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Message: <blockquote data-quote="JEB" data-source="post: 8205041" data-attributes="member: 10148">Right, you don't have to do anything. But Wizards only provided guidelines for one approach at the beginning of 5E, which indicates their original assumption that for PHB races, PCs and NPCs had the same traits.No, we are at the point where ASIs could have been applied to their scores, and simply not noticeable in a statblock that doesn't conveniently have all 10s.Or, when they examined these monsters for use as PC races, they re-evaluated what their traits should be, to balance them with the other PC races. It doesn't mean that they had suddenly decided PCs and NPCs were fundamentally different, only that they updated their idea of what the races were like at the baseline.Wait, we're talking about 2E now? That's a whole different ballgame. For starters, monsters didn't even have a full set of ability scores...You're extrapolating way more from what I said than what was intended. All I pointed out is that you could see dragonborn of different colors as subraces, if you wanted to, and then you tried to use that to somehow prove that was an argument in favor of "subraces exist" justifying a floating ASI for the entire species, to which I said it really didn't.Actually, I went back and looked at the lizardfolk commoner. You're right, it doesn't reflect Volo's. But it is broadly consistent with the DMG NPC Features. Its highest stat is Strength, its lowest stat is Int, plus Hold Breath, +3 AC, swim 30 ft, and Draconic language. It could mean that they'd decided on PCs and NPCs as being different... in 2019. Or it could mean they just ignored Volo's for this book.(Also, realistically, it's probably just designed to be a weaker version of the MM lizardfolk statblock, and it's not actually a commoner at all.)You weren't required to do anything for NPC design. But Wizards had a certain expectation at the beginning of 5E, that PCs and NPCs for PHB races were treated the same. Maybe that changed in 2016. Or 2018. Or 2019. But they never made any statement on the matter until 2020, in the leadup to Tasha's.That means we have to go with the evidence of the books. In 2014, they very clearly weren't meant to be different, or at least not significantly different. From 2015-2019, the evidence is ambiguous and uneven at best, and could reflect changes in baseline expectations for the race, or adjustments made purely for player balance rather than a philosophical shift. Then in 2020, they finally made an official assertion that PCs are archetypes that don't reflect NPC members of the race.Also, I'm not especially upset with them. I just think they're implying this was the idea all along, and quite simply, I don't think it was.</blockquote>

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