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."

 

[Faolyn]

No it isn't!

My option has official restrictions, codified in an official printed product I paid for.

Floating doesn't cover that in the least.

Those options still exist and haven't been removed, and are very unlikely to be removed. It's doubtful they're going to produce an errata saying that the PH and Volo's and MtF's is no longer valid.

 

[Scribe]

Those options still exist and haven't been removed, and are very unlikely to be removed. It's doubtful they're going to produce an errata saying that the PH and Volo's and MtF's is no longer valid.

I know, and even if they did, I have my books.

What about going forward.

 

[Older Beholder]

I know, and even if they did, I have my books.

What about going forward.

I’m sure there will be a community of people here on enworld that will help come up with some ASI for anything new.

 

[Scribe]

I’m sure there will be a community of people here on enworld that will help come up with some ASI for anything new.

Yes, or I can do it myself.

The question remains, why do I need to lose my option, when both systems could co-exist? Thats the entire point behind this entire near 100 page thread.

 

[Azzy]

I'm not going to throw out a system that at a basic level allows for the mechanical expression of different humanoid biologically distinct species just because it breaks down.

'it doesn't work, accept that attributes are irrelevant between races' just isn't the answer to me.

It's simple, it's worked for decades.

In decades pasts, monsters (with very few exeptions) didn't even have listed Str scores. So, things have already changed.

 

[Azzy]

Just as everyone could arbitrarily assign ASI at their table.

One approach takes work, one doesn't.

If, by "work", you mean spending the time to read the race's description and spending maybe a minute more internally debating which of the ability scores seems more archetypal to the race than the others, then I guess.

 

[Faolyn]

Yes, or I can do it myself.

The question remains, why do I need to lose my option, when both systems could co-exist? Thats the entire point behind this entire near 100 page thread.

Because the game's moved on? In the same way we no longer have Strength limits for female characters, or level limits and class restrictions for nonhumans.

 

[Dausuul]

The question remains, why do I need to lose my option, when both systems could co-exist? Thats the entire point behind this entire near 100 page thread.

Because your option is not a Spike or Johnny or Timmy option. It's a Bob option. Bob is a huge fan of banding and shadow and the untap symbol. He's been a sad Magic player for a long time.

Wizards supports Spike and Johnny and Timmy. Their preferences are general and can be satisfied in many ways. But it doesn't and won't support Bob, because what Bob wants is extremely specific and it's not wanted by enough other players to devote resources to it.

 

[tetrasodium]

Because your option is not a Spike or Johnny or Timmy option. It's a Bob option. Bob is a huge fan of banding and shadow and the untap symbol. He's been a sad Magic player for a long time.

Wizards supports Spike and Johnny and Timmy. Their preferences are general and can be satisfied in many ways. But it doesn't and won't support Bob, because what Bob wants is extremely specific and it's not wanted by enough other players to devote resources to it.

can you translate the mtg analogies?
edit: maybe ELI5 since I never played it?

 

[Dausuul]

can you translate the mtg analogies?

Banding and shadow and the untap symbol are mechanics in Magic that were long ago abandoned by Wizards, because they had mechanical issues (banding is an insane rules mess, shadow makes combat less interesting, and untap turned out to be extremely unintuitive for players) and were not popular enough to keep around anyway.