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."

 

[teitan]

So I have read through almost this entire thread and ummm... all the fixes and such that people are throwing out, have you heard of this game called Pathfinder Second Edition that does just about every fix to the classic D&D race system listed here?

 

[Aldarc]

So I have read through almost this entire thread and ummm... all the fixes and such that people are throwing out, have you heard of this game called Pathfinder Second Edition that does just about every fix to the classic D&D race system listed here?

PF2 has its own issues when it comes to ancestries. Even if there are floating +2 ASIs to cover it up, I'm not a fan of ancestries getting -2 ASI.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Business Orc

God I kind of want to own that as a brand. I could sell brutalist-but-functional office equipment, maybe expanding into clothing later.

What I’m thinking about making is a table. Monsters down the left, stereotypes across the top. Check boxes.

This table needs to exist! Drow are going to be basically just a bunch of checked boxes.

 

[Mind of tempest]

God I kind of want to own that as a brand. I could sell brutalist-but-functional office equipment, maybe expanding into clothing later.


This table needs to exist! Drow are going to be basically just a bunch of checked boxes.

I would buy that kind of clothes.

it would need a list of stereotypes and ways to have more than one as few places have only one.

 

[TwoSix]

So I have read through almost this entire thread and ummm... all the fixes and such that people are throwing out, have you heard of this game called Pathfinder Second Edition that does just about every fix to the classic D&D race system listed here?

I agree that PF2 is pretty much the ideal from a game mechanic standpoint.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

lol where does that garbage* even come from.

Never in my life, MY WHOLE 40ish year life, have I associated a fantasy race, with a real group of people.

Not one time.

I mean, there are probably a dozen threads here where folks explain what you’re missing.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

No, I'll never buy it. There is zero, literally zero, connection to me between Orcs, and any real world segment of the population.

Zero.

If people want to bemoan something like Arabian Nights vs a mythical 'Near East' culture of humans, you at least have a leg to stand on.

Orcs = Black people is one of the dumbest things I've ever read on the internet.

If we are talking about 'language of the oppressor/oppressed' that is STILL something different.

You seem to be aggressively dedicated to refusing to get it.

 

[teitan]

I agree that PF2 is pretty much the ideal from a game mechanic standpoint.

Yeah we are seriously debating on it being our system of choice after my Theros campaign. I like 5e a lot but it’s not very deep and I have a pretty hard core crowd.

 

[TwoSix]

Yeah we are seriously debating on it being our system of choice after my Theros campaign. I like 5e a lot but it’s not very deep and I have a pretty hard core crowd.

To clarify, I meant that it's the ideal in terms of presenting its ancestry rules; although I do have a lot of appreciation for PF2 as a system. My groups have been steadily moving in the "more simplicity" direction, though.

 

[Scribe]

You seem to be aggressively dedicated to refusing to get it.

Nah, keep reading the thread someone clarifies it much better eventually but its a few pages back and the conversation is not one that will be solved here.