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Message: <blockquote data-quote="JEB" data-source="post: 8209996" data-attributes="member: 10148">I compared the DMG racial traits to the PHB races again, and saw that there are indeed traits missing from the NPC Features in the DMG. Half-orcs, for example, get Savage Attacks in the PHB, but it's not listed under the half-orc NPC features.So you're right, [USER=6801228]@Chaosmancer[/USER] . PC and NPC traits were not identical as of the DMG. Some traits appear to be PC exclusive.Also, Wizards of the Coast didn't say in 2020 that all racial traits were different between PCs and NPCs. A review of the DMG, and stat blocks for members of PC races throughout 5E's lifespan, also clearly show that many traits are common to the species as a whole. So you can reasonably assume that the most iconic racial features are shared by the vast majority of members of the species. (It would be nice if they indicated which ones were actually supposed to be PC exclusive, though.)One of the racial traits shared between PCs and NPC versions of species, at the beginning of 5E, were the race's ASIs. Whether you look at the DMG or the PHB, ASIs are the same for both PCs and NPCs on every core playable race, with only two minor deviations (NPC gnomes and hill dwarves get a +2 on the same stat where the PC version gets a +1; but those ability scores are still intended to be higher by default).Wizards of the Coast said in 2020, however, that PC race ASIs did not apply to anyone but PCs. Not NPCs of that race, only PCs. If that was always the case, then why did the same ASIs apply to both in 2014? Is this a coincidence, that in this rare instance NPCs just happen to have similar ASIs to their PC counterparts? Or does it mean Wizards of the Coast changed their mind between 2014 and 2020? The answer seems clear to me.(This also has the interesting implication that at the beginning of 5E, the designers actually felt that ASIs were among the most iconic traits for a race as a whole, since they deviated little if at all between PHB and DMG.)</blockquote>

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