D&D General Vote Up A 5e-alike, Part 2: Lineages/Heritages

[Faolyn]

Three assumptions:

1. That we're talking about PC-playable species here, rather than whether a species should exist in the setting at all.

2. That we're talking about just the core game here and ignoring setting-specific considerations.

3. That the core game isn't tied to a default setting.

These are correct. I wouldn't want to say, "In the land of Lomagia, elves live in such-and-such a place," but an implied setting may reveal itself over time.

 

[CreamCloud0]

something i'm unclear on, what do you actually mean when you say 5e-alike? are you planning your own system?

but otherwise, humans, dragonborn, dwarves, halflings, goblins+hobgoblins, beastfolk/shifters, lizardfolk, grung(remove the water dependency though).

i will also note that when picking my choices i was under the assumption from the first poll that they were being picked for a lowmagic setting, if there is a higher level of magic assumed i would add back in elves, tieflings, aasimar, warforged and sirens(what DnD called harpies(i wouldn't mind the mechanics of a different flying race but i like the aesthetics of the winged arms))

 

[Faolyn]

@Faolyn - kudos to you for how you're going about this!

One question, though: you're positioning these polls as intended to develop a 5e-alike, and thus I'm curious as to what's eventually going to be on the table to tinker with and-or discuss and what isn't. Put another way, how deep a dive into redesigning 5e will this ultimately be?

For example, will we eventually be getting into combat rules? The core stats and their functions? The saving throw system? Lethality? Classes and-or multiclassing? Underlying philosophy e.g. sport vs war?

I ask so as to know what to bring up in discussion and what not to touch.

With luck, we'll get into all those things! And actually, I wouldn't mind having you and others bring stuff up. You're all going to have ideas I never would have thought up on my own, so it would be great to have them all out there as options.

I imagine that after this poll, I might do a 2.5 poll where we go into details about how each lineage is written up--for instance, in Level Up, all the heritages have both regular traits and then a heritage gift (meaning you can have two elves in a party and they wouldn't necessarily have the exact same abilities), and half-whatevers are made by taking the traits from one heritage and the gift from another. But there are other ways to do half-whatevers which we could go up.

Then there should probably be a brief poll on how (or if) cultures and backgrounds should be done, and then it's off to the actual classes.

 

[Faolyn]

Since I realized that I should have included some more questions, here's Poll 2.1.

Also, as it stands, the most popular heritages are humans and dwarfs, followed by elves, orcs, and goblins. Everyone else lags behind quite a bit. That will definitely be an interesting mix of people for this game!

 

[Micah Sweet]

I'm fine with Level Up's array generally (though I would prefer Lizardfolk over Dragonborn), with additional options available reasonably quickly through supplements.

 

[Faolyn]

OK, the poll is closed (or will be in a few minutes, but I doubt we'll get an influx of votes), so here are the results (percentages rounded):

The Winners, who were vastly ahead of the other ancestries
Humans (71%)
Dwarfs (66%)
Elves (57%)
Orcs (57%)

Second Place
Goblins (47%)
Halflings (47%)

Third Place
Gnomes (38%)
Dragonborn (33%)
Kobolds (33%)

Everyone Else
Tieflings (29%)
Specifically half-elves and half-orcs (29%)
Aasimar (24%)
Generic beastfolk (24%)
Genasi (14%)
Generic planetouched (14%)
Tabaxi (14%)
Smallfolk instead of halflings and gnomes (14%)

From the Comments
Micah suggested lizardfolk instead of dragonborn.

So I posit that the core book here will have humans, dwarfs, orcs, elves, halflings, and goblins. Quite Tolkienesque, really, although preferably without the "always evil orcs and goblins" mentality (or always good dwarfs, elves, and halflings, either). If we also have an "uncommon ancestries" section, then that would include gnomes, dragonborn, kobolds, tieflings, and half-elves.

Just to post it again, here is the google doc where I'm compiling the info

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Apperently I was too late for it to matter, but I voted Dwarf, Elf, Halfling, Gnome, Genasi, Tabaxi, Other (Goliath), specific mixed ancestries, and customized mixed ancestries.

Humans are redundant. Legend Of Zelda doesn’t have humans (Hylians are more like elves), and it’s popular and interesting.

If you could downvote ideas I would do so for every “generic” option that just combines existing folks.

 

[Tonguez]

I'd prefer Lizardfolk to Dragonborn too, if it had been an option, though they could fit as a Beastfolk lineage maybe. I am kinda surprised about Tieflings and Tabaxi but overall I'm happy with how things have fallen, especially with goblins

 

[CreamCloud0]

i like both dragonborn and lizardfolk, just because they're both reptiles doesn't mean they don't both fill different niches, though the canabilism(is it still canabilism if they're eating another species?) aspect of lizardfolk is something i think we can do without.

 

[mamba]

Also, as it stands, the most popular heritages are humans and dwarfs, followed by elves, orcs, and goblins. Everyone else lags behind quite a bit.

only if you do not add the Smallfolk % to Gnomes and Halflings. Given that these are just alternate representations I would