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<blockquote data-quote="Veltharis ap Rylix" data-source="post: 9355390" data-attributes="member: 66357">Because as shocking as this may be to hear, I care about more than just the mechanics. I care about how those mechanics are derived and I care about the story that process tells.The story that &quot;pick-a-parent&quot; tells is:&quot;Oh, you want to play a Khoravar? Well, that's basically just an elf anyway, so here's an elf statblock - you lose the 'human' part because you don't get Skill Versatility anymore, but you get everything else the old 'half-elf' used to have plus the rest of the fancy elf traits on top of that, so really you're coming out ahead there. Just say your ears are a bit less pointy and you're good to go.&quot;&quot;Oh, you want to play a Jhor'guntaal? Congrats, you're an orc now! I guess you can file down your tusks a bit if you want, but doesn't that feel so much better than pretending your character was part human?&quot;&quot;Mixed ancestry is fine, so long as only one of those ancestries matters.&quot;The fact that the nearly all of the traits of the '14 &quot;half-elf&quot; come from the '14 elf mechanics is a failure of the 2014 design (and a sign of how non-existent '14 human mechanics were), not proof that they should simply be elves with the serial numbers filed off. I don't want to simply replicate the '14 &quot;half-elf&quot; mechanics. If I did, I'd just use continue using the old &quot;half-elf&quot; - my old books aren't going anywhere, and it's supposed to still be compatible.What I want is a '24 Khoravar (or insert other appropriate name here) that blends traits from both the '24 human and '24 elf into a cohesive and distinct whole that is roughly in line with the current design for species mechanics, and/or an (optional) set of guidelines detailed within the core rules showing the process of how to do that myself so that any mixed ancestry can get the same treatment for those who find &quot;pick-a-parent&quot; insufficient for its stated purpose.I know the mechanics of the &quot;half-elf&quot; have historically been rather boring - I am not pretending otherwise. So let's have a discussion about how to make them exciting, not throw them in the bin and tell every Khoravar player that they should be happy to be playing elves now.So let them be reimagined into something that can stand on its own - bring their mechanics up to par with current species design or give me the tools to do it myself. That's what I've been saying all along.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Veltharis ap Rylix, post: 9355390, member: 66357"] Because as shocking as this may be to hear, I care about more than just the mechanics. I care about how those mechanics are derived and I care about the story that process tells. The story that "pick-a-parent" tells is: "Oh, you want to play a Khoravar? Well, that's basically just an elf anyway, so here's an elf statblock - you lose the 'human' part because you don't get Skill Versatility anymore, but you get everything else the old 'half-elf' used to have plus the rest of the fancy elf traits on top of that, so really you're coming out ahead there. Just say your ears are a bit less pointy and you're good to go." "Oh, you want to play a Jhor'guntaal? Congrats, you're an orc now! I guess you can file down your tusks a bit if you want, but doesn't that feel so much better than pretending your character was part human?" "Mixed ancestry is fine, so long as only one of those ancestries matters." The fact that the nearly all of the traits of the '14 "half-elf" come from the '14 elf mechanics is a failure of the 2014 design (and a sign of how non-existent '14 human mechanics were), not proof that they should simply be elves with the serial numbers filed off. I don't want to simply replicate the '14 "half-elf" mechanics. If I did, I'd just use continue using the old "half-elf" - my old books aren't going anywhere, and it's supposed to still be compatible. What I want is a '24 Khoravar (or insert other appropriate name here) that blends traits from both the '24 human and '24 elf into a cohesive and distinct whole that is roughly in line with the current design for species mechanics, and/or an (optional) set of guidelines detailed within the core rules showing the process of how to do that myself so that any mixed ancestry can get the same treatment for those who find "pick-a-parent" insufficient for its stated purpose. I know the mechanics of the "half-elf" have historically been rather boring - I am not pretending otherwise. So let's have a discussion about how to make them exciting, not throw them in the bin and tell every Khoravar player that they should be happy to be playing elves now. So let them be reimagined into something that can stand on its own - bring their mechanics up to par with current species design or give me the tools to do it myself. That's what I've been saying all along. [/QUOTE]

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