enough within the confines of a game that wants all lineages / races to be relatively balanced.

 

[Dire Bare]

It's very difficult to me to consider Ability Score Increase as CULTURAL. I strongly believe it is physiological. These are aberration of common sense twisted to... ok I stop myself. But truth is more important than... ok stop.

I don't like ASI's tied to race or culture, so I'm in favor of the direction WotC is going here, but . . .

If your culture has a focus on athleticism, you might represent that with a +2 to Strength. If your culture has a focus on academic learning, +2 to Intelligence. A focus on parkour, +2 to Dexterity. Etc, etc.

Ability scores are pretty abstract though, and I don't think big dudes like minotaurs and goliaths really need a +2 to Strength, and so on. Ditch ASI's tied to race and culture is the way to go, IMO.

 

[dave2008]

You're a Humanoid and Undead, which means that you're basically only going to be regaining HP from your bite, because spells like Cure Wounds will absolutely refuse to work on you. Your speed is 35 (awesome!), and you can be Small or Medium. You also get Darkvision (standard), and you get SPIDER CLIMB at level 3, which is crazy good (not as good as flight, but still really good).

Sorry to disappoint you, but you didn't look quire closely enough, see below. However, I agree these are pretty cool.

Of course that means you can be turned too I guess.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Sorry to disappoint you, but you didn't look quire closely enough, see below. However, I agree these are pretty cool.

View attachment 131861

Of course that means you can be turned too I guess.

That's . . . a strange interpretation on WotC's part. Not that I'm complaining, but that just seems weird. If you count as both undead and humanoid, shouldn't that stop you from being healed by Cure Wounds?

It's fine as is, and helps Dhampir characters, but it just goes against what I would assume to be RAW.